COMMUNISTS: Cutting the Fog

A Communist, like a skunk, is often easier to identify than catch. No one knows this better than the Government’s Loyalty Review Board, which has often tried to fire an employee for disloyalty, only to have the suspect throw up a fog of doubt and win reinstatement. Last week the Loyalty Board asked the President for permission to cut through the fog by tightening its rules to fit World War II standards. Instead of having to prove “reasonable grounds” of disloyalty, “it wanted to shift the emphasis and dismiss any employee when there was “reasonable doubt” that he was above suspicion. President Truman referred the board’s request to his new Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights (TIME, Feb. 5), which was expected to approve the proposal without delay.