Evening star., 1940-02-06
Pe||ey Appears
Before Probers,
Denies Dies Link
Silver Shirt Leader
Denounces Letters
As Foreeries
(Ptcture on page A-3.)

By the Associated Press.
William Dudley Pelley, leader
of the Silver Shirt Legion,
dropped in on the Dies commit
tee today after months of silence
to give its chairman, Represent
ative Dies, Democrat, of Texas,
IAN absolutely clean bill of
health" with regard to charges
of "collusion" between Mr.. Dies
and himself.
The slender. goateed resident Of
Asheville, N. c., who had long been
hunted by the committee, sur.
rendered to Robert Stripping, clerk.
for service of a subpoena and then
went before closed session Of the
committee to tell what he knew
about certain letters. allegedly
forged with his name, which re.
Gently were brought forth as evi.
dence of a connection between Mr..
Dies and the legion chieftain.
A few minutes later Pelley talked
with reporters.
I'm giving Martin Dies an alb
solutely clean bill of health" he
declared. Il admire the work he's
done"
Letters Called Forgeries.
He declined to discuss his brief
testimony before the Dies Commit
tee directly, but members told
newsmen he had declared the let
tiers purporting to link him to Dies
were forgeries.
From the Dies Committee room,
Pelley marched over to hearing
being held by Rules Subcommit-
tee on whether the letters should
be ordered expunged from the
House record. They were placed
there by Representative Hook,
Democrat. of Michigan, during an
attack on Mr.. Dies and the COM
mittee.
Calmly putting on a pipe, he said
after he had been sworn in that
None of those letters were written
by me, or signed by me-
Il don't know anything about
them," he added.
The letters, addressed to David
Mayne Of this city and bearing the
signature "Pelley," purported to link
Chairman Dies with the chief of the
Silver Shirts.
Hook Eirn ia Stand.
The Dies Committee held several
closed-door hearings after Mr..
Hooks action and announced that
Mayne had admitted forging the
letters in order to sell them IS ma
terial in q campaign against the
committee. Mr. Hook, however, has
consistently declined to accept them
as forgeries and withdraw them
from the Record on that basis.
AS an upshot of this seeming
stalemate, both Mr.. Hook and the
Dies Committee turned to the JUS
tice Department to look into the
question of forgery and, meanwhile,
| the Dies and Rules Committees con-
tinued their own inquiries.
There the matter rested when
Pelley put in his unheralded appear
ance shortly before noon today. He
had been sought by the committee
for many months.
Pelley declined to tell reporters
where he had been since the Dies
Committee began looking for him,
but he said he had been in Wash
ington for the last 48 hours. He
emphatically declared he went be-
fore the committee entirely by my
self"
When he appeared before the sub
committee, Acting Chairman Starnes
of the Dies Committee-the chair
man has been i'll in Texas-an-
nounced to the subcommittee that
Pelley had voluntarily submitted
himself" and I'VE Immediately placed
him under subpoena"
Mr.. Starnes said Pelley had been
questioned by the Dies group only
as to the authenticity of the letters.
To Remain Under Subpoena.
He added, however. that Pelley
would remain under subpoena and
would be questioned soon at an
open, public hearing about his ac-
tivities and those of his organiza-
ton. He said Pelley would be asked
about various charges that had been
made against him. particularly by
the Dies Committees own investi-
gator, Robert Barker.
Mr.. Hook entered the Rules SUBJ
committee hearing about the same
time as Pelley and remarked audibly
to friends:
"1t's funny they can find Pelley
now, isn't it?"
When Pelley was questioned about
Mr.. Hooks placing the letters In
the Congressional Record, he
grinned and observed:
Il think he was just played for
a sucker, don't you?"
He denied he had ever corre-
(See DIES, Page A-3.)