In the Camp of the Enemy

At a duly scheduled session of a standing committee of the sovereign legislature of the world’s greatest nation, visitors shout insults at the presiding officer, the legislators in general, the nation and its soldiers. When they continue after being asked and then ordered to desist, some of them are forcibly removed. Witnesses, present upon due notice and subpena, scream, curse the committee members, denounce the nation, boast that they support its enemies. Taking the stand—some in outlandish dress—they pay no attention to the rulings of the chairman, but declaim revolutionary tirades and shout further insults until, in some cases, they too are removed. Others, declaring their defiance of the committee and its subpenas, walk out in open contempt. One attorney, who refuses to accept the repeated order of the presiding officer to stop talking and sit down, is forcibly ejected. . . .

The conclusion? “This is the sort of tactic Hitler’s bully boys might have engaged in” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Whose tactic? Why, the committee’s, naturally. The solution? “The solution to the excesses of”—of the revolutionaries and unbuttoned fanatics and their indecorous attorneys?—of “the Un-American Activities Committee must come from Congress where the problem has its origin” (New York Times); “the way to stop inquisitions by the un-American [sic the lower case] committee is for Congress to abolish it” (San Francisco Chronicle ).

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James Burnham

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At a duly scheduled session of a standing committee of the sovereign legislature of the world’s greatest nation, visitors shout insults at the presiding officer, the legislators in general, the nation and its soldiers. When they continue after being asked and then ordered to desist, some of them are forcibly removed. Witnesses, present upon due notice and subpena, scream, curse the committee members, denounce the nation, boast that they support its enemies. Taking the stand—some in outlandish dress—they pay no attention to the rulings of the chairman, but declaim revolutionary tirades and shout further insults until, in some cases, they too are removed. Others, declaring their defiance of the committee and its subpenas, walk out in open contempt. One attorney, who refuses to accept the repeated order of the presiding officer to stop talking and sit down, is forcibly ejected. . . .

The conclusion? “This is the sort of tactic Hitler’s bully boys might have engaged in” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Whose tactic? Why, the committee’s, naturally. The solution? “The solution to the excesses of”—of the revolutionaries and unbuttoned fanatics and their indecorous attorneys?—of “the Un-American Activities Committee must come from Congress where the problem has its origin” (New York Times); “the way to stop inquisitions by the un-American [sic the lower case] committee is for Congress to abolish it” (San Francisco Chronicle ).