like talking to the tribes consulting with them on all kinds of things. but i think it is a great thing. >> wonderful. ladies and gentlemen, i would like to thank you for your attention and your considerate attentiveness paid to these two gentlemen. i think it is an important conversation we began, when i listen to the work that remains to be done. 30 out of 300 inventories, for example, in leigh's case. there is much work to do, many more roads to travel to get where we need to be for all of our ancestors to rest in peace. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

we are showcasing the history of wheeling, west virginia. visit c-span.org\local content. we continue now with a look at wheeling. this is american history on c-span3. >> there have been a wealth of requests that the information given for anyone who might be performing any work for the communist party. >> the term mccarthyism entered the lexicon of american history right here in wheeling on the spot. today we are in the mcclure hotel at 12th and market street

in wheeling, west virginia which is important because of its association with senator joseph mccarthy. joseph mccarthy was only 40 in 1950 when he came to wheeling. he was not a well-regarded senator at that time. he had a penchant for calling his fellow senators names. he was always rather rumpled had an edge to him. he was at the height of his power, any sense. he was a bright man. he had a photographic memory. he tended to lie about things. he made up much of his resume that was not true. he was coming up for reelection

in 1952. this is 1950. a lot of people felt he had not done a lot and were getting concerned. so, he got a group of advisors together in d.c., one of which was a priest from georgetown. he said, what can i run on? i need an issue. the priest pushed very much anti-communism, traders and government. that was kind of the basis for -- traitors in the government. you have to understand at that time in american history, it was different from today. >> recognizing a communist physical appearance counts nothing. if he declares himself to be a communist, we take his word for it. >> it was called the age of anxiety. it was a time of great fear. five years after world war ii, the communist armies had taken pretty much eastern europe. in 1949, the fall of 1949, america decided, yes, communism had taken over china.

in the gop came out with their platform and the basis for their platform was they went after truman and the democrats. they were soft on communism. they were socialists. they were bringing about the downfall of america. people reading this, they were very upset about what was going on. so, that was the background for mccarthy coming to wheeling. it was at the time of the lincoln day dinner. all across the country republicans were sending out speakers to speak at the great gatherings at the lincoln day dinner. mccarthy was assigned to wheeling. wheeling at that time was not a big city. we had 59,000 people. the dinner itself was held at the mcclure hotel colonnade

room. it was to start at 6:30 p.m. it was in the paper for days before how they were organizing this. this was a big deal for wheeling. he was introduced by william callahan, who was a regional republican bigwig. they described the talk that he gave as intimate and humorous and kind of folksy. he had an irish wit about him. he could be very ingratiating when he wanted to be. he had a vague grin -- had a big grin. and he talked about the republican platform. he talked about the war between good and evil, between atheist communism and the christian democratic societies. outer his had just been -- alger hiss had just been

convicted some weeks before of perjury, but he was actually being convicted as a spy. he made a big deal about that. and then he had the key to the talk. i want to read exactly the words from the newspaper. and what he said was -- while i cannot take the time to name all the men in this state department who have been named as members of the communist party and members of a spy ring, i have here in my hand a list of 205 -- and he waved a piece of paper to the people -- that were known by the secretary of state as being members of the communist party who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy in the state department. now anybody who had the sense

here -- this was a terrific charge. he was saying there were card-carrying communists in the state department working as members of the american government and the secretary of state and this and they were still there. he went on. he continued his talk. at the end, he said, well now, it is a moral battle between good and evil. the chips are down, the chips are truly down. he kind of ended with that. there were questions and answers. he invited the audience to talk to him. and there it lay. the local radio station had carried his talk. one of the reporters from the wheeling intelligencer in the paper the next day reported verbatim a lot of what he had said. when mccarthy was to go back to

the airport, he was shown the paper, and the headline in wheeling's paper was "mccarthy charges the reds hold u.s. jobs." it was beginning to don on him -- dawn on him that he had something there. the next day, he flew out and he was going to go to reno. he made the same statement and salt lake city. except he changed the number. his next talk, the series of talks, the number went to 91. he was always changing the number because he had no list. he had no names. it was all a big lie. in several weeks, only several weeks later in march, a great cartoonist for the washington post did a cartoon, and he had

