CONTENTS RULES OF PROCEDURE FOR SENATE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEES WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1954 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION, SUBCOMMITTEE ON RULES, The subcommittee met at 10:30 a. m., pursuant to recess, in room 318 of the Senate Office Building, Senator Frank Carlson presiding. Present: Senators Carlson and Hayden. Also present: Boris S. Berkovitch, counsel to Subcommittee on Rules; W. F. Bookwalter, chief clerk of the Committee on Rules and Administration; Darrell St. Claire, professional staff member, Committee on Rules and Administration; and Judge Robert Morris. Senator CARLSON. The committee will please come to order. Yesterday when Mr. Francis S. Harmon appeared before our committee, speaking for the National Council of the Churches of Christ, I suggested if they had statements from some of the denominations which they represented that it would be well if we could have them for the record. I have received from Mr. Charles N. Smith of that office a number of statements from various denominations and, as announced yesterday, if there is no objection, they will be made a part of the record of yesterday's hearings following Mr. Harmon's testimony. The first witness this morning will be Mr. Charles Murray, of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia. Mr. Murray, do you object to being sworn? Mr. MURRAY. Not at all. Senator CARLSON. Do you promise and swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. MURRAY. I do, Senator. Senator CARLSON. Mr. Murray, you may proceed in any way you care. TESTIMONY OF CHARLES B. MURRAY, PRESIDENT OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Mr. MURRAY. Mr. Chairman, my full name is Charles B. Murray. I am an attorney with offices at 1001 Connecticut Avenue NW. I am the recently elected president of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, and in that capacity I received a letter from the Honorable William E. Jenner, chairman of the subcommittee, under date of June 25, 1954, inviting our association to appear by a representative in connection with these hearings. I have submitted a written statement to the committee, in compliance with its rules, and I have only to say here now what would be a synopsis of that: that our association at this time is not organized in committees. We do not have a committee to study this particular problem. We do expect to have a committee, either one of the standing committees to which it could be referred, or to appoint a special committee, to study legislative procedures and make appropriate suggestions to this committee and offer cooperation to this committee in its investigation. The association did, in 1953, appoint a special committee to make a study of this problem, and that committee made a report to the association, which the association adopted unanimously by its board of directors in June 1953, and that report, a copy of which has been submitted with my written statement to this committee, appears in the hearings before the House Subcommittee on Legislative Procedure in proceedings before it in July of 1953. So, I can say this subject is pretty much alive with us here in the association and we do expect to follow closely the proceedings of this committee, and we hope to be able to offer our cooperation and assist ance. Senator CARLSON. Mr. Murray, we appreciate your statement, your oral statement, and the statement you submitted will be a part of the record. Of course, we are greatly appreciative of the fact that the bar association will be of assistance and help us. Do you have any questions, Senator Hayden? Senator CARLSON. Mr. Berkovitch. Mr. BERKOVITCH. Would the chairman ask Mr. Murray to submit a copy of his statement to the stenographer? I don't think we have one. Senator CARLSON. Mr. Murray, would you submit a copy of the statement you prepared earlier to the stenographer? Mr. MURRAY. Yes; I will do that. Senator CARLSON. Without objection that will be made a part of the record. (The statement submitted by Mr. Murray is as follows:) Honorable members of the Rules Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration: Senator Jenner, your chairman, invited me by letter of June 25, 1954, to send a representative of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia to appear before your committee at its hearing and to comment upon proposed procedures for the conduct of congressional investigations. The invitation arrives at a time when the new administration of the bar association is in the process of organization. We are without established committees, and without the facilities to make a present study. However, a special committee of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia in 1953, made a study of this matter and submitted to the association its report, which was unanimously approved by the board of directors of the bar association on June 5, 1953. A copy of that report is attached to this statement marked "Exhibit A to Statement of President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, dated July 2, 1954." This report was the result of many months of serious study by members of the association who were assigned the special task of studying the alleged abuses of congressional investigations and proposing measures which would correct them while at the same time leaving unimpaired the proper and necessary functions of legislative investigations. That there is need for improvement in procedure in congressional investigations is universally acknowledged. The broad scope of claimed investigative powers and the enormous potential for harm to witnesses who appear before committees have given rise to a public demand that corrective procedures be adopted. Witnesses before investigative bodies frequently find themselves in the position of accused individuals. Measures to protect their rights naturally must take a form analagous to the procedures historically and constitutionally provided for persons accused of crime. The privilege against self-incrimination, the right of counsel, the right to be informed of the nature of the accusation, the right to cross-examine accusers, the right to produce evidence in one's own behalf, all these rights are as necessary to one appearing as a witness but finding himself accused, as they are to a person answering an indictment in a criminal court. As would be true in the case of any problem which excites universal public interest, the remedies suggested for correction are numerous and varied. All of them are not practicable or desirable. Many of them are one sided in concept and would undoubtedly produce harms more serious than the evils they seek to correct. It would be presumptuous of me to assert that the study of the bar association's special committee has produced a solution which is free of these faults. Nevertheless, I do believe that these rules of correction, tempered as they are by a profound sense of the necessity of the investigative function in legislatures under a free government, do point a way to an alleviation of some of the hardships and impositions that have sometimes characterized congressional investigations. I should add that this subject is very much alive in the thinking of the members of the association. It is my purpose as president to ask a committee of our association, appointed especially for the purpose, to continue a study of this problem and in particular to follow the progress of your committee in its investigation, and to make itself available to your staff for assistance and cooperation. I thank the committee for inviting the views of our association. Mr. MURRAY. I will also submit, Mr. Chairman, the August issue of the Journal of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, which contains the report of the Special Committee of the Bar Association which was appointed to study rules of procedure for congressional hearings. Senator CARLSON. Mr. Morris. Mr. MORRIS. Mr. Murray, if you have this committee formed, will there be a report of the committee in the next month or so? Mr. MURRAY. I can't promise that, sir. Mr. MORRIS. If one should be made, will you make that available to the committee, Mr. Murray? Mr. MURRAY. Yes; whatever report they submit will be immediately made available to this committee. Mr. MORRIS. Thank you. Mr. MURRAY. Yes, sir. Senator CARLSON. Thank you. Mr. MURRAY. Thank you. Senator CARLSON. The next witness will be Mr. Ernest Angell, and with him Mr. Irving Ferman, representing the American Civil Liberties Union. Mr. Angell, do you object to being sworn? Mr. ANGELL. Not at all, sir. Senator CARLSON. Do you promise and swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. ANGELL. I do, sir. Senator CARLSON. Mr. Angell, you may proceed in any way you care to, sir. Mr. ANGELL. Thank you, sir. Senator CARLSON. The statement, if you have one, will be made a part of the record. |