Milford chronicle., 1947-11-28

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pressed and throw the Muscovites
downstairs.
NAME-CALLING ONCE
HELD HARMLESS.
There are previous decisions
which seem to promise that the pa
triot will be made free to call man |
a Communist who plainly is and de-
liberately taunts good citizens to
say that he is.
In one case, Justice Frankfurter
wrote that it was harmless repartee
to say that a man was Fascist,
with malicious intent to damage his
reputation and destroy his business,
when there was absolutely no
ground for the charge.
Here, racket union had tried
to compel a pair Of industrious
GraecO-Americans, who had
little restaurant, to hire union
members to do work which they
did themselves. The union pick
eted the place with false state
ments that any customer who
patronized it was guilty Of pro-,
noting Fascism. That does
seem so silly that you might jus
tify the courts decision that the
remarks were just juvenile
pickering. But when you reflect
that teamster or a tailor might
be blackballed from coast to
coast for crossing picket line
and patronizing Fascists, you
think again. This union intended
these slogans to hurt.
1t did not follow that they were
harmless just because nobody
really believed them. In many other
cases, the boss vermin of the union
racket have placarded premises
with lies which the public knew to
be lies. And when 100, 900 customers
quit in fear of punishment as scabs,
the preposterous hurts as much as
the truth. Still the Supreme court
called these little white lies"
1T, CAME OUT, AT LAST.
, Recently. when the Thomas COM
mittee on un-American activities
took testimony on Communism in
| Hollywood, the general public heard
for the first time who the traitors
2 were who have been needing propa-
ganda into the films and blackball-
ing from the business many good
American. Incidentally, hope some
= way may be found to make some
s amend to Patterson McNutt, a first.
J. class movie writer who fought ir
! France in the first war and was
! driven out of Hollywood two years
> ago, sick and beaten after long
lone siege. Like the stiletto. thi:
t treacherous European weapor
# strikes unseen and makes no sound
: McNutt had fought the reptiliar
: sneaks of the guilds and he was
d whispered out at the top of hi
: ability while the Eislers and othel
Il migrate refugees rode in chaises
# This hearing Of the Thomas
committee gave the papers and
It the radio their first free oppor-
2 tunity to print names. 1t was the
d first time they had been men-
l. toned in sworn testimony. Even
when a citizen in formal public
n debate unguardedly calls his op-
- pOnent a Red, he may be finan-
20 - ciaIly crippled or destroyed by
- the American courts. The law
is yers for the Communists are
well paid. The money comes
from rich contributors in Holly
wood and New York and from
arbitrary assessments for ode
S fense funds" levied by Commu-
&c mist unions.
e Invariably. the Communists d.
y mand enormous judgments, and. a
l. most invariably. they are mischie
5. makers who would not lose face
v the circle of their friends becaus
le their friends are all the same. The
ID risk of financial loss and their pr
IS fessional handicap in private en-
r. ployment or government service
re theoretical and a verdict of six cen
le would be fair in any case. In M
os Nuts case, the damage was n
RS imaginary. They ruined him.