The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-05-20

I physical cultist John Bovingdon be- came something subversive when It was disclosed that this third-string government hac khad once been a 1 ballet dancer. A psychopathic Nor- wegian pacifist refugee youth named John Collett was made the tnterra- tional villain of the Peace Now movement Of some 1900 alleged Communists in government employ, Department of Justice found cause for the firing of only five.
 It would be unfair to judge the Dies Committee and its works solely on the basis of these of-base cases. Run through the records of all American crusaders and you will find the same intolerant streak. It is their weakness and eventually their undoing.
 The abolitionists wanted to end slavery, period.
 The prohibitionists wanted bone dry America, period.
 The suffragettes wanted absolute ly equal rights with linen, semi colon, and they still want 'eEn, per- iod.
 The New Dealers wanted to make over America, exclamation point.
 To Martin Dies, there was only one brand of Americanism, and that was his brand. Everything else was strictly un-American. NOT PRO-FASCIST,
 NOT PRO-NAZI
 The charge that Dies was entirely anti-C Communist and therefore pro- Fascist and pro-Nazi just can't be Substantiated. While the Commit tees Appendix I, published in De- cember, 1940, was a disclosure of Communist activities, Appendix II was all about Nazi goings on, and Appendix VT, published shortly after Pearl Harbor from material l gathered before, was a compilation of Japanese activities in America. The committee harvested every thing, but with little effort to threSh out wheat from chaff.
 In the scores of volumes of testi- mony, hearings, exhibits and reports which the committee had ordered printed, there is an amazing col- lection of information. In the files of the committe workrooms on the 1 fifth floor of the Old House Off1ce ! Buildings, where few people ever venture, there is material for 100 volumes. more. Index cards by the thousand with names an drecords of almost everyone who ever criti- cized anything in the United States, painstakingly compiled by Director of of Research J. B. Matthews, Chief Investigator Robert E. Strip ling, and their staff. In six years of life. the committe has had appro- priations totaling half a million dol- lars
 DIDN'T KNOW WHERE
 TO DRAW THE LINE
 The whole thing too big for Mar tin Dies to handle. Because there were more Communists in the coun- try than Nazis and because there were some Communists in the labor l unions, Dies went after the entire labor movement, and that's what got him. Again, it was his crusading spirit which obsessed the man, mak- l HE hAAAAL uAldDAc OO AIlOW WL1cIS IO draw the line.
 Was the whole Dies Committee effort 8 waste of time and money? All teh real dirt that Dies uncover ed would probably have been un- covered by the larger and more ex- pensive Office or Navil Intelligence, Army Intelligence, G-men and T. men-though to give Dies credit, all these organizations kept men check ing the committees files and some of the evidence being used today in the Washington sedition trials or- iginated there.
 Should the committee be contin. ued? If 1t is continued by the next Congress, under a more tolerant and liberal leadership, it. still might kep a watchful anC. useful eye on alien propagandisSs wILnin Amer ica.
 But maybe a zealot less fanatic would be no good as a crusader when there is need to rouse the citi- zens and give 'em good scare.