The People's Voice

NEW YORK WITCH HUNT INCREASES

NEW YORK.-(FP)-Spurred on by the periodic hearings of the Rapp Coudert legislative committee, the witch hunt in New York schools is proceeding in high gear, with new developments daily.

The Board of Higher Education for the first time declared that membership in any communist, fascist or nazi group was grounds for discharge from city colleges. Similar action in the elementary schools and high schools was forecast by Supt. of Schools Harold G. Campbell, who declared that teachers found to be communists would be dropped.

The first teacher to lose his job as a result of the Rapp-Coudert investigation was Morris U. Schappes of City College. He was suspended immediately without pay, pending proceedings for his dismissal. Charges which will result in the firing of other City College teachers are now being formulated, the Board of Higher Education said.

Following his suspension, Schappes was indicted by a county grand jury on charges of perjury during his testimony before the committee. He was arrested immediately and jailed.

Schappes was accused of minimizing Communist party activities on the City College campus and his own role in those activities.

"In hustling off to jail like a common criminal this well-known and respected college teacher, Dist. Atty. Thomas E. Dewey is apparently ready to play his role as Coudert's accomplice in achieving the main purpose of this persecution-the destruction of public education and academic freedom," the Committee for the Defense of Public Education asserted. "Despite repeated requests, the Coudert committee denied Mr. Schappes the opportunity to resume the stand to answer the allegations made against him."