April 3, 1951 The Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 275 Morris Avenue, target of a suit accusing it of operating a medical school without a license, is moving its national headquarters out of Elizabeth because it has no desire to remain where it is not wanted. Transfer of the national headquarters to Wichita, Kan., effective April 15 was announced yesterday by the foundation. A spokesman indicated the principal reason is the pending District Court suit. Charles Leonard, in charge of press relations for the foundation, said other factors encouraged the move to Kansas, but that the suit initiated by the State Board of Medical Examiners and set for trial in May was "the axis on which the other factors revolved." "We have no desire to remain where we are not wanted," Mr. Leonard declared. "we have brought a great deal of business to Elizabeth and to New Jersey, but if we are not welcome here, we do not choose to remain." L. Ron Hubbard, author of a book on therapeutic thinking, said "Dianetics is a pioneer mental science. It is only natural that we should prefer to centralize where the American pioneering spirit and cultural interests are still high." Dianetics claims that every cell of a person's body remembers what happened, from before birth, that illness is due to these memories and disappears when the brain is aroused to get this memory from the cell. Dianetics is the art of getting the brain to draw on the cell memories. How that is done is not explained. The Hubbard Foundation, described by its operators as a non-profit organization, was founded here, last May. Branches have been opened in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and Honolulu, and groups have been formed in foreign countries. Mr. Leonard said city leaders in Wichita invited the Hubbard foundation to open its national headquarters there and that 18,000 square feet in a downtown office building have been acquired. Some of the key members of the foundation will transfer immediately to Wichita, it was said. Whether a branch office will be maintained in Elizabeth will depend on the outcome of the District Court suit, Mr. Leonard stated. He said he hopes the Morris Avenue quarters could be retained. Plans to move the national dianetics headquarters to the new building at 10 Caldwell place early this year were abandoned when the suit was instituted. "Wichita is not only one of the most central points, geographically, in the United States, but it is in the heart of pioneering country where new ideas still can find fertile field," Mr. Leonard asserted. He said the mid-west looks forward while the east looks backward. Mr. Leonard indicated
that the foundation will defend its case in the New Jersey courts on the
ground there is no qualified dianetic committee on any state board from
which a license to teach dianetics can be obtained. Furthermore, he said,
because dianetics is not medicine but a mental science, an attempt was
made to lump it with psychiatry, which it bitterly disavows in all its
literature and practice. |