Word: lamont
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
after graduating, Lamont was co-author in 1936 of an article intended for he Alumni Bulletin, listing and discussing radicals who had attended the College. "Harvard long ago learned," hem wrote, "that the rebels and heretics of today are the leaders accepted by tomorrow. The stamp of the New England Puritan aristocracy is all over it--its economic conservatism along with its tolerance of dissent." The Bulletin refused to print his article, fearing it would prevent conservative alumni from contributing to the Tercentenary Fund. But later it appeared in the Advocate and in the Nation...
Twice during the Thirties Lamont visited Soviet Russia. Among the books he has written is one entitled: You Might Like socialism. "I dedicated this volume to my friends of the Harvard Class of 1924," Lamont says, "but have yet to hear that I made any converts among them." But he sees his own brand of socialism as being widely different from Communism. In fact, he has published a pamphlet listing 53 reasons "Why I am not a Communist." His own program Lamont describes as "socialism in economics, democracy in politics, and Humanism in philosophy." Elected as a Director...
...Although Lamont usually terms himself an "independent radical, "Senator McCarthy would not withdraw the charge of "Communist." In the investigation which ultimately led to Lamont's indictment, the Senator used as evidence against him the Army's reference in a so-called "Communist" instruction manual to Lamont's book, The Peoples of the Soviet Union. The condemned military manual, he reasoned, infected Lamont vicariously. the latter declined to testify on the ground that McCarthy had no authority as a Senator to question a private author's right to freedom of the press...
...Lamont hereby took his stand on the First Amendment. Yet the Supreme Court has already upheld refusals to answer based on the Fifth Amendment, while Lamont holds that it has "scrapped the First Amendment--as a poor security risk." But just as when he picketed strikes 20 years ago, Lamont's concern is not for his personal safety. "I am glad to risk a year in jail in attempting to win a judicial decision properly limited the scope of Congressional committees." the Court has not yet given a ruling on contempt of Congress has not yet given a ruling...
Whatever the consequences of his indictment, however, he no longer laughs off the charge of "Communist" although in the newly-convened Congress the Wisconsin Senator is not chairman of the Investigations subcommittee, Lamont considers McCarthyism an uninterrupted threat to personal freedom. "It is a great responsibility," he says, "to find oneself suddenly in the front lines of the continuing battle of McCarthy versus the American people." But always the freewheeling rebel, Lamont could not refrain from adding: "It is a privilege...