Is McCarthy on the Run ?
During the past week verbal opposition to Senator McCarthy has reached such a pitch that the impression seems to be growing up that he is about to be defeated '—whatever that may mean. But what has happened ? There has been an open scandal about the attempts of one McCarthyite, Mr. Roy Cohn, to secure for another McCarthyite, Private David Schine, preferential, treatment in the Army; the Senate Republican policy committee has proposed alterations in the rules for Con- gressional enquiries designed to reduce ,McCarthy's official powers; Senator Dirksen, a former supporter of McCarthy, has complained that memoranda have been published without the consent of other members of the investigating committee; Vice-President Nixon has made a very watery speech in which he seemed much more anxious to prove himself anti-Communist than to expose McCarthy as anti-Eisenhower;. and Mr. Ed. Murrow has presented a devastating television exposure of McCarthy. Undoubtedly the most effective single contribution was Mr. Murrow's. It produced an immediate response from all over the United States. It at last gave vent to the pent-up indignation of millions of decent Americans against McCarthy and all his works. But Mr. Murrow is a private citizen express- ing the views of other private citizens; and the mere expression of views will not stop McCarthy. He will come back. He is not in full retreat yet. It is difficult to see how he ever will be until the President, the Vice-President, and the other leaders of the Republican Party give practical effect, within that party, to the feelings of the vast majority of Americans who want Senator McCarthy's powers to be reduced at once and want eventually to see him removed from office and from public life. Public indignation will help. Words and pictures as clear and as pointed as those presented by Mr. Murrow are all to the good. But in the end only deeds will count.
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