Evening star., 1952-04-11
Senate Backs Probers
Of Mccarthy, Gives
Them Benton Case

The Senate Rules Committee
had the Senate's approval today
to complete its investigation of
Senator Mccarthy, Republican. of
Wisconsin, and to decide whether
1t should start separate investi-
CATION of Senator Benton, Demo-
crat. Of Connecticut.
Senator Monroney, Democrat,
OF Oklahoma. a member of the
Rules Committee. said today the
committee should handle Senator
McCarthy'S resolution of yester-
day, making a variety of charges
against Senator Benton, exactly
as it handled the original Benton
resolution against Senator Nc
Carthy.
BY vote of 60 to 0, the Senate
late yesterday refused to dis
charge the Rules group from fur
ther consideration of the Benton
resolution, which seeks to deter
mine whether Senator Mccarthy
should be ousted from the Senate.
The Rules Committee asked the
Senate to take this action as a
vote Of confidence in the way it
has handled the Mccarthy inquiry
Mccarthy Counter attacks.
In order to get a vote of vindi-
cation, the Rules Committee asked
to be discharged from further
handling of the matter and then
opposed its own motion.
During four hours of debate
Senators disagreed over whether
they were passing on the merits
of the controversy between Sen
ator Mccarthy and the commit
tie, or merely instructing the
committee to complete the inves-
tigation.
When the issue reached the
Senate floor yesterday, Senator
Mccarthy countered by introduc-
ing his resolution for an investi-
cation of Senator Benton, and had
1t referred to the same committee.
He also announced that he, too,
would oppose taking the Mccarthy
investigation away from the Rules
Committee because, since it had
already investigated him, he
wanted the same rules to apply
to the investigation of any other
Senator. This resulted in the
unanimous vote.
Senator Benton took the floor
late yesterday to reply to the Nc
Carthy charges against him by
declaring that IF I had anything
on my conscience involving con-
f1ict between my private and pub
lie life. I would have gotten out of
this situation long ago."
The Connecticut Senator also
charged that. for months, he has
been subjected to threats and per-
Sonal intimidation through the
medium of anonymous telephone
calls.
Sharp Attack by Senator Smith:
One of the sha1pest attacks
made on Senator Mccarthy
came from the Senate's lone
woman member, Mrs. Mar
garet Chase Smith, Republican, of
Maine. Size was a member of the
Elections Subcommittee when the
Mccarthy investigation was start
ed but has since moved to another
subcommittee.
She singled out the letter Sen
ator Mccarthy wrote to Subcom-
mittee Chairman Gillette, Demo-
crat, Of Iowa, on December 6, in
which the Wisconsin Senator
charged the subcommittee spent
items of thousands Of taxpayers
dollars" digging up campaign ma
terial against him.
Senator Mccarthy also charged
In that letter that, in so doing,
the subcommittee was guilty of
stealing just as clearly as though
the members engaged in picking
the pockets of the taxpayers and
turning the loot over to the Demo-
cratic National Committee"
Mrs. Smith said Senator Nc.
Carthy had made false accusa-
tions and did not have the courage
to back them up.
Some Puzzled by Maneuver.
Senator Hickenlooper, Repub-
lican, of Iowa said he could not
accept Mrs. Smiths interpreta-
ton of what the Senate vote
meant. The Iowa Republican saio
he was voting with the committee
because he thinks it Ought tc
go ahead and saw wood and gel
its work DONE"
AZ Ra