Evening star., 1945-01-05
Dies Group Revival
Laid to PAC Itself
Left-Wingers Failed to Realize
Opposition Strength, Says Writer
BY David Laurence

oppoSltIoH OtISHgtu, Gays VTlter
By David Laurence
The revival of the so-called Dies Com
mittee, which comes as surprise to the
left-wingers, ought not to be surprise
at all, for they are the ones who are
responsible for it. =
The Dies Committee, which has been
investigating "un-American activities"
would never have been renewed nor
would such a decisive margin been
cast for making the committee per-
manent in the House of Representa-
tives If it had not been for the extreme
tactics of the CIO-PAC in the last year.
1t is an excellent example of how ex-
tremists, sometimes even with the best
of intentions, overreach themselves.
For several years now the left-wingers
have been attacking the Dies Committee
either by ridicule or with words of vitri-
olic condemnation. But these attacks
have only served to make more and more
suspicious those elements in the House
of Representatives which are truly fear
full that certain left-wing tendencies in
this country and Communism are so
close together as to constitute real
menace to the future of American insti-
tutions.
Actually the amount of subyersive
activity in America is probably no
greater today than 10 years ago, and
maybe there are lots of people today who
see things under the bed which are not
really there. The greatest impetus how
ever, to the fear that communistic
PHILOSOPHERS might be applied to under
mine constitutional government in
America came from the amazing tactics
of the CIO-PAC in the last campaign.
Gompers' Advice Ignored.
These ignored entirely fhe advice
which the late Samuel Gompers and
other leaders of the American Fedora
ton of Labor have long rendered to
the workers of America, namely. that
they should not make themselves an
instrument of either political party, but
support or oppose candidates of both
parties on their merits.
During the last year the CIO-PAC
concentrated almost entirely on Re-
pubicans, and also on those Demo-
Gratis in the South who had had the
temerity to oppose some of the left
wing concepts. Thus Representative
Dies, chairman of the committee, did
not seek reelection, and Representative
Starnes of Alabama and Costello Of
California were defeated in Democratic
party primaries through the concentra-
ton of effort by the C1O-PAC in those
| three districts.
But the CIO-PAC made the mistake
of thinking that the Dies Committee
consisted Of just few individuals. 1t
failed to realize that back of the Dies
| Committee was very powerful support.
which could at almost any time COM
mand majoritieS in the House OF
Representatives.
! An examination of the various votes
taken either to authorize funds or to
continue the Dies Committee during the
last four years reveals that the COM
| mittee was in every case upheld by an
overwhelming majority. The opposi-
ton in votes was always surprisingly
small.
True Reason for Strength.
What is the true reason for the
strength of the Dies Committee or its
successor, which has now been made
permanent part of the committee struc-
ture of the House of Representatives.
The truth is, as everybody who under
stands Washington politics realizes, that
the forces behind the coalition in the
House of Representatives derive their
strength from the American Legion,
the American Federation of Labor, the
Daughters of the American Revolution
and other patriotic societies, and not
inconsiderable element in the Catholic
Church whose opposition to Communism
or anything that even remotely suggests
it is very we'll known.
The American Federation of Labor
has always fought Communism, and
when the CIO-PAC movement started
and critics said that in that movement
were number of Communists, the
American Federation of Labor stood
! apart, and many of the leaders of AFL
and some of the Railroad Brotherhood
| unions predicted that what the CIO-
| PAC had done in the 1914 political cam
| paign would rise to plague that organ
ization for many years to come.
Again and again the CIO-PAC has
thought it had the Dies Committee
movement beaten, but it did not realize
| perhaps that its own pressure to defeat
1t was largely responsible for the counter
| support given to the committee this
| week by vote of 2O7 to 1876. Maybe If
the left-wingers had let the Dies Com
mittee alone, it would have died
natural death long before this
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