13
 

IS THE TIDE TURNING?
 

The year 1955 saw decided improvement in the civil liberties
situation. Court decisions in a number of important cases ex¬
hibited a new concern for the Bfll of Rights on the part of the
Judiciary. The State Department eased up on the granting of pass¬
ports; the Administtation's wire-tapping bfll, which the House of
Representatives had passed in the previous Congress, could not
even get reported out of committee; and the Justice Department's
whole system of subsidized informers became widely discredited
when Harvey Matusow and other Government witnesses revealed
that they had been making lucrative careers out of lying.

The marked decline in the power and prestige of Senator Mc¬
Carthy has been a large element in the slowing down of the
witch-hunt throughout America. The elections of 1954 resulted in
a Democratic majority in Congress and brought Democratic con¬
tiol of the Congressional investigating committees. The Perma¬
nent Subcommittee on Investigations, after Senator McCleUan
succeeded McCarthy as chairman, pursued a quite moderate
course. This was in sharp contiast with the wild forays stfll con¬
ducted by the Internal Security Committee of the Senate and the
Un-American Activities Committee of the House.

In 1955 two Congressional committees, surprising to relate,
actually did something on behalf of civfl liberties. A Senate sub¬
committee investigated the Federal loyalty-security program and
found that it had grave defects and injustices. More signifl-