Charities Drive Excludes A F S C

The Combined Charities has dropped the American Friends Service Committee from its list of recommended charities this year, because of the group's "political overtones," Benjamin F. Stapleton '65, chairman of the drive, said last night. The AFSC, a Quaker service organization, was recommended by Combined Charities last year.

"We found that the Friends Service Committee was spending 13 per cent of its money propagandizing for world peace," Stapleton explained. "We don't like to recommend organizations which are political, religious, or otherwise controversial," Stapleton said.

Thus, the National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students, rather than civil rights groups like CORE or SNCC, was selected as one of the six recommended charities in this year's drive, he added. The drive will run from Nov. 9-13.

Other recommended charities are Phillips Brooks House, the United Fund of Greater Boston, the National Committee on Employment of Youth, and the National Literacy Campaign Organization of Ethiopia.

The Combined Charities also recommended the Association for Retarded Children, instead of the Association for Mental Health, selected last year, because it felt the latter spent too large a percentage of its receipts on publicity. The Committee did place the AMA on the secondary-or suggested-list.

The Committee chose the Ethiopian organization at the recommendation of an Ethiopian graduate student, Stapleton explained. "We like to have a broad spectrum of organizations on the local national, and international levels," he said.