The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-08-01

We went there and sent word up that the
managing editor of the Graphic and one of
its reporters wanted to see him before he
left for Washington. Whalen declined to see
us.
We returned to the office and Swain told
me to get on the train with him and show him
the documents that / had secured before he
appeared before your committee in executive
session and made fool of himself.
/ got on the train and sat in chair just
outside Mr.. Whalens state room. l sent in one
of the letterheads as evidence that / did not
seek interview but actually had important
information to give him. Mr.. Whalen sent out
word that he would see me in little while.
Carried Daily Worker.
During the entire trip Mr.. Whalen Inspector
Lyons and several others of his encourage were
busy with suitcase full of Daily Workers.
AS the train drew into the Union Station in
Washington, | saw that Mr.. Whalen would not
see me and I sent word in that I wanted the
original letterheads back. He returned it with
out comment.
Mr.. Whalen and his associates, still lug
ging the suitcase full of Daily Workers,
took taxi for your committee and took
another for the House Office building.
/ called at Mr.. LaGuardias office and was
went there and sent word in that / wanted to
see him. He came out and l showed him the
original letterheads and the photostats. La
Guarda heard the story of Whalen's refusal
to see me and suggested that we go to his
office where we could talk quietly. In his
office we studied both the original letterheads
and the photostatic copies for a long time.
Then he sent his secretary to get a magni-
flying glass and with the magnifying glass
he discovered those fine minute printing
points which were on the original letterheads
given to me by Wagner and on those docu-
ments which MIR. Whalen released to the press.
No Protection.
l called LaGuardia's attention to the fact
that if these things came out the police de-
partment might proceed against Wagner, and
asked him to see that Wagner was properly
protected since we could not go to the police
department and ask them to protect him. La
Guardia called Mr.. Hoover at the Department
of Justice and told him about the documents,
the printer, and the fact that he would prob
ably need protection and asked that Depart
ment of Justice agent take Wagner in charge
to protect him against any possible move the
police might make against him. Mr. Hoover,
according to Mr.. LaGuardia, said that he could
not move unless he were instructed by gov
eminent body
Mr.. LaGuardia then called the State Depart
ment and talked to Secretary Stimson explain
ing what he had been given and urging the
State Department to ask Mr. Hoover to take
the necessary steps. Secretary Stimson sug-
gested that MIR. LaGuardia call Mr.. Robert
Kelley, believe, head of the Eastern Division
of European Affairs. They carried on a con-
versation for some time and when Mr.. La
Guardia hung up, he turned to me and said:
"the secretary says from what he has heard
=
fidence in them"
Mr.. LaGuardia then called Mr. Kelley Mr..
Kelley informed him that since we did not rec
ognize Russia he could not interfere in this
matter.
LaGuardia Astonished.
Mr.. LaGuardia was astonished at the in
ability OF the government to do anything and
in view of the fact that $4,000 had been
asked for an investigation good deal of
which was based on these forged letters, and
in view of the fact that the Amtorg Trading
Corporation was buying s150-$20O, 100000
worth of American goods every year, it was
matter for the attention of Congress. He
decided to denounce the Whalen documents
on the House floor, on Monday.
left Mr. LaGuardia and went around to see
some old newspaper friends of mine before
taking train back to New York told them
what was working on and one of them told
me that he had heard that Washington news
paper man had been Offered these documents
for sale, weeks before Whalen issued them to
the press / learned this newspaper mans
name and went up to his office to interview
him. He told me that he would tell me about
it on one condition that | did not use his name
or the name of his organization in my story
because he did not want to get mixed up in this
thing.
promised him and he told me, that some
six weeks before Whalen issued these docu-
ments to the press, an intermediary for an
other person approached him with an offer
to sell certain documents purporting to be
from Moscow and involving the Amtorg Trad
ing Corporation in subversive propaganda in
this country.
This newspaperman refused TO bite. He said
that past experiences with such documents
showed that they were forgeries and he was
not going to take a chance on them. He did
not even see them, he told me, no question of
price came up because he had said immedi-
ately that he was not interested in the offer.
Monarchist Agent.
| proceeded digging around little further
and learned that secret agent of the Russian
monarchists was in New York. His name, I
was informed was George Djamgaroff, of 655