Two Professors Defend Seeger's Right to Sing

The University's stated reasons for refusing to allow Pete Seeger '40 to appear here have received sharp criticism from Mark DeWolfe Howe '28, professor of Law, who was to have introduced Seegers' concert.

Howe said last night that the administration has "succumbed to the temptation" of presenting as a legal necessity a decision made solely to avoid possible embarrassing repercussions from the Seeger case.

He pointed out that Seeger is completely justified in discussing his case while on bail, and called the notion that this would be unlawful "absurd." Turning to the law to justify its position leaves the University on "very weak ground," according to Howe.

In a letter released yesterday to the Student Council Forum Committee, the University refused to allow the group permission to sponsor a concert by Seeger. The reasons listed were that "he was convicted last month for contempt of Congress, and that he has appealed his one-year sentence and his case is pending in a higher court." Dean Watson said Tuesday that "lawyers advise the University against getting involved in cases still pending in court."

As Howe emphasized last night, however, none of these objections came up during the fall of 1959 when Willard Uphaus spoke on the right of the individual to withhold information from the government. Uphaus was at that time awaiting sentence for contempt of court, and faced possible imprisonment for refusing to turn over World Fellowship guest lists to the New Hampshire attorney general.

McCloskey Criticizes Decision

Other critics share Howe's doubts about the strength of the University's legal arguments. Among them is Robert G. McCloskey, professor of Government, who described the administration's policy toward Seeger as "unduly skittish." McCloskey felt the decision was "odd," and claimed that "people ought to be allowed to speak if student organizations want them to."

The Forum Committee plans to continue its efforts to have Seeger make an appearance here. The Committee's next move will be to try to have other student organizations, such as the Liberal Union, Tocsin, or the HYDC, support them in their bid to get permission for Seeger to speak.

Precedent

In December, 1953, Dean Watson urged the U.N. Council to "reconsider" an invitation to have Owen Lattimore, then under indictment for perjury, speak at the University. Watson reportedly declared that Lattimore's appearance would be more "harm than help' to Harvard."

The CRIMSON reported that Watson nevertheless permitted the invitation on the basis of "an established University policy that a recognized group can invite anyone and that person will be allowed to speak."