SIDNEY HOOK
693
one nation or another. Illustrations: 'German Science,' 'Jewish
Science.'
2. There are no 'class truths' or 'party truths' in science. The
belief that there are confuses the objective evidence for a theory
which, if warranted, is universally valid with the
uses,
good,
bad, or indifferent that are made of it. Illustrations: 'proletarian
science,' 'bourgeois physics,'
Partinost.
3. The cause of international scientific cooperation and peace
has been very seriously undermined by the influence of doc–
trines which uphold the doctrine that there are 'national' or
'class' or 'party' truths.''
The members of the Program Committee to whom I wrote were
Dr. Herbert john Davis, President of Smith College, Dr. Guy Emory
Shipler, editor of
The Churchman,
and Dr. Sarah Gibson Blanding,
President of Vassar College. The Chairman of the Program.Com–
mittee was Dr. Harlow Shapley of Harvard University, but at the
time I wrote he was listed only as Chairman of the conference. I
heard from Dr. Davis and Dr. Shipler. The first wrote that he was
glad to support my request to present a paper and that he was writ–
ing to Shapley "with my request that you should be given a full op–
portunity to present your views at a suitable plenary session of the
Congress." Dr. Shipler also wrote to Shapley saying "it would be
well if Dr. Hook were given an opportunity to present his paper."
Upon receipt of Dr. Davis's letter I wrote to Shapley asking the time
and place of the session at which I was scheduled to present my
paper. Instead of a response from Shapley, I received a letter from a
Mrs. Dorner, of the conference office, Suite 71, 49 West 44th Street,
New York City, informing me that Shapley had telephoned that
there was no place for me on the program. I could not reach Shapley
on the telephone either at Cambridge or New York to confirm this.
Nor would Mrs. Dorner answer the phone when I identified myself.
When by a ruse she finally came on the phone, she brusquely re–
peated Shapley's message. To my request that I be permitted to open
the discussion in the plenary session on science she flatly refused and
said I would have to take my chances with everyone else on the floor
of the conference, and that my speaking depended on whether or
not I was recognized by the chairman of the session. She was not
even sure that there would be time for a question and discussion pe–
riod because of the number of speakers. Since I was an old hand at
organizing and attending conferences, I knew what that meant.
I then telephoned Dr. Sarah Blanding of Vassar College and to
my astonishment was told that there had never been a meeting of the
