Should the Communist Party be outlawed?

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Part of The Cross

Title: Should the Communist Party be outlawed?
Creator: Taylor, John Thomas; Chamberlin, William H.
Language: English
Year: 1947
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Fulltext: SHOULD THE COMMUNIST PARTY BE OUTLAWED? YES ! Col. John Thomas Taylor NO! William H. Chamberlin ADMITTING the evil of Communism, what is the best means to combat it? One means proposed is to ban the Communist Party in the U. S. by legislation. This proposal is at pre sent under consideration by Congress. In favor of such legislation is Col. John Thomas Taylof, di rector of the national legislative committee of the American Legion. Opposed to it is William Henry Chamberlin, foreign cor respondent, author, and lecturer. In the present article they an swer the following questions proposed to them by the editors of THE SIGN: 1. Do you think legislation to outlaw the Communist Party is an effective way to meet the Communist threat? 2. Would a law outlawing the Communist Party be an in vasion of constitutional rights? 3. Would legislation outlawing the Communist Party preju dice our relations with countries where the Communist Party is predominant or influential? 1. Do you think legislation to outlaw the^ Communist Party is an effective way to meet the Cgm-. munist threat? Col. Taylor yES. Communism is an organized and fanatical world movement. Its ideology holds that the opposition be tween Communism and pri vate enterprise is complete and unalterable. As a result of their ideology, Communists believe that capitalism must die in the throes of bloody re volution. I advocate the enactment of legislation embracing a seven point domestic security plan designed to: 1) Outlaw the Communist Party in the United States. io AUGUST. 19-17 2) Ban the use of mails to Communist publications. 3) Provide universal finger printing and identifica tion. 4) Continue the registration of all aliens and authorize a check of their activities. 5) Deport all aliens advocat ing overthrow of the Government by force. 6) Deny admission to the United States of nationals from any country refus ing to receive those aliens ordered deported from the United States. 7) Discontinue Federal aid to institutions of learning which refuse to purge their faculties of Com munists and fellow tra velers. The Committee on UnAmerican Activities, House of Representatives, has just published its report of the in vestigation which it has been conducting. It is the unanim ous opinion of this Commit tee that the Communist Par ty of the United States is, in fact, the agent of a foreign government. It is important that the Government and the people recognize this fact. If the Communist Party is to be properly dealt with, it is essential that the legislation of Congress and the thinking of the people be predicated upon this fundamental fact. Communists in the United States, exclusive of sympa thizers and fellow travelers, number at least 100,000. Here are cadres for ten for eign divisions already on American soil. To them this country is but a theater of operations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, their motherland. They are agents of a foreign power; their allegiance is to a coun try other than America. Objection has been raised to this legislation on the sup position that it will drive Communists under ground. The fact of the mat ter is, they have achieved their present standing as un derminers of our Govern ment by underground opera tions. Can they get any low er underground? They do not run around spreading their poison against this Govern ment by wearing big, red label buttons bearing the Communist Party insignia. Twelve states in the United States have laws denying a place on the ballot to those organizations whose program includes overthrdw of our form of government. They are: Arkansas, California, Il linois, Indiana, Kansas, Ok lahoma, Ohio, Oregon, Penn 12 THE CROSS sylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Steps should be taken im mediately to outlaw the Com munist Party in the United States through the enact ment of legislation. Unless this is done, America will again be living in a fool’s paradise, the awakening from which will again cost millions of American lives and again cost billions of American dol lars. If ever invasion comes to our shores, our cherished liberties will be its first vic tim. The rights of free speech, free press, public as sembly, and freedom of wor ship as conscience dictates, will disappear under an ene my invader’s hobnailed force, and the same thing will hap pen here as happened over seas in World War II. Indus tries, homes, and churches will be battered into heaps of dust and rubble, and min isters of the gospel and teachers of religion will be tortured and slain, for reli gion, which is the mainstay of a free democracy, is an athema to those who would destroy it as a primary step toward conquest. Mr. Chamberlin NO. I am keenly aware of the Communist threat to American security- and the American way of life. But I do not believe the outlawry of the American Commun ist Party would be an effec tive countermeasure. The Communist threat does not lie in the fact that some seventy or eighty thou sand people in this country belong to the Communist Party, nor in the fact that some two or three hundred thousand votes might be cast Communist candidates in na tional elections. There is‘no danger, within any predicta ble future, that the Com munists could capture our Government by legal means, nor that they would be num erous enough or strong enough to launch a serious