COMMUNISTS: Shivers & Dies

Last week Congressmen heard a drawl out of the past. Texas' Representative Martin Dies, first chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, was back on a well-worn trail. Dies, who returned to the House in 1952 after an absence of seven years, introduced a bill making it a crime to belong to the Communist Party in the U.S. Maximum penalty: ten years in prison and $10,000 fine. Although five similar bills are already resting in committee pigeonholes, Dies was hopeful. Cried he: "It will once and for all end this issue so far as the U.S. is concerned."

Texas' Governor Allan Shivers went further than Texan Dies. In a St. Louis speech, Shivers said he would ask the Texas legislature to make Communist Party membership a criminal offense: Punishment: death.