Joe's Day in Court

From the time when the United States Senate voted to censure Joe McCarthy until the contempt trial of Leon Kamin this week, the Wisconsin Senator's rasping voice was noticeably silent. This week, McCarthy was back at the old stand, flinging accusations of softness toward Communism at his perennial favorites, Harvard and Nathan Pusey. This time, however, the attacks lacked some of their steam. Joe McCarthy was in a courtroom, not out on the hustings, and the atmosphere seems to have affected his vitriol.

Placed in the unfamiliar hair shirt of sworn oaths and cross-examinations, the Senator made some interesting statements. He admitted that his investigating subcommittee kept no records of its executive sessions and that it called Kamin in 1954 without any written evidence at all. It seems that McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and Francis Carr ran the committee by a casual gentlemen's agreement under which a tip that some person had worked on a Government project, if it looked juicy enough, might lead to a subpoena and to blanket questions like, "Who else worked with you?" This is exactly what liberals have been saying about McCarthy's investigating methods for years, of course, but it is reassuring, even at this late date, to get the information from the Senator himself.

The cross-examination ended Thursday, however, as did the big headlines in Boston papers, and McCarthy immediately flew back to Washington and his Senatorial immunity. He left behind a court record far more incriminating than any number of liberal speeches. As when George Washington arrived in 1776, a visit to Boston has once again been good for the country.