Why They Joined
Schlesinger, A Jr.
Why They Joined Report on the American Communist, by Morris L. Ernst and David Loth. Holt. 240 pp. $3. Reviewed by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. ALL AMERICANS seem to regard themselves as experts...
...Certainly their cases appear to be drawn overwhelmingly from native American stock and from the middle and professional class...
...with which the book concludes...
...At times there would be more rejoicing in [Communist] headquarters over the recruiting of one common laborer than over ten Ph...
...they go on to say, "is native-born...
...They are probably right, but it would be good to have more evidence on that point before generalizations based on their samples can be safely extended to the whole American party...
...they contend, is to make it harder rather than easier for Communists to leave the party...
...Too many Americans are currently addicted to the witch-doctor approach to the Communist disease— that is, wild fulminations from painted men in grotesque masks shouting and beating their breasts while the disease runs on unchecked...
...In their sensible discussion of how to fight Communism at home, the authors call for disclosure rather than suppression, for the preservation of civil freedom and the continuation of social progress, and for reliance on law and not on vigilant-ism...
...From the viewpoint of rigorous analysis, the sample employed in the book raises questions...
...Yet...
...Pointing out that the CPUSA has always had an annual turnover of one-third to one-half of its total membership, the authors argue that an intelligent anti-Communist policy would concentrate on speeding voluntary withdrawal from the party and on disillusioning the susceptible before rather than after conversion...
...is widely accepted now as a great national authority...
...But "the great majority of the rank-and-file membership...
...By careful interrogation and patient research, they have sought to establish the fundamental facts about the kind of people who join the party, their nationality, their personal history, their economic background, their education, their psychological profiles, and their reasons for quitting...
...But the effect of too many of our current policies, like the McCarran Act...
...This whole program is predicated on the theory that it is more desirable to salvage than to smash a Communist...
...Questions of method do not affect, however, the wisdom of the "New Program to Defeat the Communist Party in the U.S.A...
...Yet they would concede that the continued existence of poverty and of exploitation provides a focus for the bourgeois sense of guilt and thus makes the sons and daughters of the middle class especially vulnerable to the Communist appeal...
...The cumulative effect is to build a persuasive picture of the variety of human motives which have led weak and confused people to enter the totalitarian church...
...It should do much to assist our lawmakers (if they would only read it) in developing constructive and efficacious programs to meet the Communist evil...
...Most American Communists, according to their findings, come from homes of comfort and even of luxury, from the middle class rather than from the working class...
...They have tried to find out what the American Communist is like, not in nightmare, but in actuality...
...In the midst of the ignorance and the dogmatism, Morris Ernst and David Loth have done a bold and ingenious thing...
...The authors themselves write that, as to whether our subjects are "completely typical of all Communists, or former Communists, we do not presume to say...
...Ernst and Loth themselves cite an FBI study of the party leadership which shows that, of 5.395 Communist leaders, 91.5 per cent were either of foreign birth, married to persons of foreign birth or born of foreign parents, and that only 8.6 per cent were of native stock with native spouses...
...Much of it is told in their own language and, as a result, the tales of conversion and disillusionment have the vividness of autobiographical narrative...
...Within this context, they recommend positive action to deprive the party of members...
...Report on the American Communist represents the approach of the medical diagnostician, who is less concerned with exhibiting his disapproval of the disease than he is with finding a cure...
...The result is a readable and discerning account of why Americans have succumbed to Communism, told with authority and compassion...
...Thus the junior Senator from Wisconsin, who seemed hardly to have heard of Communism till 1950...
...They doubt whether poverty or the class struggle, at least in this country, have been important direct motives...
...The book is based mainly on the case histories of about 300 former Communists...
...The authors make clear that there is no single explanation, though most cases show a sense of personal inadequacy and a craving for submission and authority...
...ALL AMERICANS seem to regard themselves as experts on Communism today- -and, all too often, the greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism...
Vol. 17 • February 1953 • No. 2
