The Hardin tribune-herald., 1939-12-21
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~ JAMES PREsToM

With Congress soon to deter
mine whether it will continue
the Dies Committee investiga-
ton of 'isms," the real story
behind Representative Martin
Dies is one of Washington's
most interesting.
The story starts pack before
1920 with a gangly youth whose
father was an outstanding
member Of the House of Repre-
sentatives. Young Martin, vino
went to Washington with his
father and was graduated from
law school there, caught the
political bug. His ambition was
to follow in his fathers foot
steps.
In 1881, after his father had
died, Martin Dies, then only
80, was elected to represent his
fathers old Texas district.
Young, husky, full of ambition
he realized that if he injected
himself into affairs of the
House too prominently at first,
the older members wouldn't like
it.
So Dies decided to stay out
of the public eye until he got
acquainted. He organized what
he called the "Demagogues'
Club" AS soon as any member,
old or young, made a rousing
speech for economy and then
voted for a big appropriation,
Dies ushered them into the
cloakroom where, before a
laughing group of fellow Con-
greSSmen, the man was made
a member of the "Demagogues
Club"
This fun-making won Dies
many friends, among them
Speakers Rainey of Illinois,
Byrns of Tennessee and Gar
ner of Texas, all OF whom he
inducted into the club. About
that time. the Texas youngster
decided he was ready to branch
out.
He became interested in sill
YER. knowing that some legis-
lation was coming along soon.
So when the existing silver pur-
chase plan first was suggested, |,
Dies put it into bill form. He
became so well-informed on the
subject that the House Ways
and Means Committee, one OF
the hardest boiled and best
posted in Washington, spent
four hours instead of the usual
Is or 20 minutes, discussing the
subject.
The silver bill became law.
AS a reward, Dies got a place
on the important Rules Com
mittee. That wasn't enough to
keep him busy, so it was only
natural that he should become
interested in "isms." They were
new to him because they are
little heard of in Texas.
After much preliminary study
he got the House to adopt a
resolution creating Ills commit
tee and giving him $4,000 for
an investigation of un-Amerl-
can ismS.
Then Dies got his first set
back. The House allowed him
only $4,000 because the reso-
luton creating his committee
specifically empowered him to
borrow clerks and investigators
from existing government agen-
cieS, all of which were aiding
the LaFollette Committee in the
Senate.
Next, in order to trace finan-
cial contributions to ism" Or
ganizations, Dies requested a
Presidential order. like that
given to the Senate Lobby In
vestigating committee, permit
ting him to inspect Federal in
come tax returns. That too,
was denied him.
Dies went ahead with the in
vestigation. He decided that the
only way to do it was to
stage a headline snow" and
get the House to appropriate
more money. He succeeded, but
in the initial headline hunting
stage he erred. He let witnesses
rave and rant and talk pure
hearsay. He got the additional
money, but he had created an
unfavorable impression of the
committee in many responsible
Washington quarters.
When the Committee really
got down to work, this unfavor-
able impression was reflected in
a series of incidents. He was
accused of calling Shirley Tenn
pie Communist when the rec
ord shows that one witness
simply said that she had un-
willingly let her name be used
by Communist organization.
Most recently he was accused
of publicizing a mailing instead
of a membership list of the
American League for Peace and
Democracy. which is described
as a Communist front" organ
ization. The record shows that