The Wisconsin State Journal and Joe McCarthy

This account by Sam Tanenhaus, Un-American Activities, reviews the basic elements. The United States was in the grip of an extended red scare arising from what looked like an ascendant, newly nuclear-armed Soviet Union, joined in 1950 by Red China (its universal name in those days). We had "lost" China due not only to insufficient effort, but criminal conspiracies at the heart of power throughout the country, but especially among the political elite. The Democratic Party, liberals, New and Fair Dealers, and unions were to blame for coddling the reds, weak-kneed Republicans too, President Eisenhower himself becoming suspect when he took office in 1953 as a moderate. Think of the recent ebola scare in the United States, whipped up to hysteria on a daily basis by an irresponsible press. But with McCarthy they were in league with a skilled demagogue and it went on for almost five years, large sections of the press establishment acting like Fox News today — entire industries devoted to spreading mindless fear in order to forward partisan ends. Congressional witch hunts, anonymous accusations, and guilt-by-association took center stage, no one was safe. A pall was cast on all public discourse, speaking out tantamount to putting a target on your back.

McCarthy and his enablers fouled the domestic political scene, promoted mindless conformism, and seriously eroded civil liberties in this country, any serious concern for such liberties signifying pinkish naivete if not an outright Communist tendency. John Patrick Hunter of the Capital Times proved this conclusively on July 4, 1951, when he worked up a petition containing parts of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and went about Madison to collect signatures. Of 112 asked, only one would sign, a number of people accusing Hunter of being a Communist. Mike Miller's account quite appropriately says "fear ruled Fourth", pointing out further that:

Not all of the reaction was positive, of course. The Wisconsin State Journal, a mouthpiece for McCarthy, ran a picture of Hunter with a bushy mustache and asked if anyone would sign a petition presented by the likes of him.

McCarthy set the stage for the never-ending war, as if we lived in George Orwell's world, Oceania against Eastasia playing out on the nightly news until the end of time. Even the collapse of the Soviet Union didn't put an end to it, new bogeymen required and produced by McCarthy's political heirs. The CIA helped topple many elected governments (Guatemala and Iran in 1954, Chile in 1973) and did what they could to subvert countless others, the hyper-aggressive McCarthyite cold war program embraced by all factions, with or without the man. The Vietnamese put a temporary stop to it, but the Bushes brought it back — we're kicking the Vietnam Syndrome, baby! George W. Bush's transparent big-lie-telling, war-mongering performance to win the 2004 election would've made the old reprobate proud (weapons of mass destruction!), an effort backed all the way of course by the Wisconsin State Journal of recent memory, still proud to execute his program if not pronounce his name.

State Journal endorses McCarthy — Aug 13, 1944.

The State Journal endorsed McCarthy every time he ran for state-wide office, five times in all. The first time was in 1944, when he was little-known and challenged incumbent Republican Senator Alexander Wiley in the Republican primary. The State Journal was one of four papers to endorse McCarthy that year, the only one outside his home base in the Appleton area (Reeves, p 311). Setting the tone for later endorsements, the 1944 introduction was an effusive, admiring portrait taking up the better part of an entire page with two pictures and an account from McCarthy himself. Staff writer Rex L. Karney fawned over our man ("One spring day in 1939, a stripling lawyer a couple of years out of law school walked into the law office of James Durfee ..."). They trumpeted the "Tail-Gunner Joe" myth propagated by McCarthy himself based on a "commendation" he almost certainly forged (see Thomas Reeves' definitive account of McCarthy's fabrications of his military career in The Wisconsin Magazine of History^[2], p 304 for the forged commendation). The image is from that page, check out the entire thing for the full effect.

McCarthy lost that election, but came in second and staged himself for taking on Robert LaFollette, Jr. for Wisconsin's other seat in 1946. The State Journal endorsed him that year in the Republican primary and in the general election. Wisconsin had had a viable Progressive Party starting with old Fighting Bob LaFollette, but parties were realigning and in 1946 LaFollette, Jr. ran for the first time as a Republican. McCarthy beat LaFollette in the Republican primary on August 13, 1946 by about 1% of the vote with the extensive, sustained support of the Wisconsin State Journal (McCarthy 207,935, LaFollette 202,557). McCarthy went on to win the seat by a landslide in November.

