Show ZANY ZANT NO MORE martin dies grows in U S esteem As ism investigation bears fruit MY y HOWARD LANCASTER released by Nv western estern newspaper union conly washington ASHINGTON the only thing that counts in these investigations is what gets into the papers that was martin dies credo the moment lie 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 labeled a communist decoy by one of mr dies witnesses the latter incident brought guffaws from acid J P harold ickes who called ke ae 1 s an outstanding zany kaw it 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 ameri committee front and center on the washington stage this month having submitted a report on its second years investigation the committee is asking congress for a new appropriation heres why it happened first you have the correct combination of men and times dies is the 38 year old texan with heavy hands and yellow hair whose sole claim to fame after seven lean years in congress was his penchant for speechmaking speech making and a hatred for isms iams hes the man who watched two earlier alien probes one by new yorks ham fish and another by massachusetts john mccormack whet the public appetite for just the kind of an investigation he wanted to make two other men instrumental in this affair were new yorks nazi hating rep samuel dickstein and vice president jack garner dickstein used to have a habit of baiting hitler 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 than good and the house like to be embarrassed so the rules committee of which dies was a me member rAber decided to silence dickstein by stealing his thunder jack garners place in this affair is mysterious but possibly 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 elements of the new deal thus paving the way for his own candidacy in 1940 but nobody can prove this 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 shirts and his camps his blue eyes saw red so did a lot of other people another reason was the lafollette civil liberties committee which had been accusing industry indu industrialists alises of employing spies to prevent their employees from organizing to provide an offsetting influence many congressmen thought somebody should investigate subversive influences in labor unions and less conspicuous places finally there was the dies mania for publicity its rumored that he called off an important hearing last autumn because the world series was monopolizing the headlines and hes not ashamed to admit it the good that this committee does depends on how many people read the testimony in newspapers who in the world is going to bother about the official record so perhaps those crackpot witnesses accidental paying 5 a day and traveling expenses for each witness eats up a appropriation like a cat laps up milk which is one reason the committees first year was a perfect model of what congressional investigations be dies had no counsel no operation cooperation co from the administration 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 il II the communist nazi pact last august gave him new stature for it proved the swastikas swa were blood brothers to the hammers and sick les and the way american communists fumbled and blundered trying to explain this unexpected development only proved they were taking orders direct from moscow since the war started america has tried to lock its gates against foreign propagandists and has begun wondering if martin dies something of a prophet suddenly the nation has realized that despite his blustering and apparently misdirected efforts this red baiter has actually hung quite a few scalps outside his wigwam in 1938 he pointed the committees guns westward from washington and helped mow down 45 democratic congressmen dies charged that frank murphy failed to carry out his gubernatorial duties in the flint sit down strike back in 1937 and the resultant rumpus contributed to murphys Murp hys defeat when he sought reelection election re even the administration has started to operate cooperate co president roosevelt called it sordid procedure when the committee published names of government employees on the mailing list of the american league for peace and democracy the inference 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 ca west coast labor leader was shouted from the housetops until madame secretary perkins agreed to a hearing on charges that bridges was an undesirable alien A decision is now pending glaring at labor martin dies accused the unions of harboring foreign agents he now claims one of the largest unions is quietly purging its ranks he was partially responsible 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 federal theater project which he said MORA 14 ORATOR TOR until he started red baiting martin dies only claim to fame faine was presidency of the demagogues Demagogue sP club whose tin fin badge is is awarded only to those congressmen who get particularly windy was alive with communists he also talked congress into halving the appropriation of senator LaFollett es civil liberties committee which is working the other side of the ism street even his most severe critics now admit martin dies is coming of age though 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 next years appropriation pria tion heres his view of it hes proved conclusively the existence of isms iams in the united states slates therefore the next logical step is to get at the cause of bf these radical movements to this end he would ask congress for funds to interview sharecrop share crop pers laborers sailors dispossessed farmers bootblacks and all other unhappy americans who come within ear shot it would be the biggest show on earth with martin dies as ringmaster |