The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-10-11

alone have the one particular brand of 100 proof Americanlsm that will save the country from whatever ails 1t. Lump all these self-appointed leaders together, however, and they still constitute political trimmings that can best be classified by the generic term of the lunatic fringe on the tapestry of American life. 44's CROP A RECORD ONE
 This lunatic fringe is changed from one quadrennilm to the next. Since the first World War there have been Prohibitionists, the Lib- erty Leaguers, the Townsendites, the various Tapping wings of the Socialist Party, the American Labor Party, the Farmer-Laborites, the Progressives, the America Firsters and the Communists, But this years parade beats anything seen yet,
 Three years out of four, many of these outfits are among the large number of things that 99 per cent of the people pay no attention to. Come leap year and election year, however, and they somehow get magpiiled out of all proportion to their real unimportance.
 The Dies Committee, after saying for @ week that over 80 per cent of the members of Sidney Hillman's National Citizens Political Action Committee of Al were affiliated with Communist front organi2a- tions, finally comes up with Il list of 5S per cent, or 82 names and of these only one is listed as an out. right member of the Communist Party, He Is Langston Hughes, of New York, a poet.
 But the Dies report does name 25 organizations which 1t claims are Red front organizations, Included in them are a cooperative bookshop in Washington, the League for Amer lean Writers and lot of other very bush leagues for this or that. And to this fringe there should of course be added the score of shirt leaders and bundists rounded up for the sedition trial in Washington.
 The House committee investigat- ing campaign expenditures has just done such job of exposing Gerald L. K. Smith and his America First Party that this combination should never be heard from again. Similar ly the committee has held up to the light Dr. Edward A. Rumley and his Committee for Constitu- tional Government and Joseph P. Ramp and his Constitution Educa- ton League. There will be others. THE "JOINER" COMPLEX
 The Senate Campaign Expendi- lures Committee, seeking to find out just how much presidential elec- ton costs, where the money comes from and where 1t goes, will have It's probes dissecting all manner of po- litical parasites.
 For the great penehant of the American with pet theory on what's wrong with the country Is to join some organization to Ak 1t. And If he can't find cause that will fit his own ideas he will start a movement of his own.
 This is a country of free speech the freest in the world, and 1t is any citizens Constitutional right to be his own white knight in ehrom- ium armor, mounting his hobby horse and riding off in all direc- tons to tilt his tonsils against the windmills, But corral all these Don e2ui%otes in one concentration camp and you still wouldn't have more than 10 or l5 per cent of the popu- lation. Why, then, do We get SO eX- cited about them?
 All this vigilance isn't wasted, Hitler and MuSSolini were minorities at one time, too, and look what had to'b done to put them in their places, Checking up on the crack pot minorities Is oil right, Just as long as 1t doesn't develop Into witch hunt that curbs free speech and just as long as so much atten- ton isn't given to catching the little fellows that the big boys in the two major parties get away with politi- cal murder.