The State Journal recognized the central significance of the Republican primary that year and hammered LaFollette relentlessly to clear the way for McCarthy. Here are excerpts from their endorsement of McCarthy on July 31, 1946, emphasis in the original:

We don't know what a "liberal" is, but there may yet be some who consider themselves such as adherents to the Roosevelt line, the New Deal pronouncements, the philosophies of class against class, the watery pink of Big Government totalitarianism. \[ \cdots \] Joe McCarthy is the man for this side of the line. He's a Republican in the sense of what it means, and it means a great deal to Joe McCarthy besides a chance to latch onto a political payroll and grasp a seat of power. Joe McCarthy is a brilliant and sincere young man, a circuit judge of proved and praiseworthy ability. He is a war veteran who stepped out of a well-paying exemption to volunteer as a buck private. He was a distinguished soldier. He made it the hard way ... as he has made all his life and all his distinctions. \[ \cdots \] To our way of thinking, Joe McCarthy is the "real "liberal." He believes in the basic concepts which have made this country great and bountiful. He wants to put them back in action. He sees beyond the sham of New Dealism. He fears and fights the terrible disease of totalitarianism which has blighted those basic concepts. He sees his country drifting in the directions to which men like Robert LaFollette have lent their weight. he wants to do something about it — and we believe he can.. \[ \cdots \] He possesses the ability, the brains, and — of equal importance — the integrity.

The demagogue was latent in the young candidate, such potential comprising the core appeal of the man to these would-be destroyers of the New Deal and all its works. The "buck private" business is a fabrication straight from McCarthy, by the way, a little lie to go with all the big ones (Reeves, p 301-302).

Wisconsin State Journal endorses McCarthy in Republican primary — image from Sep 9, 1952.

Yes, he cowed many, but McCarthy had willing enablers in all fields as well, nowhere more than at the Wisconsin State Journal. The paper endorsed him in the Republican primary and general elections in 1952, long after he had begun his campaign of destruction. This was a critical election for McCarthy. He'd been plying his demagogic craft since 1950 and this was the big chance for local political elites and opinion-makers and ultimately Wisconsin voters to endorse the man and the method or repudiate them. Here is where the Wisconsin State Journal stood days before the election (Oct 31, 1952) — this is the entire endorsement, emphasis in the original, and read the entire page here if you like:

U. S. Senator: McCarthy

The State Journal recommends Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican, for reelection to the United States' senate.

The Democratic nominee for senate is a nice young man, and somewhat of a political philosopher. But somewhere along the line, he wandered up the dead-end street of rabid Fair Dealism, and he hasn't yet found his way out. He is a down-the-line Truman-CIO-Americans for Democratic Action Democrat. He represents exactly the kind of master-government of which we've had enough.

Sen. McCarthy, despite, some mistakes, has done the nation a service. He has brought the anti-Communist fight out in the open, where it should be. He has forced the reluctant administration to act against Communists and fellow-travelers in the government and out. He has focused attention upon the serious domestic issue of infiltration by Russian agents. And, despite his critics and the most vicious personal attacks directed on a public figure in our history, he has slowly but surely produced evidence about persons and events ... evidence the American voters should have. "McCarthyism" has encouraged our citizens to ask some penetrating questions of "important" people, and demand honest answers.

Sen. McCarthy should be selected so congressmen of all parties will be encouraged to dig deeper into the Red conspiracy and expose it for what it is. It the fight stops now, those who want a dictatorship by the proletariat will redouble their efforts and work unmolested. In our judgment, those who insist that there is no internal Communist threat in this country are badly mistaken.

The Fair Deal was Harry Truman's variant of the New Deal, the Americans for Democratic Action a cold war liberal group, the CIO the Congress of Industrial Organizations which spearheaded the massive unionization drives of the 1930s and 1940s. The endorsement of McCarthyism is direct and full-throated, the hope to continue it indefinitely. It is McCarthy who is the victim of vicious personal attacks, the worst ever suffered by a public figure in the history of the republic. We need to dig even deeper into the Red conspiracy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is nigh.

