Singer Suspended for Refusal to Inform

The two-year old case of Cornell professor Marcus Singer finally reached the courts last fall and the University promptly relieved him of his teaching duties until the outcome of his trial.

A Federal Grand Jury in Washington indicted Singer, a former Harvard instructor, on November 22 on charges of contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee about his associates in a wartime Marxist study group in Cambridge.

Singer had appeared before the Velde Committee in May of 1953 and then testified freely about his own participation in the group. But he declined to answer questions concerning other alleged members, among them Harvard physics professor Wendell H. Furry and former Harvard Medical School professor Helen Deane Markham. Singer based his refusal both on grounds of conscience and on the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

Congress voted a contempt citation against him in May of last year, but Cornell took no action in the case until the Grand Jury returned its indictment. The University then placed him on salaried leave pending the disposition of the charges and removed him from the courses he was then teaching. Cornell has permitted him to continue to use its laboratories for his research activities under a grant from the American Cancer Society.

In a statement following Cornell's action, Singer said: "I followed the dictates of my conscience and did what I felt should be done in honor and principle. I am hopeful that the courts will sustain me." The Cornell Daily Sun, undergraduate daily, was sharply critical of the University's decision to relieve Singer of his teaching duties.

The paper commented editorially, "The nature of this case does not dictate a leave nor a relief from teaching duties... The desire to satisfy certain pressure groups often influences the University's decisions; we hope that this was not the factor in the matter... "We felt that, if found guilty, Dr. Singer should serve whatever sentence the court imposes and then be allowed to return as a full member of the University faculty."

Both faculty and student groups have gone on record in defense of Singer since his defiance of the Velde Committee. Sciences unanimously approved a resolution expressing its faith in his loyalty. The Cornell Student Council added its support for his moral position in refusing to answer the Committee's questions on his associates.

Singer's trial on the contempt charges was originally scheduled for February, 1955, but a Federal Judge delayed the case to await the Supreme Court's decision in the Emspak, Quinn, and Bart cases, also involving a witness' refusal to testify before a Congressional committee. The Court's ruling in these cases, announced late last month, contained a generally broad intrepretation of the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and may be relevant to the Singer case as well. In the majority opinion setting aside the contempt conviction of United Electrical Workers' official Julius Emspak, Chief Justice Warren wrote that the Fifth Amendment should be "accorded liberal construction in favor of the right it was intended to secure..." Warren upheld Emspak's refusal to testify about certain associates, all previously charged with Communist affiliations, on the grounds that his answers might "have furnished a link in the chain of evidence needed to prosecute him for a Federal crime." Similar ruling were made in the cases of Thomas Quinn, another UEW official, and Phillip Bart, general manager of the Daily Worker.

Singer has stated that in the event of his conviction in Federal Court, he intends to carry the case to the Supreme Court and seek a reversal. Should his conviction be upheld, Cornell will undoubtedly initiate formal administrative proceedings to consider his dismissal.