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by David Lawrence
New York Herald Tribune
June 16, 1960
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]LTHOUGH Secretary of State, Christian A. Herter, has reported to Congress that the government of the United States knows the Soviet government and its allies have 300,000 spies and subversive agents in 27 western countries, including the United States, this has not attracted much attention, even in Congress.
While the rise in Communist activity has been going on inside the United States in recent years, the battle to root out subversives has been flagging. “Student” demonstrations are being boldly organized in an attempt to influence public opinion to demand the abolition of the House Committee on Un-American Activities — an effective means of exposure through publicity that can warn citizens against being duped and misled by the Communist apparatus.
The Communist menace, indeed, has been pooh-poohed in America recently to the point where indifference now takes the place of alertness. The American people have been lulled into a mood of acquiescence. This has been brought about by the attitude of many misguided persons who, though themselves loyal to America, have assailed all efforts to cope with communism as just at times some members of Congress have been overzealous or even oversuspicious about Communists, the facts nevertheless show that Communist activity inside the United States is certainly not a myth.
The favorite comment of those who minimize Communist operations is to measure the Communist movement in terms of the relatively few members of the Communist party itself. Actually, however, it takes only a few persons to infiltrate and directly to influence the speeches and comments of persons inside the churches, the labor unions, the press, the theater, the colleges, and the government.
Inspired by Communists
Not long ago a “student” demonstration occurred in San Francisco. It got headlines because demonstrators sought to discredit the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which was holding a hearing there. Representative Gordon H. Scherer of Ohio, Republican. who presided at the California session, said in a speech to the House of Representatives on June 2:
“Let me state categorically that the shameful San Francisco city hall rioting was not a spontaneous outburst of student indignation against the House Committee on Un-American Activities, as many people would like for us to believe… Approximately three years ago the Communist apparatus decided that, if its operations in the United States were to be less hampered and more successful, it had to get rid of the Committee on Un-American Activities, discredit the great director of the federal bureau of investigation, and generally weaken the FBI’s influence and powers.”
Representative Scherer gave a detailed account of how persons admittedly members of the Communist party had helped to steer civic and student organizations to participate in the demonstrations.
Unfortunately, some churchmen of the left-wing groups have been assailing the House committee and its hearings. That’s why Mr. Scherer included in the speech a statement by a group of ministers’ demonstrations in San Francisco against the committee. This statement said in part:
“The shameful demonstration against law and order and against this duly constituted committee of the Congress defies description… it is our certain conviction that this indefensible demonstration against law and order was conceived, planned, and directed by a few hard-core Communist agitators who were carrying out their textbook orders on insurrection with classic success. Leaders of the mob included faculty members and well-known leftist lawyers for the fifth-amendment communists.”
Russians Supplied Funds
The real story of Communist activity among students in Japan is just emerging. The Tokyo correspondent of “U.S. News and World Report” in a dispatch last week said Japanese security officers were convinced that funds for student demonstrations there had come from Russian reserves built up in Japan through book sales and “cultural tours.”
Within the last 24 hours, the United Press International reported from Tokyo that “international Communism poured hundreds of dollars into Japan to oppose President Eisenhower’s visit and to fight the new Japan-U.S. security pact.” The dispatch added:
“This confirmed earlier reports from Hong Kong which said the Chinese Communists were supplying huge sums to visitors to mainland China who returned to their homelands to promote the Communists line. . . . Some of the funds went to assist unions which reluctantly supported the anti- American forces against their real wishes but which were in need of money.”
When will the American people wake up to the fact that the biggest danger in the near future isn’t a nuclear war, but Communist infiltration? Just at a time when exposure and full publicity on communist methods and tactics are most needed, there is a tendency on the part of left-wing groups in this country to give aid and comfort to the Communist cause by trying to frustrate or abolish the only congressional machinery available for investigation and exposure of Communist intrigue in America.
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David Lawrence (1888 ~ 1973) was a columnist, author, and publisher, described by President Richard Nixon as a giant of his profession (journalism). Lawrence was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in America. One of his books, Stumbling Into Socialism, was published in 1935, 22 years before Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I have just ordered the only copy I could find, of the 85-year-old book. Google chose not to scan it or provide any pages, so I will do that myself and upload a copy soon. It would be a shame to let a great conservative be air-brushed out of history by far-left big tech giants.
Rob Larrikin
