Speech #870014704

When Communist propaganda is linked to imminent illegal acts. then investigation is properthough the main defense against genuine acts of espionage or sabotage lies in professionally trained counterintelligence agents. in the FBI. and in the military services. From this fallacious. misleading. and provocative mandate springs a corollary disregard for fair legal procedures. In December 1956. after reviewing a tape recording of a HUAC hearing which sought to expose Communist backing of the drive against the McCarranWalter Immigration Act. the board of governors of the California State bar found the proceedings "of such a character as to pose a threat to the right to appear by counsel and to the proper independence of the bar." Attorneys representing witnesses before the committee were ejected for insisting on making objections for the record. Some were addressed by the committee as "comrade." The list of irresponsible accusations (many of which would be legally slanderous. except for congressional immunity) is endlessand could be easily avoided. Take the case of the doctor. publicly accused of being a member of a Denver Communist cell at a certain time in the past. who proved he was then studying medicine in the East. or the two students from New York and New Jersey identified as Communists by Pennsylvanias Democratic Representative FRANCIS E. WALTER. who forced WALTER to retract his accusation. although. of course. the retraction came after all the harm had been done. Such accusations caused a political atmosphere in America that Walter Lippmann keenly described: "There is a kind of smog In what should be the clean and open air of this free land. a smog that makes men nervous. makes them afraid to speak their minds. makes them not sure to dare to keep their minds open." So brazen has the committee been in its exposure drive that It has attempted to blunt the effectiveness of individuals and organizations who seek an end to restrictive legislation. The committee attempted to establish that the struggle against the McCarranWalter Immigration Act was prompted in large measure by Communists. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California commented in 1956: "We dont need public hearings to discover that a handful of Communists have seized upon our harsh and discriminatory immigration laws as a means of making political hay." Unfortunately. the ACLU said. investigation of these Communists opposing the immigration laws tars all the other people who oppose these laws with a "red" brushincluding even President Eisenhower. who wished to ameliorate some of the harsher provisions. The public often has been confused and led to believe. falsely. that many worthy. important. and even vital liberal and progressive movements. organizations. and individuals are genuinely suspect. The result has been incalculable harm to the orderly liberal development of the democratic process. so necessary to the maintenance of the free traditions of our democracy.