The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-07-26
By CAROLINE BRAMMER

By CAROLINE BRAMMER
| The electorate of Montana is prett.
far removed from Washington, d.
and its congressional Investigations
but after the outrageous spectacle o
witch hunting and gestapo methods
afforded them on July 8, 9 and 10 il
their own Federal District courtroom
by Special Investigator Robert B
Barker, for the Senate Committee OF
| Campaign Expenditures, they are un
likely to be impressed with further
Investigations by such investigators
Mr.. Barker was very special inves
tigator, hand picked to do a job Of
smearing the opposition. A great
fmany people are aware of the calibeI
of men who work for such committees
as the old Martin Dies committee
since become the Woods-Rankin com
mittee. Mr. Barker is a graduate OF
the Dies committee and knows how to
deliver the goods. He brought with
him two members of the Washington
| d. C. vice-squad, who, it has since
been learned. were AWOL from their
jobs in Washington.
People in Montana now know what
is wrong with the Dies ood-Rankin
set-up 1t is just that, set-up. In the
words of one of the spectators, the
investigation was powerfully graphic
exnple Of the need for new blood in
the senate. Another spectator, with
long years of distinguished court ex-
perience behind him, said that he had
never seen a more blatant travesty
of justice.
For the benefit of those who were
unable to attend this lesson in what
is wrong with senate Investigations, l
would like to outline few of the
most glaring examples of the bias of
the investigator.
l. Judge Erickson's kilograms and
phone calls were taken up individually
and exhaustively by Mr.. Barker. He
used sneers and smirks and false en-
phasis in an effort to prove that all
these calls and telegram were to or
from communists in Hollywood or
New York. He hoped also to convey
the impression that both Hollywood
and New York are un-American.
2. There was no public examination
of Senator Wheeler's kilograms and
phone calls. The spectators had no
way of finding out who was interested
in Mr. Wheeler's nomination. Neither
was the Erickson committee able to
CLEAN this information No telegram
or phone call was questioned by the
investigator, although Mr.. Bailey
Stortz admitted quite a sizeable bill
for these items.
3. The investigator was presented
with photostatic copies of every out
of-state check received by the Erick-
son committee. He made a great TODD
about two checks from Senator Muir
ray and two from trade unions The
usual technique was employed to per-
suade the spectators that both Sen
ator Murray and trade unions are I'M
American. Mr. Barker insisted on list
ing Senator Murray's checks as out
of-state contributions despite the re-
minder of Mr.. Walter Milan that Mon
tanans consider Senator Murray
Montanan.
A. All of Senator Wheeler's big con-
were in "cash" and there
was no emphasis on the questionable
aspect of millionaires who give cash
instead of checks of which and the
source of which may be traced.
5. There was no cross-examination
of ACM officials who testified blandly
under oath that the company does not
favor any candidate in any election
and does not interest itself in Mon
tana politics. There was no cross-ex-
animation of Mr.. T. B. Weir who, with
equal blandness under oath, testified
that the company papers do not favor
any candidate in any election and
never have. Every Erickson witness
was subjected to an exhaustive third
degree accompanied by sneers.
6. Mr.. Barker particularly enjoyed
sneering at a poor author who found
it necessary to sleep in a Turkish
bath, but was suitably impressed with
Mr.. Hunt, the mysterious Mr.. Hunt,
who flew into Helena in private
plane and who modestly admitted
without being asked that he owned
homes in three states. Mr.. Hunt nearly
drew tears from the investigator,
when, again without prompting, he re-
lated his tale of how he, poor friend
less elevator boy, became multimil-
Iionaire before he was forty with the
help of Senator Wheeler. The inves
tigator failed to ask how it is done.
I'd like to know.
Z. The unfailing emphasis of the in
vestigator on Wheeler's scarewords, ]