Plan E Fight Starts as Petition Circulates for Vote in Autumn

In another drive to have the much disputed Plan E adopted as the Cambridge city charter, a group of local citizens began circulating a petition yesterday providing for a referendum on the city-manager and proportional representative form of government in next November's elections.

If proponents of the plan succeed in getting the necessary 10 per cent of the voters at the last election, or approximately 5,500 people, to sign the petition, the plan will mandatorily be placed on the ballots next fall.

Lost By 1,760

Defeated by a bare 1,760 votes in the fall of 1938, the proposed charter provoked a bitter verbal exchange between Cambridge city councilors and James M. Landis, dean of the Law School and head of the Plan E. Committee.

Dean Landis accused the city fathers of "cheap politics" in opposing the plan, and the Council countered with a last minute attempt to keep the referendum off the ballots.

Chairman of the committee which is now circulating the petition for a vote on the plan next fall is Mrs. Amelia Fisk, who is heading a large group of workers combing the city for signatures. Last night she issued a call for student help in persuading people to sign the petition.

Hope For Objective Campaign

Leaders of the present drive for Plan E hope to eliminate the bitterness of the last referendum. Some of them expressed fear last night that the campaign for a city-manager charter would again arouse a bitter "town and gown" controversy, with professorial families lined up against Cambridge politicians.

Plan E provides for a city manager selected and responsible to the Council. He would run the city. prepare the budget, and appoint subordinates according to civil service laws, while the Mayor would be shorn of his veto and appointment powers. The City Council, reduced to nine men, would be elected by proportional representation.