The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-03-23
By NATHAN ROBERTSON

Washington LPA)-lne Oefdte
lCommittee investigating Senator
Joseph McCarthy's charges of COM
munists in the State Department
gave the Wisconsin Republican all
the rope he asked to string up the
"reds." He ended by hanging him
self with his own rope.
McCarthy's case against the 200
communists in the State Depart
ment (beg pardon, Senator, it
should be 81; oh, no, now it's 81
collapsed before it got to the jury
Mar. 13. Mccarthy ended up with
only four cases-all so thin that
the klieg lights went off, the news
paper correspondents laughed and
then walked out, and even the spec
tators who had packed the big Sen
ate Caucus Room departed.
1t had been expected to be a, big
day. The famous hearing room in
which a midget once sat on j. L.
Morgan's lap was jammed. Most of
the top flight newspapermen were
on hand, and the committee table
was surrounded not only by mem
bers of the investigating committee
but by other interested Senators.
Mccarthy and his journalistic
stooges had complained that the
week before the committee lin it's
effort to protect the names of in
nocent victims) had questioned
Mccarthy too much-and had in
terfered with the presentation OF
his cease. SO the committee had
arranged in advance to give Nc
Carthy the whole day, without in
terruption. This was a courtesy
rarely extended by Congressional
investigating committees.
McCarthy's critics were afraid
he had been given too much leeway
that he would manage to smear
the names of many good Ameri-
cans without even having the phon-
lest evidence challenged. But they
had given the Wisconsin demago-
que too much credit All he sue
ceeded in smearing was Senator
Joseph Mccarthy. For those veter-
an correspondents who remember
ed the able performances of former
Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Nc
Carthy's predecessor, it was sad
day.
The week before Mccarthy had
got off to a bad start by naming
as his first big communist Judge
Dorothy Kenyon, of New York, who
served 62 years as patriotic Am
erican and was too we'll known to
be seriously smeared. But this time
he had promised something really
big, something sensational.
Instead, Mccarthy started off
with a name no one had ever heard
of-Naldore' Hanson, executive dir
ector Of the Secretariat Of the In
ter-Department Co m IN t ee on
Scientific and Cultural Cooperation
in the State Department-what-
ever that means. The Senator ad-
mitted this was not one of the 200,
or the 81, or the 81 cases he had
started off with. This was a new
conner, inserted apparently because
the evidence was so startling.
BY the time Mccarthy had fin
ished his ease" against Hanson
the newspapermen were laughing
at him. Hanson was one Of those
the Dies committee had tried un-
successfully to smear in the House
years ago and the most damaging
evidence against him seemed to be
that he had once written for a
edited by someone Me
Carthy said was a communist and
was once correspondent for an
American newspaper covering the
Chinese Communists with whom heI
had been friendly. He also had
once written a book in which hel
said some. things with which Me
Carthy did not agree.
Mccarthy asked to have this
5C0-page book made a part of thel
hearing record, but Chairman Tyd-
ings Cd, Md disscnted until hel
saw more dangerous material than
had managed to quote.
Next, Mccarthy presented the
ease" of Esther Cauklin Brunauer,
assistant director of policy liaison,
UNESCO Relations staff, State
Department, whom he called a
dangerous case that should be i'm
vestigated by the committee at
once because not only she, hut alsoI
her husband-now in the Navy
were communists. /