Mr. Taft and the Dragon

Until last week Senator Robert Taft had a great reputation for sane consideration of the facts involved in political issues. Senator Taft's appeal to logic-sensitive voters must now be tempered with his statement in opposition to David Lilienthal's nomination to head the Atomic Energy Committee. Though the Senator loves facts, he manages to spice this devotion with one choice venture into fancy; though he employs logic to reach his conclusions, no one can deny his knowledge of other less strenuous processes.

The Senator claimed, as part of his generous first-coat of red, that Lilienthal made no safeguards against foreign abuse of atomic power in the Acheson-Atomic Energy report, which Lilienthal helped to prepare. This claim does not jibe with the facts; Mr. Lilienthal subscribed to the gradual-surrender-of-secrets feature of the report which emphasized the need for security at each stage of expanding international control. Just as closely related to fact is "Mr. Lilienthal is one of those typical power-hungry bureaucrats who in recent years . . . have attempted to stretch their powers far beyond the limit of statutes . . . have sought money from the public purse to help carry out their plans, concealing as far as possible what the money was used for." Alongside this statement balance the financial statements of the TVA, which edges closer toward a profit each year. Against this claim range the close financial surveillance that Congress has maintained over the TVA, a control that was loosened only by the needs of wartime security. With this same devotion to realities, Senator Taft has seized on the appropriations for Oak Ridge and other top secret plants, and has placed the onus of secrecy on David Lilienthal. If this was secretive "power-hungry" bureaucracy, the Senator himself urged it on the country, calling it "national security" in 1942.

Again, the Senator claimed Lilienthal was "too soft on issues connected with Communism." This is substantiated by Taft's contention that "There is no doubt that a Communist cell was tolerated by Mr. Lilienthal in the TVA." A check of all the facts would show relatively few government agencies free from the infiltration of eight to 12 Communists, the size of the textbook-defined cell. If Mr. Taft is frightened by cell-infection, his fear ought best be focused on the Washington scene, where the presence of a dozen Communists in any department of several thousands would surprise no one. On the question of Mr. Lilienthal and the Atomic Energy Commission, a relationship that Mr. Taft omits, it should be added that Mr. Lilienthal subscribes to the security measures set down by the government, measures which preclude the cell of Mr. Taft's nightmares.

Senator Taft had best take to laying cornerstones and kissing local infants. His appeal to thinking men, along with Senator McKellar's equilibrium, has been lost in the testimony.