Word: dorgan
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...outlawed subversive groups and established heavy penalties for anyone who teaches or aids the overthrow of the government. They all left it up to the Attorney General to ferret out the subversives (although many a legislator would be glad to help) and prosecute them before the courts. The McCarthy-Dorgan education bill and the Curb Communism bill also included loyalty oaths for all state employees--notably teachers...
...McCarthy-Dorgan bill to outlaw the Party came up first in a hectic March 14 hearing before the Committee on Constitutional Law. Dorgan accused President Conant of refusing "to remove Communists from his teaching staff," and mentioned Harlow Chapley, Professor of Astronomy, as unfit to teach because of alleged Communist affiliations ("alleged" referring to Senator McCarthy's charges against Shapley.) Representative Meyer Peterson sounded the keynote: "What is the Supreme Court worry about the constitutionality of this bill? It's about time we took some positive action...
...weeks later on April 2 McCarthy and Dorgan had another chance to sound off on Communism--this time specifically the college-bred variety--before the Committee on Education. Beliefs were as important as lectures, said Dorgan. "Don't be led astray," he warned, "by that hackneyed phrase, 'academic freedom'." "Freedom," he said, "is freedom to do what you ought to do." He left any further definition of what a free citizen ought to do for the audience to grasp by implication...
...strategem did not work--if in fact it was ever seriously considered. The House passed the McCarthy-Dorgan education bill, with slight changes. The revised version cut out "Communist or Communist sympathizer," substituting "any professor seeking the overthrow of the government." College presidents were made personally responsible--colleges would not lose their charters...
Last Thursday the Senate passed a combination of the Ober bill and the two McCarthy-Dorgan bills, along with several amendments thrown in for good measure. The House accepted this version and the bill now lies on the Governor's desk. It looks as if the hasty legislators who began work last January may get their way after...