The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1938-12-08
BUND'S LEADER
HEARS HIMSELF
FLAYED BY DIES
Destruction Of Group.
Urged at Probe

NEW YORK. Dec. 8 GN.S.)
With Fritz Kuhn, leader of tn
German-American bund, anon
his listeners, Representative Ma
tin Dies today compared the pre-
cedure of the House committee il
vestigatng un-American activitie
to that followed in proSecutin
administering thief to cate
a thief.
Dies. chairman of the commi
tee, told the New York Stat
Economic Council that just as
prosecutor uses a criminal to tie:
tify against another criminal, S
his committee has used COMMIT
nistS to reveal communism.
GLAD KUHN ATTENDED
When informed Of Kuhn
presence, Dies said:
I'm glad he's here. I wish
Browder Communist LEADER
was here, too. They'd hear some
doctrines they sadly need.
The enemies of this country
have attempted to create the
false impression that many of
the witnesses who have ap-
peared before the committee
have not been credible or re-
liable. A few of the witnesses
have been branded 'screWballs.'
Some of the witnesses we're
confessed Communists and most
Communists are 'Screwballs,' but
but in order to find out about
Communist activities we had to
hear from witnesses who know
something about Communist &C
Invites.
LIKE STATES EVIDENCE
only Communists or former
Communists are fully &C
Qualnted with the inner work
ings of the Communists. Many
criminal convictions were based
upon the testimony of criminals
VINO participate in the commIS-
sion OF CRIME, but who turned
States evidence.
The recent spy conviction
was based upon the testimony
OF one of the sel1-cCnfesSed spies,
and his testimony was more fan
tastlc than anything we have
heard. OF course, the actipitles
OF Communists are often fan
tastic. Nothing could be more
fantastic than Communism IT.
self.
The committee does not
vouch for the credibility of all
the witnesses that it hears, any
more than a court or a jury.
Some of the testimony we will
discard as false or biased, or
exaggerated.
WILL BE DISREGARDED
None Of our findings will be
predlcated upon such testimony
or upon opinions or hearsay.
We are similar to a jury which
hears all the evidence and then
reaches a verdict based on the
weight of credible evidence.
Before We hear a witness
we investigate as carefully as
possible his background and
connections in order to ascer-
tain whether he should be
heard. But it is impossible to de-
termine definitely whether a
witness is credible until all the
witnesses are heard, and then
through comparison we can sep
arate the chaff from the wheat.
In other words, the determi-
nation of the credibility Of one
or more witnesses must be ulti-
mately measured by the teSti.
monies of all the witnesses.
There is one astounding fact
which we have discovered: The
testimony of witnesses from
widely separated sections Of the
country corrorborate each other
to large extent.
EVIDENCE DOVETAILS
"While Homer Martin called
Frank Knox a 'screWball,' when
we read the testimony Of both
witnesses we find that it coin
cideS on every material point.
We further find that witnesses
like Martin, Dobrynski, Engar,
Mccartney and others who are
officials in the CLIO and there
fore. cannot be accused Of beng
prejudiced against the CLIO,
c ooIroborate the testimony Of
other witnesses who have been
denounced as labor spies"
Asked why Kuhn was not per-
nitted to testify before the com.
nittee, Dies said:
He did not come with clean
hands. He told his local bundS
to destroy their records; but he
was not quick enough. We got
some Of them. 1 don't like 5lus
bund; 1t should be destroyed"
ICKES CALLED RADICAL
Previously, Secretary of the In
erior Harold IckeS and Law Pro
essor Felix Frankfurter, of Har-
ard University, were named as
members of an organization de
Misunderstanding Ameri-
an Civil Liberties Union-by
lieut.. Col. Nathan r. Reed, who
'etired from the Army after the
World War and now lives in
florida. He said Ickes' speech
before the Civil Liberties Union in
Iew York last winter was dis
inctly radical"
ED Tile PEST