Reflections On Un-American Committees

Abstract

Several times since Salem this country has gone through periods of witch hunting. Most Americans who are conscious of such things are ashamed of the Alien and Seditions Acts of 1798, the curtailments of civil liberties during the Civil War, and the great red of 1917-1920. Today this country is in the midst of a heresy inquisition that already has lasted longer than the earlier objects of our shame. The current witch hunt differs from earlier ones in two important respects: (1) it is directed mainly against local representatives of the most powerful foreign nation, and (2) it is spearheaded by federal and state legislative committees. Both of these factors make it unusually difficult for Americans to keep their heads and their civil liberties. So long as the threat of war with Russia persists, American adherents of Communism are likely to be regarded as potentially dangerous individuals apt to commit acts of treason and therefore as wholly despicable citizens. The danger to individual rights is even greater when the attack is led by an agent of the legislature, for that branch is not subject to an established set of rules of fair procedure such as governs the judiciary and the administration.