MATHER'S REPLY

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

In today's issue of The Harvard CRIMSON, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy is reported to have said ("in an exclusive interview with the CRIMSON") that I was one of the Harvard professors "who have refused to say whether or not they are communists." This is just another sample of the senator's irresponsible, erroneous and character assassinating charges that have caused all intelligent citizens to discard the last remnant of confidence in the statement that he makes.

I note with pleasure your reporter's reference to my appearance "before an executive session of the Jenner Internal Security Committee in Boston last spring" and his inference that it is almost certain that I did not invoke the Fifth Amendment at that time.

To make the record unmistakably clear, permit me to inform your readers that on that occasion I stated, under oath, that "I am not now and never have been a member of the Communist Party." I wish very much that Senator Jenner would release to the public the full transcript of the questions and answers that constituted the six minutes of my appearance in the closed hearing on March 26, 1953, but I doubt if he will ever do so.

Senator McCarthy and his staff have free access to all the records of the Jenner Subcommittee and if he had any question about me he could easily have ascertained the facts. It is improbable that he is acquainted with my long public record of unalterable opposition to all forms of totalitarian dictatorship--that of political demagogues who seek to establish thought control in the U.S.A., as well as that of Communist Party officials. But the record is clear: I was speaking and writing about the dangers of Soviet Communism long before the senator launched his anti-Communist campaign.

With regard to the Jenner Committee hearing, certain facts have a significant bearing upon the broad problem of Congressional investigations of educational institutions. As reported widely in the public press, March 26, 1953, I announced, prior to the hearing, that I would "be glad to cooperate to the fullest extent of my knowledge in any legitimate investigation that the committee wishes to make." It had been my understanding that the committee was "interested in the possibility that there are, or have been, subversive activities at Harvard University which might endanger the internal security of our nation." To my surprise, not one question asked of me had any reference whatsoever to Harvard, to any student or faculty organization at Harvard, or to the activities of any of my past or present acquaintances connected with Harvard. Kirtley F. Mather   Professor of Geology.