◆ SpookStack

i “¥6tt may fool 1] the people some | Of the time," said Lincoln; “you can even foot some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the peo- ~ i ple all of the time.” Before the McCarthy crusade against the alleged Communists in the state de- partment ends, the spotlight will be bright upon who has been fooling whom 5 ali or port of the time. ‘ , The Joyalty files in the state depart- po front are an example. McCarthy says if a 4 could see them, the information there- in would convict a small army of state i i department employes of being Commu- < pe wists. F ‘“tust what are these files and «what - Edo say contain? In Washington at the annual meet- i ing of the American Society of News- paper Editors, one recent evening, the subject was communism in government. ‘The principal speaker was Senator Mc- ft Carthy. To listen to the Wisconsin sen- ; alur’s florid and impassioned eloquence was lo be impressed that he does not ifebclieve in the loyalty of many persons in the state department. _ But along toward the close of the eve- ning came an unscheduled speaker, ;Brig. Gen. Conrad’Snow. Gen. Snow is PChairman of the loyalty review board in the state department. He stated cate- : goricatly just what the supposedly sup- F pressed files consist of, His board, said Gen. Snow, has con- 3 ‘ducted about 240 formal inquiries into ‘the loyalty records of state department } pe The inquiries have the na- r ee the senate investigating committee vi az fture and formality of court sessions. The person who is the subject of in- jquiry has a right to defense and an at- LOYALTY FILES OREGON foot laa! PORTLANS, ce * les iy: to em nye Those Loyalty Files ; the president would release these files a NN Full stenographic records are kept of the proceedings together with all per- tinent data drawn from FBI and other sources. The evidence so far has shown two who had Communist affiliation. Five more resigned under fire. It was Gen. Snow’s formal deciara- tion that, had others been found guilty of consorting with the Communists, they would be out of the state depart- ment now. In other words, te produce for public scrutiny the records involv- ing those who were found loyal and who have been cleared would only smear them unjustly. * A parallel is being furnished at this - point by Senator. McCarthy himsclf.\ . Having undertaken to expose comm nism in the American government, a complains that he has himself been p on trial, and that just isn’t fair. Senator McCarthy has no more claim to consideration than those against whom he aims his shotgun charges. The simple point is that he doesn’t Q support his accusations with facts. In his speech before the newspaper editors he answered a question by saying bluntly that he does not intend to stand outside the umbrella of congressional immunity and expose himself to libel action. If there is communism in the state department or in any other department of the government, the increasing ten- sion between the United Stales and Russia makes it vitally important to root out the disloyal. No one can be a Communist and be a good American. But McCarthy, instead of building u a solid foundation of facts, blows up balioon of unsupported accusatiop, which is very likely to explode in his __ ae eo ; Sea g ie a cent ‘ - ona a Pare he . Sane? One oe Mw a