Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-06-21
DANGERS ARE IGNORED
Passport Bills Getting Nowhere

gressional committee where they
automatically plead the Fifth
Amendment.
There are also people like this:
William Lorenzo Patterson,
general manager Of the weekly
Communist newspaper, The
Worker. In 1850. visiting fellow
Communists in Hungary and
Hungary and Czechoslovakia. he
gave interviews to the press in
which he accused the United
States Of using germ warfare in
Korea and repeatedly advocated
the overthrow Of the Government.
In 1852, he made speech in New
York urging listeners to write
American soldiers In Korea and
incite them to 60 to the other side.
Maurice Halperin, identified by
Elizabeth Bentley as member OF
a wartime espionage ring. After
pleading the Fifth Amendment in
1858. he went to Mexico. A news
story from there in 1857 said he
had facilitated the fight of Alfred
and Martha Dodd Stern. who
were charged by this Government
with espionage and are still be-
hind the Iron Curtain.
Marcel Sherer, q charter MEM
Der Of the Communist Party and
a principal officer in the Commu-
mist movement.
Paul Novick, a Communist
Party member since 1928 on the
editorial staff of the Morning
Freiheit, the Communist daily In
the Yiddish language.
Albert E. Kahn last week
was identified II. a Senate Inter-
nal Security Subcommittee re-
port as a leading American Com
munist specializing in anti-Ameri-
can and pro-Russian propaganda.
Among other charges, Mr.. Kahn
was described as the author Of
works used by the Chinese Com
munist army In Korea for the
purpose Of brain-washing cap
tured American troops"
Dor Association Study
Men like these presumably
would At even under the broad
rules advocated by such groups
as the special committee Of the
New York City Bar Association,
which made a study last year of
Freedom to Travel"
The bar group declared that
American citizens should be free
TO travel abroad with q minimum
OF Government restraint, that the
regulations in effect before the
Supreme Court overturned them
seem inadequate to support the
deprivation Of the right to travel
and that the procedures by which
passports have been denied pro-
vide insufficient protection to the
individuals.
So, the bar group called for
congressional Qualification Of pass
port policy-thereby reaching the
same conclusion as the admin
istration but by different route.
Senator Mundt's bill grew out of
a long study by the staff of the
Senate Committee on Government
Operations. 1t has two major
goals: To raise the status of the
Passport Once to the United
States Passport Service and to
give assurance to the just and
unjust alike as to Just what the
rules of the game are"
1t gives legislative authority to
present procedures which are now
a matter Of discretion by the di-
rector Of the Passport once and
the Secretary Of State and could
be changed by the next incum-
bentS in these positions.
In establishing the proposed
United States Passport Service
under the immediate jurisdiction
OF the Deputy Undersecretary Of
State for Administration, it takes
passport operations out Of the
Bureau Of Security and Consular
Affairs. Right now as an "office"
within a bureau" the passport
business operates on the fifth
echelon Of the State Department
that far from the policy making
top in a business where policy
decisions must be made daily.
Senator Mundt said the passport
business in these days OF pros
perity and mass travel is too big
TO be handled like 1t was in the
days of the quill pen and the ink
bottle"
In addition to dealing with the
Communist question. the bill spec
ines other conditions under which
passports may be withheld. These
range from persons under indict-
ment to persons who owe the Gov
eminent money for their ride
home. Right now. they are denied
passports under regulation
which bars passports to persons
whose activities would be "preju-
dicial to the interests OF the
United States" but there's no
statutory basis for it.
The Mundt bill would require
the passport director and en-
ployes Of the Office to be civil serv-
Ice employees, thus assuring that
they would not get into the rota-
ton OF foreign service employees.
The bill. like some Of the others
but In more detail, sets forth the
procedures to be followed and the
appeal machinery where passports
are denied or revoked. Most Of
these procedures are being fol-
lowed today but without statutory
base.
The bill also extends the life
OF the passport to five instead Of
four years. allows air crewmen to
get free passports as seamen al
ready do and-for the first time
specifically defines what a pass
port is.
The bill also authorizes the Sec
rotary Of State to restrict travel