The Big Secret

"The Harvard Liberal Union endorses for Governor Paul A. Dever for his efforts to further public power, his advocacy of a graduated income tax, his enlightened legislative program..." HLU Advertisement, Nov. 7, 1950

The HLU endorsed Governor Dever for re-election last year on the assumption that he was an outstanding liberal. Last Saturday the Governor proved the HLU wrong. He not only signed the Communist control bill within ten hours of its passage by the Legislature--an act that the bill's opponents call unprecedented for its haste--but he did so under such a cloak of secrecy that it looked as if he were ashamed of his own action.

The HLU's president, Walter Carrington, had scheduled an appointment with the Governor to present a petition with the signatures of 1,000 students opposed to the bill. Last Monday the interview was refused.

Why? Because the Governor had secretly signed the bill already.

Dever had also requested the local chapter of a national organization to write up a veto message on this bill. But when the people who were working on this message called the Governor's Office to check up on a small point, they were told that the Governor had signed the bill the day before. They found that Dever had gone to Cape Cod for a vacation and that he could not be reached. As yet there has been no official announcement either.

This secrecy seems to indicate that the Governor signed because of political pressure from the highly vocal and active proponents of this bill. After all, gubernatorial and senatorial elections are within a year's time and Dever will surely run for one of those positions.

Some people claim that it was clever strategy to pass this bill. They say that it will involve so much litigation to convict a person of belonging to "any group adjudged subversive by the attorney general" that convicting anyone not a genuine subversive would be next to impossible. This apology ignores the fact that the litigation is harmful in itself. Many liberals may be brought before the courts under this bill, and although none of them are Communists, they will suffer almost as much from the bad publicity as the convicted man will suffer from the $1000 fine and three years in jail. According to a state official, several undergraduate groups would have to go through this ordeal by publicity if the attorney general interpreted the bill "literally." Under the current College rules for undergraduate organizations, publicity of this type, involving the good-name-of-Harvard as it would, probably would lead to the disbandment of the group in question, whether its members were convicted or not.

Others claim that one must be prepared for compromises if progressive government is to continue. But if there is anything upon which principles should not be compromised, it is this Communist control bill. Far better to release the Blanchard report without delay, or to compromise on nominations for judicial positions than to hedge on the issue that the Governor chose to hedge on. No matter what apologists may say, Governor Dever has gone back on the many people who considered him truly liberal--and what is worse he knows it.