McCarthy Charges Aldrich Unfit to Judge Kamin Case

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy charged on the Senate floor in Washington yesterday that Judge Bailey Aldrich's reluctance to sign a Massachusetts non-Communist affidavit last summer indicated prejudice against Congressional investigations of communism and made the Judge "manifestly unqualified" to try the case of Leon J. Kamin '48.

Recommending that the Justice Department appeal Aldrich's acquittal of Kamin on Jan. 5, McCarthy also suggested that the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate the case.

The Wisconsin senator said Judge Aldrich had at first refused "on principle" to sign the required affidavit after Governor Christian A. Herter '15 had reappointed him a Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals trustee last August.

The judge reconsidered, McCarthy said, only "after he had been reminded that his failure to sign... came as a great embarrassment to the Herter administration."

It appeared yesterday, however, that Aldrich refused to sign the affidavit because he felt the request a reflection on the Federal Judiciary. Well-informed sources said he had also noted that he had been appointed by the President, investigated by the FBI and cleared, and confirmed by the Senate.

When he was sworn in as a Federal District Judge here in April 1954, he took a civil officer's oath swearing he had never been a Communist.

Senate Hindered

"The power of the Senate to investigate subversion was seriously jeopardized by Judge Aldrich's decision," McCarthy said yesterday.

Aldrich stated in his acquittal decision, however, that the power of Congress to investigate "the general subject of Communism" was not questioned.

He instead criticized McCarthy for clearly exceeding the powers Congress granted the Government Operations Committee McCarthy headed in 1953 and 1954.

McCarthy's blast yesterday was the second since the acquittal ruling. He called for the Judge's impeachment Jan. 6.