The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-04-06
By ALvAINE HAMILTON

washington LIZA D-F dCeu WIFI
a libel suit by the man he'd labeled
as the stop Russian spy in the
State Dept" and demand that he
retract, Sen. Joseph Mccarthy OR,
Wis., is fighting hard to extricate
himself from his web of accusations
of Communist infiltration of the
department now under investiga-
tion by a Senate Foreign Relations
subcommittee. Two additional Nc
Carthy targets, Esther Caukin
Brunauer and Naldore Hanson both
department employees, appeared be-
fore the subcommittee to deny the
accusations, and make impressive
Recommendation of their loyalty.
In addition Chairman Millard
Tyding Cd, Md announced that
the committee had agreed to re-
ceive written questions from "any
person" bearing on the Communist
charges, and to permit those ac-
cused by Mccarthy to ask questions
by submitting them in writing to
members of the subcommittee.
Some days after Sen. Mccarthy
had revealed the name of his "top
Soviet spy in the State Dept" to
the subcommittee and "off the re-
cord" to reporters, several radio
commentators and newspaper writ
ers finally let the public in on the
big secret-that the big "spy" was
none other than Owen baltimore,
now a professor at Johns Hopkins
University, and at present in
Afghanistan on a United Nations
Mission. baltimore was State
Dept adviser for four months five
years ago, but has not been on the
department payroll since then.
Mrs. baltimore announced that
she had retained the law firm of
three prominent anti-Communist
liberals - Paul Porter, one-time
OPA administrator, Abe Fortas,
former under-secretary of the In
terror Dept, and Thurman Arnold,
former assistant Attorney General
Ito defend her husbands reputa-
tion. They wrote Mccarthy term
ing the charges a colossal lie,
called on him to withdraw them,
and warned that in any case this
wouldn't free him from a possible
libel suit when baltimore returns
to the US.
In addition, talk that charges of
improper conduct might be made
in the Senate against the gyrating
Mccarthy began to receive wide
currency in the Capitol. So far,
Mccarthy, despite early protesta
tions that he'd repeat any Of his
direct accusations of individuals off
the Senate floor, where they
wouldn't be libel-proof, hasn't
made one such charge.
Citing precedents dating back to
George Washington's day, Attor-
ney-general J. Howard McGrath
and FBI Chief j. Edgar Hoover
appeared March 27 to explain why
they left to President Truman any
decision on making available the
"raw" files of the FBI cases of
suspected subversives. Most telling
point was made by McGrath, when
he said that SO per cent of the cases
in which firm evidence of illegal
action is found are turned over to
the proper law-enforcement agency
for prosecution. The other two per
cent are cases where the FBl is
seeking a ring" and they string
along with the suspect to find his
accomplices. Neither the Senators
nor the Justice Dept officials said
directly that this proved Lattimore
innocent, but the strong impression
was left that the FBI didn't con
slider it had any type of Spy" case
against him, as Mccarthy has in
sisted the files would reveal.
On both sides of the aisle, lead
ing Senators hailed a Letter to the
New York Times from former Sec
retary of State Henry Stimson,
charging that the Mccarthy accus-
ations are not aimed at ridding the
State Dept of Communists, but "to
cast discredit upon the Secretary
of State" Stimson, a member of
the William Howard Taft, Hoover,
and Franklin ID. Roosevelt cabinets