Chafee Brands Mundt Bill as Undemocratic

Zochariah Chafee, Jr., Langdell Professor of Law, yesterday sharply criticized the proposed Mundt-Nixon Bill for control of subversive activities, saying that using it to check Communists "is like using hammer to swat a wasp on a baby's head."

In a 51-page statement mailed to the House Un-American Activities Committee, Chafee cited as his main objection to the bill the lack of evidence that the world Communist movement "presents a clear and present danger to the existence a free American institutions."

He derided these who fear that without the sedition law, Communists, who form to percent of this country's population, will be able to harm the rest of the people. "If we no longer want to be the land of the free," he said, "at least let us be the home of the brave."