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7 VA . ad aa ee cardae aa — -. “ . . — INQUISITION - So By TED O. THACKREY Editor and FP lisher | aa Miss Hellman’ S hinswer 5 > 7 | | Miss Lilla Hellman. the brilliant playwright, took a prin- Tele. Rm courageous and characteristically American stand! Hollomag . - pefore the House Un-American Activities Committee this! Gandy _- week. —_ In its hunt for Communists, ex-Communists, reputed Com- munists, might-as-Well-have-been Communists, the House ' Committee ts following a pattern for which the precedent was set Jong ago by the Spanish Inqdisition in its hunt for heretics. A premium is placed on denunciation of others. | A “friendly” witness Is the witness who will point the finger of accusation or suspicion at current or former friends or associates; the reward is release from further persecution. The Committee needs fresh names, no matter how ancient the association, no matter how remote the time or circum- stance. - The gocd American—according to the House Committee—is}| the informer and the conformist who is willing to confess. that associations once regarded as innocent must have been | evil if the Committee now says so, and that those associates must be denounced by name no matter how tenuous the association, how vague the memory. Miss Heliman responded to a summons from the Committee | “she Was among those denounced by a previous witness RS, - having attended a 1837 meeting at the home of Martin Berk- eley in Hollywood at a time when a “Hollywood Section” of the Communist Party was organized. The witness who de- nounced her was Martin Berkeley, who had in turn been! denounced by a previous informer. ~ ry ako _ =m a a ne i | ay Mise Hellman testified that she fs nei a member of the | . Communist Party. ; ’ She testified that she was net a member last year, or or the yeas before. ! ‘But she flatly refused to teatify concerning her associates er her associations previous to that time. — i “I am ready and willing,” she wrote the Committee in | advance of her testimony, “to testify before the representa- tives of our government as to my own opinions and my own actions regardless of any risks or consequences to myself. . I am not willing, new or in the future, te bring bed Timeg-Merald - trouble to people who in my past association with them - . Were completely innocent of any talk or action that was dis- - Wa sh. P loyal or subversive. I do not like subversion or disloyalty in © any form, and if I had ever seen any I would have considered it my duty to report if to the proper authorities. i Was “But to hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago, in order to save myself, is, to me, inhuman and Inde- eent and dishonorable. I cannot and wil! not cut my con- | science to fit this year’s fashions, even though I long ago : ‘came to the conclusion that I waz not « political person and eould have no comfortable place in any political eee | Wash. Scar —— N.Y. Mirror _—— N.Y. Compass _/O_ - a o * INDEXED - ge \VW0- 26760. b- __ e1aé 1952: eB oe Sut 2 1952 MAY 24 1959. }