Evening star., 1953-11-25
The Trouble With Inpromptu Talk

The Federal loyalty program must have
been far from President Eisenhower's mind
when he discourSed here the other night on
wild Bill" Hickok and the "code" of Abilene
Kansas. Seldom has there been a better ex-
ample of the perils inherent in off-the-cuff
speeches by people in high places.
Addressing the Bnai Birth Anti-Defama-
ton League, the President said this: II was
raised in -. Abilene We had as our marshal
for long time man named Wild Bill Hickok
If you don't know anything about him, read
your Westerns more. Now that town had
code, and / was raised as boy to prize that
code. 1t was: Meet any one face to face with
whom you disagree. You could not sneak up
on him from behind or do any damage to him
without suffering the penalty of an outraged
citizenry. If you met him face to face, you
could get away with almost anything as long
as the bullet was in front"
Enlarging upon this theme-a kind of
parable that is subject, like most parallels, to
the risks of miSnterpretation- President
went on to say: "And today :. . you live after
all by that same code :. In this country, if
some one diSlikeS you or accuses you, he must
come up in front, he cannot hide behind the
shadow, he cannot aSSaSSinate you or your
character from behind, without suffering the
penalties an outraged citizenry will impose
IT we are going to continue to be proud that we
are Americans, there must be no weakening of
the code by which we have lived-of the right
to meet your accuser face to face :"
The most striking thing about these re-
marks, of course, wholly apart from their
nostalgia reference to old Abilenes fair-and-
square shooting methods is that they seem to
argue powerfully against the loyalty program
being carried out under President Eisenhower
himself in an effort to eliminate security risks
from Government employment. For one of the
basic features of that program is that the ac-
cused very definitely does not have the right
to meet his accuser face to face. Instead, as
Federal worker, he is subject to a system of
inquiry under which all sorts of derogatory data
can be filed against him by people whose
Identities remain hidden behind the shadow"
and who cannot be summoned to 'come up in
front" without endangering vital sources of
information.
Needless to say, given the kind of world we
have, this SyStem-whose conStitutionality has
been upheld, in effect, by the Supreme Court
is essential to the Nations security. Needless
to say, too since it is strictly limited to Govern
ment employees and provides special safeguards
for those employees, it can be readily reconciled
with the Presidents views on American fair
play and justice Nevertheless, because of his
failure to make qualifying points of this sort
in his B'nai Birth speech, his words will be
misrepresented in certain quarters as evidence
that he is either out of sympathy with the
loyalty program or is so unfamiliar with it that
he ought to read it more, just as he has advised
others to read westerns" to learn about wild
Bill" Hickok
So once again we have first-clasS illustra-
ton of the controversy and confusion that can
flow from inpromptu high-level remarks. The
thing has happened before in any number of
past administrations, and it will keep on hap
pening as long as Presidents and their chief
aides yield to the temptation of speaking in
formally, in a genial, offhand manner. There
should be a "code" against that too-especially
when the subject. matter is delicate or touchy