Evening star., 1935-09-29
Special Dispatch to The Star

special DlSpatCh TO Inc star.
NEW YORK. September 28 CNA
N.AD.-The Communist party is tilline
in New York the most fertile fielc
for propaganda it has ever found ir
stuff of Tammany Hall to make the
most of it.
The field. strangely. is the most
generous attempt of Uncle Sam to dc
something for the unemployed. the
Works Progress Administration. which
250.Oo0 jobs in this city alone That
this program is duck soup" for Com
munist organizers and that they al
ready have made substantial headway
is admitted here by every insider from
Administrator Hugh S. johnson down
Discouraged and disgruntled citizens
who have been out of Jobs and luck
for two to four years are naturally
pliable timber for agitators. But il
seems an anomaly that so many oi
them should go Communist" just as
they are getting back on jobs.
f1n0 material Grouped.
The answer. provided by w. p. A.
insiders. is not only that the Com
munists are getting smarter but that
for the first time they find their ma
terial' gathered together in groups
where the Reds can harangue them
and work on them by burrowing from
within the ranks of workers while on
the job.
Many of the project councils the
union organization of workers on w
P. A. jobs exercising their Congress-
given right of collective bargaining"
have become little more than Com
munist cells" Their leaders usually
are not w. P. A. workers at all, but
professional Communists.
The building housing the New York
headquarters of the Communist party
serves as the meeting place for many
of these project unions" Their coun-
Gil bulletins are printed in the Com
munist printing shops, and at least
once the printer slipped UP and put
the signature of both Communist
organization and the project council
on the same mimeographed notice.
No one. of course, can estimate just
how large the Communist gains have
been, but all reports indicate the
party's membership is growing rap
idly School teachers. social workers
whose jobs are to check the work.
relief rolls and others in white-collar
jobs of some responsibility have been
reached by the infiltration of sub
versive propaganda.
Speak for Disgruntled.
The life of Mrs. Anna Rosenberg,
chief of the white-c collar division of
w. P. A.. but soon withdrawing, is
made miserable by frequent and
vociferous delegations of protestants.
A few professional Communists join
various "disgruntled" groups and in
variably appear as the spokesmen for
the unemployed who have been con-
vinced they are not getting all they
should get.
Il thought all this talk about red
scares was the bunk before I came
in here" said one ranking w. P. A.
official, but know differently now.
It's here"
The consensus is that New York Is
a particularly fertile ground for
spread of communism and that the
danger recedes with the size OF cities
affected. but there is no concealing
the concern over inroads already
made.
Communist headquarters is also
headquarters for the activities of
many project councils" an official
close to that picture relates. THE
Communist leaders stir the workers
to protest. They study the Federal
rules and regulations minutely to ask
things that they think we can't grant.
"Yet they trump up demands that
on their face sound reasonable. For