The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1940-02-07
Hook Charges
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porary craftsmanship of Rep. Joe
Starnes ID, Ala), thereupon set tc
work to prove that Hooks statement
was wide of the facts. 1t began 9
series of secret sessions in which the
accusations against the committee
were examined.
1t should be noted, incidentally, that
when the committee was investigat
ing itself it adopted much different
attitude than when it investigated, for
example, Gov. Frank Murphy of. Mich
i igan, now Mr.. Justice Murphy of the
| u. S. supreme court. Sessions were
highly secret and the transcripts, to
date, have not been made public.
From David Wayne, allegedly a
Washington representative of Policy,
it extracted story that Mayne had
forged the Policy letters, supposedly
written to him, and turned them over
for consideration to Gardner Jack
son, legislative representative of La
boris Non-Partisan League, and Har-
old Weisberg, friend of Jackson's.
Mayne could freely confess to the
forgery because he was making a
statement to a congressional commit
tee and therefore was immune from
prosecution on account of anything
he told the committee.
Jackson and Weisberg were hauled
before the committee and, according
. al hot
had bought the letters from Mayne,
with Jackson's personal funds, to-
gether with an affidavit from Mayne
to the effect that the letters were
true and correct copies of letters re-
ceived by Mayne from Policy.
So far the committee was happy.
The business of getting the person
accused of being the Christian Front
link to Dies before the committee to
deny that he is the Christian Front
link was simple matter while news
paper clippings and similar material
could be forgotten in the welter of ex-
element over the "forgeries."
But Jackson and Weisberg protested
at the version of their testimony given
out by the committee and Rep. Hook
got up ON the floor to say he would
withdraw his remarks If department
of justice investigation proved the
letters to be forgery.
Hooks statement on the floor
touched off debate during which 1T
was revealed by Rep. Voorhis- 3D.,
Calif) that Mayne, the man who said
he had forged the letters he sold to
Jackson, was on the committees pay
roll at one time. Voorhis said Mayne
had been employed to find Pelley.
The Dies committee, in other words,
Pelley and then, when Pei
ley failed to appear, hired an alleged
agent of Pelley's to find him and
partment, according to a spokesman,
was never asked to find Policy though |
the committee made great fuss about |
the intensive search for Policy it |
was conducting.
Also revealed during the debate was
/ story in the New York Sun, arch
newspaper, declaring
hat Mayne collaborated with Rhea
Whitley, then counsel for the commit
ee, in arranging trap for persons
opposed to the Dies committee. Mayne
old the committee, according to the
declaration, that he had
written the letters so
hat they could later be proved forged.
That the Dies committee has not
one better job of exposing itself
) merely an indication of the validity
t the charge that the committee is
Incapable of investigating anything.
'erhaps if it continues on its present
ack 1t will disprove the charge.