Law Professors Protest HUAC Move

Eleven professors from the Law school are among more than 100 signatures of a petition to Congress opposing efforts by the House Un-American Activities Committee to cite a Chicago doctor, his assistant, and a social Chicagoans for contempt of Congress.

The petition, announced last Sunday Mark DeWolfe Howe '28,professor of Law, urges all members of the House to vote against the contempt citations of the three social Chicagoans subpoenaed in a recent investigation. HUAC, the letter said, had taken action contrary to the tenets of its characters, and had abused its legitimate powers "to no apparent legitimate legislative purpose."

According to Howe, it was the sense of the group that "the investigating operations of the House Un-American Activities Committee should be upset." He noted that the absence of any restrictions in the HUAC charter enables the committee to study "all un-American propaganda--whatever that may be" and leads to what he termed an "exuberantly irresponsible manner of investigation."

The professors felt, Howe said, that the activities of HUAC were so objectionable that even the seven Ku Klux Klansmen cited for contempt by Congress last week should not have to submit to what he called "Congressional harassment." Robert M. Shelton, the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America, Inc., and six of his associates had refused to answer questions on the activities of the Klan.

Bad Guys

"It takes a strict observance of principle," Howe said, "to oppose the investigation of bad guys by a committee of bad guys," but he noted that the professors felt that the grounds for asking for a reversal of the contempt citations for the Chicago social workers were equally applicable to the Klansmen.

According to Vern Countryman, professor of Law, who also signed the petition, the letter is an effort to "call attention to one more outrageous action of the House Un-American Activities Committee."

The professors feel that any direct action to abolish HUAC would have to come from within the House itself, but what they hope to do is to cause enough protest within the House to make the Committee feel that its procedures are being watched.

A refusal to cite the three would represent the first time that Congress has not acted in accord with HUAC proposals to cite for contempt, Howe said. A possibility, which Howe called remote, is that Congress might refer the Chicago affair to the House Judiciary Committee.