Document 18: Articles from Seattle Post-Intelligencer
28 July 1948 and 8 August 1948, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Are They Ashamed?
[July 28, 1948] The professors at the University of Washington who refused to answer pertinent questions are indeed dumb if they think the public is not entitled to have the information requested by the investigators. Those teachers are working for the people of the State of Washington. The taxpayers, who are paying their salaries have every right to know whether or not the professors are, or ever have been members of the Communist Party.
No Democrat ever hesitates to answer questions concerning his political party affiliations. No Republican balks at admitting he supports the GOP. Catholics and Protestants do not attempt to conceal their religious faiths. Is it that several of the educators didn't talk because they are ashamed of their political leanings? If shame is the reason for their refusal to answer questions that would not embarrass most citizens, then it would appear they do belong to a political movement that should not be represented on a university campus by members of the faculty. If some of the professors do belong to the Communist Party, why haven't they got the intestinal fortitude to admit it and attempt to defend their positions?
Several teachers who were summoned before the Canwell Committee complained about violations of civil rights and abridgment of academic freedom. This has become a standard method, developed in Moscow, of wiggling off the hook and the American public is getting fed up with investigations where the accused bring up phony issues and are allowed to get away with it. . . .
Enough dirty linen was exposed during the Canwell inquiry to make the residents of the state realize that a thorough housecleaning is necessary at the University of Washington. Until that is done, it will be easy to understand why many parents are reluctant about sending their children to that institution. Furthermore, the tax-supported schools cannot expect any appropriation from the State Legislature unless it fumigates its faculty.
Communist Espionage
[August 8, 1948] Whatever else eventuates from this situation the truth must now almost surely emerge—which is what the Hearst newspapers always persistently and often virtually alone, have been crusading for so long and so earnestly.
For many years, the Hearst newspapers have consistently opposed Communism in the United States believing that it is not merely in conflict with the moral concepts by which our people live but that it is a vicious conspiracy against the free institutions which are the substance of our way of life. . . .
But too often the majority of the American people while agreeing with the Hearst newspapers concerning the evil purposes of Communism, have been persuaded that the danger was exaggerated or that the danger could not be combated without infringement upon the democratic rights of minorities and dissenters.
The Hearst newspapers have never yielded to any one in their zeal for the rights of minority opinion and dissent but they have steadfastly refused to concede that there is any legal or moral right which upholds treason and sedition against the United States.
Consequently, the . . . emergence of the full truth about Communism is in full accord with the policies of the Hearst newspapers, for as Representative Richard M. Nixon of California has said:
"We are beginning to prove the Hearst newspapers have been right in charging that a Communist plot is operating to change the American form of government into the Russian form, under Moscow rulership.
"I for one appreciate in the fullest measure the persistence with which the Hearst newspapers have hewed to the line of their convictions, warning of the great Russian threat, exposing the work of Russia's agents."
Communism is an utterly evil thing, in the United States or in any country.
The dangers of Communism have never been exaggerated, and are incapable of exaggeration—the greatest of all its dangers being its past and continuing success in persuading so many people of its supposed harmlessness, when in fact it is the most virulent infection that has ever polluted the minds and souls of men.