The Sluggers

Only a week had gone by since Congress formally began its long-threatened investigations of U.S. colleges and universities. But presidents and professors throughout the nation were already stewing and seething in anger. The men running the investigations were hardly the type that teachers could trust. They had been ruthless sluggers in the past, and they gave no indication that they had reformed. Last week, at the Atlantic City convention of the American Association of School Administrators, the investigators took some hard-fisted counter-punches--delivered in no uncertain terms by a woman. Mrs. Agnes Meyer, wife of Chairman Eugene Meyer of the Washington Post, not only came out swinging. On points, she won the round.

"Recently," said she, "our universities and colleges have been selected as the latest victims of that No. 1 super-patriot Senator McCarthy, together with Senator Jenner and their counterpart, Congressman Velde . . . [McCarthy's] record as an investigator is shameful . . . He has weakened the morale of our federal service and spread suspicion and fear throughout the nation. He has stirred up hatred and used every device to destroy the confidence of Americans in each other . . . [He is] our modern Grand Inquisitor . . . a dangerous, clever and ruthless demagogue . . . another Huey Long."

Close for the Kill. As for Jenner. "I have been present at [his] hearings. They are of a character to make any honest American sick to his stomach . . . I have seen only one sight to compare with it--a Spanish bullfight, where half a dozen men stick sharp knives into the bull to enrage him before the matador, or in this case, the committee chairman, closes in for the kill. By observing the Jenner hearings, the technique for persecuting the teaching profession can be forecast. The plan is to expose a few teachers who look suspicious and may even be guilty of Communist affiliations. Then, with the support of an aroused public opinion behind them, our Congressional Inquisitors will attack any or all professors whose opinions they dislike . . ."

Illinois Congressman Harold Himmel Velde, according to Agnes Meyer, is no better. "I will give you an idea of [his] I.Q. . . . Last year he introduced a bill . . . ordering the Librarian of Congress to mark all subversive matter in the Library of Congress, which contains over 9,000,000 volumes . . . In other words, the man doesn't make sense. Yet in the hands of such people as McCarthy, Jenner and Velde . . . lie your reputations and those of your fellow educators."

Waste No Time. As if groggy from the blows, Senator Jenner said he would "let the record . . . speak for itself." McCarthy retorted that he would "waste no time reading speeches by the management of the Washington Daily Worker, much less answer them." But Harold Velde waded into the fray leading with his chin. The Meyer speech, said he, is "typical of those being made by intellectual pinks and others following the Communist Party line . . . It is interesting to note that, in the Moscow Pravda dated April 30, 1947, Mrs. Agnes Meyer is quoted as writing to the journal Soviet Russia Today as follows: 'We feel profound admiration for the people of the Soviet Union. It simply makes you sick at heart when you hear many radio commentators speaking so unjustly and disdainfully of the Russians.' " With that, Velde retired in triumphant silence to his corner.

His silence was not triumphant for long. Mrs. Meyer promptly denied that she had ever written such a letter. The Post's managing editor, J. R. Wiggins, phoned Velde to ask him to set the record straight. Velde huffed (". . . If you think you are going to intimidate me . . ."), puffed ("You say you are not trying to intimidate me. I think you are . . ."), and huffed some more ("You boys don't have a controlled press in this country . . . You had better start thinking about that right now and keep your editorial policies better . . ."). But he refused to retract his statement.

"Honest" Mistake. This, said Mrs. Meyer, "is the sort of reckless, irresponsible and false utterance that is going to be thrown at members of the teaching profession . . . by a man who is conscienceless enough to use a deliberate lie and brazen enough to decline a retraction even when confronted with the truth."

Next day, Congressman Velde was forced to surrender. On checking, he announced, he had found that the real author of the letter was not Agnes Meyer, but a Mrs. G. S. Mayer of Port Clements, B.C. But Velde self-righteously did not exactly apologize; he had made, he insisted, an "honest" mistake.

Other results of the Congressional investigations last week:

P:In New York City, Queens, Brooklyn and City Colleges suspended two professors and two minor officials who had refused to tell the Jenner subcommittee whether or not they had ever been members of the Communist Party.

P:At Harvard, a special committee, headed by Provost Paul Buck, was set up to recommend policy in the cases of faculty members who might be balky witnesses. At the same time Law Professor Arthur E. Sutherland announced that he, too, was setting up a committee--to provide free legal advice for his colleagues.

P:Senator Robert A. Taft, Yale trustee, made a statement: "I must say, as a member of the board of trustees of a university, I would not favor firing anyone simply for being a Communist unless I was certain he was teaching Communism . . ."

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