Time to Reconsider

Representative Celler of New York is the first member of Congress to call publicly for new legislation to replace the so-called publicly for new legislation to replace the so-called "Internal Security Act of 1950," passed overwhelmingly by Congress last week over the veto of the President. Celler has asked the Justice Department to draw up a communist-control bill of its own which could be presented to the legislators when they reconvene in late November.

When the Mundt-Ferguson-Johnston bill was first brought up in the Senate, it seemed difficult to conceive of a measure that could be more loosely-drawn or more dangerous. But the connivance of Senators McCarran and Kilgore and other eager helpers in both branches of the legislature, converted it into just that. The original security measures requested by the President are in the new bill, but they have been submerged in a flood of provisions that would, according to Mr. Truman's veto message, endanger civil liberties and interfere with the genuine security activities of the Government.

It is possible that there were dangerous loopholes in the security laws that existed before the passage of the "Internal Security Act of 1950." If so, it is the Justice Department that should be most aware of them, and any recommendations which it makes should be carefully considered by the Congressmen in November. Perhaps then, with election pressure off, Congress will be in a mood to mend security fences, rather than political ones.