Attacks Rally Hecklers

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Mr. Cobb's letter in Tuesday's CRIMSON complains that the pro-UMT side was not given a hearing at Saturday's rally, and defends the heckling on this ground. But the meeting was frankly advertised as a rally,--not a forum, or a discussion group, or a debate in any sense. And surely Mr. Cobb does not contend that the mob of cat-callers had any intention of engaging in serious discussion, or that they attended the meeting with any purpose other than that of disruption. To call the representatives of such a mob "responsible" is manifestly absurd.

But it appears that Mr. Cobb would defend the hecklers on still another ground, for he states that "the total disregard for the movements of the Politburo ... by most of the speakers showed all too clearly where their true sentiments lie." Besides being logically ridiculous, the statement's implications are patently false. At least six of the nine speakers are well known to be unqualifiedly opposed to Communism; four of them prefaced their speeches with declarations in support of the Marshall Plan; three of these represented groups which in effect bar Communists from membership. In the light of these facts, the reference to the "true sentiments" of "most of the speakers" appears to be somewhat on the shady side of the truth.

If Mr. Cobb and his fellow-hecklers had not been so absorbed in creating the kind of incident on which Communist propagandists thrive, he might have been able to hear the speakers and would thus have been saved from slanderous error. The Czech coup served as final proof that the Communists will destroy civil liberties even in a nation with democratic traditions; Saturday's meeting demonstrated that Communists are not by any means the only enemies of these liberties. In this at least, Mr. Cobb et al are their spiritual allies. Edgar M. Rubin '47.