Logical, But Not Practical

By an overwhelming 319-to-38 vote the House passed a bill last week which, in the end, would probably drive the U.S. Communist Party underground.

The bill was the Mundt-Nixon bill, introduced by South Dakota's Karl Mundt (who is now up for election as a Senator), and largely written by California's Richard M. Nixon, a lank, earnest Quaker attorney. It had come to the floor of the House from the Un-American Activities Committee.

The committee had tackled a troubling problem of political freedom: how to deal democratically with a group which is dedicated to the destruction of U.S. democracy. The Mundt-Nixon bill proposed an evasive solution. The bill, after labeling the Communist Party an alien conspiracy, did not outlaw the party. But it would:

P: Make it unlawful to work or conspire toward the establishment in the U.S. of a foreign-controlled, totalitarian government, i.e., the Soviet. (Maximum penalty: $10,000 fine and ten years in jail; loss of citizenship.)

P: Bar Communists from holding federal jobs.

P: Deny passports to Communists (who thus could not travel to Moscow for orders and advice).

P: Require all organizations which the Attorney General had determined were Communist or Communist fronts to register, report their finances, the names and addresses of their leaders and, in the case of Communist organizations, supply complete membership lists. (Maximum penalty for noncompliance: $5,000 fine and five years in prison.)

P:Require that wrappers on publications mailed out by such organizations be plainly labeled as coming from a Communist source; that radio broadcasts carry announcements of their. Red sponsorship.

Said critics of the bill: 1) it endangered civil liberties; innocent but misguided citizens were not given sufficient protection in the courts; 2) the bill could conceivably be used as a weapon against labor unions, or against any unpopular, radical or disaffected group; 3) the bill's phrases could be interpreted in various ways.

Furthermore, it seemed very doubtful whether the bill was workable and enforceable--and would achieve its aim. Canada had outlawed the Communist Party--and then had to deal with a Red spy ring anyway. Canadian Communists had merely formed the Labor Progessive Party. Outlawing or suppressing a malignant party was perhaps a logical action. But the democratic way to deal with the Communists was to get and keep them out in the open, where they could be seen, recognized and observed.

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