A special House committee will begin investigation in Washington today of charges that educational foundations, which yearly give millions in grants to University departments and personnel, are using their funds for political purposes.

Also scheduled to be examined in the course of public hearings is the specific charge that grants are going too strongly to "favored institutions" such as Harvard, Columbia, the University of Chicago, and California.

James R. Reynolds '23, assistant to the President, reported last night that the University had been required to file a questionnaire with the special committee "several months ago" on the size, purpose, and number of gifts from foundations granted at the University. His statement corroborated reports from Washington that months of staff research have preceded the opening of the hearings.

Such foundations as the Rockefeller, Carnegic, and Ford have been exempted from Federal taxation because of their philanthropic aims. But the foundations would presumably be denied this exemption if the present committee, headed by Representative B. Carroll Reece (R. Tenn.), finds them guilty of using funds for political purposes.

McCarthy Threat

Action by the committee has followed fairly closely upon threats made by Senator McCarthy to attack universities housing "Fifth Amendment Communists" through their connections with educational foundations. McCarthy has warned he would instigate legislative action to revoke tax exemption of foundations unless Fifth Amendment users at institutions like Harvard were fired.

But director of research for the Reece Committee, Norman Dodd, stated last night in Washington that to his knowledge, action by the committee had not been instigated by McCarthy supporters in the House.

Dodd said he had acquired information on work done at the University on grants from the Rockefeller, Carnegie, which financed the Russian Research Center, and Ford Foundations. He also reported that his staff had investigated the work of the Fund for Republic Foundation here.

Fund for Republic

The Fund for Republic, when first set up on a grant from the Ford Foundation last summer, prompted chairman Reece to promise to "get it." He accused it of being out "to get investigating committees."

Dodd, during the first three days of the hearings, outlined a series of tentative conclusions arrived at during preliminary staff investigation. He said Tuesday "it was incredible" that foundations had financed "ideas and practices incompatible with the fundamental concepts of our Constitution."

The Reece Committee is the second in two years to investigate expenditures by philanthropic and educational committees.

The first committee, headed by Democrat E. E. Cox, now dead, recommended that foundations be encouraged. The present investigation by a Republican group has resulted partly from demands that findings of the first committee should be checked.

Dodd also stated that complaints of favoritism have ben lodged by "smaller, less fortunate institutions against the larger ones." "We must be able to give them an answer," he said.