New Peace Party Forms

A new permanent political organization has arisen from the ashes of the Hughes for Senate campaign. Calling itself Massachusetts Political Action for Peace (PAX), the group will function mostly as a pressure group, but also at times as an independent political party.

The main activity of PAX, according to a letter sent to Hughes supporters this month, will be to run candidates for Congressional and Senatorial posts, both within and outside of the two major parties. It will also submit bills to the state legislature and lobby both in the General Court and in Washington for "peace" bills.

Preliminary organizational meetings were held last week in each of the state's 12 Congressional districts. At these meetings, delegates were elected to a state executive committee, which also includes H. Stuart Hughes, professor of History, William Hefner, defeated Democratic candidate for Congress in the first district, Elizabeth Boardman, who came close to winning last year's Republican Congressional nomination in the third district, and the following members-at-large: Crosby Forbes '50; Jerome Grossman '38 (Hughes' campaign manager); Chester Hartman '57; Mrs. Mark deWolfe Howe; the Rev. John Paul Jones; Everett Mendelsohn, assistant professor of the History of Science; Suzanne Metzger; Martin Peretz, teaching fellow in Government; Sumner M. Rosen '48; and Stephen Thernstrom, instructor in History and Literature.

A spokesman for PAX said yesterday that the group now intends to run at least six candidates for Congress in the 1964 elections. Hefner and Boardman plan to try again in the first and third districts respectively, and an attempt will probably be made to capture the Democratic nomination in the tenth district, now represented by former Republican House Speaker Joseph M. Martin.

The Hughes platform, subject to revision, will serve as a "common basis of agreement" for PAX.

The group has already submitted five bills to the General Court. They include bills which would: create a commission to study the economic effects of disarmament on Massachusetts; create a radiation protection commission; provide state subsidies for election campaigns; allow a representative of any candidate whose name appears on the ballot to participate in the vote-count.