Evening star., 1939-10-29

nounced by Speaker Bankhead was
packed with an anti-administration ma
jority consistently Of five to two and
often six to one. The conservative
Democratic members were Representa-
tives Dies, Joe Starnes of Alabama and
Harold G. Mosier of Ohio, the latter one
OF the most pugnacious Of anti-Roosevelt
gladiators. With them aligned two
Republicans. Noah NJ. Mason of Oglesby,
ILL.,, and j. Parnell Thomas of New Jer-
sey. Arthur M. Healy, Massachusetts
Democrat, ranked as an independent,
voting with one faction or the other as
his convictions dictated The one thick
and-thln New Dealer was Representa-
tive John J. Dempsey of New Mexico.
With thorough spadework in the field
OF foreign propaganda already per-
formed, the only task remaining was to
bring the investigation up to date. Hav-
ing easily performed that chore, Dies
and his majority plunged with joyous
abandon into propaganda "of a domestic
origin
This area, in their Interpretation, in
cluded not only the Congress of Indus
trial Organizations but such New Deal
agencies as the Department of Labor,
the Works Progress Administration, the
Federal Theater and Writers Projects,
the National Labor Relations Board and
later the Wage and Hour Division.
ChNSor tor
lette Civil Liberties Committee, Gov.
Frank Murphy of Michigan and volun-
teer organizations like the American
League for Peace and Democracy, the
Workers Alliance of America, the Inter-
national Labor Defense, the National
Negro Congress and the Civil Liberties
Union.
New High in Turbulence.
From the beginning until today, by
general consent, the committees pro-
ceedings have set new high in turbu-
lence, not only legal and parliamentary
but mental and physical. Under blind
ing glare of spotlights and bombard-
ment Of photographers bulbs, members
shout insults at each other or at wit
nesses, who retort in kind. Spectators
and witnesses exchange taunts. More
than once the audience has been per-
mitted to rise and cheer a pronounce
ment of the chairman. Not long ago
policemen prevented Representative
Starnes from assaulting witness with
his fists. It was Fritz Kuhn, fuehrer of
the German American Bund, who had
given Starnes the lie.
The custom has grown up in congress
sional Investigations of examining the
character of witnesses and seeking to
substantiate their testimony before it is
presented at public hearings. These pre-
cautions the Dies Committee threw to
the winds during the first year. IRE
sponsible witnesses were permitted with
out check to incriminate scores of re-
spectacle citizens. Representatives Healy
and Dempsey were prevented from sub
mittlng minority report only by the
chairman's surrender to their demand
that he insert paragraph disavowing
responsibility for the credibility of the
committees witnesses, and admitting
much of their testimony to have been
exaggerated" and biased"
In this respect, the conduct of the Dies
Committee was diametrically opposite in
letter and spirit to the rule promulgated
by Representative Mccormack for the
management of his similar inquiry.
In its report to Congress on January
last, the committee announced as its
major accomplishment for the year a
discovery which had already been pro-
claimed by the Fish and Mccormack
Committees-namely, that the Com
munist party OF the United States of
America and the German American
Bund are branches of the Soviet and
German governments.
Asked Two Years Extension.
In reward for its labors, Dies asked the
committees life be extended two years,
with an appropriation of $150,0O0, and
boldly pleaded its faults as a justifica-
ton of the demand He himself had been
compelled, he declared, to act as Judge,
jury and prosecutor, because funds were
lacking with which to employ counsel.
The administration went into action
against the committee, only to discover
that it had become popular. A Gallup
inquiry announced that "a per cent of
the persons polled had voted in favor of
continuing the committee. The Senate
Of the New York legislature passed
resolution indorsing the step. Dies an
nounoed that he had refused offers Of