Balance Sheet

FELLMAN, DAVID

Balance Sheet The House Committee On Un-American Activities, by Robert K. Carr. Cornell University Press. 489 pp. $6.50. Reviewed by David Fellman THIS is the sixth in a series of books...

...Robert E. Cushman of Cornell, director of the undertaking, will state some general conclusions...
...It is clear that the Committee's record varies with the character of the chairmen and the other members...
...Carr does not believe that under our constitutional system the courts ought to interfere with the legislative investigating power...
...This broad-gauged research program by reputable scholars was made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation...
...Carr states that Nixon was "the most competent member," that "he brought to the committee enthusiasm, a willingness to work hard, ability as a lawyer, and a reasonable detachment and sense of fairness—qualities that have been rare among the committee's members...
...He writes: "The way to prevent such damage is not to silence men's tongues or to undermine confidence in our private organizations or the government...
...As always, Carr's scholarship is impeccable, and he speaks with a sense of responsibility and out of a deep concern for justice...
...by constantly exaggerating the subversive threat the Committee has impaired the good judgment of many intelligent citizens...
...Throughout he emphasizes that, with better methods and a greater sense of responsibility, the Committee could have been much more effective and valuable...
...John S. Wood of Georgia...
...The author concedes that while it is not able to subvert the American people, a disciplined Communist group, operating as part of an international conspiracy, can do grave damage by committing such offenses as espionage and sabotage...
...it "has played a part in the demoralization of the federal service...
...Carr's book takes up the story of the House Committee only when it became a standing committee in January, 1945...
...Similarly, there have been marked variations among the chief counsel of the Committee, one of whom thought that a belief in democracy was subversive...
...has undoubtedly played a part in the exposure of the espionage activities of Communist agents in the United States...
...Harold H. Velde of Illinois, who joined the Committee in 1949...
...If there be error, correction must be had elsewhere...
...Others reading the same record may reach a different conclusion, but clearly Carr has earned the right to be heard...
...The way to meet the danger is the traditional one of providing an adequate body of law defining forbidden criminal conduct and of building up an adequate police force or counterintelligence system to ferret out the lawbreakers...
...has helped to educate the American people concerning the purposes and methods of our own domestic Communist movement...
...Robert K. Cr.rr, the author of this large volume on The House Committee on Un -American Activities, is Joel Parker Professor of Law and Political Science at Dartmouth College, who served as staff director of the President's Committee on Civil Rights which published in 1947 the notable report, To Secure These Rights...
...He has reached his own conclusions and states them frankly...
...Carr has examined the record in great detail and with painstaking care...
...Carr agrees that the threat of international communism is very great, but he thinks it is "in very large measure" a military one...
...The case against the Committee: "it has insisted upon personalizing its undertakings," which is "an exceedingly serious threat to the Anglo-American concept of criminal justice...
...may justly claim a major share of the credit for the passage by Congress of the Internal Security Act of 1950," which at the present time "is one of the most criticized statutes in legislative history...
...Four volumes deal with "un-American activities" committees in selected states, and one is concerned with the impact of the loyalty-security programs upon science...
...it "must be held responsible for having encouraged a widespread witch-hunting spirit both in government and in private life...
...The seventh will analyze the federal loyalty program for the civil service, and a final brief volume, by Prof...
...The story of the seven-year period from 1938 to 1945 was told competently by Father August R. Ogden in his book The Dies Committee, and no attempt is made to cover this ground again...
...Jt seems clear, as the record unfolds, that the present Vice-President, Richard M. Nixon, who joined the Committee in 1947, was the best of the lot...
...A long and careful analysis of the cases involving Committee action which reached the federal courts leads to the conclusion that judicial intervention holds no promise as a way of correcting questionable procedures...
...when he is shocked he says so...
...In his concluding essay, he summarizes what he regards as the case for the Committee: "the undeniable contribution it has made to the American peopfe's understanding of the character and purposes of international communism...
...He makes no effort to conceal his feelings...
...His net conclusion is that the House Committee on Un-American Activities has done more harm than good and ought to be abolished...
...Though its activities have been reviewed by courts more often than those of any other Congressional investigating committee, "not a single final judicial ruling adverse to the interests of the Committee has yet been made...
...He recognizes that there is also the danger that international communism will win men's minds, but he also believes that "our best hope is to win the non-Communist nations of the world as our allies and their peoples as our friends by showing them that Western democracy is in theory and in practice superior to communism...
...J. Parnell Thomas, who dominated the Committee in the 80th Congress, and the chairman for 1949-1950, Rep...
...the Committee has succeeded in discrediting the Congress of the United States in the eyes of many Americans...
...And he maintains that "at home our native Communist movement is small and weak...
...No major radical political group in American history has ever been less successful in winning converts...
...Carr's book deals with the six-year period of the 79th, 80th, and 81st Congresses...
...He is much less enthusiastic about the new chairman, Rep...
...the Committee had adversely affected the moral and intellectual atmosphere of the nation...
...The author does not find that the record of the Committee is as bad as some of its critics have painted it...
...Thus there were considerable differences between the methods of Rep...
...The Committee was established on a temporary basis, under the chairmanship of Martin Dies of Texas, in 1938...
...Reviewed by David Fellman THIS is the sixth in a series of books published by the Cornell University Press on important current civil liberties problems...

Vol. 17 • March 1953 • No. 3


 
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