Evening star., 1940-01-08
Urges Full Expose Of
Subversive Activity
Twenty-Ysor-oId Disclosures
Of Un-Americunism
Are Recalled

To the Editor Of The Star:
II told you 80" is, as Mr.. Bryan called
1t, a portentous, sad, unpleasant phrase
Yet q great many people have just
claim to its use today. Among them
are those who warned OF the i'll that
would come because the United States
did not throw its great power behind
the League of Nations and cooperate
in controlling aggressions through sane
tions," or economic pressure. The same
applies to those who saw clearly the
menace Of radicalism to the United
States, particularly as engineered by
Soviet Russia.
There are those who would kill" the
Dies committee. That committee may
be open to some criticism, but no Amer
ican OF the old stripe is going to believe
1t has not uncovered some things that
needed light shed upon them.
The big issue is: What is America
going to do about it?
For the same kind of facts were un-
covered and discussed about 20 years
ago. Mr.. Wade H. Ellis, then special
counsel for the Foreign Relations Com
mittee Of the Senate, presented, back
about 1919 or 1920, some startling facts.
Mr.. Ellis, formerly attorney general Of
Ohio and later assistant to the Attorney
General of the United States, had to aic
him as an investigator Mr.. J. Edgar
Hoover, now the chief "G-man."
Today we are getting repetition of
much that Mr.. Ellis brought to light by
his cross-examination. At that time he
said that If all the facts could be brought
to the attention Of the people they would
amaze and startle the country. He de-
veloped that there were then nearly 400
periodicals, with q combined circulation
Of approximately 5000 900 copies, which
were advocating violent sedition and in
surrection, by force Of arms, against the
Government Of the United States. Mr..
Ellis estimated that the combined nu-
merical strength OF the Communist party
Of America, the so-called workers party,
the 1. w. w., and all the extreme left
wings Of the various revolutionary groups
was greater than the total vote cast for
the Socialist candidate for President. He
doubted whether many people believed
q fact we'll known to Government agen-
cies, that many Of these organizations
were financed and controlled directly
by Soviet authorities in Moscow, and
that their purpose. frankly avowed in
Russia, was to take advantage Of every
t1y IN vAvn1,,tiOso
the United States.
Perhaps the most dangerous and in
sidious propaganda, Mr.. Ellis thought,
was being directed by the plotters against
world order among the enlisted men Of
the Army and Navy Of the United
States. He called attention to the
"humiliating spectacle" Of the secre-
taries Of War and Navy being compelled
to warn officers of these branches of the
national defense against mischief
makers" who were sowing the seeds of
discomfort and disobedience, with the
hope Of inducing the traitors they had
made to turn against their comrades
when the moment should arrive for
open resistance to authority.
WIlllC WWS AAOH1ly WI. GS1AAS ouAd,
that propaganda against our institutions
had invaded the stage, the movies, the
schools and colleges, the most abhorrent
demonstration of Bolshevik deviltry, in
his judgment, was the attempt to arouse
class and race hatred among Negroes, Of
whom there were at that time some
100000 in the United States He
brought out that one Of the planks of
the Communist party in the United
States declared in favor Of melting
Negroes to arm themselves against their
white neighbors and appropriate private
property. Mr. Ellis declared that, of
course, the great body of the colored
race in America was too decent and law
abiding to be attracted by such base
appeals. But there was no question, ne
said, that such q movement was in full
swing. He gave chapter and verse from
the minutes Of the congress Of the
Third International in Moscow.
Two classes among our own citizens,
Mr. Ellis thought, were more dangerous
than the reds" The "pinks" were the
parlor Bolshevists, many of whom he
declared to be weak minded men and
women Of wealth or high social posi-
ton who were contributing annually
millions of dollars to aid in the subver-
sion Of the Government that protected
them. The "yellows" he described as
the cowardly mob followers among the
politicians who are willing to compro-
mise vital principles and who are ready
to advocate any measure which they
thought would please the envious or the
ignorant. It was the "yellows' in this
country, some of them in Congress, some
Of them out, declared Mr.. Ellis, who
were, step by step, encroaching upon
the Constitution, breaking down our
representative form of government and
gradually weakening public authority.
The Reds had definite plan to formu-
late certain specific attacks upon the
Constitution in the form Of amendments
which would ultimately destroy our basic
laws.
Mr. Ellis was so successful in bringing
out the facts that the most noted
offender, the so-called unrecognized
ambassador from Soviet Russia, Ludwig
c. A. X. Martens. born Of German par
ents in Russia and sent here by Chi
cherin, was deported.
But that was 20 years ago. And
America took long nap, thinking she
was independent Of Europe. The, new