uprising against it. Whererthen, is the threat? It is to be found in the fact that American Communists, like Communists in all coun tries, are the organized fifth column of a powerful foreign nation, the Soviet Union, whose leaders are avowedly committed to a program of world domination through world revolution. The ex perience of our neighbor, Canada, shows that even a few Communists can do a good deal of harm as spies. The infiltration of Com munists into leading positions in certain trade unions and their skill in manipulating AUGUST, 1917 13 “front” organizations into which they entice numbers of credulous non-Communisls are dangerous mainly be cause these activities are part of an international con spiracy, directed from Mos cow. Would it next, then, be a good idea to outlaw these agents of a foreign power? My answer is in the negative because I think any bill mak ing the Communist Party il legal would be very much like shooting off an old-fashioned blunderbuss in an attempt to kill a very agile mosquito. Suppose the Communist Party were declared illegal by act of Congress, and that this act was upheld by the Supreme Court. Communists in every country are experts in protective camouflage. They are specifically instruc ted to play a continual double game, to lie, to cheat, to de ceive, to conceal their identi ty when circumstances re quire it. If they were for bidden to function as Com munists they would quickly form another party, giving it some nice-sounding name like “Jefferson Democrats” or “Lincoln Progressives.” What is not always under stood is that the Communist in America is not very dan gerous when - he avows him self a Communist. To the vast majority of our people Com munism is an alien and ab horrent doctrine. The dan gerous advocate of Commun ist subversive ideas is the man or woman who regular ly says: “I’m not a Commun ist, but...” The best way to combat Communism is not to' sup press it officially, to drive it underground, but rather to pin the Communist label plainly and unmistakably where it belongs, on Com munist-dominated organiza tions. We must remember that Communism was sup pressed with a ruthlessness which a free country like America could never match in Czarist Russia, and in Ger many, Italy, and France dur ing the war. Yet it remains powerful in these countries. It seems reasonable to as sume that the effective an swer to Communism here is not suppression, but rather a combination of two things: making our own democracy constantly more real and ef fective and -carrying on 9 constant, relentless campaign of education and exposure, calculated to discredit Corpm u n i s t s and Communist front organizations, no mat ter what camouflage they may try to employ. THE CROSS 2. Would a law outlawing the Communist Party be an invasion of constitutional rights? Col. Taylor NO. There is question of outlawing the Commun ist conspiracy, which seeks to destroy our system of free enterprise—a conspiracy to overthrow our Government. This is treason, and in no place in our Constitution is one who commits treason guaranteed protection. The basis of Communist action in the world, whether in the United States or any other country, is the Communist creed, and this must never be lost sight of. It is their be lief that there will be no peace on earth until all na tions of the world are Com munist. This is a very gen uine belief held by a number of people, and in the further ance of that belief they have developed a doctrine that the end justifies the means and that any means are justified in order to achieve this dom ination of the world, by Com munism. If an American citizen wants to believe in the theo ry of Communism, he has a right to do so, but when he joins a Darty like the Com munist Party of the United States, controlled and direc ted by a foreign government, then he has renounced his lo yalty to the American Gov ernment and he has become the agent of a foreign gov ernment. As the agent of a foreign government he has no rights under our Consti tution. Mr. Chamberfin YES, in my opinion an at tempt to outlaw any pol itical party would be contra ry to the letter and spirit of the American Constitution. This, of course, does not mean that individual Com munists who transgress laws against sedition, espionage, perjury, and commit other offenses, cannot and should not be called to account be fore the courts. But our constitutional law and practice emphasise two points rather strongly. Ex pression of ideas, however wrong-headed and subversive they may seem to the major ity of the people, has ° been left free, insofar as there is no direct incitation to com mit a specific illegal act. And responsibility is conceived as an individual, rather than a group concern. The Communist Party in this country as in every coun try, is a foreign fifth column. There is an abundance of evi dence in the testimony of AUGUST, 1947 15 disillusioned ex-Communists," in the very record of the Communist Party, with its abrupt switches of attitude to suit every change in the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, that this is the case. But the threads which link the Party to Moscow are in the hands of a small number of. trusted leaders, or of agents who are sent here di rectly from Moscow. It would be difficult and probably impossible to con vict the majority of rankand-file American Commun ists of specific offenses against the law. The pros cription of a whole party is alien to our tradition. It would set a precedent which might be dangerous to our basic philoposhy of free dis cussion and government by consent. To outlaw Communists as Communists would involve a grave