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Show llrucliarl'M Washington lHqpst Dies Committee Bares Activities Of Radical, Communist Groups Unseen and Malignant Growths Are Being Bred Into Our National Life by Agitators Who Seek to Destroy t Our Government; Spread Poison in Labor Ranks. i- By WILLIAM BRUCKART YVNU Service, National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. "Unless something some-thing is done to curb radicalism in my section, there is going to be an awful clash and a lot of people are going to get hurt." So spoke Fred W. Frahm, superintendent super-intendent of police of the city of Detroit, De-troit, Mich. And his statement was under oath, for he was giving testimony testi-mony before a committee of the house of representatives, a oommit-tee oommit-tee charged with exposing to view the un-American activities of certain cer-tain groups in this country. It was the statement of a man who is serving serv-ing a city in an official capacity and who has gone through 240 sit-down strikes which he asserted were the direct result of agitation by the radicals rad-icals to which he referred. He looks for more in the near future and added, by way of emphasis, that "these communists and radicals do not want to seek adjustment of differences dif-ferences between labor and management; man-agement; they want to make trouble all of the time." Through a number of weeks, the house committee before which Mr. Frahm testified, has been taking testimony, tes-timony, gathering evidence, digging here and there in its effort to uncover un-cover the activities of subversive groups and expose them to public view. It has been the contention of the chairman, Representative Dies of Texas and some other members of the committee, that most of us are not aware of the unseen and malignant malig-nant growths that are being bred into our national life. They are out to destroy our government, to bring to us the type of thing that has made Russia famous. Mr. Dies is a sincere and honest legislator, and he is trying to do the job assigned him, even when several sev-eral of his committee members have sought to balk his efforts. But there is much more to be done in the direction di-rection of exposing radicalism and the chiseling, cheating, cowardly efforts ef-forts the agitators put forth. Charge Communists Active In Government Offices What I am wondering is why Mr. Dies has not sent his investigators into the very offices of the federal government, itself. Or, if he has done that, as it is gossiped about, then why shield anybody? Why not There Is, of course, the danger that a lot of people will make foolish and unsupported statements about red activities, thus throwing doubt on the really serious phases. That always seems to happen. Unwittingly, Unwitting-ly, that type of person which shouts and shouts and has no proof creates cre-ates the impression that all cries of "wolf, wolf," are meaningless. But when a congressional committee has the courage rather, when its chairman over objections of some of its members has the courage to bring the stuff out for public examination, exam-ination, there must, indeed, be a basis for it. The tragedy of the thing is that the labor movement as a whole will suffer a severe setback. The fact that the radicals have grabbed control con-trol of the automobile workers' union un-ion means that they have "cells" in other groups also, and that these cells slowly but surely will be spreading poison and trouble. The agitators seize upon the unthinking, the foreign-born who are not steeped in our customs or love of country, or upon elements that have been badly treated, and they will use these innocent victims to carry out their destructive plans. C. . O. Being Used as Tool For Destructive Purposes There will be much more labor trouble. You can count on that. The Communist party representatives representa-tives will never allow the slightest chance for creating trouble to escape es-cape them. They are determined to convince labor that it cannot trust the managements, they are encouraging en-couraging the breaking of agreements agree-ments between labor and management manage-ment to the end that employers will have no faith in the leaders of labor, and they are using the national labor la-bor relations board wherever that can be done to give official voice to labor troubles. That fact is chiefly responsible for the position which the C. I. O. group has taken in opposition op-position to proposals for revision of the labor relations act. William Green and the American Federation of Labor are urging revision of the law, but C. I. O., having its tentacles tenta-cles in the labor board, obviously does not want its grip broken. It has been known for a long time that the C. I. O. was being used as turn tne spouignt 01 puDiicny on me individuals who waht to destroy the American system, the American form of government, American tradition, tra-dition, the American profit system of doing business? There has been much talk in the last several years about the operations of communists within the very walls of the government, govern-ment, men and women who are boring bor-ing from within as termites destroy lumber, and we ought to know the truth. If they are within the government, govern-ment, they ought to be exposed and chased out of the western hemisphere; hemis-phere; if they are not operating as is gossiped around, then their names ought to be cleared. In any event, I hope the Dies committee goes on and shows the cancerous nature of groups that do not believe in our system, whether they be Russians, or Germans, or Italians, or British or what have you. It has been the favorite device of the)radicals and their henchmen to characterize any official who attacks at-tacks them as being a subject for a tool for destructive purposes, but the agitators and emissaries were sly and careful. They covered their tracks. Such information as leaked out was promptly discredited by the very reds who had done the job and they discredited any individual who repeated the story by laughing at his gullibility. However, there is one instance which cannot be denied. The clerks in the rural electrification adminis-tration adminis-tration organized a union and affiliated affili-ated with C. I. O. It was to have social as well as fraternal aspects. There was a dance scheduled. Negro Ne-gro workers attended and insisted on inter-racial participation in everything ev-erything that was done. They said they were told to do so by representatives repre-sentatives of C. I. O. After the dance was concluded, so participants partici-pants have reported, a phonograph record was procured and the bellowing bel-lowing notes of "The Internationale," Internation-ale," communistic anthem, blared forth. the insane hospitals. Their game has been to laugh people out of court whenever an effort was made to tell of some of the things the agitators were doing. Many will recall re-call an investigation by a house committee several years ago where the wiUiesses were laughed down and a courageous superintendent of schools from Gary, Ind., was made to look foolish because of the charges he made. Well, if my opinion opin-ion be worth anything, the folks who were the suckers in that play were the supposedly intelligent members of congress who made up the committee. It was they who fell for a trick of propaganda. Either Ei-ther that was the case, or the members mem-bers of that committee were just plain dumb. Lewis Cannot Break Grip Of Communists on C. I. O. Concerning the sit-down strikes about which Mr. Frahm testified, I want to boast that I wrote of communist com-munist participation in those sit-down sit-down strikes when they were happening. hap-pening. I had several letters thereafter, there-after, calling me crazy and describing describ-ing me as a red-baiter. Mr. Frahm now has put into official records the facts that must be obvious to any real American, and he further has expressed the opinion that John L. Lewis, head of the C. I. O., cannot break the grip that the communists have on his organization. That may be the reason why Mr. Lewis has been so silent the last several months. Maybe he sees that the labor la-bor group of which he was so proud has become a gargantuan monster that is slowly swallowing him, physically phys-ically large as he is. Dies Committee Exposes Methods Used by Radicals The Dies committee record is full of testimony about methods employed em-ployed by the communists in their devious borings and destructive tactics. The record tells, too, of how many .innocent appearing organizations, or-ganizations, created for an allegedly useful purpose, are captured by communists and used by them to obtain money contributions for which no accounting ever is mad. And tragic, also, are the stories of how the real leaders laughed at the suckers who gave hard-earned money, mon-ey, laughed in the secret recesses of their hideouts about the soft and easy minds of Americans. But another session of congress is coming. The Dies committee will make a report and probably will ask an appropriation to enable it to go on. We will see who opposes that appropriation. There probably will be opposition from two or three members of the committee itself, and we will see who they are. If they are outspoken In their opposition, opposi-tion, I suspect most people will know why. I think this condition has reached the point where attention should be paid to it by the federal government. govern-ment. It is now hot on the trail of some alleged German spies who were seeking American military secrets. se-crets. So why not make a thorough thor-ough job of it and lift up the lid that hides various other kinds of spies whose work, to my mind, is much more dangerous to American national life? i ) Western Newspaper Union. |
