Evening star., 1941-09-19

Pearson,
author Of David Lawrence.
daily column which appears in
several hundred newspapers. Mr..
Pearson addresses his letter to
Senator D. Worth Clark of Idaho,
chairman of the subcommittee,
which as a part of its isolationlSt
campaign is challenging freedom
of expression in America. Says Mr..
Pearson under date of September
Is:
Dear Senator Clark: Thank you
for sending me so promptly the
transcript of your committee hear
ings which l have read with interest.
In them you infer that I have some
ulterior AK to grind in criticizing
the methods and procedure of your
committee, and I should like to
repeat what I told you last night,
that I am at all times available to
your committee should you care to
eross-eXamine me.
The only ak have to grind is the
very deep-rooted conviction that
your committee is chiseling away
at some of the great freedoms which
for $50 years have been granite
pillars to this democracy. Few
newspapermen have been greater
champions of Senate Investigations
or reported them more favorably
than Bob Allen and I. But in all
previous Investigations which I re-
call the Senate as a whole voted
10 hold or not to hold the inveStiga-
ton and the various committees
abided by the decision of the ma
jority.
Without a Senate Vote.
an this case, however. your sub
committee has proceeded without
any vote by the Senate as whole.
to subpoena witnesses in a way
tending TO censor if not terrorize
one of the great literary and dra-
matte industries of America. Your
tactics are comparable to subpoena
Ing Robert Sherwood and asking
him why he wrote the Pulitzer
Prize winners, Idiots Delight and
Abe Lincoln in Illinois; or why
ErSkine Caldwell wrote Tobacco
Road or why Col Robert McCor-
mick consistently writes editorials
demanding that the United States
remain aloof from Europe.
And now, not content with this
form of censorship, you also reach
out at the columnistS who are criti-
cal of your tactics.
you were gracious enough to say
over the telephone that you would
not think of calling me before your
committee, because, you added, I
knew my way around Washington.
You said you were going to call Billy
Wllkerson, publisher Of the Holly
wood Reporter and although you
didn't say it, your inference was that
he did not know his way around and
that you could make him loop the
loop and Suffer-for the uninitiated
the tortures of a Senate inquisition.
Now. in my opinion, those are
tactics which. if they get started in
this country are going to chisel
down the freedom of the press, the
freedom of the church, the freedom
OF the arts and all our other free
doms. I do not at all agree with Col.
Mccormick, but I would be the first
TO criticize Senate committee
which subpoenaed him and exam
lned the Chicago Tribune, its man
agement, its revenues, or its motives
in urging the United States to re-
main isolationist.
Era of Intolerance.
Furthermore, your tactics, in my
opinion, are going to harm not
merely our freedoms, but a body
which is an integral part of those
freedoms-the United States Senate.
These are days when legislative sys-
TENS the world over are under fire.
We, IN this country, are among the
few able to preserve them, and to
continue that preservation our Con-
gress must warrant our respect and
confidence. I shall always defend
your right to disagree with me. but
I do not defend your right to hold
an inquiSition without a majority
vote of the Senate.
ut seems to me, Senator, that you
and your colleagues must think not
for today, but for history The Sen
ate is far more important than in
dividual Senators. You are only
little pebbles, here for six years or
so; the stream flows on long after
you. And 1t must continue to flow
always with the confidence, the re-
spect, the pride of the American
people
Il repeat that I shall be happy to
appear before your committee at
any time"
The foregoing piece Of news is part
Of the all-important record of this
era of intolerance which gives prom
tse of weakening the very foundation
stone of democracy-freedom of ex-
preston. 1t is most unfortunate
that the isolationists by the coup
d 'etat in the Senate have seized con-
troll of committee of Congress and
have begun to use 1t for the fur
therance of their attacks on those
who disagree with them. The Nazis
started out the same way and there
Is nothing to do but inform the
American people leaving it to them
in their own way to deal with this
wave of intolerance as they have
dealt with similar waves in the past.
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