Document: Assembly Concurrent Resolution, Number 11, March 11, 1947

• 1. What is the meaning of the resolution?
• 2. What are the goals and objectives of the committee?
• 3. How does it set the precedent for the Heimlich/Finley Case?

Document: Statement of Loyalty, April 7, 1947

• 1. What is the purpose of the first two pages of this document?
• 2. If you were a teacher in 1947, would you have signed this loyalty oath? Why or why not?
• 3. According to the Superintendent’s Conference with Principals, what are the aims of education?
• 4. When students learn of the Constitution of America, how must Newark public school teachers handle the subject of communism?
• 5. According to the plan suggested in this document, would you as a teacher be able to discuss positive attributes of forms of government other than a democracy? Explain.

Document: Academic Freedom and Civic Responsibility: A Statement to the University and to the Public on the Heimlich-Finley Cases on January 24, 1953.

• 1. According to this document what were NOT the primary issues of the case?
• 2. What was the key issue?
• 3. How does President Jones describe communism and its dangers?
• 4. How does President Jones explain the legal rights of Professors Heimlich and Finley?
• 5. Do you think that President Jones’ decision is opposite of the proclamation he made during his inauguration speech on May 8, 1952?
• 6. Do you feel that President Jones might have handled this situation differently if he had been in position longer than 6 months? Explain.

Document: Calling All Engle-Reds, November 14, 1952.(Segment: It can happen here)

• 1. How is communism depicted in the public education system by this newspaper?
• 2. Identify and list controversial or emotional language that may solicit an anger or fear towards communism in the public education system.
• 3. Which groups and organizations are listed as allowing communist members?
• 4. Is this document worthy of academic consideration? Why or why not?
• 5. Can it be related to the Heimlich/Finley case?

Links:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/mccarthy/ http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment05/ (Laws under the Constitution)

http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm (Entire set of McCarthy Transcripts)

http://www.archives.gov (America’s National Archives)

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/mccarran.html (Biography of Senator Pat McCarran)

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ColdWar.htm (General survey of the 1950’s Red Scare)

http://dynaweb.oac.cdlib.org:8088/dynaweb/uchist/public/dailycal/ (Loyalty oaths)

http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curcan/main.html#bib(University of Washington’s curriculum web archive section about Professors fired during the McCarthy Era)

http://webcorp.com/mccarthy/mccarthypage.htm (Multimedia source collection about Senator Joseph McCarthy)

Timeline

Mar. 11, 1947- New Jersey State Assembly passes Concurrent Resolution No. 11 requesting the governor to form a “commission to investigate communistic and Un-American teachings and activities.

1949- Three University of Washington (Seattle) faculty members fired for holding suspected ties to communist groups.

1951- McCarran Act passed. The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) begins interrogating public schoolteachers and professors from the New York City area. This group was part of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sept. 5, 1951- While testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Dr. Karl Wittfogel states that Moses Finley is a communist.

Mar. 28, 1952- Professor Moses Finley appears before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in Washington, D.C. During the interrogation, he uses the Fifth Amendment regarding questions about his connections to communism. Rutgers University issues no public comment.

Sept. 24, 1952- Professor Simon Heimlich testifies before the McCarran Subcommittee (SISS) in New York City. He also pleads the Fifth. The interrogation starts a wave of public concern in Rutgers and surrounding New Jersey communities.

Sept. 26, 1952- Dr. Lewis Webster Jones, President of Rutgers University, announces his intention to appoint Trustee and Faculty committees to review the Professor Heimlich’s case.

Sept. 27, 1952- Pres. Jones states that the committees’ inquiries will include a review of the Finley case.

Sept. 30, 1952- Appointment of the Trustee-Faculty-Alumni Committee to review the Heimlich-Finley cases. Tracy S. Voorhees has been named chairman.

Oct. 14, 1952- Trustee-Faculty-Alumni Committee reports refusals by Heimlich and Finley to answer questions from the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee raises “a real question as to their fitness to continue as teachers on the university faculty.” Committee recommends a formal review corresponding to university statutes by a faculty committee.

Oct. 16, 1952- Pres. Jones announces the members of the Faculty Committee to review the Heimlich-Finley cases. Dr. Bennett M. Rich, Associate Professor of Political Science, has been named chairman. 

Nov. 15, 1952- FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover meets with Pres. Jones to discuss the Heimlich and Finley cases. Jones and Hoover agree to share personnel and FBI files regarding the professors.

Dec. 3, 1952- Faculty Committee reports to Pres. Jones, “No changes should be preferred against Heimlich or Finley,” therefore recommending that, “No further action be taken.”

Dec. 12, 1952- Board of Trustees resolution declared that, “It shall be cause for immediate dismissal of any member of faculty or staff” to refuse answering any questions relating to Communist affiliation on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment. Unless Heimlich and Finley conform to the Board of Trustees’ requests, they will be dismissed Dec. 31, 1952.

Dec 15, 1952- Two hundred Rutgers University protest the forthcoming dismissals of Heimlich and Finley in a motorcade traveling from Newark to New Brunswick.

Dec. 31, 1952- Rutgers University fires Heimlich and Finley for failing to comply with the Trustees’ decision.

