The Wilmington morning star., 1944-12-19
Nv wEsTBRoOK PEGLER
Monyright, 1914, by King Features Syndlca

, By WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright 1914, by King Features Syndlcate.)
NEW YORK,-In a few days the Dles COM
nittee will fold up and an interesting contest
countless will ensue for possession of the
ON filing cases of records which then will
become homeless The communists and fell
low-travelers in the Roosevelt government,
hundreds of whom are mentioned IN this enor-
nous collection of rare and irreplaceable in
formation naturally will try to scatter or
destroy it but there are several otner pro-
nosals on hand, including one which would
t,,rn it all over to the Federal Bureau of In
vestsation which, among other government
denartments and agencies, has consulted the
files many times in tracing the careers Of
traiorous or suspected individuals. The State
Department and the Army and Navy are other
devoted and dependent clients of the commit
tee and presumably would be at loss if the
record should fall into the hands of those
who would be most embarrassed by it's pre-
servation.
| This committee was appointed by the House
of Representatives in May, 1888, under the
title of the special committee on un-American
activities At that time, the Nazi bund was
the most conspicuous and generally offensive
allen group in the country. 1t was subsidiary
of the Nazi government and was conducting
Hitler youth camps and similar Nazi activ
tiles, including shooting bees in the suburbs
of New York and other eastern cities.
Some of it's leading personalities had es-
| tablished good relations with few Ameri-
can industralists who thought it possible to
do business profitably with Hitler and insisted
on their right to try. Naturally, they also at
tracted Americans who were ant-JeWish and,
at the time, all these activities alarm
| ingly arrogant and bold.
| The Dies committee started in the Nazis
and, at first received a good press from the
| pl1% 1iybo tic off
to communism and began to show that hun
dreds of new dealers were just as guilty in
that direction others had been in their
association with leaders of the bund t h e
storm crashed. Poor Martin Dies, clumsy
but earnest Texan, found himself -idculed
and denounced as labor-baiter and JeW-hat-
er, a Fascist, a Nozi, or ignoramuS liar
faker and demagogue and almost, over night
one of the most prominent members of Con-
gress of his generation.
Being good, simple American with stub
born streak, this made him sore, the more so
because his scoop had dredged up equally
interesting material showing the unhealthy
growth of Nazi influence. He had right to
feel that the authors of this clamor were not
so much pro-American as pro-communst and
were abusing him not for the nformality of
his methods but because of the results which
he had achieved in the mucky political SloughS
which they frequented, far over to the left.
So Dies carried and, with really very
little money and against the un-cooperative
policy of the New Deal bureaus, he continued
to show up malignant conspirators, adventur-
Gus parasites and politically and morally IL
| centous vermin who We're freqenting the ide-
| illogical slums and dumps of the New Deal in
New York, Washington and many of the noted
American centers of education. worthless
and disreputabl non-entity from the dives of
Paris, finally running out of dollars with which
to buy three-cent francs, would mooch his
way home, get in touch with fellow buns,
now attached to the New Deal as adviser"
'consultant,'' or economist" and presently
acquire a desk, phone and secretary in
| some department in the guise Of expert.
Dies turned up such an object identified
as author and, after much searching, &C
quired a copy Of the authors only book,
filthy text that would have been barred from
the mails even in Honduras. Dies protested
him but was denounced in the usual terms
and the New Deal looked after its own He
showed that the wife of an active Russian
! terrorist had comfortable job in Washington
while her husband was a fugitive. He proved
that one of the sons Of disreputable old COM
munist tramp, a notorious character as cas-
ual and promiscuous as a ba-nyard hen, was
employed in Washington planning the more
abundant life for that faceless thing in more
or less human form represented to be the
typical American citizen n d patronzingly
described in a hundred orations ''the COM
mon man." He seized the records of the COM
munist party by subpoena and brought in
renegade communists who calmly told their
| shocking stories of conspiracy against the ma
ton and against the morals Of young and po-
litically excitable college boys and girls who
were taught that virtue was mere affecta-
ton Of capitalism and vice the true express
sion of free and courageous character.
Mrs. Roosevelt, whose preference ran to
that element of youth identified with the ex-
IRENE left wing, made public demonstra-
ton of her personal, political and semi-offi
cal sympathy for them and her opposition to
| Dies. claque of Washinton New Deal re-
porters, including several who aliases,
| joined the clamor and as the outbreak and
development of the in Europe first quiet
ed and then suppressed the Nazi activity,
the issue of communism became dominant.
| The Dies committee educated the public in
many ways. The term fellow traveller 'Tro-
! jan horse and transmission belt all part
of the communist jargon, entered the COM
mon language, designating conspirators or
dupes who elaborated or connived with the
communists.
| The files contain priceless proof Of such
association and whole histories of ephemeral
organizations put together by the communists
in the guise of innocent democratic groups
but actually directed by the communists.
Robert Stripping, the chief investigator, be-
gan as a raw hand and became one of the
best authorities in the country on the lineup