The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-09-12
HERESY HUNT
PROCEEDS IN
HIDDEN CASE
Liberal Army Officer Is
Feared As "Red"
BY ESTHER LOWELL
Federated Press staff Correspondent.

". =. war department. was
directly charged with attempt
ing to get. Captain Paxton Hib-
ben, 152nd Field Artillery, dis
credited and removed from the
reserve corps of the army with
out itself appearing to be in
volved, when Col. John J.
Bradley, counsel for Hibben,
answered the reserve officers
board of inquiry which is in
vestigating the case.
Col. Bradley filed a copy of
the Boston Transcript issue in
which Orrin Kennedy, former
Associated Press writer, had
made charges of Capt. Hibben's
radical activities" Col. Brad
ley had marked the Boston
Transcript article and the six
or eight reports, including the
Burns report, Of the Army files
which were almost verbatim
duplicates.
OSeQ AS OOlSs
The colonel charged that the infer
ence was that the Army, the Military
Intelligence Division, either thru care
lessness or intention, had allowed its
files to be used to spread false ac-
counts Of Capt Hibben's alleged red
activities" when he himself, Capt.
Hibben, had not had access to the
tiles nor opportunity to deny the
charges. Col. Bradley stated that it
was a reflection on the board of in
quiry and on the reserve corps that
the war department should thus at
tempt to remove Capt Hibben with
out the war department appearing in
The matter"
Whitney Slammed.
Major Thomas Heffernan, judge adj
vocate of the board, in cross-examin-
ing Capt. Hibben, after the officer had
read his own statement answering the
charges of the Army reports, contin-
ued to read from r. H. Whitney's
book "Reds in America" on Capt. Hib-
ben's work, especially with the Rus
sian Red Cross Commission, altho
Capt. Hibben had filed issues of the
New Republic" which exposed Whit
ney and destroyed his authoritative
ness on radicals. Capt. Hibben char
acterized Whitney's (assumed) state
ments as 'monstrous nonsense" gar
bled quoting" and 'falsehoods" and
@Mr. Whitney knew it," he added.
Capt. Hibben said that he had been
prosecuted and his personal effects
subjected to repeated search, his mail
even from his wife opened, and that
mot one iota of evidence" had been
found against him by such methods
used against him while he was on
duty with the army He quoted from
Woodrow Wilson and filed opinions of
numerous national government figures
with whose views he agreed and
asked why, as a citizen, he was not al
lowed to hold those views when there
were at the same time members of
the government who held them.
Russian Views Come In.
The discredited Mr.. Whitney's mo-
tive in writing what he had about
Capt. Hibben was asked by the board,
and Capt. Hibben replied that he
headed the American Defense Society
whose purpose was to brighten peo-
pie" about radicals" Much of Whit
ney's article was from the report of
the ousted and totally discredited
head of the bureau Of investigation,
department of justice, William ].
Burns. The persecution of Capt. Hib-
ben for his views on the recognition
of Soviet Russia and for his activities
in Russian relief work is a hangover
from the "red" hysteria which Burns
fostered while employed by the u. S.
government in order that his private
detective agency, with which he was
still secretly connected, might thrive
by the patronage of scared capitalists
The inquiry is being held in dingy
and deserted locker room of the Army
building, 80 Whitehall street, with
participants gathered informally about
a long table. The display of gold
braid and buttons that one might ex-
pect is missing, for not all Of the re-
serve officers are in uniform. During
the part of the proceedings in which
Capt. Hibben's remarks upon Ameri.
can imperialism in Latin America
were under discussion, one Of the
board of inquiry members suddenly
shouted: what good is the navy IL
you don't use it?"
Capt. Hibben declared that he be-
lieved that liberty should be recon
structed for each successive age. He
said that the analysis Of existing con-
ditions" makes speakers seem radi-
cal. He said he thought we should
go forward with the growth OF in.
dustrialism." He concluded his an
swer to the board by saying that he
had one thing to leave his daughter,
the record of IAN honest man who was
unafraid."