Having haggled over everything from the art of doctoring pictures to the merits of telephone transcripts, the Greatest Show on TV is moving into its third week. Crawling through points of order, irrelevancies, and grandstand speeches, the McCarthy-Army controversy has become unpopular both to a large share of its semi-captive audience and some of the principles involved. A growing sentiment, represented by Senator McCarthy when he called it "a fight over a private in the Army," teamed with his frequent allusions to "razors near America's jugular vein" have resulted in considerable pressure to cut short the hearings.

Yet under the easy-going chairmanship of Senator Mundt, the hearings have aimed at anything but brevity. Mundt's smiling submission to stalling and deviations on both sides and to the points of disorder raised by McCarthy, has won him acclaim as an impartial and patient judge. But this leniency has let the inquiry roam through so many irrelevant topics, that talk of a Christmas recess is hardly unwarranted. At the rate hearings have progressed so far, public interest will surely ebb long before they are finished. Moreover, the television networks, which have taken terrific losses in return for their extensive coverage, will probably omit portions of the inquiry.

This would not be a bad thing, were the hearings merely the squabble over Private Schine to which McCarthy has referred. But they are of far greater importance. Charges on both sides range from blackmail to flagrant misuse of authority. To these, the hearings have added the possible charge of perjury. And beneath these questions lie the broad issues of Congressional investigations and the Army's security program.

But faced with mounting resentment, the Committee has two alternatives on the conduct of the inquiry. It can continue the hearings as they are now being run, allowing each side to present all its witnesses, or it can limit the inquiry to only one or two of the principles. Senator McCarthy has endorsed the second alternative, saying that he has far more important matters to resume. This alternative, however expedient, is only a shortcut to distortion. By denying either side full freedom to present its case, the Committee would give the public an incomplete picture of the controversy. Equally important, it would give either side an excuse to pin a label of bias on the Committee's final report.

The inquiry, then, must follow its originally planned course. In some ways this may seem unfair to the Army. From the beginning, when interest was at its peak, Secretary Stevens was subjected to endless cross-examination by McCarthy. According to the Committee's ground rules, Army counsel Sherman Adams must take the stand next. Thus, long before McCarthy and Cohn testify, the hearings will have lost much of their novelty to many viewers. But to change the order of witnesses, the Committee would again have to compromise with McCarthy, and any such compromise would only strengthen his position. The Senator must face the same cross-examination on the stand that Stevens has undergone. And the public will see it, for even if interest and the television cameras are turned off before McCarthy appears as a witness, both will then revive.

The only way left to shorten the inquiry, then, is to stop irrelevant oratory and stay within the scope originally planned. Senator Mundt, as Committee chairman, is the only man who can keep the hearings in line. But to cut down digressions, he will have to discard his smiling manner for the less popular role of bulldog.