guanine

Tom

SVINU MILI MLIMLL (HIE EY

AN innocent-looking item of about two
,, olumn inches in the final 1952 edi-
tions of the daily papers just barely
touched on a subject which already could
fll volumes.

It appears that retiring U.S. Secretary

“State Dean Acheson, himself one of
 S€ super-duper-snooper “experts” on

Mommunism, was called before one of

_. Own witch-hunting outfits to explain
why his department’s “screening” appar-
atus had slipped up on a whole flock
ale allegedly “disloyal” U.S. citizens em-
Ployed on the staff of the United Nations.
Acheson managed to wriggle out of
_ this” Stew-of-his-own-cooking by declar-

ng that he ,was merely acting “on in-

Structions” of President Truman on the
Sa Staff issue. That however didn’t
87e his Yankee witch-hunters. They

May iet it be known that they weren’t -

i fully convinced of Acheson’s innocence,

ae that he wasn’t addicted to “subversive” ’

Oughts himself,

(Just at the moment that Acheson was
Setting himself off the-“subversive” hook
# _Testoring his “Caesar’s wife” repu-

‘tion, another senate committee was. -

busy questioning the “honesty” of Sen-
°r Joe McCarthy, No. 1 witch-hunter
f the USA. It seems as if Joe had been
(een a chunk of the dough advanced by
. heson’s anti-Communist smear depart-
Ent ‘to play with the bears and bulls
N the stock market.)
,. ©antime what is happening to the UN
Hoe Tesult of this witch-hunting inquisi-
},,_,/8 all too obvious. By a continuous
Owl of “communism,” supplemented by
iseless Slanders and character assassin-

nh of UN personnel, the “four free- —

"80 proudly and hopefully set forth

ithin UN Charter are being supplanted

lin the UN itself by a tyranny de-

d to make that body the instru-
Yankee atomania! :

1’ Stewart, CCF MP for North °

ipeg, acting as Canadian observer
® recent 7th UN General Assembly,
described the atmosphere: the dif-
of talking to UN secretariat mem-
rrying about their telephones be-
ed; their rooms wired with mic-
ne installations by. the ‘FBI; offi-
rele king in whispered tones and fur-
it Blancing over their shoulders to
e ‘nyone is listening to the conversa-
os Stark, cold fear of a stealthy,
“€; and ruthless force. ‘There are
: ulous and venal men Pr the U.S.,”
nents Stewart, “who see great pres-
ne a gain for themselves in persecut-
With.
th them ++. and the FBI is all over
fraig 42 and known loyal members are
[h. 2 talk on a telephone.”
a een episode underscores a
orgie, ty well learned and too readi
ek upon the civil, democratic,
ah he other rights or opinions of
; a Opens with an anti-Commun-
Re athe barrage—and ends with the
Ne, of all freedom!
ned a anti-Communist witch-hunt is
ist. 2 Communists and non-com-
tatesmen eressive workers, so-called
ty em and professional labor fakers
rtunist charlatans are exceed-

’PPy—and noisy. But this witch-.

‘Christmas season.

destroying those who disagree -

€n from the Hitler era, that.

hunting, like all deadly diseases, does not
stop at proconceived boundaries. ‘With
its consequent destruction of reason and
common sense, this evil turns and rends
its own, with a-zeal no less fanatical
than that directed against its first vic-
tims—the Communists.

This is best illustrated by the recent
statement made by Kirtley F. Mather,
retiring president ofthe American <As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science.

Commenting on some of the U.S. hys-
teria laws such as the Internal Security
Act (1950) and the McCarran Immigra-
tion Act (1952) which prevents noted
world scientists and intellectuals from
entering the U.S., as well as preventing,
American scientists and other notable,
scholars and artists from _ travelling
abroad, Mather points out that “freedom
of travel may not be one of the justly.
celebrated ‘Four Freedoms,’ but for the
man of science it ranks at least as high
as any other ... this whole conflict be-
tween intellectual freedom, essential to
the further progress of science, and na-
tional security . . . is so confused by
prejudice, suspicion and fear, that it is
almost impossible to remove it from’ the
fires of emotion and weigh it on the
balance of reason.”

Dr. Mather concludes his condemnation
of this witch-hunting evil by pointing out
that, according to a 1947 survey taken by

' the Association, “only 11 percent of the

nation’s scientists preferred to work for
the government .. . and that the figure
might ‘even be less today.” And it can
hardly be regarded as a coincidence that
at its December 1952 convention, the

American Association for the Advance-

ment of. Science elected Dr. Edward U.

