Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, National Security Affairs, Volume II, Part 2

USIA files, lot 56 D 581, “McCarthy Hearings”

Memorandum by the Acting Assistant Administrator in Charge of the International Information Center Service of the United States International Information Administration (Humphrey) to the Special Assistant to the Administrator of the United States International Information Administration (Merson)¹

restricted

[Washington,] July 2, 1953.

• Subject:
• Reports by the ICS to the Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigation, U.S. Senate²

You will want to be informed of a problem which has arisen in connection with the reports on Information Center holdings of works by certain authors whose names have been sent to ICS by the Senate Sub-Committee. To date, reports on our holdings of the works of some 370 authors have been submitted by ICS to the SubCommittee, the information having been obtained from our Union Catalog and our purchase records.

The first 303 names were sent to the staff of our Union Catalog at the Library of Congress in typewritten form, in the envelopes but not on the letterhead of the Sub-Committee. These first names were accompanied by a note to the Library of Congress, signed by Senator McCarthy, requesting the report.

Since that time about 70 additional names have been conveyed to the Catalog Staff by telephone, a few names at a time. ICS has repeatedly requested the courtesy of typewritten lists of names, while reaffirming its willingness to render the reports themselves promptly and accurately. These requests from ICS have been relayed to the Sub-Committee by the Library of Congress employee in charge of the operation, since the Sub-Committee presents its own requests in this way and not directly to ICS. This LC staff member was told yesterday that these lists could not be presented in typed form because of pressure of time; Mr. Buckley of the Sub-Committee himself receives the names of authors by telephone, telephones them to his assistant, Mr. Feeney, who in turn telephones them to the Catalog staff, from which they are relayed, also by telephone, to ICS.

This method of transmitting proper names greatly reduces the degree of accuracy which is necessary in bibliographical work. The ICS staff which prepared the report is never sure whether it is reporting on the author the Sub-Committee had in mind, and much time is wasted in this way. If mistakes are made, ICS has no written record to which the error can be traced. For example, a report was made on Center holdings of the works of Bernard Berenson, when Bernard Berelson was the author in whom the Sub-Committee was interested. (In this case Mr. Feeney wrote the list by hand, and the name could easily have been misread.) Ring Lardner’s name was given on the telephone, though Ring Lardner Jr. was correct. Sidney Finkelstein’s name was submitted twice; we had no way of knowing whether the same person was meant in both cases, since an identifying middle initial might well have been dropped in the telephoning.

On the first list (which was typed) Center holdings of the works of Albert Williams were requested. We did not know if the request was for Albert Nathaniel Williams or for Albert Rhys Williams, but since the list gave no middle initial, we reported on both names.

Mr. T. W. Simpson, Chief of the Center Operations Division of ICS, telephoned Mr. Drury of SCA to inform him of this problem and to ask his cooperation in transferring our request for typewritten lists to the Sub-Committee. Mr. Drury told Mr. Simpson that he considered the request a reasonable one.

In the meantime ICS is at work on reports of the works of about 20 more authors whose names were transmitted to the Catalog staff by telephone on June 30 and July 1. We will not, of course, allow reports to the Sub-Committee to be delayed by our wish to receive the names in typed form. However we would greatly appreciate your support in this matter.³

1. Drafted by Thomas W. Simpson. Copy to the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs.
2. ICS was the office symbol for the International Information Center Service. The “Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations” refers to the Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, U.S. Senate, chaired at this time by Joseph R. McCarthy.
3. Additional information on the blacklistings may be found in Box 4, Editorial Correspondence, The Nation, 1952–59, and Box 25, Miscellaneous Articles Files, The Nation, 1952–66, Frederick Kuh Papers, Special Collections Division, The George Washington University Library, Washington.