Evening star., 1939-05-25
Dies Probers DELAY
Public Hearings on
fascist Front
House Committee to Ask
Additional $4,000
To Extend Inquiry

Postponing further public hearings
until summer, the House Committee
on Un-American Activities planned
today to send an agent into the
hills of West Virginia" to examine
three tons" of evidence bearing on
the establishment in the United
States of a united anti-C Communist
political party.
The evidence, supposedly docu-
mentary material. is in the possess
sion of George E. Deatherage, ma
tional commander Of the Knights
of the White Camellia and founder
of the American Nationalist Confed-
Grafton. The latter organization, in
tended by its founder to be the nu-
cleus of the Nationwide movement,
was described by the top man among
the knights as Fascist" party. It
used the swaStika as it's symbol.
The further examination of Mr..
Deatherages material on this mat
ter was suggested by the West Vir-
ginian himself after he had told of
cooperating with German and Ital-
ian organizations fighting COM
munism.
Moseley Testimony Deferred.
Meanwhile the committee deferred
until its summer opening the ap-
pearance of Maj. Gen. George Van
Horn Moseley, U. S. A., retired, who
had been marked to head the united
American fight against Judaism
and communism" Chairman Dies
disclosed that he plans in the in
terim to seek an additional $4,000
appropriation.
Referring to testimony of an anti
Semitic campaign purported to be
based on fears of revolution, Rep
resentative Dies said:
That was just a tidbit of the
stuff we've got and we've got to have
more money to carry on the work
Last year, with only S25 900 to work
with, We we're criticized for not
bringing a lot of these people in.
Il asked for $4,000 this year, but
some members of the House who
thought they knew more than I did,
arranged it so that We got only
100000.
I'VE ought to subpoena 500 to 700
witnesses-maybe 1000, and we can't
do it with the fund We have. We
have to pay travelling expenses and
IS day besides"
obviously PrO-Fascist."
Mr.. Dies said in a statement he
intended to expose every n-Ameri-
can activity possible. Discussing tes-
timony of Dudley P. Gilbert of New
York, James E. Campbell of Ovens
boro, KY, and Mr.. Deatherage, Mr..
Dies declared they had been active
in disseminating anti-Semitic "and
obviously pro-Fascist and pro-Nal
propaganda
Although these men all claimed
they only seek to preserve the Amer
ican form of government" Mr.. Dies
said, there was one uniform fact
which stood out common to all three.
They are all on record as believing
that military nationalist form of
government is necessary or inevi-
table"
Mr.. Deatherage testified yesterday
that he once visited the German
Embassy here to learn the extent of
this anti-Jewish feeling" in Ger
many. An Embassy Official told
him, he asserted, that there was
more of such feeling in the United
States now than there was in Ger
many before Chancellor Hitler came
into power.
Mr.. Deatherage said he was not
advocating Fascism in the United
States. but said he thought events
were pointing inevitably toward it.
HaIlahan Issues Denial.
In Charleston. w. Va, last night
Republican National Committee
man Walter S. Hallahan of West
Virginia declared utterly untrue"
testimony of Mr. Deatherage that
he promised aid for magazine to
further campaign against sub
verSive" Jewish and Communist Or
carnations. The commander of the
knights testified yesterday that Mr..
Hallahan promised him aid for the
magazine. but he ran out on me-"
The Republican committeeman
wired Chairman Dies that he was
"astounded" by the testimony and
added:
''In view of this mans conduct
before your committee, I doubt if
you need any further evidence of
his instability, but I should like to
state for the record that his state
ment so far as it involves me is ut
terly lIntrlIe"