Editorial

...The Watkins Committee was the stone wall of decency and fair play which stopped one of the most reckless political drivers in our history...

...In recommending censure of McCarthy's treatment of General Zwicker, the committee in effect was seriously questioning his behavior toward many, many other witnesses, civilian as well as military...

...and certainly, when the Senate, either at the special session in November or at the regular session in January, acts to reform investigative procedures, the behavior of the Watkins Committee can serve as a model...

...For, while a small and influential band of die-hards will continue to regard any disapproval of McCarthy's behavior as the work of Communists, it will be hard to convince fair-minded Americans that Arthur V. Watkins, John Stennis and the other members of the committee--not to mention a majority of the Senate--are the dupes of subversive elements...

...indeed, McCarthy may not be able to muster twenty votes in his behalf...

...This is the most important conclusion to be drawn from the unanimous report of the Select Senate Committee to Study Charges of Censure, headed by Senator Arthur V. Watkins (R.-Utah...

...Perhaps equal in importance to the Watkins report is the manner in which the committee reached its conclusions...

...The Senate vote, like the Watkins report, will give badly-needed assurance to the friends of American democracy abroad of the basic health of constitutional government in the United States...

...Its hearings were swift, orderly, non-partisan and eminently fair...

...he did something about it...

...Although McCarthy has not been politically destroyed--he will not be until he leaves the Senate--the Watkins report is a memorable climax...

...One could only wish that somehow, six or seven years ago, the investigation of Communist activities had been entrusted to a committee of this sort...

...The democratic vitality of the type of conservatism he exemplifies is perhaps the most reassuring element in post-McCarthy America...

...Most of the 33 items are not legal issues, but they are all moral and political issues, and one can be sure they will be pressed further, if not by the Republican leadership or the Senate as a whole, then by individuals and the press...

...Many talked about McCarthy...

...McCarthy's followers will say it is a climax to "22 years of treason...

...It now appears probable that the special Senate session to convene on November 8 will adopt the Watkins report by an overwhelming and non-partisan vote...

...It is here that one must look for an understanding of McCarthy's methods, his relation to Communism, his offensive against liberalism, his reactions to criticism...

...The first of these counts, dealing with McCarthy's defiance of a Senate committee which was attempting to investigate his finances, opens the way for a re-examination of those finances in which McCarthy will be compelled to testify...

...The most provocative part of the Watkins report is the section enumerating the 33 categories of charges which the committee was unable to consider for one reason or another...

...While the committee did deal with the major counts appropriate to Senate self-discipline, the political essence of McCarthyism is contained in the 33 unexplored charges...

...To be sure, neither the Watkins report nor the coming Senate censure vote closes the McCarthy issue...

...And it is altogether fitting that that wall was hewn out of New England granite, for neither the report nor the hearings would have been possible were it not for the bed-rock moral stamina of the junior Senator from Vermont, Ralph E. Flanders...

...It is not too late, in our opinion, to entrust the remaining investigations of Communist activity to a single joint committee of this character...

...The sapping effect which confusion over U.S...

...Even if the Republicans win the election and McCarthy retains his committee chairmanship, the Senate censure vote will represent an implied threat, which will act as an effective curb on his antics in the future...

...The air of boredom which emanated from the proceedings--as contrasted with the "excitement" of the Mundt telecast last spring--testified to the sober, mature, judicial character of the inquiry...

...most Americans (as well as Europeans and Asians) will regard it as a climax to four years of dangerous demagoguery...

...The committee of three conservative Republicans and three conservative Democrats was unanimously critical of McCarthy's behavior in all five areas which it examined, and, after giving him the benefit of all reasonable doubt, recommended formal censure on two counts...

...Communists has had on sober consideration of the anti-Communist struggle abroad was caused primarily by the absence of such a committee of judicious men using judicial procedures...

...how much bitterness, confusion and partisan strife might have been avoided...