The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-15
As egler Sees 1t
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
by King +

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc)
John T. Flynn, a tenacious, factual reporter
of the highest type, has written an expose OF
a group of. New York propa ganda organiza-
tons which 60 in for politics and private espi-
onage. It is called 1.-THE Smear Terror and
is a truthful antidote to the two books pub
lished under the name of John Roy Carlson,
"Under Cover and The Plotters." Flynn is
"a years old, gray, vigorous and constantly
angry over conditions and activities which Of
fend his sense of truth and justice. He has
been a reporter and editor for more than 30
years, some of that time with the New Re-
public and, early in the new deal, was a
counselor to the Senate Banking Committee in
Ferdinand Pecora's memorable investigation
of the stock exchange, and to Senator Nye's
committee which Investigated the munitions in
dustry. This background is related by way of
disposing of insinuations that he is a tool Of
reactionary wealth and a native fascist"
That smear started when he began to OPP
pose Franklin D. Roosevelt on domestic poll
cies which he believed to be fascistic and
communistic, and on the trend of the United
States toward involvement in THE late war. AS
one who has read much of the smear propa-
ganda against Flynn and other honest men
who had the patriotic moral courage to defy
the Thought Police during this time, l may
tody llob L AoNS ASfSl hAONh VI q
challenge OF his statements of fact.
By contrast with Avoids Arthur Derounian,
the author of Under Cover and THE Plot
ters,' who has used a dozen aliases in addi-
ton to John Roy Carlson, Flynn is no cops,
and-robbers cub. He goes under the name Of
John T. Flynn, exclusively, and goes where he
pleases, and he often works in public libraries
and the Library of Congress, and in bureaus
where immigration and naturalization records
and vital statistics are stored, to verify infor-
nation on a group of name-changers and i'm
posters who switch their identities from time
to time and make a profession of shopping into
the privacy of legitimate American individuals
and associations.
The fact is well known now that Carlson
was denounced last September by Judge John
P. Barnes of the United States district court
in Chicago as a liar, incredible even under
oath. The judge was referring to certain
charges in "Under Cover" in this book, Carl
SON disclosed that he himself had published an
anti-JeWish paper for the ostensible purpose Of
ingratiating himself with actual Jew-baiters.
Judge Barnes decided that Carlson's real pur-
pose was to make money. Judge Barnes also
thought that E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc, the
publishers OF Under Cover and Carlson's
later book, The Plotters,'' were willing to
publish anything to make money.
The extent and the impudence of this smear
propaganda are intel gently presented and the
personalities and methods employed are force
fully revealed for the first time. For example,
Flynn tells us about the career of a man who
called himself Richard Rollins, who wrote a
book admitting that he robbed his employers
files and worked as investigator for both the
old Dickstein committee OF the House, the first
so-called committee on un-Anerican activities,
and for the non-sectarian Anti-Nazi League.
For another example, Flynn quotes from a
biograp hical magazine story in which a Wom-
an known as Dorothy Waring, who has been
chief investigator for the Anti-Nazi League,
says that she was sworn in as Agent SO"
by the chief of the under-cover department of
the government.
Il need hardly say" Mr.. Flynn writes, and
all informed persons know, that there was
no such department no such official"
Bruce Barton, a republican, who served a
term in Congress, recalled recently that he
once put through a routine request from a
constituent to expedite the naturalization of
Miss Warnings husband, but dropped it when a
democratic colleague told him he would con-
test the bill and make an issue of his reasons.
Derounian, or Carlson, writes in The Plot
ters'' that he was employed by the Friends Of
Democracy for six years and asks the Ameri-
can public to accept his word that the organi-
cation is not communistic except in the eyes
Of nationalist de1nagogues and their better
dressed. better-spoken party-line followers"
A nationalist" which to most Americans
means a patriot, is an offensive person to
Derounian, a native of a portion of Armenia
which has since become Soviet territory.
Among the complications in New York was the
ASA ssination Of an Armenian bishop. the po-
litical causes and implications Of which Mr..
Flynn interprets.
AS Flynn says, it is idle to speculate on
Derounian' S political alta ELEMENTS. He is not
called a communist. 1t would be inexact to
call the Friends of Democracy a communist
organization because it seems to be devoted
only to a vague and variable something called
democracy"
A recent letter on the stationery of Rex
Stout, a writer of Whodunits, soliciting funds,
contains the statement that gifts to this Or
ganization are "deductible from income tax
1t is doubtful that Congress. in exempting gifts
to educational groups. intended that the whole
body OF the taxpaying citizens should thus be
tricked into paying for such investigations and
propa ganda.
Flynn has been unable to find publishers
for some of his later works. Sometimes the
paper shortage is the excuse. He believes this
reluctance is a direct effect Of the Smear
Terror. There has been plenty of paper for
Under Cover and THE Plotters,' for COM
~pilations of old jokes and for books of filth.
Therefore he is selling his pamphlet at Is
cents a copy, or 100 copies for $12. His ad-
dress is IS East 4Oth St, New York.
On this subject, l present a statement by
E. E. Andrews, solicitor general of the At
lanta judicial district, concerning the extent
of his collaboration with the Anti-Nazi League
in the case against the Columbians in Atlanta.
The Anti-Nazi League planted secret agents in
the Columbians, but Mr.. Andrews says he did
not invite the league into the case. He first
came into contact with the league when he
went to the office of the state attorney general
to receive certain evidence and the names of
certain Witnesses.
Il respectfully submit Mr.. Andrews writes.
that my conduct in this investigation cannot
be construed as an approval or condemnation
1 OF the league"