Evening star., 1954-08-20
Poor Performance

The compromise Communist bill
which Congress finally has passed is an
improvement over the drastic OUTLAW" bill
which went to conference. But 1t remains
a piece Of hastily drawn, obviously useful
legislation, inspired more by political mo-
ttveS than by a desire to strike at the
Communists It is the kind of legislation
that could be expected to emerge from such
confusion, with election-year overtones, as
marked it's eleventh-hour consideration
and passage.
President Eisenhower probably will
sign the measure, now that the highly
Objectionable Humphrey amendment has
been eliminated. That amendment, pat
emily intended to Offset Republican charges
Of Democratic leniency toward communism,
would have made 1t crime to be member
of the Communist Party Aside from the
constitutional questions involved in such
a move, the plan would have imposed on
the Federal Bureau of Investigation an un-
wanted and almost inSuperable task OF
rounding up and jailing the estimated
$4,000 Communists in this country. The
FBI naturally would not relish being re-
quired to launch series of raids reminiS-
cent of those which occurred just after
World War I under Attorney General
Mitchell Palmer. Furthermore, ever since
the start of FBI exposures of party leader
ship under the Smith Act, Red membership
cards have been Scrapped and records hid
den or destroyed. The prospect of being
required to register under the Internal Sc
curity Act also has made membership cards
passe. In short, the FBI would have been
faced with the responsibility of enforcing
a law that would have called for huge
increase in personnel and funds and that
even then would have been very difficult
to carry out.
What the compromise measure does on
the membership angle is to re-enact por-
tions of the Internal Security Act requiring
registration of members of any Communist
action organization. The new law con-
firms the finding, already made by the
Subversive Activities Control Board, that
the Communist Party is a subverslve "ac-
ton organization" all members of which
must register with the board or suffer fines
or jail sentences. The precise effect of this
confirming act on pending litigation is not
as yet clear. The boards finding against
the Communist Party has been argued be-
fore the United States Court of Appeals,
from which decision is being awaited.
Party attorneys have declared they will
fight the finding through to the Supreme
Court. It is taken for granted that the
Reds will seek to use the new legislation as
a means of prolonging their legal battle
against registration
The only part Of the legislation which
the administration really favored is the
provision cracking down on labor organiza-
tions dominated by Communists. The At
torney General reluctantly accepted the
compromise plan in decision to make the
best Of bad bargain! The sorry aspect of
this whole rush to outlaw the Communist
Party is that Congress has given the FBI
a law 1t did not ask for, while turning its
back on the Attorney Generals and FBI
Director Hoover's repeated pleas for legis-
lation to legalize wire-tapping evidence in
Federal courts. Congress cannot con-
scientiously claim that it has struck an
effective blow at the Communist menace
until the vital wire-tapping bill has been
enacted into law.