Evening star., 1947-04-19
Clark Keeping Pledge
Of No Witch Hunts
Attorney General Safeguards
Accused In Loyalty Probe
By Doris FIeeson

By Doris Fieeson
I Attorney General Tom Clark Is set
ting out to prove that when he promises
mo witch hunts" he means it.
Of his own motion he is devising
Anglo-Saxon safeguards around the
sweeping presidential order which en-
ables him to toss subversives out of the
Government. virtually at will
Boards OF Appeal, their members to
be drawn from the Circuit Courts and
empowered to give accused organiza-
tons full hearing, are high light Of
the tentative Clark bluepsint. They
are designed to substitute for the grand
jury. trial by jury and the right of
appeal to the courts which are the
ancient protectives so noticeably absent
from the loyalty order.
Circuit Judges Learned Hand of New
York, Harold Stephens of the District
OF Columbia and Orie Phillips of Den
Yer were named by the Attorney General
as the type Of esteemed iurists he hoped
to see serving on such boards, He will
offer them a free hand and make their
decisions his own, he said.
ALI Laws Have Faults.
The young Texan, an unknown ouan.
tlty when he entered the Truman cab
met, has been, quietly building himself
substantial reputation. He realizes his
present gift of power over civil liberties
In these emotional days Is hot potato.
He does not expect to escape criticism
in his delicate task of lancing the Com
nunist abscess without harming progres.
sive, adventurous thought.
But his drawled premise is: "Let 'em
cuss. No witch hunts. I'm no A. Mitch
ell Palmer"
All laws have their faults and de-
pend much on their administrators, the
Attorney General suggested Two points,
he thought, should be watched in the
loyalty order, one being the great power
he has under it to condemn whole organ
izations as subversive.
Mr.. Clark said he intended to set I'D
a yardstick for judging organizations,
then compile the most complete dos
siers possible on those considered sus-
pect. Yardstick information and accusa-
ton would then be handed his Boards
OF Appeal for their consideration to
accept reject or order hearings.
The second possible misuse of power,
Clark thought, was to be found in the
necessarily secret operations of the vari-
Gus intelligence outfits, FBI, Ga, ONI,
etc. He expressed confidence that they
would act conservatively.
Adequate Chain of Appeal.
He also pointed out that Government
departments had set up what he con-
sidered an adequate chain of appeal for
their accused employees, eliminating in
the Civil Service Commission.
In CHASING the old Palmer red-bait-
ing as precedent to avoid, Mr.. Clark
revealed that another one of his prede-
cessors had personally warned him not
to follow his example. Going to the
wall of his small workroom, he took
from it framed note which he said
arrived during the uproar over Ed
Pauleys nomination as Undersecretary
of the Navy. 1t read: -
FEB. l6, 49,
Dear Tom:
"At this critical point in your career
as the United States Attorney General
I would remind you of what happened
to me when was Attorney General and
Harding was President and Fall was
Secretary of the Interior.
Yours truly,
HARRY DAUGHERTY.
Remember Teapot Dome"
"once in a while" said the Attorney
General, "T find it handy just to take
that down and hand it to a caller. He
ALWAYS takes the hint"