Senator Francis X. McCann (D-Cambridge) whose legislative bill originally authorized the underpasses along Memorial Drive, last night charged that political motivation was behind at least some of the opposition to their construction.

"We are in the political atmosphere of Cambridge. "We strongly suspect the politcal motives of some of these people involved," he told a group of more than 25 in Eliot House Junior Common Room.

McCann labelled John R. Moot '48, one of the leaders of the Citizens Emergency Committee to Save Memorial Drive, as the source of political friction.

Recalling that only one person had showed up in February 1962 at the original hearing on the underpass bill, McCann said that the issue remained dead until October 1963, when the Cambridge Chronicle-Sun carried a letter objecting to the underpasses which, "just by faint coincidence," was written by the campaign manager of Mrs. Cornelia B. Wheeler, McCann's opponent in the election for state seator. The man was Moot.

McCann did not imply, however, that Mrs. Wheeler took any part in the move. He said that Mrs. Wheeler, who coincidentally was the only person to appear at the original hearing, had every right to oppose the underpasses and run against him. And, McCann emphasized, he respected that right.

In addition, he maintained the underpass bill had not been "sneaked" through the legislature. It was 16 moths after the bill had been signed by Gov. John A. Volpe in June 1962, before the first opposition was heard.

The senator also had some harsh words for retired public-relations man Edward L. Bernays, who has been engineering the anti-underpass campaign.

"Here's a man who's spent 70 years of his life in New York City coming here and telling the legislature what's good for Cambridge." That was "colossal gall," McCann declared.

McCann then "challenged the sincerity" of most of the anti-underpass campaign;

Referring to two expressways, the Inner Belt and the Northwest Express- way, that are expected to be constructed through East Cambridge, he charged that "Not one of these (anti-underpass) people ever lifted a voice or a pen to help the 1500 families" who will probably be evicted by the expressways.

Along with McCann on the three-man panel to discuss the underpasses was City Councillor Daniel J. Hayes and Robert A. Bowyer, a former member of the Cambridge Planning Commission.

Hayes revealed that the city council may take action to minimize the number of evictions the expressway will cause. Agreeing with McCann that it was now inevitable that the highways would enter Cambridge, he said he was studying a scheme that would save well over a thousand families from eviction.

But, Hayes explained, "the same people that are fighting the underpasses are advocating the Inner Belt Route through Cambridge" and quietly accepting the displacement of 1500 families.

Cambridge Schiem

All three men agreed that controversies over Memorial Drive and the Inner Belt emphassized a basic split between the Harvard Square section of the city and East Cambridge.

"It is a tragic commentary on the Cambridge community that there is no involvement of the people in one section of town with the problems and emotions of the people in the other section," Howyer said