McCARTHY LOSES A ROUND
next cry of despair. The second is that its unprepossessing au„,thor stands firmly on legality and is not simply to be wished the political scene. The third is that President Eisenhower, :I's feet entangled in the sticky mesh of party politics, has been in a real dilemma. How could he denounce McCarthy ex- P,IieitlY and forcibly without widening the split in the Republi- can party and, perhaps, fatally damaging his programme ? This is no doubt the question which preoccupied him last week 'herOje he made his Press conference statement. It is a pity that contemptuous "it on the cautious answer (and, considering McCarthy's i;nIemptuous rejoinder, he must have asked himself whether the Senator's anger would not be preferable to his insolence), but it is nonsense to speak of the President's " unconditional surrender to McCarthyism." Mr. Eisenhower may not be the aZst adept of politicians, buts he is not to be accused of such " extreme of moral weakne.
Adlai Stevenson exaggerated likewise when in the course thatm's otherwise admirable speech. on Saturday he declared that La group of political plungers has persuaded the President sue, McCarthyism is the best Republican formula for political eha-ess." There was certainly some, political substance in the AZge, but the Prsident and the leading members of his 'ministration canes carcely by this time fail to see that corn- prert,:_e suicir with McCarthyism amounts to a lingering sort of tion "..e. If there ever was any doubt about McCarthy's ambi- on L° be the supreme boss of the Republican party, there is ree now. The question is how to discredit him, silence him, none move him from the scene ? There are no easy answers, and has b ut Republican politicians can come at them. Their task or so. There was a time' when McCarthy, weighed in the balance, seemed to be more of a menace to the Democratic party than to his own. Not now. Mr. Stevenson's speech was a powerful injection of confidence, and it can have the same effect on the Republicans if they read it rightly. McCarthyism would be a cancer in any context, and if the Republicans find the " unity and courage " which Mr. Stevenson counselled, they can cut it out. In this new phase of the struggle Senator McCarthy lost the first round when his party selected Mr. Nixon to answer Stevenson on radio and television, and when the networks plucked up their courage and refused McCarthy free time. Communism itself is hardly more of an un-American activity than McCarthyism. America's friends are to be excused their present anxiety, but they cannot be one part as anxious as the man who now occupies the White House. Unless they know not merely what he should do, but how he should do it, they may as well leave it to him and the American people.
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