“Condon as its president for 1953 — a
“noted scientist who has already been well .

smeared for his ideas by. the U.S. State
Department's official, witch-hunters. +

After the Acheson episode we can ex-
pect most anything. We can even see
the joke of the century emerging from
Winnie’s present panhandling visit to
America. Just imagine Winnie being hal-
ed before the un-American witch-hunters

to explain. “how come” he permitted~

Queen Elizabeth to order a command
performance of Limelight, and to per-
sonally congratulate such a peacemonger
and “subversive” as Charlie Chaplin?
With his hand out for dollars and guns,
Winnie would have to do some fancy
Shakespearian figure skating to answer

~ that one—to the satisfaction of the. Yan-

kee witch-hunters!
e

We'll end this first column of 1953 by
saying A Happy, Peaceful, and Prosper-
ous New Year to all the good comrades,
friends, readers, and PT) supporters who
sent us a card with the greetings of the
Somehow we just
didn’t manage to get out all the cards
cf greeting we had planned. Robbie Burns
explained all these human frailties 157
years ago, and they still hold good for
most of us, and especially the writer of
this column! :

Anyhow we’re into the New Year with
a lot ‘of work to do and a lot of victories
to be won. The fight for peace, which
must go on 865 days of the year; the
fight to extend the circulation of this
paper—to bring the truth of events to

’ thousands of new people; the fight to

drive tha witch-hunters into their holes,
wherever and whenever they inject their
poisonous influence to destroy human
progress.

In doing these things, unitedly and col-

f lectively, we can look to the day when

all the New Years will be happy—for the
common people of all lands,

Pacific TRIBUNE
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; Phone: MArine 5288

Tom McEwen, Edi —

Hal Griffin, Associate Editor

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- British Columbia.

Marching together, the peoples can stamp out war.

Attorney General Bonner
Must act in Clemens case

“PREJUDICED verdicts of coroner's juries disposing of the untimely

deaths of working men are nothing new to the labor movement of
: .. There is scarcely a trade union member who has not
seen the memory of a deceased brother fouled by one of these verdicts

-. drawing more on class viewpoint than on factual’ evidence for their

conclusions.

_* _ That being so, the coroner's verdict on the circumstances surround-
ing the death of Clarence Clemens, _Vancouver. Negro longshoreman,
came as no great surprise to organized labor. And judging from the out-
raged Protests of the Negro people in attendance at the coroner’s court
this week, although something of the kind may have been expected, it
nevertheless came as a shock to these citizens whose everyday lives are _
shadowed by prejudice and persecution. ;

_ Months ago the Pacific Tribune broke the silence surrounding the a
Clemens case after every other newspaper in the city had been offered
the opportunity to give the public the facts and had failed in its respons .
ibility to the public. : ree

Case into the open,
d, is itself recognition of the public

service the Pacific Tribune has render

.

The coroner’s verdict in this case may satisfy the NonPartican
machine at Vancouver City Hall. We do not think it will satisfy the
public. Nor do we think it can satisfy the attorney-general’s department _

of the Social Credit government of B.C.

No doubt Nathan Nemetz, QC, as the attorney-general’s rep
resentative at the Clemens inquest, Late: reporting to AtubeyGebeak
Robert Bonner, and one of the first things that must concern the attorney-
general is the need for a prompt review of the arbitrary manner in which
this inquest was conducted and of its disgraceful verdict. 98

dt was a “‘big’’ inquest as far as the number of witnesses heard—
there were 52 in all. This “‘bigness’’ was a reflection of the widespread
public interest and pressure, demanding a full, thorough, and impartial
investigation into all the factors surrounding the death of this Negro long-
shoreman. But that was as far as the “‘bigness’’ went. Any impartial —
review of the police and medical evidence given must show a verdict at
variance with the evidence, a verdict that can only be described as a
crude whitewash of an ugly incident. | ace ; ee

To restore public Confidence and bring about a long overdue over-
hauling of police methods, there is but one course clear: A demand that
Attorney-General Bonner personally order and conduct an investigation
into the conduct of and evidence submitted at the coroner's inquest into
the death of a Negro unionist—and into the verdict brought in by a jury
on which there was not one Negro, not one industrial worker, not one
trade unionist. > ee Ge tree
: PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 9, 1953 —