Editorial
EDITORIAL Monmouth Facts Senator McCarthy's investigation of alleged espionage at the Signal Corps's Fort Monmouth laboratories is now living its third life each phonier than the last. In its...
...he did not plead the Fifth Amendment...
...In addition, the FAS summarized the findings of several newspapers and confirmed the fact that not one Monmouth employe had been charged with espionage and only one with past or present membership in the Communist party...
...Like all his colleagues questioned in secret, he either denied or explained the charges against him...
...Eisenhower...
...If McCarthy has succeeded in destroying that principle (and the reaction of a non-sophisticate like Jenkins is indicative), all the radar installations in the world will not preserve our democracy...
...In its first phase, lasting some two months, the Monmouth hearings were held in executive session...
...Addressing Senator McCarthy, he said: "You have been vindicated insofar as your investigation is concerned if your efforts resulted in the suspension of one or more bad security risks...
...And, for the thousands of former Soviet citizens now living in the West, thousands who may well be called upon to play significant parts in tomorrow's Russia, Chekhov books provide an education in the deeper meanings of democracy and Russian civilization...
...The exception now seems to be due to a confusion in names...
...Truman at 70 Former President Harry S. Truman deserves the gratitude of all Americans on his seventieth birthday, not only because of his service as Chief Executive but because of the constructive way in which he has acted since leaving the White House...
...In his latest gratuitous remarks, however, Jenkins has gone overboard to reveal a much more significant misconception...
...That, we think, is a tribute to the patriotism and vision of the man from Missouri...
...In its current life, the Monmouth probe is being passed off to millions of American televiewers as McCarthy's greatest contribution to the country's well-being thanks to counsel Ray Jenkins...
...As our readers well know, we oppose McCarthyism primarily because of this false concept that the possible disclosure of one security risk makes expendable traditional beliefs in justice and due process, or justifies the creation of so much discord within this nation that our ability to deal adequately with the real Kremlin threat is gravely impaired...
...The other witnesses called in open session either had never worked at Fort Monmouth or had not been employed there since World War II...
...Truman delivered two fine speeches which were free of rancor and yet had sound advice for Mr...
...Chekhov Books We have been meaning for some time to say a word about the Chekhov Publishing House, which has now entered its third year...
...It found morale extremely low, and McCarthy's inquiry "gravely damaging...
...Actually, a screening board has yet to pass judgment...
...If Mr...
...This modest enterprise is thus one of the most valuable of all the official, semi-official and private American efforts in the struggle against totalitarianism...
...During the week he celebrated his birthday, a week in which partisan criticism of the Administration reached a new high, Mr...
...Eisenhower followed this advice, he might yet insure a GOP victory in November...
...They provide for the Soviet reader who can obtain them a multitude of "forbidden" material: non-Communist poetry and fiction, the memoirs of Soviet refugees, pictures of life under democracy...
...This unique organization, established through the Ford Foundation, publishes old and new works in the Russian language in attractive paperback editions...
...Time and again, the Tennessee lawyer has praised McCarthy for his crusade against "subversives" at Monmouth, even going so far as to register shock at Secretary Stevens's mild-mannered suggestion that McCarthy had been less than honest in reporting the proceedings...
...The first concerned the powers of the Presidency, the second the role of the executive branch in orderly government...
...This first life came to an abrupt end when Secretary of the Army Stevens announced on November 13 that an investigation by his department had found "no signs of current espionage...
...McCarthy, sitting as a one-man investigating committee, emerged periodically to tell the nation that "this thing has all the earmarks of extremely dangerous espionage," or that links had been uncovered with the "Rosenberg spy ring...
...The Federation of American Scientists recently published a 66-page report on the impact on morale of the Senator's investigation...
...In contrast to the current employes, this group pleaded immunity against self-incrimination...
...Chekhov books serve two purposes...
...The next phase of the investigation's existence was the hastily-staged open hearings, at whichsignificantly only one current Monmouth employe was called to testify...
...We always thought the basic principle of democratic jurisprudence was: Better a hundred guilty men go free than one innocent man condemned...
...Those who have contributed to its success can draw satisfaction from the fact that their work gives real aid in the building of a democratic future...
...Jenkins seems to believe that the harm done to the defense establishment by McCarthy's punch-drunk "investigation" is worth it if this man should now be judged a security risk...
Vol. 37 • May 1954 • No. 20
