Mr. Hathaway Registers

Much in the news last week was the question: Does the U. S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights cover U. S. Communists and their peewee press? A Philadelphia judge said it did. Martin Dies, acting as if it didn't, said the U. S. people should ponder and decide.

Mainstays of the Communist press in the U. S. are the Daily Worker and the weekly New Masses. Last month the Department of Justice had the editors of both publications before a District of Columbia grand jury, whereupon they wailed that their rights (and the rights of the whole U. S. press) had been atrociously violated. Upshot: no indictment, but a strange performance by the Daily Worker.

Under the statute requiring foreign agents in the U. S. to identify themselves, their purposes and their bosses. Daily Worker Editor Clarence Hathaway registered with the State Department in Washington. But, said Mr. Hathaway in his registration statement: "We do not act as agent for any foreign principal." Why then, asked the State Department, did foxy Mr. Hathaway register? Obvious answer: Editor Hathaway fears a jury might find that the Daily Worker is in deed the agent of a foreign principal.

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