The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-06-23

and often disagree with them as much a. many Of
making people think.
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK.-Yesterday reported that the
Dies committee had subpoenaed long distance
slips Of the telephone company which showed
that the CLOS Political Action committee had
been carrying on conversations W tt Mrs.
Eleanor Roosevelt and two of the President S
anonymous political secretaries at the White
House. with Vice President Henry Wallace
and his secretaries, with Attorney General
Biddle and with regional directors of the Farm
Security Administration. These telephone slips
showed further that C. B. Baldwin, a new
deal farm bureaucrat from the beginning of
the administration in 1888, and now assistant
director of the Political Action committee, had
telephoned several Of his old subordinates in
the Farm Security Administration in regions
where the PAC was opposing the renomina-
ton of congressman and senators whom it
had marked for defeat. Until recently, Bald
win was chief Of the FSA.
The factual report was long and left 40
room for Interpretation. Today we may study
the meaning.
The chairman of the PAC is Sidney Hill
man, president of the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of the CLIO. Hillman came to the
United States in 1907 a Russian refugee
from the Cars and if he ever worked at all
at any laborious trade. his experience was
brief for he acquired the sedentary, political
job of union president in 1914 and has held
it for these 30 years. He had preoccupations
which made it inconveaient for him to take
part in the first World war. In May. 1910
President Roosevelt appointed him to be the
'labor' member of the advisory commission
of the Council of National Defense. Later he
was appointed to a position in the office OF
production management.
| A few months ago Hillmaa allied himself
openly with the communists OF the CLIO in
New York in a fight for control of the syn
thetic. left-wing political organization known
as the American Labor Party. The right
wingers fought him but Hillmaa and the com
munists won The American Labor party
thereupon became the successor to the Com.
munist party, which announced its own dissn'
luton. Meanwhile. Hillma1, proceeding with
the organization Of the CLOS Political Action
committee, had proposed that in New York
state all workers be compelled to join unions
and pay a political income tax to the com,
mittee for use in the fourth term campaign
In his years II the Farm Security Admins
tration, Baldwin built an organization within
the government which reaches n to every
farm county in the nation. It is organized
and equipped for political espionage propa
ganda and coercion. Its regional directors
were Baldwin's subordinates and would b.
his subordnates again should Mr.. Roosevelt
be reelected and should Baldwin care to re-
sumo the job from which he has technically
resigned Practically. he is merely on leave
and on loan to the CLIO for the duration O.
the campaign and is serving his old leader
Mr. Roosevelt.
The long distance calls discovered by thu
Dies committee were not personal calls. They
were official calls made from the headquar
tiers Of the PAC and charged to the commit
tee. Hillman, Baldwin and others made q
such calls to the White House alone and many
other calls to regional offices of the FSA
Yet the Roosevelt party and the PAC woult
maintain that there is no connection between
the White House, or the Farm Security Ad
ministration, and the committee. The CLIO
for its own part. insists that the PAC is :
gratuitous and independent organization, I'm
connected with the Roosevelt party and al
innocent expression of '1abor's" political de
votion to the Roosevelts. Wallace and the new
deal.
Mr.. Biddle, one Of those who was called b,
long distance from the PAC's headquarters
has given an opinion that it's 'educatio1al &C
tivities," are legitimate and contrary to NJ
law, although thus far it has raised $70000
for the fourth term campaign, has access t
millions more, and is campaigning for hin
and his chief throughout the country. Thu
oeA>
south, where the CLIO has little strength bu
: where Baldwin's regional farm security bu
reaus are strongly influential by reason o
their economic power over the small farmers
The seizure of the telephone records was I
high-handed operation and will be proteste'
! by, among others, some of those who earl
in the new deal justified the similar selzur
of all the kilograms in the telegraph office
in Washington by Senator Hugo Black OF Aia
! bama, member OF the Ku Klux Klan' VIM
later was sent to the Supreme court.
In total effect the information thus on1aln
ed, however questionable the method pam.
shows that the Political Action COMMITTEES unit ee,e
the CLIO, heavily infested with New York . con,
term party on terms Of intimate consulta a1a
with Mrs. Roosevelt, David K x N anesde eorl
MINUS, and Jonathan Daniels the pre :, y
, confidential political agents in the Whl T.!
House with Vice President Wallace and ,t witt
Departments Of Justice , and has bee,
| denounced lav many other prominent left-wln'
8a