Howard was between jobs and getting ready to join us in Puerto Vallarta, where we lived in 1954. He wrote about his travel plans, and one of his reasons for procrastinating.
One of the treats of old correspondence is reading about events that later became representative of an era but on that day were just another bit
of news. Howard was more prescient than many, predicting that the face-off between Joseph Welch and Joseph McCarthy "could be one of the great dramas of all time." It happened later on the day he wrote this letter. A disgraced McCarthy drank himself to death three years later. Roy Cohn lived on to mentor Donald Trump.
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| Joe McCarthy covers the mics as Roy Cohn gives advice. AP Photo |
of news. Howard was more prescient than many, predicting that the face-off between Joseph Welch and Joseph McCarthy "could be one of the great dramas of all time." It happened later on the day he wrote this letter. A disgraced McCarthy drank himself to death three years later. Roy Cohn lived on to mentor Donald Trump.
"Another thing that is still keeping me here is the
McCarthy-Army hearings. I must say that the grotesquerie is beginning to pall
just about now, but it still ranks as one of the great morality plays of all
time. I feel that we all need (at least I do) constant reminders of the
foolishness of compromising with what we feel to be wrong. What better example
could there be than Secretary Stevens squirming on the witness seat, screwing
up his mouth with petty complaints, looking piteously at his tormentors, and
then groping for the alleviating word. Well, as I say, I've learned my lesson now
and it's beginning to pall. But another act is coming up. McCarthy still has to
take the stand for the first time under oath and that should be interesting.
What will make it completely fascinating is that the Army counsel, Joseph
Welch, is a dead-ringer for Ephraim Tutt and I keep feeling that he has
something up his sleeve. This could be one of the great dramas of all time and
I wait for it hungrily."
Secretary STEVENS. Gentlemen of the committee, I am here today at the request of this committee. You have my assurance of the fullest cooperation.
In order that we may all be quite clear as to just
why this hearing has come about, it is necessary for me to refer at the
outset to Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant of this committee.
David Schine was eligible for the draft. Efforts were made by the
chairman of this committee, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and the
subcommittee’s chief counsel, Mr. Roy M. Cohn, to secure a commission
for him. Mr. Schine was not qualified, and he was not commissioned.
Selective service then drafted him. Subsequent efforts were made to seek
preferential treatment for him after he was inducted.
The face-off between McCarthy, his lawyer and later Trump confidante Roy Cohn, and Joseph Welch followed. After Welch spent some time casting doubt on the sincerity of Cohn's and McCarthy's urgency in exposing Communism, this exchange led to Welch's most famous question.
Senator MCCARTHY. Jim, will you get the news story to the effect that this man belonged to this Communist-front organization? Will you get the citations showing that this was the legal arm of the Communist Party, and the length of time that he belonged, and the fact that he was recommended by Mr. Welch? I think that should be in the record.
Mr. WELCH. You won’t need anything in the record when I have finished telling you this.
Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us.
When I decided to work for this committee I asked Jim St. Clair, who sits on my right, to be my first assistant. I said to Jim, “Pick somebody in the firm who works under you that you would like.” He chose Fred Fisher and they came down on an afternoon plane. That night, when he had taken a little stab at trying to see what the case was about, Fred Fisher and Jim St. Clair and I went to dinner together. I then said to these two young men, “Boys, I don’t know anything about you except I have always liked you, but if there is anything funny in the life of either one of you that would hurt anybody in this case you speak up quick.”
Fred Fisher said, “Mr. Welch, when I was in law school and for a period of months after, I belonged to the Lawyers Guild,” as you have suggested, Senator. He went on to say, “I am secretary of the Young Republicans League in Newton with the son of Massachusetts' Governor, and I have the respect and admiration of the 25 lawyers or so in Hale & Dorr.”
I said, “Fred, I just don’t think I am going to ask you to work on the case. If I do, one of these days that will come out and go over national television and it will just hurt like the dickens.”
So, Senator, I asked him to go back to Boston.
Little did I dream you could be so reckless and cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true he is still with Hale & Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale & Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I will do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.
Senator MCCARTHY. Mr. Chairman.
Senator MUNDT. Senator McCarthy?
Senator MCCARTHY. May I say that Mr. Welch talks about this being cruel and reckless. He was just baiting; he has been baiting Mr. Cohn here for hours, requesting that Mr. Cohn, before sundown, get out of any department of Government anyone who is serving the Communist cause.
I just give this man’s record, and I want to say, Mr. Welch, that it has been labeled long before he became a member, as early as 1944—
Mr. WELCH. Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild, and Mr. Cohn nods his head at me. I did you, I think, no personal injury, Mr. Cohn.
Mr. COHN. No, sir.
Mr. WELCH. I meant to do you no personal injury, and if I did, beg your pardon.
Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens had summed up the purpose of the hearing earlier in the day. To read the bullying that followed, you can look up the transcript, available here -- http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6444/ -- among other sites.
Secretary STEVENS. Gentlemen of the committee, I am here today at the request of this committee. You have my assurance of the fullest cooperation.
 |
| Robert T. Stevens |
The face-off between McCarthy, his lawyer and later Trump confidante Roy Cohn, and Joseph Welch followed. After Welch spent some time casting doubt on the sincerity of Cohn's and McCarthy's urgency in exposing Communism, this exchange led to Welch's most famous question.
Senator MCCARTHY. Jim, will you get the news story to the effect that this man belonged to this Communist-front organization? Will you get the citations showing that this was the legal arm of the Communist Party, and the length of time that he belonged, and the fact that he was recommended by Mr. Welch? I think that should be in the record.
Mr. WELCH. You won’t need anything in the record when I have finished telling you this.
Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us.
When I decided to work for this committee I asked Jim St. Clair, who sits on my right, to be my first assistant. I said to Jim, “Pick somebody in the firm who works under you that you would like.” He chose Fred Fisher and they came down on an afternoon plane. That night, when he had taken a little stab at trying to see what the case was about, Fred Fisher and Jim St. Clair and I went to dinner together. I then said to these two young men, “Boys, I don’t know anything about you except I have always liked you, but if there is anything funny in the life of either one of you that would hurt anybody in this case you speak up quick.”
Fred Fisher said, “Mr. Welch, when I was in law school and for a period of months after, I belonged to the Lawyers Guild,” as you have suggested, Senator. He went on to say, “I am secretary of the Young Republicans League in Newton with the son of Massachusetts' Governor, and I have the respect and admiration of the 25 lawyers or so in Hale & Dorr.”
I said, “Fred, I just don’t think I am going to ask you to work on the case. If I do, one of these days that will come out and go over national television and it will just hurt like the dickens.”
So, Senator, I asked him to go back to Boston.
Little did I dream you could be so reckless and cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true he is still with Hale & Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale & Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I will do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.
Senator MCCARTHY. Mr. Chairman.
Senator MUNDT. Senator McCarthy?
Senator MCCARTHY. May I say that Mr. Welch talks about this being cruel and reckless. He was just baiting; he has been baiting Mr. Cohn here for hours, requesting that Mr. Cohn, before sundown, get out of any department of Government anyone who is serving the Communist cause.
I just give this man’s record, and I want to say, Mr. Welch, that it has been labeled long before he became a member, as early as 1944—
Mr. WELCH. Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild, and Mr. Cohn nods his head at me. I did you, I think, no personal injury, Mr. Cohn.
Mr. COHN. No, sir.
Mr. WELCH. I meant to do you no personal injury, and if I did, beg your pardon.
Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
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| That question remains. |
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