Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-09-02
Cain Sees Internal Security Act
AS Curtoi|ment Of Free Speech

behavior. He conducted exhaustive
hearings, Yaded through mass of
evidence. and finally wrote $4,000
word report concluding that the
Pension Union matched the laws
definition of a Communist front.
Every day that passed, however.
made him feel more like DR.. Jekyll
and Mr.. Hyde. AS a Government
official he was duty bound to apply
the law to the Pension Union. But
as thoughtful American he felt the
organization posed no threat to the
Nations security and thus did not
merit the severe penalties which
now hang over 1t. He grew more
firmly convinced that legislation
which imposes disabilities on q
harmless group Is bad and should
be repealed.
When he was q Senator. Mr..
Cain voted enthusiastically for the
statute he now condemns. He be-
lieved it would strengthen America
against internal foes. Now he is
certain that the act has actually
weakened us and wouldn't be worth
the price even If it had really made
us stronger.
The price we have paid, accord
ing to Mr.. Cain, is the abandon
ment of serious political dissent He
puts it this way: America without
diSSenterS might be secure, but it
would not be America"
'Unreosoned Feor ;"
Mr.. Cain recalls that the Nc
Carran Act was passed in 1850,
when "unreasoned fear that bor-
dered on frenzy" gripped most
Americans. Today. with people in
what he considers a more sober
state of mind on security matters,
he thinks it is ridiculous to tolerate
law born of panic"
The time has come, he insists, to
re-examine what we mean by in
ternal security. In such a reap
praiSal. he says, I'VE should re-
member democracy's stubborn faith
that the way to preserve freedom is
to have more of it."
Mr.. Cain has come to believe that
any legislation designed to defeat
political concepts is dangerous. The
proper place to challenge COM
muniSm, he says, is in the market
place Of ideas" not in the court
room. He asserts that all that the
Internal Security Act has accom-
plished is to help "perpetuate an
atmosphere in which loyalty oaths,
purgeS of Government workers, and
heresy trials remain a continuing
blight on our national life"
To Mr.. Cain the law under which
he has been serving resembles the
Alien and Sedition Acts, which were
repealed by the -Federalists
when Thomas Jefferson took power
in 1901. In fact he has begun to
sound like latter-day Jefferso-
MAN. Il believe with all my heart"
he says. that freedom is indivisible,
and that unless we have it for all
we shall soon have it only for those
with nothing to say. / believe in
democracy enough to want to sup
ply platform to its critics as well
as its defenders"
Never before has Cain denounced
the Internal Security Act. Now,
undeterred by the prospect that he
will be aSsailed for biting the hand
that fed him, he is preparing to
tear into the act he has been APP
plying. He maintains it has made
freedom less safe. 1.-THE rights of
free expression are mocked," he
points out. when people are pc
nalized for exercising them. The
Bill of Rights is emasculated when
our citizens are free to say only
approved things. To give freedom
only to those with whom we agree
is to ape totalitarianism.
Cain hopes that Congress will not
wait for the Supreme Court to de-
clare the law unconstitutional The
legislative branch itself should
undo the damage it has caused, he
asserts.