Speech #830244823

It appeared in their column Matter of Fact In the July 11. 1954. edition of the New York Herald Tribune: The employment of professional informers and witnesses by the American Government is such a novel practice that its full import. and even the fact of its novelty. are not widely understood. Yet any sharp departure from American tradition deserves to be studied and understood before it is accepted or rejected. as the case may be. Here. then. are the essential facts about this unprecedented group of public servants who are now to be found on the Justice Departments payroll under the classification of "consultants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service." These persons are. first of all. entirely different from the tipsters and undercover agents that the Customs. the FBI. and other police arms of the Government have employed from time immemorial. Their jobs are not the same. For the main job of these socalled consultants of the Immigration Service Is to appear as witnesses in court or other proceedings involving charges of communism or subversion. and by their testimony to win convictions for the Government. The distinction between the tipsters and undercover agents. whom we have always had with us. and the professional witnesses. who have now appeared among us. may seem rather finely drawn unless you think about it. But consider the personal position of this new breed of Government workers and the distinction will be plain enough.