cans of tar and at the largest can of tar he put across it "mccarthyism." people were quoting the phrase mccarthyism, which meant you are tarring people and for no good reason. 6000 people left government. there were all kinds of questionnaires and security checks on people in government and we lost experts in the state department because of this crusade. of course, 1952, there was a republican victory. eisenhower, the senate went republican. which meant mccarthy got the chair position on two important committees. one was an investigatory committee for government. and he took off. >> the average american can do very little insofar as digging

communist espionage agents out of our government. they must depend upon those of us that they send down here to man the watchtowers. >> that is where he started the bullying tactics, calling everybody under the sun to come in, and that is where the story really starts. people would resign from government rather than come before his committee. people feared joseph mccarthy. if you took him on in the senate, you could often end up without a job. it he had power. he had subpoena power. he had all kinds of power. the longer he went, he took on general george marshall, the hero of world war ii, and he just went after marshall, and they thought surely he would

come out and take him on, but he didn't. that was not eisenhower's way. but when he took on marshall that was pretty bad. and then he went after the army and communists in the army. and he did not take on the army so easily. the army had a lawyer, mr. welsh. >> senator mccarthy, i don't know anything about the application he filled out. mr. dinkins -- you don't know anything about that? senator mccarthy -- i never saw it. senator, i have the application that he filled out, and i can show you -- >> don't tell me i notarized it? >> what? >> don't tell me i notarized it. >> no, you merely signed it. [laughter] >> there were 36 days of

hearings in 1954 on television -- and television came into the picture. and people began to see, and i must say, mccarthy was a heavy drinker and he was starting to go too far. he would interrupt -- point of order, point of order. >> point of order? >> i don't know what it is, but it is a point of something. >> [indiscernible] >> my point of order is yesterday mr. dinkins was imposed upon and so was the secretary of the army by having a doctored or altered photograph produced in this courtroom as if it were honest, in the committee room, as if it were honest. >> it was rude and unruly and they talked about this as a

point of order on the streets america. when tv showed how he was, he lost a lot of public support. then he tried to name this young lawyer. whenever he named somebody, it was like tar on them. it was bad. he named this lawyer and this other lawyer just went after mccarthy. >> i have been through this man's record and i want to say mr. welsh, he has been labeled long before he became a member. as early as 1944. >> we know he belongs to the lawyers guild. >> [indiscernible] >> you have done enough. have you no sense of decency sir?

at long last, and have you no sense of decency? >> i do not know what you refer to, mr. welsh. >> mr. mccarthy, i will not discuss this any further with you. you have sat within six feet of me. you have asked me questions. you say you have a list. if there is a god in heaven, it will do neither you nor your cause any good. i will not discuss it further. you, mr. chairman, may, if you will, call the next witness. [applause] >> republicans lost the senate in 1954. so, the senate then decided to censure joseph mccarthy and they did by a vote of, i think, 67 to 22. all the people who voted for him were republicans.

that was the end of him, pretty much. at the end of the trail there was never anybody in the government they could prove was a card-carrying communist. never. mccarthy had lost his base and he kind of faded away. and this was a man who needed constant attention. when he walked in a room, he wanted to be noticed. he wanted to be the center of attention. without that, he lost something of himself. he began to drink more heavily and he actually was dead within seven years of wheeling. he was 48 years of age. he died of cirrhosis of the liver. his body shut down because of the heavy drinking. as a historian i look upon it and i think, i wish it had not started here. because that is one of the things we are known for. the mccarthy speech and mccarthyism started here in the city. it was not a good impact on the country. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring

wheeling, west virginia. our cities tour staff recently traveled there to learn about its rich history. learn more about wheeling and other stops on c-span's city store at c-span.org/localcontent. you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. monday night on the communicators, we look at the technology industry. we met up at this year's consumer electronics show in las vegas. president in ceo of electronic and fcc commissioner michael o'rielly. >> we have been a solving problems of the world. not to sound too grandiose, but

driverless cars, save cars, food production, hunger. there are a lot of ways of sensing get information to your doctor. analyze, use the cloud. safety of everything. exploring things you know. you're taking a lot of profits. we are going to be reducing them in the future. >> it is a great opportunity for us as a company. our next generation of activities. we are talking about our semi-autonomous vehicles. we are also talking