Pusey, J.B. Conant Join Group Fighting Extremism

President Pusey and ex-President James B. Conant '14 have joined the National Council for Civic Responsibility, an organization formed last month to "expose and correct" the activities of the John Birch Society and "related reactionary groups."

Two Harvard Deans and four other Faculty members also belong to the bipartisan council, which now claims a membership of over 200 public figures.

Officials have repeatedly stresed that the council's purpose is not to defeat Sen. Barry Goldwater but to solve the long-range problem of political extremism. Pusey last night said in effect that was his purpose, too.

"I don't think joining this thing has any significance for this particular election," he said. His action reflected a long-standing concern over the dangers of extremism, he explained.

Pusey said he had agreed to join the council "the first time I was asked," although he could not recall when that was. He would be "surprised" if the group did not list his name on their letterhead "with the other college presidents," he said.

Other Faculty Members Join

At its initial press conference Sept.20, the council listed as members Erwin N. Griswold, Dean of the Law School; Don K. Price, Jr., Dean of the School of Public Administration; David Riesman '31, Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences; George Cabot Lodge '50, Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Division of International Activities for Central American Studies at the Business School; Samuel Eliot Morison '08, Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, Emeritus; and Archibald MacLeish, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, Emeritus.

Sixty radio stations across the country are already broadcasting the council's five-minute, five-day-a-week "news documentaries" on the effects of farright propaganda.