SIDNEY HOOK
709
gram Committee to have the point of view which I represent presented to
the Congress. Further, no person who has in recent years ever spoken a
critical word against all varieties of totalitarianism, including Stalin's, has
been invited to participate in the actual program of the Congress. Neither
John Dewey nor Ernest Nagel nor Horace Kallen nor James T. Farrell nor
Dos Passos nor Edmund Wilson nor Meyer Schapiro nor scores of others
have been invited to this Congress for World Peace.
Professor H. Muller, American geneticist and Nobel Prize winner, has
not
been invited but A. Oparin, Acting Secretary of the Biological Section
of the Soviet Academy of Science who moved to expel Prof. Muller from
the Soviet Academy of Science because of his criticisms of Lysenko
has been
invited.
The
New York Times
of March 4th reports the resignation of Professor
Edman of Columbia University from the sponsoring committee of the Con–
gress on grounds that it is designed to promote "the Communist point of
view or one closely approximating to it." I sincerely hope that this is not
true. But the way this Congress has been organized and my experience with
it suggests that it is on the order of Wroclaw-Breslan.
Sincerely yours,
Sidney Hook
P.S. Since writing the above I have discovered that the Americans who
were appointed to the Continuations Committee of the Wroclaw-Breslau
Communist peace conference last summer were Dr. Harlow Shapley,
Howard Fast, Joe Davidson, and Albert E. Kahn, a notorious card-holding
Communist and member of the Executive Committee of the New York
State Communist Party. All except Dr. Shapley accepted; all including
Dr. Shapley are organizers and sponsors of the Cultural and Scientific
Conference for World Peace. Further, I have identified by actual count
more than ninety well known fellow-travellers of the Communist Party
line, of the order of Corliss Lamont and Harry Ward, in the list of sponsors
as published on the official stationery of the Conference.
I am confident that although you are listed as a sponsor of the Confer–
ence, your name was procured under false pretenses. At any rate, it seems
to me highly desirable for the sake of your own good name to insist that the
point of view I have expressed in my paper be presented at the Conference
and that a place be made for me on the program. I shall appreciate it if you
will send me a copy of your communication to Dr. Shapley. I am asking
you to send me a copy of any telegrams or letters you address to the Con–
ference because Professor Edman's letter of resignation was suppressed by
the Organizing Committee and he was compelled to make it public himself.
It seems to me that the cause of peace would be better served if indepen–
dent persons like yourself make the sharpest dissociation from any individ–
uals or groups whose main interest is in furthering the interests of Soviet
foreign policy.
