Harlow Shapley, director of the College Observatory, was named as pro-Communist by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis) yesterday at a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee investigating Communist influence in the State Department. McCarthy said Shapley has been connected with at least 36 Communist-front organizations.

Shapley last night called McCarthy's charges "grossly untrue" and said he was "frankly bored" with such "non-sense."

McCarthy noted that the professor once represented Secretary of State Dean Acheson on the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Shapley on February 12 declared that he had, "never held a State Department position."

Conference for World Peace

McCarthy yesterday made special reference to the astronomer's chairmanship of the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace, which was held in New York in March, 1949, under the sponsorship of the National Council of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions. McCarthy labelled the conference as a "Soviet-Communist meeting."

McCarthy made similar accusations about Shapley's "Communist connections" on February 11. Shapley declared at that time that McCarthy's charges were "a complete absurdity and a slanderous lie. It is irresponsible slander of a type that brings disgrace to the Senate of which he is a member."