Many brave people fought back, including Bill Evjue and his associates here in Madison, who did their best in the pages of the Capital Times. Evjue, "perhaps the most distinguished of Wisconsin journalists" according to Rovere (p 163), was himself a constant target of McCarthy and his loyal henchmen at the State Journal, who took their champion's cue in attacking opponents in the press. One of the revolting aspects of this episode is that when anyone got up a head of steam against McCarthy, his allies in the press would attack them vociferously, call them unpatriotic dupes, if not criminals. The Wisconsin State Journal was one of the worst in the country at this game, hearty enablers of McCarthy, enthusiastic proponents of McCarthyism. Here is a sample published in the State Journal on September 9, 1952, the day of the Republican primary that year:

The Conspiracy Against Sen. Joe McCarthy

An Editorial From The Chicago Tribune

Something very like a conspiracy was unearthed before the senate subcommittee hearing Sen. Benton's demand that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin be expelled from the senate. Sen. McCarthy is the intended victim. From the facts that have been brought out, the conspiracy ought to fall flat. We don't think the people of Wisconsin ore going to like what they hear. Sen. McCarthy's lawyer, Edward B, Williams, had Charles Stanley Allen, administrative assistant to Sen. Benton, on the witness stand. Williams produced a letter dated last Feb. 9. Allen tried to wiggle out. At first he said he didn't remember the letter. Afterward he contended that the writer of the letter was a mere acquaintance.

The letter to Allen was written by Bob Fleming, a political reporter for the Milwaukee Journal. This newspaper has been out to "get" Sen, McCarthy for long time. It doesn't like the way he goes out after the Communists and fellow travelers in the New Deal. Fleming wrote Sen. Benton's man that he was distressed that Benton seemed to have chalked up "no sale" with the subcommittee in trying to persuade its members that McCarthy was bad medicine. The Milwaukee Journal writer suggested the highly improper tactic of bringing pressure on the senators composing the subcommittee to swing them around to the Benton view.

Fleming said it was necessary to try to "salvage" the investigation before it became a complete dud. He inquired of Allen what the chances were of getting into the subcommittee's files of evidence when no one was around. He hoped that someone "would work them over." For what purpose was this tampering intended? To liter government records, to plant something against McCarthy, or to pry into the papers for the purpose of making propaganda against Sen. McCarthy? The Milwaukee Journal agent did not say. We think it is plain' that he' suggested something both improper and illegal. Fleming informed Benton's assistant that he hoped the letter would be kept confidential. In fact, he thought it would be better if it were destroyed upon reading.

What is to be inferred from this incident?

First, that there is a cabal against McCarthy which will yield to no ethical restraint in its zeal to drive him from public office, if it can.

Second, that among the-co-conspirators are the New Deal Sen. Benton, his office staff, the Milwaukee Journal, and, from his testimony, former Sen. Tydings of Maryland, who was defeated for reelection when he put his name to the report of a farcical investigation which attempted to whitewash the Truman administration after Sen. McCarthy had accused it of being under soviet influence.

Third, that even McCarthy's worst enemies concede among themselves that there is no case against the senator.

Fourth, that it is apparent that the real design behind the attack on McCarthy is to attempt to discredit him in order to stop him from winning renomination in the Sept. 9 Wisconsin primary, and that Benton and the rest never had the remotest hope that they could win his removal from the senate.

The facts that have now been brought to light are highly reminiscent of the activities of the Washington Post in procuring the indictment of some 30 persons charged with conspiracy under the sedition act in 1942. Mr. Roosevelt approved the prosecution in 1941 as a means of stifling opposition to his war policy. A reporter for the Washington Post named Dilllard Stokes wrote to the intended defendants and induced them to send samples of anti-Roosevelt and anti-war literature to him in Washington. The purpose was to establish a jurisdiction in the capital, in a climate favorable to the dominant party. This was entrapment and nothing else. The behavior of the Milwaukee Journal in the McCarthy affair is at least as discreditable, and and it warrants an investigation to determine whether criminal proceedings are not in order.

The anti-anti-Communists who have been yapping at Sen. McCarthy's heels have succeeded in biting themselves. The public reaction should be an overwhelming vote of confidence in Sen. McCarthy in Tuesday's primary.

