The Press: Is Communist a Dirty Word?

An editor can and does call a Democrat a Democrat, a Baptist a Baptist, sometimes even a spade a spade—but he has to be very careful whom he calls a Communist. Many a Communist-at-heart takes care not to be one officially. What many an editor would like to know: is it libelous per se to call a man a Communist? To the growing body of legal opinion, on which a solid answer will be based some day, two noteworthy items were added last week:

¶The Saturday Evening Post paid $1,500 out of court for...