Lamont, Corliss, Freedom is as freedom does

(New York :  Horizon Press,  1956.)

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11
 

CONFORM-OR LOSE YOUR JOB
 

One of the most signffieant measures of the gravity of the postwar
civil hberties crisis is that political dissenters are so generally dis¬
missed from their jobs and frequently blackhsted for futiue em¬
ployment. The practice of firing people for theh opinions and
associations has spread more and more from the Federal Govern¬
ment to State and municipal governments, to education, to the
entertainment industry, to the press and to private enterprise in
general. The sort of injustices and inanities operating in the Fed-
■ oral loyalty-security program, which began as a Hmited and tem¬
porary emergency measure, have extended to well-nigh every
sphere of work, and promise to become a permanent feature of
American hfe.

As we saw in the last chapter, public schools and public col¬
leges throughout the United States have almost without exception
dismissed teachers who invoked the Fifth Amendment in declin¬
ing to answer the questions of Congressional committees. Private
colleges and universities, with a few honorable exceptions, have
taken the same position. In 1947 the motion picture studios which
employed the HoUywood Ten fired all of them when they refused
to answer Congressional questions on the grounds of the Fhst
Amendment.

Federal, State and municipal authorities have all followed the
general pohcy of dismissing, or more infrequently, of suspending,
employees "guilty" of non-cooperation with the Congressional In-

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