College Fraternity Gets Wide Support for Accepting Jew

The suspension of the Williams College chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, a national organization with 115 chapters in the United States and Canada, for accepting a Jewish student as a member seemed today to be developing state-wide and national ramifications. The chapter was charged by the national body with violating a constitutional restriction against accepting members who are not white or of "full Aryan blood."

Rep. Richard D. Caples of Boston has introduced a resolution in the Massachusetts legislature condemning the action of the national fraternity and asking the Souse to "applaud" the decision of the Williams College group. At Brown University, in Providence, R.I., the Phi Delta Theta chapter announced that it would also invite suspension by accepting either a Negro or a Jewish student, although it had not yet done so.

Dr. James P. Baxter 3rd, president of Williams College, has issued a statement declaring that there is an "understanding" at the school that in elections to fraternities and campus organizations the college’s board of trustees "holds that each undergraduate should be accorded whatever recognition be merits as an individual according to his ability, achievement, personality and character."

In New York, Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee, said that the AJC commends "the Williams College chapter and the alumni members who supported by a three-quarter majority the action of the Chapter in pledging the Jewish student. This action marks a triumph for democratic thinking on American campuses. The refusal of the Williams College Chapter of Phi Delta Theta to conform to the unjustified and archaic policy of their national organization is in the highest tradition of Americanism."