The Lesson

Samuel I. Newhouse's Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard is proud of having fought "Communism intelligently and courageously ... for a quarter-century." In its fight, the Post-Standard has disagreed with the methods used by Wisconsin's Senator Joe McCarthy to the same end. Said a Post-Standard editorial: "McCarthy through his cheating and lying is his own worst enemy and actually does not help the cause of anti-Communism in the least. McCarthy is a disgrace to the U.S. Senate...and [should be] removed once and for all." McCarthy filed a libel suit for $500,000.

Last week at a court hearing in preparation for trial of the suit, McCarthy made it plain what his case would be: publications that criticize him are Communist or followers of the party line. Defense Lawyer Tracy H. Ferguson brought this out by questioning McCarthy. Why had McCarthy picked the Post-Standard to sue when other papers have in words or substance said the same things about him? McCarthy: "I decided that sooner or later one of these left-wing smear articles would go so far that we'd have to teach them a lesson. Your paper went even further than the [Communist] Daily Worker or [Manhattan's] Compass"

"I Won't Read . . ." Lawyer Ferguson handed the Senator clippings from the Milwaukee Journal* (circ. 334,000), which has repeatedly hammered at his record in his home state and criticized his methods. Had McCarthy read the Journal articles? "Let me say," he answered, that "I won't read the Journal editorials either unless ordered by the court. It's a left-wing smear newspaper [that] follows the Daily Worker's line." How had he happened to read the editorial in the Post-Standard? asked Ferguson. Replied McCarthy: "Several of your readers sent it down to me."

When Ferguson showed him a series of anti-McCarthy articles from the Fair Dealing, and-Communist New York Post, he said he had not read the Post series either, "though I glanced at the first one." He did, however, read the cover story about him in TIME (Oct. 22). "I read the whole smear article and all the untruths," said McCarthy. Since TIME was guilty of "degenerate lying," he had written to "practically all" of TIME'S advertisers, urging them to withdraw their ads.

Familiar Look. On the other hand, he never bothered to read the attacks on him in the Madison (Wis.) Capital Times because its city editor "has refused to say whether he was one of the leading Communists in the county"--a charge McCarthy has made before. (City Editor Cedric Parker has repeatedly denied that he is a Communist.)

Ferguson next showed McCarthy an editorial attacking him from the Washington Post (circ. 191,000). Had he read it? "It looks rather familiar," McCarthy answered. "I read substantially the same editorials either in the Daily Worker or the Washington Post." The judge interrupted to ask him: "Are you confused between these two papers?" Answered McCarthy: "They parallel each other pretty closely." How about the Christian Science Monitor, asked Ferguson, which has also criticized him? Is that "a left-wing smear paper" too? Replied McCarthy: "I can't answer yes or no."

* Which recently dug up Navy records to prove that McCarthy was not injured in combat during World War II as he has claimed. Said the Journal: "He was not wounded in action, nor did he suffer a burned and broken foot in an airplane accident on June 22, 1943, as he has said. Instead he was hurt in a hilarious 'shellback' initiation on that date. It occurred when a Navy transport en route to combat areas but without a single dangerous alert during its entire voyage was the scene of the riotous gaiety traditional to crossing the equator."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.