Hitting Bottom

In the carnival of Congressional election year investigations Senator Pat McCarran's "Internal Security" subcommittee side-show barely held its own. The subject of its investigation, subversive influences on our post-war China policy, was neither original or even currently relevant. So Committee-members wiled away their time listening to the personal opinions of such stale talent as professional ex-Communist Louis Budeaz. Last week however the show nose-dived to the level of a disgusting spectacle.

The change came when Johns Hopkins Professor Owen Lattimore took the stand to refute charges of his affinity with Communism. Actually Lattimore had been absolved of most of these same accusations by the Tydings Committee, two years ago, but this time he brought a fifty page point-by-point refutation statement with him. From the opening hearing Committee members peppered Lattimore with a series of disjointed questions, they refused him the right to qualify statements or even to give personal opinions; Chairman McCarran struck cogent remarks from the record with an air of irresponsible abandon. In three and a half hours, Lattimore was able to read only four and a half paragraphs of his statement.

Unfortunately Lattimore himself made matters worse by slamming the Committee and several Senators with a load of insidious verbal brickbats. His prosecutors retaliated with a storm of "guilt by association" charges, reflecting their prejudgment of the case and precluding any chance of a fair or even an orderly hearing.

This won't bother the Committee's chairman though; according to his informal remarks he had made up his mind several weeks ago. And when his group winds the investigation up in future weeks it will conclude on the same prejudgements that have governed its hearings. At that time perhaps the committee will give some accounting of the reputations, work-days, and dollars that have been poured down the McCarran rathole.