THE FEAR OF FREEDOM

Fear of freedom results in loss of freedom- this is the problem confronting Americans today. Francis Biddle, formerly Roosevelt's Attorney General, examines the record, proving- by reference to the past- that every aspect of today's techniques has been tried and found wanting. He goes back to the brief period of the Alien and Sedition acts; to the panic in England during the French Revolution and Napoleonic period; to the 1917 nightmares of the Espionage Act, the Palmer raids, and so on. He then analyzes the various aspects today, the UnAmerican Activities Committee which have created prejudice and suspicion; the challenge to freedom to teach; the creeping paralysis of freedom of thought and speech; the Loyalty Oaths and the dilemma of liberty and security; the defective procedure of the Loyalty Review Board; the danger of weakening the F.B.I. We must wake up to the menace of this contagion of fear, a vital problem for all Americans. Not easy reading but worthwhile.