The editors at the State Journal lifted this from the Chicago Tribune; perhaps their native wit or industry flagged that day, but it served the purpose. The Tribune put it up expressly for Wisconsin outlets like the State Journal, who broadcast it to voters here. It's the big lie in capsule — the commies are mentioned in passing, but the real conspiracy consists of all these New Dealers trying to squelch our champion Senator McCarthy, whose only fault is pointing out that President Truman is under Soviet influence. We need a criminal investigation to look into this! The intent to intimidate anyone standing up to McCarthy is transparent, including other members of the press. That's what it was like in those days and that was the stand taken by the Wisconsin State Journal.

State Journal attacks Bill Evjue — May 6, 1950

McCarthy directly attacked opponents in the press, depending on loyal mouthpieces like the State Journal to echo him. Mike Drew:

[I worked] five years at the Appleton Post-Crescent, which strongly supported McCarthy, who was born nearby. The senator's unfounded attacks on Wisconsin figures included a number of my admired colleagues at the Milwaukee Journal, where I spent 35 years. At a speech here [Milwaukee], McCarthy introduced The Journal's Ed Bayley "from the Milwaukee Daily Worker (an allusion to a Communist newspaper). Stand up, Ed, and let the people see what a communist looks like." As McCarthy egged on the audience, which raced up to the press row, Bayley fled. \[ \cdots \] In speeches, McCarthy regularly branded Journal executives, by name, as communists. While today that may seem pretty tame, in the 1950s it could cost you a career. But not at that newspaper.

That was a common tactic for McCarthy at his speeches, introducing reporters from opposing papers in attendance with "There's X from the Madison Daily Worker (Capital Times)" or "There's Y from the New York Daily Worker (New York Post), stand up and show them what a reporter for a Communist newspaper looks like". McCarthy often issued his charges directly from the Senate, where he could speak immune to legal charges of slander. McCarthy would say "X is a Communist", freeing his mouthpieces to say "McCarthy says X is a Communist". Nice trick. Bill Evjue had his number at first sight and was always at the top of the enemy's list. The Wisconsin State Journal played an appalling role in forwarding the attack on Evjue year-in and year-out, the so-called news column shown above from the State Journal on May 6, 1950 being a typical hit — here it is in its entirety.

Wisconsin State Journal front page — Oct 28, 1952.

The State Journal supported McCarthy to the hilt and promoted him at every step as a savior and champion. They spurred him on, took all his stances and arguments as theirs, viciously attacked anyone with the temerity to oppose him, including those with the most impeccable anti-Communist credentials who disapproved his methods. The McCarthyism evinced by the State Journal was not casual or occasional, it was a full-court press for years, just delve into the archives if you doubt it. Even the term "support" is inadequate, McCarthy being seen as the indispensable leader of the Republican party and the American people. Like anyone, McCarthy could err on small things, but the slightest deviation from his ideology or methods was unforgivable, a dangerous heresy worthy of condemnation and vituperation. Take the two-line headline on front page on October 28, 1952, days before the 1952 general election, the headline dwarfing the masthead as shown here.

Adlai Stevenson, of course, was the Democratic candidate for president that year, a distinguished and accomplished New Dealer. Here's how the article started:

CHICAGO — Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy charged Monday night that Adlai E. Stevenson has a record of associations with alleged subversive groups and endorses "the suicidal, Kremlin-shaped policies of this nation.'' McCarthy also charged that the Democratic presidential nominee is part and parcel of the Acheson-Hiss-Lattimore group" and that he once had a plan for "foisting Communism" on the Italians after Mussolini's fall.

It goes on and on in this vein, masquerading as news. Who of good conscience would do that? It's like giving a front page platform to a notorious, third tier national leader who promotes and advocates torture as a matter of public policy. Oh, just a minute, the State Journal did that the other day with Dick Cheney. Well he said it and we put it in quotes! Pretty disgusting, both times. At least we now have respected organs calling Cheney the next thing to a criminal. If this were days past, the State Journal would open up with both barrels on anyone practicing such a decent form of journalism.

Wisconsin State Journal editorial page — Sep 4, 1952.

