| Show ZANY NO MORE martin dies grows in U S esteem As ism investigation bears fruit I 1 by HOWARD LANCASTER released by western newspaper union ASHINGTON the vy only thing that counts in these investigations is what gets into the papers that was martin dies credo the moment he opened the first hearing before his congressional committee investigating un american activities and propaganda within a few weeks most of the nation was laughing at him strip teaser gypsy rose lee offered to bare all for the committee and little shirley temple was wa labeled a communist decoy by one of mr dies witnesses it seems strange therefore that much of america is laughing on the other side of its face today there are still plenty of people who think the committees early investigations were a farce and dies admits he got a few crackpot witnesses but a peculiar combination of circumstances has placed the un amerl committee front and center on the washington stage this month having submitted a report on its second years investigation the committee is asking con gress for a new appropriation heres why it happened first you have the correct combination of men and times dies is the 38 year aarold old texan with heavy hands bands and yellow hair whose sole claim to tame fame after seven lean years in congress was his bis penchant for speechmaking speech making and a hatred for isms iams two other men instrumental in this affair were new yorks nazi hating bating rep samuel dickstein and vice president jack garner dickstein used to have a habit of baiting hitler bitle r from the house floor and reading long lists of citizens whom he accused of being nazis his fellow jews thought he was doing the race more harm barm than good and the house like to be embarrassed so the rules committee of which dies was a member decided to silence dickstein by stealing his thunder jack garners place in this affair is mysterious but pos possibly sibly very important being a fellow texan and a friend of dies he might have seen an opportunity for poking the red hot spotlight of publicity into left wing whig elements of the new deal thus paving the way for his bis own candidacy in 1940 by 1938 1933 the shirt crowd black shirts brown shirts silver shirts etc were getting to be a dirty shirt crowd when martin dies read about Bunds fuehrer fritz kuhn his MO lk 4 Z ORATOR until he started red baiting martin dies only cla claim int to fame was presidency of the demagogues club whose tin badge is awarded only to those congressmen who get particularly windy shirts and his camps his blue eyes saw red another reason was the lafollette civil liberties committee which had been accusing industrialists of employing spies to prevent their employees from organizing to provide an offsetting influence many congressmen congressmen thought somebody should investigate subversive influences finally there was the dies mania for publicity its rumored that he be called off an important hearing last autumn because the world series was monopolizing ther the headlines and hes not ashamed to admit it the good that this committee does depends on how bow many people read the testimony in newspapers who in the world is going to bother about the official record paying 5 a dagand day and traveling expenses for each witness eats up a appropriation like a cat laps up milk which is one reason the committees first yearn year was a perfect model of what congressional in be dies had bad no CO counsel no operation cooperation co from the tha administration on and no reason to expect any but he did get publicity and last year an alarmed citizenry demanded that these un american upstarts up starts be ferreted out and shot at sunrise result A appropriation dies fight a world series but he used a much bigger competitive news story as a stepladder to fame that story was world war II 11 the communist nazi pact last august gave him new stature tor for it proved the swastikas swa were blood brothers to the hammers and sick I 1 les since the war started america has tried to lock its gates against foreign propagandists and has begun wondering li if martin dies something of a prophet suddenly the nation has realized that despite his blustering and apparently misdirected efforts this red batter has actually hung quite a few scalps outside his wigwam in 1338 1938 he pointed the committees guns westward from washington and helped mow mony down 45 democratic congressmen dies charged that frank Fran murphy kMurphy failed to carry out iut his gubernatorial duties in the flint sit down dorn strike back in 1937 and the resultant rumpus contributed to murphys Murp hys hyps defeat when he sought reelection election re even the administration has started taco to c operate cooperate president roosevelt called it sord sordid ld procedure when the committee published names of government deml employees joy on the mailing list of the american league tor for peace and democracy the inference ce being that these people were communists but a few days later dies charges against communist earl browder took shape in a federal indictment bunds fuehrer fritz kuhn lime lighted by the committee was sent to sing sing by new york district attorney tom dewey the case of harry bridges radical west coast labor leader was shouted from the housetops until madame secretary perkins agreed to a hearing on charges that bridges iwas was an undesirable allen alien A decision is now pending glaring at labor martin dies accused the unions of hir harboring boring foreign agents he now claims one of the largest unions Is quietly purging its ranks ile he was partially parti lillY responsible tor for the recent house investigation vesti gation of the national labor relations board in which unsavory reports were aired dies put a stop to the fedral federal theater projects project which he said was was alive with communists he also talked congress into halving the appropriation of senator LaPoll LaFollett ettes es civil liberties committee which Is working corking the other side of the ism street streel even his most severe critics now a dmit admit martin dies Is coming of age though tho ugh they still notice a lot of rough edges that need polishing oblivious to criticism dies has made his report to congress and started campaigning for more funds heres his view of it iles hes proved conclusively the existence of isms iams in the united states therefore the next logical step is to get ot at the cause of these radical movements to this end he would ask congress for funds to interview sharecrop share crop pers laborers sailors dispossessed farmers bootblacks and alt all other unhappy americans who come within ear shot it would be the biggest show on earth with martin dies as ringmaster |