Jan. 19, 1953- Emergency Committee of Rutgers Faculty issues a statement to the Board of Trustees asking the group to reconsider their decision in the Heimlich-Finley cases.

Jan. 24, 1953- President Jones publishes an official statement on Academic Freedom and Responsibility defending the university’s right to dismiss professors that invoke the Fifth Amendment in government testimonies.

March 12, 1953- Professor Abraham Glasser appears before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He pleads the Fifth Amendment.  

May 1953- Harvard’s trustees refuse to fire professors that cited the Fifth Amendment during their testimonies. This calls Rutgers University’s nationally recognized policy into question.

Aug. 26, 1953- Faculty committee from the Rutgers School of Law upholds Jones’s and the trustees’ belief that Glasser must be dismissed unless he complies with the HUAC.

Sept. 11, 1953- Professor Glasser resigns from his faculty position at Rutgers School of Law.

Apr. 7, 1956- Based on Heimlich’s and Finley’s dismissals, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) censures Rutgers University for denying academic freedom on campus. Four other universities are condemned at the conference.

Apr. 9, 1956- In the Slochower case, US Supreme Court rules the firings of New York City schoolteachers for pleading the Fifth Amendment unconstitutional.

Apr. 27, 1956- After the Supreme Court decision challenges university policy, Glasser writes another letter demanding his reinstatement. Rutgers Board of Trustees decide no to hear the professors’ cases again.

Fall 1957- Earl Browder, the former leader of the American Communist Party, holds several lectures at Rutgers University.

May 15, 1958- American Association of Law Schools (AALS) censures Rutgers School of Law in Newark for forcing Glasser’s resignation.

Sources:

“Chronology of Events.” Inventory to the Records of the Office of Pres. Lewis Webster Jones; Academic Freedom Cases, 1942-1958. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Libraries, 1994.

Richards, Thomas F. The Cold War at Rutgers: A Case Study of the Dismissals of Professors Heimlich, Finley, and Glasser. Diss. Rutgers University, 1986.

Biographies

Dr. Moses I. Finley

Born Moses Isaac Finkelstein in New York City on May 20, 1912, Dr. Finley became one the world’s best known experts in the study of Ancient Greek civilization and the classics. Initially he worked as a staff writer for an encyclopedia firm and legal researcher, before being hired as a part-time lecturer for Yeshiva College. Having received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1951, Rutgers appointed Finley as an Assistant Professor of History in 1950. During World War II, Finley served as an executive in the American Society for Russian Relief.  Mentioned as a communist in two testimonies in 1951, Finley met with the HUAC in March 1952. Although very candid throughout much of the interview, he would not answer whether or not he or his associates were communists according to the Fifth Amendment. While teaching at Rutgers, Finley resided in Englewood.

Fired by Rutgers University with Heimlich on Dec. 31, 1952, Finley could not secure a position in the country. He immigrated to Great Britain in 1954 and established a respectable reputation in Cambridge University’s history department. In a 1964 interview, he stated that he became a British citizen and did not plan on returning to the U.S. He published an article detailing his experiences with anti-communism in the February 1969 edition of the New Statesman. Invited by Rutgers University, Finley returned to New Brunswick to open a series of lectures on Apr. 3, 1972. The campus community issued a public apology to Finley during his visit. He died in 1986.

Mr. Simon W. Heimlich

Born on Oct. 17, 1903, in Elizabeth, N.J., Heimlich received a B.A. from Rutgers and finished his M.A. at Columbia University in 1926. Beginning his teaching career as an instructor for the College of Pharmacy in Newark in 1925, Rutgers promoted Heimlich to the tenured title of Associate Professor in Mathematics and Physics in 1946. Heimlich’s best known academic work, An Outline of College Physics, was published in 1950. His testimony before the McCarran Committee prompted widespread suspicions and public concerns about the presence of communists within the Rutgers faculty. Like Glasser, Heimlich permanently left academic life after his dismissal. He managed a very successful investment brokerage firm in Elizabeth until his death in February 1970.

Dr. Lewis Webster Jones

Born in 1899 in Emerson, Nebraska, Dr. Jones served as the fifteenth President of Rutgers University (1951-58) during the controversial cases involving Heimlich, Finley and Glasser. Raised near Portland, Oregon, Jones earned a Ph.D. from Brookings Institute in Economics in 1926. After completing post-graduate research in Cambridge University and the London School of Economics, Jones for the League of Nations in Europe as an economist. Beginning in 1932, Dr. Jones taught economics full-time at Bennington College in Vermont for nine years. He served as the president of Bennington College (1941-47) and the University of Arkansas (1947-52). In the postwar era, he became known in academic and administrative circles for his stalwart speeches against communism. Having resigned from Rutgers on Aug. 15, 1958, Jones led the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ), an organization supporting tolerance and understanding between religious groups, until retiring in 1965. Jones died in Sarasota, Florida, on Sept. 10, 1975.    

Sources:

Frusciano, Thomas J. The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries. 53.1 (June 1991).

“Lewis Webster Jones, 1951-1958.” Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives, 2001. Available online at: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/ scua/university_archives/jones.shtml.

Richards, Thomas F. The Cold War at Rutgers: A Case Study of the Dismissals of Heimlich, Finley, and Glasser. Diss. Rutgers University, 1986, pp. 35-38, 46-47, 185-186, 211-219.