The Man Who Confessed

Most U.S. colleges and universities have agreed that they do not want Communists on their faculties. Many have also decided that they do not want former party members who refuse to answer competent questions about themselves and the party. But what about the ex-Communist who has confessed all? Last week, having answered that question for itself, American University in Washington, D.C. found itself in the middle of a new academic storm.

The case involved was that of Law Professor Herbert Fuchs.* When the university hired him in 1949, he gave no hint that there was anything amiss in his past. Then last June, he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. After one appearance at which he declined to name his former associates, he decided to answer everything. He had, he said, been a party member from 1934 until 1946, when he broke in "complete disillusionment." During that time, he had worked with a Senate committee investigating railroads, had had a job with the NLRB and then with the War Labor Board. At each of these places, he had been the head of a Communist cell.

When news of Fuchs's testimony first leaked out, A.U.'s President Hurst Anderson rushed to his defense. Fuchs, he declared, was "an intelligent, loyal and devoted teacher. He made a serious mistake in the past, which he has recognized and declared." The university, added Anderson, had every intention of keeping him on: "To take any other position at this time would be beneath the dignity of an institution with a Christian relationship and commitments."

As Fuchs's testimony continued, however, Anderson had serious second thoughts. Shocked by the extent of Fuchs's involvement during twelve years of deceit, Anderson first asked him to take a leave of absence. After three months of consideration, he and his executive committee decided that Fuchs should be dropped from the faculty. Whatever merit A.U.'s decision might have had, it proved to be popular with almost no one.

Both the Chicago Tribune and the international-minded Washington Post and Times Herald denounced it. Ohio Congressman Gordon Scherer, a member of the House committee, exclaimed that "to start to fire men who cooperate with the committee can only . . . stop others from cooperating." Said Herbert Fuchs: "My dismissal serves no useful purpose. It denies the doctrine of conversion and forgiveness ... It marks an unfounded fear of publicity and can please no group in American life other than possibly the Communist Party."

* No kin to Britain's Physicist-Traitor Klaus Fuchs.

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