Red Scare in Court: New York Versus the International Workers Order

This study examines a little-known miscarriage of justice during the McCarthy era. From court transcripts and legal files, Sabin, a professor at the John Marshall School of Law in Chicago, describes the four-month, non-jury civil trial in 1951 in which the New York State Department of Insurance dissolved the International Workers Order insurance company because of its politics. The immigrant-based IWO, which had egalitarian practices and low overhead, was in fine financial shape, but the federal government listed it as a subversive organization, and New York State charged that it was an agency of the Communist Party and might transfer its assets to Russia. While the IWO maintained that only its financial health was at issue, the judge ``uncritically'' accepted the state's arguments; since then, no other insurance company has been liquidated for its politics. IWO leaders, Sabin contends, ought to have toned down the organization's history of Communist ties, as most policyholders were not Party members. Although his occasionally didactic narrative may be too detailed for the general reader, the book is a worthy reminder of Cold War hysteria. Illustrations. (Apr.)