The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1954-11-26
From DEMOCRATIC DIGEST

CfOucn, eX-cOnVlcC ana eX-COmmu
) mist informer who has been paid al
most $4,000 by the Justice Depart
ment in the past two years, demand:
an FBI investigation of Attorney
General Brownell for conspiracy to
aid Communism by starving him anc
his family"
Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Yet
this incredible piece of intelligence
made headlines after Mr.. Brownell
reluctantly revealed he had dispensed
with Mr.. Crouch's services and was
investigating him for possible perjury
on several counts. About the same
time, several other star performers
in Mr.. Broynell's pool of professional
informers found themselves in the
same boat with Crouch.
That the mere act of recanting
Communist affiliations does not give
a man more integrity, ability or emo
tional stability than he had before
his public penance is the hard lesson
which has now been forcibly brought
home to Mr.. Brownell. We say fore
IDLY brought home because it was not
until startling conflicts in Crouch's-
testimony were unearthed by private
attorneys and given wide publicity in
the press that Mr.. Brownell took ac-
ton. In the case of two other pro-
fessional informers, the UN Loyalty
Board itself recommended a Justice
Department study of what appeared
to be perjured testimony against No
bel Peace Prize winner and UN Under
General DR.. Ralph Bunche.
No one will dispute the fact that
political informers can play an i'm
portant role in pinpointing the Com
munist strategy and getting convic-
tons of party leaders. But as the |
WASHINGTON POST has pointed |
put, by paying for information on a
piece basis and making it a virtual
neal ticket, there is real ranger that |
men will embellish or
invent to fill their pockets and to con-
5inue to get the public attention they |
could not otherwise command.
Paul Crouch, the top Garner in Mr.. |
stable, is a case in point. |
Crouch was an 85-cent-an-hour air
craft worker before he went to work
'or Justice in 1851 and began to earn
S35 a day on an average of IS days
| month.
Here are some highlights in his
career:
q In 1851, flatly contradicting his
testimony on the same subject in
$40, Crouch described a 1878
Meeting with DR.. Leon Keyserling,
President Truman's chief economic
!dviser, in which Keyserling allegedly
bowed himself sympathetic to the
Communist Party. Another confessed
Communist disputed Crouch's testi-
nony, giving support to DR.. Keyser-
ing's assertion that Crouch had fabri-
ated the meeting in question. SINH
ar Crouch charges against Mrs. Key
erling were discredited by Govern
nent loyalty board in 1853 and she
yas reinstated in her Government
OBJ.
Q In court, Crouch glibly testified
e had seen Jacob Burck, Chicago !
cartoonist, at several
communist Party meetings. When '
sked to identify him in the court
DOM, he pointed out a CHICAGO
RIBUNE photographer.
o In 1949 trial, Crouch four
mes denied knowing an alleged Com
lunist, David Davis. But in a June
954 Smith Act trial, he gave de-
allied testimony about his work with
avis in the party from 1928 through
lie mid-30's.
Q Crouch's earlier testimony
yainst DR.. J. Robert Oppenheimer
as so completely discredited that
IS eager offer to appear before the
,ecial Gray Board, weighing Open
eimer's right to Acc clearance, was
ot accepted. Among other things he
Id sworn he saw Oppenheimer at a
Party meeting in Berke-
y, Calif., in late July 1941 when the
ientist was not even in the state.
This is the man who has testified
over so hearings and court cases
i'd whose probity was never doubted
: Brownell until private attorneys
~, al ~, ho