Pin Wheels

Joe McCarthy went on record last week in favor of fireworks; he was one of three Senators who voted against a bill to ban shipments of fireworks into states where they are outlawed.

Although the McCarthy-Army hearings were in recess, there were plenty of pin wheels whirling around the issues they had raised. By their fitful light and the rockets' red glare, it was plain that the Eisenhower Administration was determined to quench Joe McCarthy.

The Long Furrow. In his press conference the President held firm to his order barring testimony about the confidential Jan. 21 discussion in the Justice Department in which White House aides took part (see above). Army Secretary Stevens belatedly issued a statement that the discussion did not govern the Army's actions, and that the Army had taken no orders from the White House. Stevens repeated the statement under oath this week.

At this, the committee's three Democrats saw their error in denouncing the presidential order as a roadblock to further hearings. And committee Republicans backed away from their hopes to cut the hearings short, gritted their teeth in preparation for what Army Counsel Joseph Welch has labeled "plowing the long furrow."

All week long, Senator McCarthy chafed. On Wednesday he said, "For the first time since I got into this fight to expose Communists, I'm sort of at a loss to know what course to take. I think the White House made a great mistake. I'm willing to play with any kind of deck they use, but I don't like to see my staff up against a stacked deck." Thursday the Senator was punching harder and lower. "This is the first time I've ever seen the executive branch of the Government take the Fifth Amendment," he said, and charged that the Administration "must have something to hide." Friday he hinted sinisterly, "I think the truth would hurt some people in the Administration." And Saturday he backed up a little, merely calling the President's order "unfortunate and unwise."

The Frantic Reach. Meanwhile, McCarthy had spun in another direction. On the Senate floor for almost an hour and a half, McCarthy scolded the Eisenhower Administration for allowing allied nations to ship "the sinews of economic and military strength" to Red China.

Within minutes Foreign Operations Administrator Harold Stassen shot back. Said Stassen: "Senator McCarthy stated in his speech that what he was saying 'sounds fantastic and unbelievable.' What he says is fantastic and unbelievable--and untrue." Stassen declared that the shipment of weapons of any type to the Soviet bloc "has been banned, is banned and will continue to be banned" by the U.S. and her allies. McCarthy, he added, "is frantically reaching for headlines after the sorry spectacle of his record in the recent hearings."

At a later press conference Stassen branded McCarthy's speech as false in "just about every paragraph," and charged: "It is one thing to have an honest difference of viewpoint and another thing to give false facts in order to reach a really vicious conclusion."

Stassen, who had been waiting his chance to lash back at McCarthy ever since a year ago when they tangled over McCarthy's private negotiations with Greek shipowners, had chosen his time well. A year ago, the President did not back Stassen up, instead allowed Secretary of State Dulles to conciliate McCarthy at a sacrifice of Stassen's prestige.

This time it was different. As last week's National Security Council meeting convened, Harold Stassen asked the President: "Did I get out of line at all yesterday?" Ike replied, not a bit; that all Stassen did was call the man a liar to his face.

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