DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 2 of 2) | 1950-06-08 Des Moines Register Article: "Fear and Suspicion Imperil Freedom"

Transcribe
Translate

Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 2 of 2)

1950-06-08 Des Moines Register Article: "Fear and Suspicion Imperil Freedom"

Fear and Suspicion Imperil Freedom

BY MARQUIS CHILDS.

   WASHINGTON, D. C. - A group of six Germans were invited by the State department recently to visit this country to make a study of civil liberties. In Washington they explored the loyalty program with typical German thoroughness.
   In the course of a study of the top loyalty review board of which Seth Richardson is chairman, they were turned over to an underling for a discussion of the gradations of loyalty. He somewhat confused the Germans by using terms such as pinko and  fellow-traveler, which were outside the sphere of their political knowledge. Finally, after the word pinko had recurred several times, one of the visitors asked for a definition.
   "Well," said the underling, "I think I can explain it. A pinko is anybody who is opposed to racial segregation and who wants to fight for civil liberties."

Visitors Believe This Is Official Policy.
   Those are very nearly the exact words used and they were duly taken down by the Germans in their notebooks and recorded in the reports they were preparing to take home with them. After this incident, which was acutely embarrassing to their official chaperons, they were asked if they didn't want to go and talk with several of the lawyers who were defending, for the most part without fees, some of the innocent persons who had fallen afoul of the loyalty machinery.
   No, said the German visitors, there was no need for that. After all, they now had the official point of view.
   This might not be so serious - it even has its comic aspect - if it were not indicative of the climate of the time. The fear of Communism and the Communist conspiracy, both in its realities and in the sensationalism and suspicion whipped up for partisan political purposes, is encroaching on basic American freedoms and rights. Driven by this fear, we may become like the totalitarianism we profess to loathe.
   The loyalty program under the chairmanship of Richardson, a Republican with views out of the early Coolidge era, has been carried through faithfully and thoroughly. If it has been pushed at times with excessive zeal, that is a further guarantee that the individuals found to be disloyal do really represent the tiny drop of disloyalty in the vast ocean of government.

Sawyer By-Passes Loyalty Machinery.
   But the other day Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer cut directly across this carefully worked-out program. He dismissed two employees for inefficiency while their cases were waiting further loyalty review.
   The seriousness of this has scarcely been realized. The procedures set up under the loyalty program were meant to purge the government of disloyal employees, but at the same time they were meant to protect the right of the individual from summary dismissal which would do such serious damage to his reputation as virtually to destroy him.
   In yielding to congressional pressure, Sawyer was, in effect, declaring his lack of confidence in the program.

   In the New York Times Magazine Drew Middleton, writing from Germany, had a searching analysis of the attitude of Europeans toward Americans and the questions that arise in European minds as to whether American strength is what Europe has been led to believe it is. Middleton writes:
   "Behind these questions is the fear expressed bluntly and fully by only a few, that the United States in its almost hysterical fear of Communism will turn more and more to authoritarian measures to fight it and that once this is done we will force Europe to conform to our pattern. And that, they claim, will mean the end of the great European tradition just as surely as would an invasion by the Russians.
  " "The great weapon of the United States in its struggle with the Soviet Union is not the atomic bomb or ECA," a Dutch diplomat once told me. 'It is that, with all its failings, the United States stands in the world for justice and freedom. As long as these exist and their existence is demonstrated in your daily life, the free world will turn to you for leadership. But if America for fear or expediency, denies these things then you - and we - are lost.' "

All one can say to that is: Amen!
(Copyright, 1950.)

Saving...

Fear and Suspicion Imperil Freedom BY MARQUIS CHILDS. WASHINGTON, D. C. - A group of six Germans were invited by the State department recently to visit this country to make a study of civil liberties. In Washington they explored the loyalty program with typical German thoroughness. In the course of a study of the top loyalty review board of which Seth Richardson is chairman, they were turned over to an underling for a discussion of the gradations of loyalty. He somewhat confused the Germans by using terms such as pinko and fellow-traveler, which were outside the sphere of their political knowledge. Finally, after the word pinko had recurred several times, one of the visitors asked for a definition. "Well," said the underling, "I think I can explain it. A pinko is anybody who is opposed to racial segregation and who wants to fight for civil liberties." Visitors Believe This Is Official Policy. Those are very nearly the exact words used and they were duly taken down by the Germans in their notebooks and recorded in the reports they were preparing to take home with them. After this incident, which was acutely embarrassing to their official chaperons, they were asked if they didn't want to go and talk with several of the lawyers who were defending, for the most part without fees, some of the innocent persons who had fallen afoul of the loyalty machinery. No, said the German visitors, there was no need for that. After all, they now had the official point of view. This might not be so serious - it even has its comic aspect - if it were not indicative of the climate of the time. The fear of Communism and the Communist conspiracy, both in its realities and in the sensationalism and suspicion whipped up for partisan political purposes, is encroaching on basic American freedoms and rights. Driven by this fear, we may become like the totalitarianism we profess to loathe. The loyalty program under the chairmanship of Richardson, a Republican with views out of the early Coolidge era, has been carried through faithfully and thoroughly. If it has been pushed at times with excessive zeal, that is a further guarantee that the individuals found to be disloyal do really represent the tiny drop of disloyalty in the vast ocean of government. Sawyer By-Passes Loyalty Machinery. But the other day Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer cut directly across this carefully worked-out program. He dismissed two employees for inefficiency while their cases were waiting further loyalty review. The seriousness of this has scarcely been realized. The procedures set up under the loyalty program were meant to purge the government of disloyal employees, but at the same time they were meant to protect the right of the individual from summary dismissal which would do such serious damage to his reputation as virtually to destroy him. In yielding to congressional pressure, Sawyer was, in effect, declaring his lack of confidence in the program. In the New York Times Magazine Drew Middleton, writing from Germany, had a searching analysis of the attitude of Europeans toward Americans and the questions that arise in European minds as to whether American strength is what Europe has been led to believe it is. Middleton writes: "Behind these questions is the fear expressed bluntly and fully by only a few, that the United States in its almost hysterical fear of Communism will turn more and more to authoritarian measures to fight it and that once this is done we will force Europe to conform to our pattern. And that, they claim, will mean the end of the great European tradition just as surely as would an invasion by the Russians. " "The great weapon of the United States in its struggle with the Soviet Union is not the atomic bomb or ECA," a Dutch diplomat once told me. 'It is that, with all its failings, the United States stands in the world for justice and freedom. As long as these exist and their existence is demonstrated in your daily life, the free world will turn to you for leadership. But if America for fear or expediency, denies these things then you - and we - are lost.' " All one can say to that is: Amen! (Copyright, 1950.)