The State Journal had a aggressive, menacing quality in those days. Shown here is the editorial page on September 4, 1952, from the same day as the front page shown at the top of this article (3,000 Hail McCarthy Fighting Campaign Bid). There are four major items concerning McCarthy and McCarthyism. One is by Marquis Childs, a Washington-based "liberal" columnist (quotes helpfully supplied by State Journal editors). The column is somewhat ambiguous, pointing out that McCarthyism had made inroads in the Democratic Party through Senator Pat McCarran, a perhaps unfortunate development, although McCarran had been a lot more effective at red-hunting than McCarthy, he noted. The local talent sneers at Childs because he "deplores Wisconsin's Sen. Joe McCarthy and 'McCarthyism'" (including the scare quotes around 'McCarthyism'). The rejoinder finishes up like this:

In outlining that situation, Mr. Childs performs a public service. He makes it crystal-clear that there can be no investigation of the Communists-in-government charges unless individual congressmen and determined congressional committees do the job.

That means that men like Joe McCarthy and Pat McCarran, who are willing to risk the political consequences, must continue with their work.

The article across the top is from David Lawrence at U. S. News & World Report, title The Issue: Not McCarthy, But The Rats Who Helped Burn The Barn. Burning down the barn was losing China. Lawrence criticizes McCarthy for attacking General George Marshall for his unsuccessful mission to China, while fully endorsing McCarthy's accusations that Communist sympathizers in the U. S. government helped influence Marshall's instructions. There is talk of the Chinese people being sold down the river through treason in our own government and a call to arms:

The burning down was accomplished by a misguided policy. It was aided and abetted by a Communist infiltration in the government of the United States. \[ \cdots \] Let us not permit the "left wing" in America to delude us further by trying to make "McCarthyism" the issue, when the real issue is the presence of Communists who burn down the barn while we fail promptly to call in the fire apparatus.

The local editors offer their own thoughts under the heading Questions for McCarthy's Foes. They assail the Milwaukee Journal and Capital Times and other "independents" and "liberals" as willing tools, quotes around those words signalling their knowing readers that there are many synonyms for "Reds", emphasis in the original:

Those brave challenges thrown at Gen. Eisenhower to "repudiate" Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy sound a bit strange coming from the sources from which they do. Democrats from Adlai Stevenson down point to Joe McCarthy with mock horror and demand righteously: "How do you stand on him, General?" Many "independents" and "liberals" are so blinded by hatred of what they call "McCarthyism" that they can see no issue in the 1952 election except the fate of this one lone member of the U. S. Senate. The Milwaukee Journal, the Capital Times, and other anti-Republican newspapers are willing tools in this conspiracy to becloud the real issues in this year's election. To them, there is no such issue as Communist infiltration of the federal government.

Immerse yourself in the page as an imaginative exercise. Letters to the editor offer scant relief, most of them touching on McCarthy as well. Even at this remove, the cumulative effect is smothering, the insistence on a vast conspiracy not on foreign shores, but at the heart of our own government, one requiring extraordinary attention to expose and root out. This was just one newspaper (granted, an egregious one) on one Thursday in 1952, one of hundreds of outlets spewing the same poison every day for years through magazines, television, radio, and all the paraphernalia of modern communications, amplified by citizens themselves in their families, associations, and communities. It was a form of collective self-induced madness, but in the service of political goals. And our old newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin was at the forefront.

This could go to book length, but there is no point, the pattern is clear and mind-numbingly so if you spend any time in the archives. Every long-lasting institution has made mistakes and the missteps of the past needn't color the present generation if they make a clean breast of it. Therein lies the problem for the Wisconsin State Journal. They want to minimize or even deny their own past, but they didn't burn the archives when they had the chance. It's too late now, too easy to uncover the sordid truth and trying to deny it just compounds the dishonor.

Mike Bertrand

Madison, Wisconsin

January 13, 2015

^ 1. Senator Joe McCarthy, by Richard H. Rovere (Harcourt, Brace, and Company, 1959).

^ 2. Tail Gunner Joe: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Marine Corps, by Thomas C. Reeves, The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Summer, 1979), pp. 300-313.