McCommitteeism

For 17 months, the Senate subcommittee on Privileges and Elections fitfully investigated Wisconsin's Republican Senator Joe McCarthy and Connecticut's Democratic Senator William Benton. Reasons for the investigation were 1) Benton's resolution to expel McCarthy from the Senate on the ground of unfitness, and 2) McCarthy's resolution to dispose of Benton in like manner. Last week, the subcommittee turned in its report.

It had been a tough 17 months. One subcommittee member, Idaho's Republican Senator Herman Welker, and two investigators had charged that the subcommittee was being unfair to McCarthy, and had resigned. The original chairman, Iowa Democrat Guy Gillette, had resigned in distress over other resignations. Senator McCarthy himself had stubbornly and slyly avoided testifying in his own defense. He contended that the investigation was just a "smear."

Fascinating Finances. Possibly as a result of its troubles, the subcommittee resorted to some tactics which the foes of Joe McCarthy so thoroughly deplore: its report leaned heavily on insinuation and innuendo. First it rattled some old skeletons, e.g., whether McCarthy should have accepted $10,000 from the RFC-supported Lustron Corp. for a pamphlet on housing which he wrote while serving on Senate committees dealing with RFC and Lustron problems. Then it raised some questions about McCarthy's fascinating finances but did not provide clear answers. Some items:

P: In 1945, before he was a Senator, McCarthy owed the Appleton (Wis.) State Bank $169,540.70 (secured mostly by stocks in which he was speculating), despite the fact that the legal loan limit for that bank was $100,000. Since he began his fight against Communism, his bank accounts have improved greatly. In the last four years, he has deposited in one bank account $172,623.18, and his administrative assistant Ray Kiermas has deposited $96,921.26. The subcommittee's implied question: Where did all this dough come from?

P: In 1947, McCarthy got Russell M. Arundel, a Washington representative for the Pepsi-Cola Co., to endorse a $20,000 note for him. That year, both Pepsi-Cola and McCarthy were urging the Federal Government to end sugar controls. Asked the subcommittee: Did McCarthy follow the "Pepsi-Cola line" for financial gain?

P: In 1948 McCarthy used his $10,000 Lustron fee to buy stock in the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which owed more than $15 million to RFC. When he bought the stock, it hadn't paid a dividend for many years. The stock went up and Joe sold 1,000 shares last September at a profit of $35,614.75. Asked the subcommittee: "Was there any relationship between Senator McCarthy's position as a member of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee and his receipt of confidential information relating to the stock of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad . . .?"

P: In 1950 McCarthy forwarded funds from his anti-Communism contribution account to a friend, who bought 30,000 bushels of soybean futures and realized a profit of $17,354.50 in less than three months. The subcommittee's questions: Were not the fight-Communism contributions trust funds? Did McCarthy have confidential information on the soybean-future market, which was then being investigated by the Department of Agriculture?

Due for Dust. After indulging in too much McCommitteeism, the subcommittee concluded that it would make no recommendation about McCarthy's fitness to serve, but would leave that to the Senate itself. As for Benton, it filed only a brief report agreeing with him that in 1950 he "badly handled" $600 in contributions from Walter Cosgriff, a Salt Lake City banker, while Cosgriff was being considered for an RFC directorship. The question, observed the subcommittee, is more or less moot, since Benton was defeated last November.

Joe McCarthy's reaction to the report was McCarthy-like: It was "a new low in dishonesty and smear." He had labels for the subcommittee members: the Democrats, Missouri's Senator Thomas C. Hennings Jr. and Arizona's Carl Hayden, were "lackeys" of Harry Truman; the Republican, New Jersey's Robert C. Hendrickson, was a "living miracle . . . without brains or guts."

McCarthy foes began to buzz about preventing him from being seated when Congress reconvened, and he dared them to try it. He was sworn in without a sound of protest; his wiser foes were sure that a challenge would have been voted down by the Senate. As he walked back to his seat, Joe seemed relaxed. When he passed Senator Hayden, he clapped the "lackey" on the back and smiled a big smile. Hayden made a face.

This week the subcommittee's report was on its way to the Republican-controlled Senate Rules Committee, which probably will be chairmaned by Indiana's William Jenner, no foe of McCarthy. There it will almost certainly gather dust.

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