The Lacuna
Page 125
Listen, I sure was hung up to see what you wrote about our country. Sorry you feel that way, I guess I never really knew you so well. Cats joke around, but I for one still believe in the Patria and I’m just sorry you can’t say the same. I guess coming from another country, you have your reasons.
Don’t be a dog about this, right? Nice knowing you but things change. Best for both of us if we shove off and no more correspondence. No one in my present situ knows of our acquaintance.
So long,
TOM CUDDY
1950, January
The newspapers slump under the weight of their end-of-the-world headlines. ALGER HISS VERDICT: SPY AND LIAR. Larger type even than used for V-J Day; evidently the new enemies are worse than the Japanese. Phony liberals who sell their souls along with the secrets that safeguard our nation. Stalinist tuning forks. Slobbering on the shoes of their Muscovite masters. Henry Wallace is under fire now too, testifying before the Un-American Committee. Henry Wallace, vice president under Roosevelt, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the last election, now faces Trial by Headline. WALLACE DENIES SENDING URANIUM TO RUSSIANS. May God protect him, today he lashed out against the press: “King Solomon should add to his list of things beyond the wisdom of men: why the newspapers print what they do!”
Mrs. Brown noted that Wallace has been reading aloud from his diary in the hearings, as evidence of what was said in the uranium meetings now under scrutiny. “Good thing he kept that diary,” she says, standing in my doorway in a red-and-white-checked tailored shirt. With her, there’s no knowing, it could be the latest fashion or something she made from a tablecloth—or both. Mrs. Brown proves stylish gals can still be thrifty in ’fifty.
She believes I’m taking things too personally. She brings the articles on Wallace, Robeson, Trumbo, those Hollywood writers, the union men, teachers, accountants, office workers, the butcher, the baker, and in the end neither of us is consoled. It’s not just you, she says. People driven out of work, children taunted at school. The children whose father was shot, over in Oteen. What can any child be learning now, she asks, but to fear the wide world and all that’s in it?
“Mr. Shepherd, they have to grow up in this. How will they all be?”
The Asheville Trumpet, February 12, 1950
Asheville Writer Faces Tough Questions
by Carl Nicholas
In a letter received this week from Federal Investigator Melvin C. Myers, the Asheville Trumpet has learned local writer Harrison Shepherd faces numerous charges related to his Communism. Foremost among them is misrepresentation of qualifications in signing an affidavit that he had never been a Communist. He is further charged with falsifying qualifications to serve as an educator. The press release from Myers stated a subpoena will soon be sent to Shepherd with arrangements to follow regarding a hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C.
Fellow citizens of Asheville cannot say we wish him well. It is no source of pride that our town is called home by one of the many Communists now known to have infiltrated government, as revealed this week by Senator Joseph McCarthy at a meeting of the Ohio County Woman’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia.
Mrs. Herb Lutheridge, President, Asheville Woman’s Club, confirms the Senator’s speech was intended here when the freshman Senator first contacted the Program Committee, hoping to make our city the first stop on his re-election campaign crusade through the South and West. Mrs. Lutheridge says honorarium discussion was under way when the Senator’s office notified her of plans to kick off the tour instead in W. Virginia. Mrs. Lutheridge regrets the mixup but stated, “The main thing is, we are proud of this young man going to Washington to ferret out all those with Soviet leanings.”
The information release concerning Shepherd states that House Un-American Activities Committee has full authority to subpoena a suspect and ask questions based on substantive researches, for the public record. If the hearing warrants, criminal charges will follow. The subcommittee is charged to investigate communism in many guises including “education,” which pertains to Harrison Shepherd as many schoolchildren read his books about the Mexican civilizations. In closing, the letter states, “Through a simple exercise of question and answer, the witness may prove his innocence or be seen to hide behind the Fifth Amendment.”
The New York Times reported this month that Communist parties worldwide now have a record membership of 26 million persons.
The Wheeling Intelligencer, February 10, 1950
M’Carthy Charges Reds Hold U.S. Jobs
Wisconsin Senator Tells Lincoln Fete Here ‘Chips Down’
by Frank Desmond of the Intelligencer Staff
Joseph McCarthy, junior U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, was given a rousing ovation last night when, as guest of the Ohio County Republican Women’s Club, he declared bluntly that the fate of the world rests with the clash between the atheism of Moscow and the Christian spirit throughout other parts of the world.
More than 275 representative Republican men and women were on hand to attend the colorful Lincoln Day dinner of the valley women which was held in the Collonnade room of the McLure hotel.
Disdaining any oratorical fireworks, McCarthy’s talk was of an intimate, homey nature, punctuated at times with humor. But on the serious side, he launched many barbs at the present setup of the State Department, at President Truman’s reluctance to press investigation of “traitors from within,” and other pertinent matters…. However, he added: “The morals of our people have not been destroyed. They still exist and this cloak of numbness and apathy needs only a spark to rekindle them.”
Referring directly to the State Department, he declared: “While I cannot take the time to name all of the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy in the State Department.”
The speaker dwelt at length on the Alger Hiss case and mentioned the names of several others who, during the not so many years, were found to entertain subversive ideas but were still given positions of high trust in the government. “As you hear of this story of high treason,” he said, “I know that you are saying to yourself well, why doesn’t Congress do something about it?
“Actually, ladies and gentlemen, the reason for the graft, the corruption, the disloyalty, the treason in high government positions, the reason this continues is because of a lack of moral uprising on the part of the 140 million American people. In the light of history, however, this is not hard to explain. It is the result of an emotional hangover and a temporary moral lapse which follows every war. It is the apathy to evil which people who have been subjected to the tremendous evils of war feel.
