More Letters, Pro and Con, on McCarthy-Furry

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I have just read Eimer Davis' clever attack (July 1953 HARVARD ALUMNI BULLETIN) upon those who have labored to expose and identify the supporters of the communist conspiracy in America. For all his apparent intellectuality Mr. Davis has not yet learned that communism is not merely a socio-political theory but a world-wide conspiracy which has already cost us thousands of lives, untold wealth, and which has compromised the futures of Americans yet unborn.

Mr. Davis pulls the familiar tactic of trying the prosecution. He fights not communism but rather those who do fight communism. The reason, so he ways, is to preserve "freedom of mind." Yet the most potent enemy of this freedom in all the world is communism. One would infer from Mr. Davis' diatribe that it was Senator McCarthy who had infiltrated the communist fronters into American university faculties and was protecting them from being fired.

Yes the reds and their fellow travelers hate exposure. Once identified, they can't put it over like they used to. Then there is their special myth--they call it "academic freedom." I say "myth" because the faculty member has no more and no less freedom under the Federal Constitution that the cotton pickers. When the commie fronters yell "Academic freedom" what they mean is that no authority public or private should be permitted to fire them because of their open or covert support of any organ of the communist apparatus. This communist support should not be confused with the objective study of communism in action, which is indeed necessary. No communist supporter or sympathizer can be objective in evaluating our culture or political-economic system because his mission is to destroy that, system . . .

Let us eliminate the communist inspired double-talk and admit that for all practical purposes those who serve the communist cause through fronts or elsewhere should be dealt with as communists, although it is impossible to extract a party membership card from their billfold . . .

J. Edgar Hoover has stated in unequivocal language that for every card carrier there are ten non-formal members or supporters who do the party work and who are often more effective and more dangerous because they are tolerated and even welcomed where known members would be barred . . .

The "Moscow liberals" are free under the Constitution to propound and propagate their ideas. That is the way it should be. But surely Harvard is under no moral or legal obligation to lend its auspices to the communist cause by employing communist fronters, if any. The Constitution doesn't guarantee anyone a lifetime job on any faculty--nor does it say that the authority which hires cannot fire . . .

The fact is that the Hiss case plus the work of the McCarthy, Jenner, McCarran and House Committees have placed the communist lovers on the defensive in American life for the first time since the late Franklin D. Roosevelt made the tragic error of extending the hand of friendship to Russia via diplomatic recognition in 1932. And the communist lovers are fighting back today as only they know how to fight. Yes, it is time that every HARVARD MAN stood up to be counted on this isue. Kenneth L. Meyers '34   Wichita, Kansas