Communism, Peril or Red Herring, Brings Acrid Law Forum Exchange

American Communists got tagged everything from "genuine threat" and "conspiratorial cheats" to "a fake issue" last night at the Law School Forum's packed opener in Rindge Tech Auditorium.

Speaking before a many-sided and responsive audience to close to 1200, Wallace supporter O. John Rogge 11 times called the evening's discussion of the U. S. Communist question, "a typical smoke-screen for fascists, American style" while lawyer Morris Ernst 9 times hammered for completely aboveboard Communist Party operations.

Professor William Yandell Elliott, for his part, declared that "the hard core of disciplined Party members constitutes not free Americans, but, on the contrary, a plot controlled from Moscow."

Hot Crossfire

At several points in the question and answer period Moderator Paul A. Freund of the Law School Faculty had to break into locked-horns tussles between Elliott and Rogge. Ernst, in effect, disassociated himself from the Elliott approach but assaulted only Rogge's point of view.

"Im equally concerned with the Ku Klux Klan, Gerald L. K. Smith, and the Communist Party," Ernst declared at the outset. "I'm frankly opposed to stealth and secrecy, with or without nightshirts, in so far as they disturb the free marketplace of ideas in which Americans will make informed distinctions."

"Full Disclosure"

He demanded "full disclosure" of the finances and personnel of Communist Party activities. He specifically asked revocation of the anonymity-of-source privilege now granted not only in first class mailing of propaganda literature but also in non-profit-organization tax regulations.

Continually denying that it was a problem, Rogge did observe that "the American Communist Party isn't even a second-rate party, let alone a first-rate one. If it were, it wouldn't have had people like Bentley and Budens in its midst."