Uncle Joe at Home

The honorable junior senator from Wisconsin has shot off his mouth again. Senator Joseph McCarthy has taken four of the Congressional Record's tightly-spaced pages to charge that the ranks of American science have infiltrated by the nation's "Communist enemies." And, since anything in the Record is covered by Congressional immunity, none of the scientists McCarthy mentions as supporters of "Stalin's fifth column" can gain redress.

This type of attack is nothing new for the country. Nor are the Senator's methods new. After claiming that his victim is a member of a group classified as "subversive" by the attorney general, the Senator reasons that this person is obviously a supporter of the nation's enemies and should be dealt with as such.

It is naive to suppose that merely pointing out the fallacies in his approach will stop McCarthy. He must realize that the attorney general's classification is completely arbitrary, that the groups listed have no recourse to courts of law to clear themselves if they are innocent of subversion. He must also know that in this country mere membership in an organization can never be interpreted as meaning full support of all the organization stands for.

Pointing out that these charges of treason--for that is what the Senator's charges amount to--are false will not stop a McCarthy. To shut him up, the nation must first put an end to the hysteria that has produced him. It must dam up the stream of unreasoning fear and worry which is now lapping at the base of so many minds. This is the fear that has found its expression in the silencing of teachers and television stars, of writers and speakers. It is the fear that censors a Lattimore and lets a McCarthy orate at will.

We must not, of course, underestimate out enemies' capacity to destroy us. but neither can we underestimate out own capacity for tearing down the things for which we are fighting. And the honorable junior senator from Wisconsin is showing how great that capacity is.