Furry, Kamin, Markham Listed by State Commission on Communism

Two Harvard professors and a research assistant, two of whom have left the University since their interrogation, were declared past members of the Communist Party by the state Commission on Communism last Thursday.

They were among 85 Massachusetts residents listed as present or former Communists in the Commission's initial report to the General Court. Another report, including additional names, will follow at a later date.

The three University teachers include Wendell H. Furry, associate professor of Physics; Mrs. Helen D. Markham, former assistant professor of Anatomy at the Medical School; and Leon J. Kamin '49, former research assistant in Social Relations at the College.

Furry testified that he joined the Party in 1938 and withdrew from it in 1947.

Mrs. Markham pleaded the Fifth Amendment, the U.S. Constitution, and the Twelth Article of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights before the Committee in regard to past or present Party membership; and although Harvard issued a statement in May, 1953, saying that it believed "Dr. Markham is not, and never has been, a member of the Communist Party," the Commission stated in its report that it "has received creditable evidence" that she was.

Kamin testified before the Commission that he joined the Communist Party in 1945 and quit it in June or July of 1950.

All three previously testified before Federal investigating committees.

This listing of three of Harvard's teachers as past Communists was the only attack left open to state legislators when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared unconstitutional the central clauses of a bill which would have compelled private colleges to discharge instructors refusing to answer questions concerning their Communist affiliations.

Last month, five Boston lawyers, all of them Law School graduates, asked the Court to forbid the publication of the communist list, but the attempt failed even though the evidence given against the 85 has not been publicly attributed to named accusers.