State Commission Says Struik Unfit For MIT Faculty

The case of Dirk Struik, M.I.T. faculty member accused in 1951 of advocating the violent overthrow of the government, was re-opened yesterday when the Massachusetts Commission on Communism asked M.I.T. to review the "question of Professor Dirk Struick's fitness to be a member of the faculty."

The Commission's report said that Struik's retention on the faculty of M.I.T. "has been of great aid and comfort to the Communist Party of the United States."

The Massachusetts Commission on Communism, whose present term ends on February 1, came under attack last week by a 16 man group of prominent lawyers, clergymen and educators.

Last week's protest, whose signers included Samuel Eliot Morrison '07, Jonathan Trumbull, Professor of History, Emeritus and David F. Cavers, associate dean of the Law School, said that the commission was illegal, since the United States Supreme Court has held that "states can not legislate in the field of subversive activities."

M.I.T. authorities made no statement yesterday but it is expected that a study will be made of the new report by a ten man excutive committee.

In 1951 the State of Massachusetts indicted Struik on subversive charges and he was suspended with pay from his job at M.I.T. "until the outcome of the trial became known." His case never came to trial and in May, 1956, the indictment was dropped as a result of the Supreme Court ruling denying the states the privilege of prosecuting sedition.

Struik was reinstated this fall after being formally censured by the M.I.T. executive committee "for his comparative lack of candor with the members of the administration." During the fall term he taught two classes in advanced calculus.