May 9, 1958
Los Angeles

By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer

Opponents of the deal to build the Dodgers a baseball stadium in Chavez Ravine apparently tried to paint the proposal in a 1950s shade of red.

According to a story in The Times, a group called the Committee for Public Morality distributed literature claiming the contract was "a plan for collectivizing city and nation" and that "we are at war at our very doorsteps with a totalitarian clique."

The story quoted E. Talbot Callister, vice chairman of the Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball, as denouncing the literature as "the all-time low" in the campaign. Los Angeles voters would have their say on the city’s contract with the Dodgers on June 3. The story listed Robert M. Angier as chairman of the public morality committee but didn’t provide much else about the opponents. Readers didn’t learn where the literature was circulating or anything about the group. Angier wasn’t quoted in the story and it wasn’t clear if there had been any attempt to reach him.

Callister did get a few swings in, however. He noted all the money the Dodgers planned to spend as part of the deal and said if Angier thinks that’s communism, "He hasn’t read the baseball contract or the communist manifesto."

keith.thursby@latimes.com