Don’t be a dog about this, right? Nice knowing you but things change. Best for both of us if we shove off and no more correspondence. No one in my present situ knows of our acquaintance.
So long,
TOM CUDDY
1950, January
The newspapers slump under the weight of their end-of-the-world headlines. ALGER HISS VERDICT: SPY AND LIAR. Larger type even than used for V-J Day; evidently the new enemies are worse than the Japanese. Phony liberals who sell their souls along with the secrets that safeguard our nation. Stalinist tuning forks. Slobbering on the shoes of their Muscovite masters. Henry Wallace is under fire now too, testifying before the Un-American Committee. Henry Wallace, vice president under Roosevelt, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the last election, now faces Trial by Headline. WALLACE DENIES SENDING URANIUM TO RUSSIANS. May God protect him, today he lashed out against the press: “King Solomon should add to his list of things beyond the wisdom of men: why the newspapers print what they do!”
Mrs. Brown noted that Wallace has been reading aloud from his diary in the hearings, as evidence of what was said in the uranium meetings now under scrutiny. “Good thing he kept that diary,” she says, standing in my doorway in a red-and-white-checked tailored shirt. With her, there’s no knowing, it could be the latest fashion or something she made from a tablecloth—or both. Mrs. Brown proves stylish gals can still be thrifty in ’fifty.
She believes I’m taking things too personally. She brings the articles on Wallace, Robeson, Trumbo, those Hollywood writers, the union men, teachers, accountants, office workers, the butcher, the baker, and in the end neither of us is consoled. It’s not just you, she says. People driven out of work, children taunted at school. The children whose father was shot, over in Oteen. What can any child be learning now, she asks, but to fear the wide world and all that’s in it?
“Mr. Shepherd, they have to grow up in this. How will they all be?”
The Asheville Trumpet, February 12, 1950
Asheville Writer Faces Tough Questions
by Carl Nicholas
In a letter received this week from Federal Investigator Melvin C. Myers, the Asheville Trumpet has learned local writer Harrison Shepherd faces numerous charges related to his Communism. Foremost among them is misrepresentation of qualifications in signing an affidavit that he had never been a Communist. He is further charged with falsifying qualifications to serve as an educator. The press release from Myers stated a subpoena will soon be sent to Shepherd with arrangements to follow regarding a hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C.
Fellow citizens of Asheville cannot say we wish him well. It is no source of pride that our town is called home by one of the many Communists now known to have infiltrated government, as revealed this week by Senator Joseph McCarthy at a meeting of the Ohio County Woman’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia.
Mrs. Herb Lutheridge, President, Asheville Woman’s Club, confirms the Senator’s speech was intended here when the freshman Senator first contacted the Program Committee, hoping to make our city the first stop on his re-election campaign crusade through the South and West. Mrs. Lutheridge says honorarium discussion was under way when the Senator’s office notified her of plans to kick off the tour instead in W. Virginia. Mrs. Lutheridge regrets the mixup but stated, “The main thing is, we are proud of this young man going to Washington to ferret out all those with Soviet leanings.”
The information release concerning Shepherd states that House Un-American Activities Committee has full authority to subpoena a suspect and ask questions based on substantive researches, for the public record. If the hearing warrants, criminal charges will follow. The subcommittee is charged to investigate communism in many guises including “education,” which pertains to Harrison Shepherd as many schoolchildren read his books about the Mexican civilizations. In closing, the letter states, “Through a simple exercise of question and answer, the witness may prove his innocence or be seen to hide behind the Fifth Amendment.”
The New York Times reported this month that Communist parties worldwide now have a record membership of 26 million persons.
The Wheeling Intelligencer, February 10, 1950
M’Carthy Charges Reds Hold U.S. Jobs
Wisconsin Senator Tells Lincoln Fete Here ‘Chips Down’
by Frank Desmond of the Intelligencer Staff
Joseph McCarthy, junior U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, was given a rousing ovation last night when, as guest of the Ohio County Republican Women’s Club, he declared bluntly that the fate of the world rests with the clash between the atheism of Moscow and the Christian spirit throughout other parts of the world.
More than 275 representative Republican men and women were on hand to attend the colorful Lincoln Day dinner of the valley women which was held in the Collonnade room of the McLure hotel.
Disdaining any oratorical fireworks, McCarthy’s talk was of an intimate, homey nature, punctuated at times with humor. But on the serious side, he launched many barbs at the present setup of the State Department, at President Truman’s reluctance to press investigation of “traitors from within,” and other pertinent matters…. However, he added: “The morals of our people have not been destroyed. They still exist and this cloak of numbness and apathy needs only a spark to rekindle them.”
Referring directly to the State Department, he declared: “While I cannot take the time to name all of the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy in the State Department.”
The speaker dwelt at length on the Alger Hiss case and mentioned the names of several others who, during the not so many years, were found to entertain subversive ideas but were still given positions of high trust in the government. “As you hear of this story of high treason,” he said, “I know that you are saying to yourself well, why doesn’t Congress do something about it?
“Actually, ladies and gentlemen, the reason for the graft, the corruption, the disloyalty, the treason in high government positions, the reason this continues is because of a lack of moral uprising on the part of the 140 million American people. In the light of history, however, this is not hard to explain. It is the result of an emotional hangover and a temporary moral lapse which follows every war. It is the apathy to evil which people who have been subjected to the tremendous evils of war feel.
