Evening star., 1950-04-04
The Political Mil
Lodge Offers New Ideo
On DisIoyoIty Probe
Asks 'Troined Commission
And Confidential Inquiries
The Political Mil


Asks 'Troined Commission
And Confidential Inquiries
By Gould Lincoln
Senator Lodge Of Massachusetts, Re-
publican member Of the Senate Foreign
Relations Subcommittee now investiga-
ting the Mccarthy charges against the
State Department. has come up with Q
new idea. He proposes the appointment
of . trained commission" bipartisan In
nature. to take over the Job of inquiring
into disloyalty chargeS-with entirely
confidential investiga ations instead Of the
wide-open congressional hearings now in
vogue.
He holds that better Job Of protecting
the country against subverSives and trail
tors can be accomplished. and at the
same time innocent persons would not
have their characters beSmirched. Also.
his plan would prevent damage to our
governmental institutions.
Mr.. Lodge put his finger upon an
obvious weakness Of the old system when
he pointed out that the Chief Executive
in this case President Truman-haS
declined to make available to the Senate
subcommittee the files containing the
security checks on Owen baltimore and
others whom Senator Mccarthy Of WIS.,
consin has charged with being Com
munists or fellow travellers" No way
has yet been devised whereby the Presi-
dent can be forced to give these files TO
the committee. Yet without the files .
full investigation may be an impoSsi-
bility.
Full Understanding Vital.
II q commission such as that suggested
by Mr. Lodge should be created to take
over the investigation of the Mccarthy
charges, obviously this situation would
not be remedied unless there was full
understanding that the files would be
available to the commission for inspec-
tion. without the flles. the commission
would be right back where the Senate
subcommittee now fnds itself.
Anyway, Mr.. Lodge has introduced .
resolution for the creation Of q COM
mission, composed Of IL members,
to be appointed by the President and
to be appointed by the Senate and by
the House. The membership would be
equally divided between the Democrats
and Republicans. Senator Taft Of Ohio,
chairman of the Republican Policy Com
mittee. while inclined to favor the COM
mission idea, is not ready at this point
to 60 along with Senator Lodges pro-
posal President Truman. in q position
to appoint 4 members Of the commits
sion. could easily dominate a majority
of the commission-and that Mr.. Taft
would strongly oppose. II there Is to
be q commission. 1t should be indepen-
dent and free Of political bias, with no
inclination for a whitewash OF any one.
The House has for years had its
Committee on Un-American Activities
originally the Dies Committee. 1t Is now
a standing committee Of the House.
Nothing Is more unlikely that the House
would agree to giving up this inquisit-
orial agency. which in the past has
turned up many subversives In this
country.
Stalemate Indefinite.
The stalemate. with President Truman
determined not to give to the Senate
Subcommittee the files 1t has demanded.
may continue indefinitely. II 1t does.
many Americans will remain suspicious
that the files contain matter which the
Administration seeks to cover up. In
deed. there is strong feeling in the
country that the Administration is moro
anxious to discredit Senator Mccarthy.
Republican, than 1t Is to uncover all
the facts regarding the charges Senator
Mccarthy has made.
The Wisconsin Senator so far has made
sing1e-handed night with the Admins
tration and some OF his Republican col
leagues hammering away at him. As
he has pointed out Senator Mccarthy
sought from the first to have the charges
investigated in executive sessions Of the
subcommittee and the demand for
bringing out in the open the names he
called Communists or fellow travellers was
made by the Democratic leadership-in
particular Senator Lucas Of Illinois. ma
jority leader Of the Senate He is now
ready to 60 along with the Lodge pro-
posal for a commission.
President Truman has entered the
fray. with a denunciation of Senators
Mccarthy, Wherry of Nebraska and
Bridges Of New Hampshire. all Republi-
cans. who. he claims, are assets of the
Kremlin. The American people, however.
are disinclined to swallow any more Tru-
man "red herrings." They know that the
Russian Communists have our secrets
among them the eA-bomb-and that these
secrets were stolen. They have followed
the Hiss case. and others. They want to
know about these latest charges
whether through a commission or q con-
gressional committee.