Evening star., 1936-03-27
BID TO HOUSE RED
HEARING DECLINED
BY MRS. JENCKES.
Will Be Out of Town Mon
day, Indiana Member
Says.
ASKED TO APPEAR
TO EXPLAIN CHARGES
Charges Attempt to Keep Evi-
dence She Gave on Education
Board From Public.
BY JAMES E. CHINN.


Out in Indiana where the Wabash
flows, Representative Virginia E.
JenckeS will be keeping some political
engagements Monday when the Sub
committee on Education of the House
District Committee meets in special
executive session to hear what she
might have to say in amplification
of her recent blanket charges that
the Board of Education is pro-com-
munistic and grossly inefficient.
The special meeting was called by
Chairman Kennedy of the subcom-
mittee late yesterday at the sugges-
ton of Chairman Mary T. Norton
of the District Committee, who
thought Mrs. Jenckes should be given
an opportunity to reveal the evidence
on which the allegations were based
Mrs. Jenckes hurled the charges
when she appeared before Kennedy's
subcommittee during recent hearings
on the Sisson bill to repeal the So
called red rider" on the 1886 Dis
trict appropriation act. Since then,
committee members have made some
critical remarks about her attack on
the School Board without disclosing
the supporting evidence.
May Proceed without Her.
Anyhow, Mrs. Jenokes is going back
TO Indiana, and the subcommittee will
have to await her return or act on
the Sisson bill without any informa-
tion she might have about the School
Board. Kennedy is inclined to believe
the subcommittee will proceed without
her statement, and report the measure
to the full committee Wednesday.
II have waited for several weeks
for the subcommittee to meet in eXecu-
tive session." said Mrs Jenckes. II
have made some appointments in my
congressional district which am un-
able to break, and of course, cannot
attend the meeting Monday.
However, I'm going to be active in
bringing to the attention Of every
member of Congress the fact that
deliberate attempts are being made to
keep evidence gave the subcommittee
from members of Congress and the
public"
Testimony on Communism.
Mrs. Jenckes had reference to the
refusal of the House District Commit
tee to include in the record of the
''red rider" hearings, 268 pages of
testimony about alleged inroads COM
munism has made in the public schools
given to the House Subcommittee on
appropriations headed by Representa-
tive Blanton, Democrat, of Texas. Some
of that testimony embraced the re-
marks Of Mrs. Jenckes.
In the midst of the ''red rider"
furore on the House side of the
Capitol, with Mrs. Jenckes preparing
to leave for Indiana, and Kennedy ar
ranging for a special meeting of his
subcommittee, the Senate got its first
taste of the controversy. Senator
Wheeler, Democrat, of Montana intro
duced a companion bill to the Sisson
measure. Whether significant or not,
the Senate referred the bill to its Com
mitted on Education and Labor, instead
of the District Committee. There was
no explanation of this unusual pro-
ACouAC' ~ ID hllO"ll, llOWCfCl, llldG
Senator King, Democrat, of Utah,
chairman of the District COMMITTEES,
is in SYMPATHY with the "red rider"
Rider Called Insult.
Wheeler described the red rider as
san insult to the teachers of Wash
ington, because it assumes they are
going to teach communism.
Kennedy is inclined to believe his
subcommittee will report the Sisson
bill favorably to the full committee,
although there has been an intima-
tion that it might be amended to pre-
vent outright repeal of the rider, but
instead, preclude the advocacy of COM
munism in the class room.
Sisson and school officials, however,
have strongly urged that the repeal
measure be reported in its present
form, and let the House meet the issue
squarely.
Under the present program the "red
rider" cannot get before the House
until April q, since the first so-called
District day" next month is to be
taken up entirely with disposition of
the controversial Ellenbogen bill to
revive the Districts wartime rent
commission.