risk of giving them a chance to pose as martyrs, to invoke the protection of the very Constitution which they would certainly abrogate the day after they came into power. I am not discussing now the measures which would be necessary for our security in the event of arm ed conflict between this country and the Soviet Union. In such an eventuali ty every proved member of the Communist Party would be properly subject to intern ment, just as members of the German-American Bund, of Nazi-inspired and Japanese militarist organizations were liable to internment for the duration of the last war. But so long as we are at peace, I think the following measures would be adequate to safeguard us against Com munist fifth column aggres sion. These measures could all be taken without raising any reasonable question of violating constitutional rights. There should be a careful screening of government em ployees for subversive affilia tions. Laws against espion age and unwarranted betray al of military and industrial secrets should be examined and “ plugged against loop holes. The FBI should be given all the funds and per sonnel it may need to track down foreign agents and spy rings such as the one which developed in Canada. 3. Would legislation outlawing the Communist Party prejudice our relations with countries where the Communist Party is predomi nant or influential? Col. Taylor NO. I say this .because even in countries in the 16 THE- CROSS Soyiet sphere of influence the majority of people arc anti-Communist. In those countries now occupied by armed forces of the Soviet Government, we find Com munists entrenched in the labor movement, the govern ment, the political parties, the schools and colleges, the press, the radio and films, churches and social organiza tions. Their influence is far out of proportion to their dis cipline, their control of stra tegic posts in mass organiza tions, and their ties with the Soviet Government, which has demonstrated its ability to transform insignificant Communist minorities into ruling parties. The number of Communists in proportion to the popula tion is relatively small in China, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithua nia. The Communist minority is struggling for power in Belgium, Italy, France, and Denmark. Even in Russia, with its 187 millions of peo ple, the Communists admit only a membership of 6 mil lion, but in all these coun tries the independent peoples struggling for freedom look to the United States to lead them out of the morass of their misery and poverty. If • we outlawed the Communist . Party of the United States, it would be an inspiration to the peoples of the world who •seek freedom but who are under the domination and control of a small minority of Communists within their borders. Mr. Chamberlin I DOUBT whether it would have much real effect, one way or the other. No doubt there would be a hue and cr-y in the government-controlled press of the Soviet Union and its satellite states about what would be called an unparal leled suppression of liberty in the United States. But the governing group® in Communist and Commu nist-dominated lands hate America anyway and will continue to hate it as the main obstacle to their dream of world domination, regard less of what we may do or refrain from doing. It is ab surd to imagine that we can appease totalitarian Comunism. Communist think ing, in Russia and outside of Russia, is dominated by Le nin’s assertion, repeated with approval by Stalin in his book, Problems of Leninism. *T1 is inconce;vable that the Soviet Republic should continue to exist for a long period side by side with im AUGUST, 1947 17 perialist states — ultimately one or the other must con quer. Meanwhile, a number of terrible clashes between the Soviet Republic and the bourgeois states are inevit able.” Imperialist states, bourge ois states — these terms, by any recognizable Communist definition, mean us. Whatever steps may be necessary and effective in dealing with the Communist fifth column in this country should be taken, in my opin ion, without regard for any reactions that may be ex cited in Communist-dominat ed or Communist-influenced states abroad. I oppose the proposal to outlaw the Com munist Party not because of any fear of repercussion in Moscow, Warsaw, or Bel grade, but because I think it would be ineffective and un wise. It would not stop any phase of really dangerous un derground Communist activi ty. It would divide public opinion on the issue of civil liberties and would.excite for the Communists a sympathy of which they are completely unworthy. The easiest thing Io do about any abuse is to pass a law against it. But this is not necessarily the wisest course, especially if the law is diffi cult or impossible to enforce. Passing repressive laws which the Communists, in all pro bability, can easily evade is no subifcitute for the good ci tizenship obligation of op posing and exposing Com munism on the basis of rea soned understanding. No regime in which the people who live under it have lost faith was ever saved by repressive legislation. But Communism will cease to be a serious threat to our Amer ican way of life when a suf ficiently large number of Americans know with their minds and feel with their hearts that our system, with all its faults, is infinitely superior morally, politically, and economically, to any thing totalitarian Commun ism can offer. — From The Sign. IF... When Barnum toured Europe with his circus, he went to pay his respects to the Bishop of London before sailing. “I hope to see you in heaven,” said the venerable cleric. “You’ll see me, if you’re there,” replied Barnum.