The Wilmington morning star., 1940-03-06

the ground tina
irresponsible wit
nesses often maxi
0tu'e o"''o" sweeping and un
justified statements which, when
widely circulated, do harm and
create a wrong impression.
Instead, he is going to urge the
committee to conduct future hear.
ings behind closed doors, with press
and public excluded. It would issue
periodic statements summarizing
the testimony and expressing cen.
illusions.
These statements would take the
form of reports by the committee,
rather than individual statements.
Dies believes that they should and
could be unanimous.
The committee will be asked to
decide on this proposal in the near
future.
NOW THAT HE'S GOT
WHAT HE WANTED
Our public hearings have done
their work." says Dies. Through
them, the American public has been
able to get a clear picture Of the
extent and character Of subversive
activities in this country. That
broad picture is just about finished.
From now on what we want to do
is fill in the details, and in that
job complete publicity isn't essen
tial."
He also believes that holding pri.
vate hearings will make the whole
program easier for the committee
members. The work has been a good
deal of a strain, so far; it partially
broke Dies own health, and has
had all of the other committee
members jittery and on edge. Get.
ting out from under the constant
light of publicity, he feels, will en-
| able all hands to relax a bit.
SECRECY MIGHT HALT
CRITICISMS
Operating as Dies suggests might
relieve the committee of n Of its
most frequent criticisms-that it
permitted scatter-brained witnesses
to get a national sounding board
for wild statements, and allowed
innocent persons and organizations
to be "smeared" through the immed-
iofn r,,hJjootio~ ~ tacfiponrv u7hinh
ought to have been held secret.
Since, as Dies says, we've got
all factions represented on this
committee" publication of reports
which all the members could en-
dorse might well silence that criti.
cism.
MAIN OBJECTIVE
ALREADY WON
Hearings will resume in about
one month; principal matters on
the agenda are the announced in.
vestigation into subversive organi-
cations in Hollywood land, says
Dies, in California as a whole,
among groups outside of the movie
colony), and the probe of consumer
organizations.
LAS a matter of fact" says Dies,
we've pretty well got the un-
American groups on the u now.
The public's eyes have been open
ed; we've had more public hear
ings, I believe, than any commit
tee in the history of congress.
From now on I think it would
be fairer to everybody concerned to
do u work in private. We'd keep
the public informed about the es.
s~entials, Of course-and if any
matter came up in which open
hearings seemed to be required, the
committee could always vote to ad-
init the public"
LOMBARD FANS
TALLY TO HIS CAUSE
TAMPA P-Admlrers of Ernie
lombard point out that although
his batting average went into a
tailspin last year that dropped him
far below the 800 mark, Ernie was
one of the most valuable and time
ly hitters the Reds had.
lombard banged the ball at close
to a $40 pace during the last
month when the Cardinals were
challenging the Reds for the Ma
tional league pennant. Ernie will
be Cincinnati's No. 1 backstop
again this year.
The other d a y a two.week-old
baby flew to Florida. That's show
ing a lot of sense at so young an
age.