Editorial
EDITORIAL Outlawing the CP A sober look—and Washington seems to be short on sobriety this election year—at the sudden Congressional move to outlaw the Communist party reveals the utter futility of...
...Tired of having their party unjustly accused of "treason," several minority members drew up a plan to steal the ball from the COP...
...Quite obviously, the Senators on both sides of the aisle were more interested in scoring a victory that would impress the voters in November than in enacting intelligent legislation...
...As this is being written, the Senate has just reaffirmed its original stand and the House has fallen in line...
...As J. Edgar Hoover and Brownell so rightly insist, more harm than good will come from the present move...
...Attlee in Peking Marco Polo's thirteenth-century journey to fabled Cathay opened up profitable trade channels and a hitherto unknown culture to the Western world...
...Indeed, it seems that the legislators could have accomplished much more in this struggle if they had devoted their energies to developing a concrete, positive program against Communist advances abroad...
...introduced a bill providing that, whenever the Attorney General "has reason to believe" a union is "Communist-infiltrated,'' he can file a petition with the Subversive Activities Control Board for a determination to that effect...
...But the even greater tragedy in this sudden burst of activity is to be found in its motivation...
...The Communists have always worked most efficiently through front organizations, and a law that officially destroys the party is virtually meaningless...
...A glance at recent newspaper headlines should convince anyone that the Geneva Conference did not end Communism's drive for Asian conquest, that diplomacy, to Moscow and Peking, is merely war conducted by other means...
...This made the Butler bill more palatable and moved the Democrats to action...
...The Republicans were caught sound asleep and the scramble was on...
...Fresh from playing host to Chou En-lai, Indian Prime Minister Nehru finds the West's efforts to shore up what remains of Southeast Asia "provocative'' and warlike: while a Soviet "good will" flotilla is enthusiastically greeted in Sweden...
...Then the House, after consulting with President Eisenhower and Attorney General Brow-nell, played the role of lion-tamer by producing a bill that would merely outlaw the party...
...The current Attlee-Bevan visit to the Great Red Khan, which has taken a more northerly route by way of Moscow, can have only one result: to reinforce fast-gathering Western European illusions about the intentions of the Communist rulers...
...Vneurin Bevan's readiness to lend himself to the purposes of the Communist quick-change artists should come as no surprise...
...Agreement still has to be reached on a final version of the bill, but one thing is certain: This frenzied attempt to make partisan capital out of anti-Communism will produce no victories for democracy...
...The contest began when Senator Butler (R.-Md...
...the magic phrase "peaceful coexistence" serves to conjure away grim realities...
...his attitude toward the "Chinese Revolution" has been reminiscent all along of the prevalent "progressive" approach to Bolshevism circa 1919...
...The latter passed 385 to 2. It is a sad commentary on our Congressmen and Senators that so many of them supported this naive tactic in the fight against Communism...
...In China's Yunnan Province adjoining Thailand, a "Free Thai" movement is openly calling for overthrow of the government in Bangkok...
...With Moscow and Peking daily discovering new and unsuspected fraternal links with the "peace-loving" peoples of Western Europe...
...Then, with Senator Humphrey (D.-Minn...
...EDITORIAL Outlawing the CP A sober look—and Washington seems to be short on sobriety this election year—at the sudden Congressional move to outlaw the Communist party reveals the utter futility of this approach...
...Yet, all too many people in Europe and Asia refuse to read the portents...
...During a chaotic three-ring-circus session, the Senate voted 85-0 to deprive the CP of its legal status and make membership in the organization punishable by fines up to $10,000 and prison terms up to five years...
...America's refusal to hail the new golden age seems downright churlish...
...The major labor unions opposed this vigorously, and Senator Ives (R.-N.Y...
...finally offered an amendment which made the bill inapplicable to unions affiliated with national federations whose policies and activities fought Communism, such as the AFL or CIO...
...If anyone doubts this, he need only look at the situation in Canada, where the CP was outlawed during World War II...
...Attlee should help further the delusion that the Communist leopard has changed his spots, that Geneva has miraculously ushered in the "peace in our time which eluded Chamberlain at Munich, and that an East-West exchange of pretty pleasantries is more to be desired than free-world solidarity against totalitarian expansion...
...calling the signals, the "outlaw" bill was offered as a substitute for the Butler measure (which was later lumped together with it...
...Certainly anyone aware of the CP's history must know that this type of legislation is perhaps the least effective weapon that can be employed against it...
...today it is functioning under the label of Labor Progressive party...
...What shocking is that British Labor's vigorously anti-Communist leader...
...Before surrendering their South Vietnam enclave under the armistice agreement, the Vietminh systematically murdered local anti-Communists and planted agents to foment civilian outbreaks against the shaky post-armistice regime...
Vol. 37 • August 1954 • No. 34
