Red Beats Republican

A bug that flaps and stings, Manhattan's Communist Daily Worker raises the biggest welts when assisted by its enemies. Thanks to such help last week from an army that advanced too quickly and a general who retreated too easily--the Worker raised a big welt. It had smeared a Republican candidate for Congress right off the ballot. Brigadier General Elliott R. Thorpe (ret.), General MacArthur's wartime counter-intelligence chief) announced that he was "shocked and depressed," and as a result withdrew as a Republican candidate for Congress from Rhode Island.

A year ago, before General Thorpe was nominated, the Daily Worker picked up a speech he had made before the Rhode Island Turkey Growers and Poultry Growers Association. The Worker distorted the speech to make it sound as if he were supporting the Communist party line on the Far East. Agents of the Army's Counter-intelligence Corps (which Thorpe himself helped organize in the Pacific) descended on his home town of Westerly, R.I., a small community where gossip spreads fast. The agents questioned Thorpe's neighbors and friends about his loyalty. The agents based the questions on the Worker's version of Thorpe's speech. Instead of standing his ground, Thorpe withdrew as a candidate for fear he would embarrass his party. Last week the Army announced there was no question of Thorpe's loyalty and wrote to him apologizing for "the unfortunate inconvenience and embarrassment." But by that time the damage was done.

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