What Can a Person Do?
Rubin, Morris H.
Two courageous citizens who stood up for their rights won out against witch-hunting What Can a Person Do? MORRIS H. RUBIN In a leaderless country sunk in despair and frustration in the midst...
...It has a special meaning for us in our time, for it demonstrates how a small group of people committed to a cause in which they deeply believe can multiply their numbers and fight effectively not only for the preservation of their rights* but for basic reform of the institutions and procedures which govern us so miserably today...
...He would not answer, he declared, because he did not think HUAC had any right to ask him questions...
...Jeremiah Stamler, and a heroine, Yolanda Hall...
...I love the "good things" about our country, and our world...
...Legal Aid Fund had a membership of some 3,000...
...What kind of nut is this doctor, you would be asking yourself...
...Stamler and Mrs...
...Oh, yes, we also found a cancer in the bowel that is rapidly metastasizing and calls for immediate radical surgery...
...What does it matter how splendid my spleen is, or how normal my gall bladder, when a malignancy threatens to kill me soon...
...SYDNEY J. HARRIS (Mr...
...But this is exactly the kind of request I often get from readers, who ask me to "say something good" about what's happening in the country, or in the world, and stop emphasizing what they call "the negative...
...Harris is a featured columnist of The Chicago Daily News...
...rather he was talking symbolically of all bodies that might embark on the same kind of witch-hunting that characterized HUAC and its successor...
...One essential thing that is wrong can kill us, and the dozen other things that are right won't help...
...Otherwise, you're in terrific shape...
...Almost nine years ago, Dr...
...The courage and tenacity of the accused to stand up and fight for their rights is only part of the story...
...The U.S...
...In a statement following the end of their long and costly struggle, Dr...
...Their lawyers advised them that "the significant victory and legal precedents this case had already yielded, coupled with the Government's voluntary withdrawal of the criminal charges, was solid and meaningful accomplishment which, weighed against the prospect of more years of litigation on side issues, convinced us that the litigation should end now...
...I have a story that supplies an answer to the question...
...Your skin is unblemished, your spine uncurved, and your neurological system is first-rate...
...Liver is normal, gall bladder excellent, and the urinary tract is healthy...
...This strikes me as a foolish, dangerous, and treacherous attitude...
...He suggests that if I wrote more about the good things "this would alleviate some of the pain in the bad things which have been happening to us recently...
...The Stamler-Hall episode strikes me as pregnant with profound significance for patriotic Americans...
...Hall rightly noted: "Perhaps the most important conclusion from our long legal effort is that citizens shouldn't be afraid to protect their rights...
...Also, your heart is strong, your lungs powerful, and your spleen is a thing of medical beauty...
...Criminal indictments, instigated by HUAC, were then lodged against Dr...
...Hall were summoned to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee to determine if they were "subversive" under the Committee's flexible formula...
...The courts will conduct these examinations in a civil case brought by a subpoenaed witness, rather than (as had previously been true) in the abrasive, chilling, and limiting criminal contempt action instigated by a committee against a witness...
...He asserted further that his refusal to testify was not prompted by fear of any question, but by his conviction that HUAC had no right to override his rights as a citizen of the United States...
...What can a person do...
...And, of course, you would be perfectly right...
...Stamler is one of the nation's foremost heart researchers, and is widely regarded as having contributed significantly to the treatment of cardiac diseases...
...Hall have provided us with at least a piece of the answer...
...Stamler and Mrs...
...MORRIS H. RUBIN In a leaderless country sunk in despair and frustration in the midst of the most agonizing constitutional crisis of our lifetime, countless Americans hunger for evidence that at least some of their institutions are still viable, that there is a spark of decency and a measure of foresight in at least a few of the officials who govern us, that there may be a glimmer of hope that by moving boldly and progressively we may yet be able to build, on the ruins of our collapsing society, something worth living in and worth living for...
...Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently confirmed the legitimacy of the questions raised by Dr...
...When asked if he, like many other witnesses of the time, was taking "the refuge of the Fifth Amendment," he responded, "No, I do not...
...Stamler and Mrs...
...Stamler said he did not intend his statement to specify the Committee alone...
...Among the precedents were these: % At the behest of a citizen in a civil case, the courts will examine the legality of Congressional committees which operate in areas affecting First Amendment rights...
...In past years, people whom the Un-American Committee summoned became stigmatized, often lost their chance to work, or even landed in jail . . . We trust others will continue—as we will —to resist the Committee, relying on building on these precedents and accomplishments, and we will be glad to be a part of an old, continuing, and respected tradition in our country, of citizens defending democratic rights...
...Two courageous citizens who stood up for their rights won out against witch-hunting What Can a Person Do...
...During HUAC's tumultuous three-day hearings in Chicago in May 1965, Mrs...
...The commentator's greatest value, like the doctor's, is to warn, not to praise...
...There ensued eight and one-half years of bitter, hard-fought litigation...
...When I talked with him recently, Dr...
...Stamler refused to answer any questions...
...When Dr...
...A typical letter of this sort arrived this morning from Miami, in which the correspondent wondered whether I'm "just the type of person who would rather look for the bad instead of the good things in life...
...And the only way I know to keep them is by alerting us to the cancers that threaten to take them away from us, and us from them...
...for if you relieve the symptoms of pain while the disease continues to progress, you are conspiring in mortality...
...As for "alleviating some of the pain," thte is the worst treatment one could recommend...
...My story has a hero, Dr...
...Stamler and Mrs...
...Last December, the Government agreed to dismiss the criminal charges against Dr...
...LOOKING FOR THE BAD Suppose you visited a doctor for a complete checkup, and you then received a full report from him that went something like this: 'Tm pleased to be able to tell you that your eyes, ears, nose, and throat are fine...
...These legal victories have served significantly to restrain HUAG and its successor, the House Committee on Internal Security—which now seems, happily, to be headed for the dustbin of history...
...In a few months, the Jeremiah Stamler M.D...
...Hall concurred in that advice...
...Pain is the activator that makes us do something about the ailment, which we otherwise would be content to ignore until it was too late...
...Hall provided they agreed, in turn, to drop further litigation of their civil action...
...Their number shortly grew to ten...
...Stamler and Mrs...
...f The courts will look at whether, over the years, a Congressional committee has abused its powers, mistreated witnesses, and violated fundamental rights...
...Stamler first decided to make his fight, he had two friends who volunteered to support his cause...
...Stamler and Mrs...
...among them were some of the nation's foremost physicians, scientists, and civil libertarians, including the late, celebrated Dr...
...From the beginning, Stamler not only defended himself against the criminal charges, but also pressed civil suits which challenged the constitutionality of the Committee's deeds over a twenty-year period, including its actions in the 1965 Chicago hearings...
...Hall, a nutritionist, is a member of his research team...
...Hall refused to answer the Committee's questions regarding Communist front activities of nearly a decade earlier...
...as much as the foregoing doctor's report would be...
...What we need to know is not what is right with us—such things are usually evident— but what is wrong...
...Hall for alleged contempt of Congress...
...Most of all, the true patriots yearn to break out of the straitjacket of helplessness and hopelessness that so often these days brings the cry, "What can a person do...
...Stamler and his counsel, and in the process established valuable precedents for use by others who might in the future challenge governmental excesses...
...Paul Dudley White of Harvard...
Vol. 38 • April 1974 • No. 4
