Government to Prosecute Furry On Contempt of Congress Charge

The contempt trial of Wendell H. Furry, associate professor of Physics, has been assigned for May 21 at the Boston Federal Courthouse.

Despite the earlier acquittal of Leon J. Kamin '48, former instructor in Social Relations, on many of the same counts, the Government has apparently decided to prosecute Furry on charges arising out of his testimony before the McCarthy subcommittee last winter.

Furry has been indicted for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist activities at Harvard and in defense plants. He gave the investigators information concerning his own connections with alleged subversive groups but invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked to speak about the activities of research associates.

Although U.S. Attorney Anthony Julian could not be reached for comment last night, it appears that the conviction Friday of Marcus Singer, former instructor in Zoology, for refusing to answer similar questions before the House Un-American Activities (Velde) Committee may have influenced the Government's decision.

Furry's lawyer, Gerald A. Berlin, said last night that the defense will ask that the trial be held without a jury. "The Government must agree before the jury can be waived," Berlin added. This was the procedure in the Kamin case, when the trial came before Judge Bailey Aldrich '28, trying it without a jury.

In the Kamin case, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) was a star witness for the prosecution. The Government has not revealed whether or not the Wisconsin lawmaker would be called to testify in the Furry trial.

McCarthy had attacked the Kamin verdict, calling Judge Aldrich's decision "ridiculous to the point of being ludicrous." Aldrich held that McCarthy's investigating subcommittee had exceeded the powers Congress gave to its parent group, the Government Operations Committee.