The Wilmington morning star., 1944-04-08
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK, The Dies Committee of the
House of Representatives has been operating
since May rs, $685. And has performed a
great public service under difficult conditions
A brief history of the committee may re-
move some prejudices created by the new deal
Communist organization and its radio and
press claque in Washington.
The Dies committee was appointed as sue
cessor to an earlier committee which had had
somewhat the same mission John McCor-
mack, of Massa chusetts, the New Deals leader
in the House of Representatives, was chair
man OF this earlier committee and Samuel
Dickstein, of New York, was vice chairman
However, Mr.. Mccormack was not very active
and Mr. Dickstein took over and ran the show.
He was mainly concerned with the oppression
OF the Jews in Germany, which was just then
becoming severe, and with the extension of the
Hllerlan anti-Jewish campaign to the United
States. He was less interested if he had any
hostile interest at all, in Communism as
subversive influence. Mr. Dies has looked into
not only Hitlerian and Italian Fascism, but
communism as well. He also discovered alarm
ing evidence of the japanese intentions before
Pearl Harbor and presented it to the Govern
ment
Passed BY
MIR. Dickstein preferred not to be chairman
OF the new committee because he felt that the
fact OF his being Jew would embarrass the
inquiry. However he did hope to be named
member and was disappointed when Speaker
Bankhead passed him by. He had enjoyed
great publicity as vice chairman and director
OF the Mccormack Committee
The Dies committee started off on the Nazis
and received a cordial press from the new
deal Communist element in Washington
Journalism which was almost unchallenged at
the time. But when Mr. Dies turned TO the
Communists and began to expose men and
women communists and fellow travellers in
appolntlve jobs in the new deal, he came under
attack at once One legitimate criticism laid
against him was that his methods were ir-
regular and unconventional. However, he was
only following the method Of Senator Hugo
Black, late of the Ku Klux Khan, which had
received noisy approval when Black w a s.
houndlng political opponents of the new deal
and earning, as his reward a seat on the
supreme court
New Deal journalists openly heckled Mr.
Dies witnesses at public hearings and Mrs.
Roosevelt to show her disapproval of an inter
ference with her Communist friends, publicly
student and youth rackets called before the
lunch at the White House.
However, the Dies committee has examined
about ITS witnesses concerning Axis activities
German, Italian japanese and American and
including the leading bundists of the preWar
period. And has about 1000 pages of their
testimony. In 1910, the Dies Committee seized
the files of number of subversive German
acencies and American off-shoots of German
propaganda and espionage arms, and the clos
Ofth he nd oil ,1o4o ~
lowered the presentation of this material to the
State Department. More recently the depart
ment of justice went to the files of the Dies
Committee, now grown to enormous size, for
information on which the indictments of 80
Americans on charges of seditious activity
were based. Much of the evidence which will
be presented in these trials was turned up by
the Dies Committee. 1t is important to note
also that information of great Importance now
available to various departments of the govern
ment, including national defense, doubtless
would have been destroyed by the enemy
agencies if it had not already been seized by
Dies.
In September, 1941, alarmed by discoveries
on the West Coast, Dies planned to hold public
hearings in Washington of number of witness
es whose testimony might have aroused the
people to the danger of attack by Japan
Three months before Pearl Harbor, he wrote
the Attorney Generals office inquiring whether
such hearings would interfere with the govern
ment's plans of international relations. Mat
thew F. Mcclure, acting attorney general
replied that he, President Roosevelt and Mr.
Hull all felt that such hearings would be in
advisable. Dies therefore abandoned his plan
but on Feb. %, 1912, after the Pearl Harbor
disaster, he did publish portion Of the evil
dence.
The Dies committee has been persistent
impartial and successful and has become a
great source of information for other agencies
regarding anti-American activities. 1t has
given absolutely indication of being anti
semitic and the charge that it is only the
familiar and old reliable reaction of the Com
munists and fellow travellers in all such sltua-
tons