Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-09-29
BY Irving Pagan & Cushman Reynolds
For Labor Press Association

WASHINGTON LPA) The other day the
Wv House of Representatives approved a
contempt-of-Congres citation against Edward
A. Rumley, executive head of the COMMITTEES
for Constitutional Government, top anti-la-
Dor, anti-Fair Deal lobby and propaganda
bureau. Rumely was cited for refusing to tell
the House Select Committee of Lobbying
where his money comes from.
But the Republicans with some Dixiecrat
help managed to make the vote close. And In
so doing, COP members and their friends hit
one of their lowest moral points OF the year
which Is saying something. For sheer poll
teal and legal cynicism their performance
would have been hard to match. But you prob
ably didn't see much about 1t In the news
papers.
Readers of the labor press are familiar
with the background, but to jog your memory
here it is.
The Committee for Constitutional Govern
ment is a lobby and as such Is registered un-
der the Lobby Registration Act of 1916. That
act requires all Hobbies to reveal the names
of contributors of more than $500. Rumely, a
slick operator IL ever there was one, thinks
he has this provision beaten-and thinks he
can protect his rich contributors. Here's the
way he does 1t.
If a donor gives him $500 or less he accepts
the money as a contribution because 1t is less
than $500 1t does not have to be listed sepa-
TaLGly. buL IL SOIu6DOuy WTlbSS a CIcCh y
$4,000 or $25,0 600 payable to the
for Constitutional Government Rumely has
another way of handling it.
He sets up the money as a credit" against
the purchase of cog literature. First thing
you know, the contributor" has bought TO-
900 copies of "The Road Ahead" by John I.
Flynn, a vicious attack on labor unions, the
Fair Deal and the British Labor Party, or
some other cog sponsored book. Rumely dis
tributes the 10000 copies to one or more of
his many "~lists' which may include high
school principals, college seniors, small bust
ness men, clergymen or other categories. The
aim is to influence legislative and public
opinion.
The Lobbying Committee wanted to know
who these "bulk purchasers" Of propaganda
were. They subpoenaed Rumely and put the
question to him direct. On three occasions,
twice in June and once In August, Rumely re-
fused to answer.
Arrogantly defying the lobby probers,
Rumely commended with a straight face that
the cog was not a lobby at all nor a pro-
paganda bureau. 1t was, he said loudly, a
publishing house and an educational institu-
ton. To reveal the names would be to reveal
a trade secret" he insisted. But what was
worse, he continued, the Congressman were
violating the Bill of Rights, specifically the
Freedom of the Press by even asking him to
reveal the names. Rumely, who takes a per-
CenL6ge from MS DOCK sales IN dQQlL1On TO MS
big salary, figured he could have his cake and
eat it too. He could protect his big hackers by
shielding them from the bright glare Of publ
city. (However, by examining bank records
and q~uerying big corporations, the House
Lobby Investigators identified many. Among
them: Irenee and Lammot duPont.)
When he asked the House to approve the
contempt charge, Rep. Frank Buchanan
ID. Pa.), chairman of the Committee on Lob
bying, called Runely's bookselling story what
1t is - a 'phony sales dodge" In a brief le-
gal analysis, Rep. Henderson Lanham ID.
Ga.), told the House that there could be no
violation of Freedom of the Press because the
Lobby Committee in no way sought to re-
strict Rumely, because Rumely's publications
were clearly designed to influence legisla-
ton and because the courts had upheld the
governments right to demand that publishers
declare their financial backing in full.
But the Republicans seized upon the Free