Nobody Here But Us Mice?

Majority Leader Benjamin F. Feinberg of New York's Republican state senate regarded it as "the finest bill I have ever sponsored during a long career [16 years] in the legislature." The bill: an act to purge fellow traveler and Communist teachers from the state public-school system. Other states, such as Illinois and Texas, have ordered investigations of Communist activities in education (TIME, April 4). But last week, with Governor Dewey's signature on Ben Feinberg's bill, New York went even further.

Under the Feinberg bill, the Board of Regents, the top governing body of the state public-school system, will be the sole authority for weeding out "subversive" teachers; The bill requires the regents to draw up a list of all subversive organizations (the U.S. Department of Justice's list may be used as a guide) and makes membership in such organizations sufficient grounds for summary removal. The regents are also empowered to dismiss school employees for the "utterance of any treasonable or seditious word ... or the doing of any treasonable or seditious act . . ." regardless of their affiliations.

Screamed New York City's Local 555 of the Teachers' Union, C.I.O.: "The bill [will] let loose a reign of repression and fear . . . Legislators [have turned] these last hours of the legislative session into a Roman holiday thirsting for victims." The American Labor Party promised a test of the law in the courts at first chance. Said Senate Minority Leader Elmer F. Quinn: "We are burning down the barn to get rid of a couple of mice."

Another Democratic senator quoted from Dewey's debate last May with Harold E. Stassen, in which Dewey opposed outlawing the Communist Party. But, said Ben Feinberg: "This is different. Shall we permit known Communists ... to take our youths when they are most impressionable and let them teach subversive doctrines? Freedom of speech never contemplated the power to destroy the system that guarantees that freedom."

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