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Transcript of Dear - jfk.hood.edujfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/D Disk/Dies Martin/Item...
Dear my youthful indiscredtions,
a la martin Dies 2/1)/78
Because this is one of the glaring omissions in the FBI materials, and their involvement is recorded on the page following the one to which you referred me in that chapter, let me give comment to you in writing about this bob-tailea version.
It is dishonest, inaccurate and angled viciously.
It is so inaccurate Dics hae neither hayne's name nor mine right. And rather than the pretense of their not knowing Mayne, they had his on the payroll in the guise of a witnesses. Dave has what records the 'Iel'Lyvood 10 did not take.
Odd how Dies managed not to mention teis, or that Payne copped a plea, enabled to by Dies written intercession, a letter that should surface in PA response.
Nothing like this ever happened. I e:.ent three weeks in files? I was never in his office. He brought me some papas, mostly pamphlets, in a whiskey carton from which if I'm not mistaken, Bate removed them to ship to UWSP.
Jackson never saw Mayne. Drew Pearson sent a leg man, on Renshaw, to tell Jackson of this eaybe-Silvershirt matter. Jackson turned lee's= Henseaw over to me. Over a period of time Mayne panhandled me for $105. But before I gave anytne the records I obtained from him I obtained a court reporter, took a statement from him -and he authenticated the records under oath - and had the affidavit.
There was no promise of a job. I didn't have one myself. Rather than finding nothing I found what caused the retirement of the Army chief of staff, the FOX request of the FBI of which you know. (They kept that record. I anticipated they would and that no paper would publish it so I let Jack Spivack do that. '2e. did.)
"cite he does not cite the testimony before hie committee. He held secret hearings and then did not dare publish them.
Dies Odd, too, give his anti-union bias that 7teeeeee omits that ackson had beeteon the
Sacco-Vansetti committee and was then lobbyist for Labor's eon-Pilrtisen League, john Lewis' operation. Jackson had been in Agriculture briefly but I am unaware of any later government employment. Could be during World War II. Jackson is perhaps the most passionate anti-communist I ever met.
eoetnote: this was the beginning of the Dies need to pretend to be a little anti-Fascist. o never was. The next year I really did it to him. I discovered that he had stoen an entire report of his comeittee to the House. He had stolen it so completely that every grammatical error, every spelling and punctuation error was repeated faithfully. 1 remember little about the plagiarism save that nothing really made a difference to the Congres' and how it was used. (Joe McCarthy did not invent that !I hold in cry hand." It Drought the House down, but not the comnittee or Dies. et was an anti-Japaneee (imperial) west-coast newsletter. The one think I remember from it is eafu Shimpo, which I think is the name of a publication.
I the end I was on a first-name basis with Dies, his next-in-line Starnes, I had been with ilixon's meat, Jerry Noorhis, an agonizing phoney liberal, and probably others.
The night the grand jury handed down the %erne indictment they all threw a party for me. If not all 10 of those Congressmen, moat of them. Lil was there. Frank hook, a fine human being but no towering intellect, sang two songs, Strauss Fell on Alabama" and "The Dies of Texan Are Unpon You." Lou young fogies probably never heard the song punned. It was at the old Madrillon and continued after the palce closed down. A real party!
But as I have said, the more one has to look back upon, the more clearly he can see ahead.
Those guys paled tough. But you know what John Mithcell said about tough going. So they found out. 'ma' a "youth" indeed! Best,
MA
RT
IN D
IES
'
ST
OR
Y
Martin D
ies
BO
OK
MA
ILE
R
New
York
Copyrig
ht 1
963 b
y M
artin D
ics
Lib
rary o
f Congress C
atalog C
ard N
um
ber: 6
3-1
4765
All rig
hts
reserv
ed, in
clu
din
g th
e rig
ht to
repro
duce th
is
book o
r portio
ns th
ere
of in
any fo
rm.
Dedica
tion
This b
ook is affectio
nately
ded
icated to
my w
ife, Myrtle
Published by
TH
E
BO
OK
MA
ILE
R
New
York
16, N
. Y.
Dis
tribute
d b
y
TH
E B
OO
KM
AIL
ER
, INC
,
Box 101, M
UR
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omplete B
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P A
ME
RIC
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5
"1-1"4:1121" 4 -1'""
'4:;1,Tok ,;11111i1
CO
NT
EN
TS
Forew
ord
1. W
e are Losing
2. W
hat Com
munism
is, and does
3. T
he Washington C
limate
4. S
it-down S
trikes and the Unions
5. T
he "Dies C
omm
ittee" is Born
6. W
hy not the FB
I?
7. P
olitics and Politicians
8. M
inorities into Majorities
9. B
ookburning—L
iberal Style
9 11 19 29 41 57 69 77 93
105
,
"117 t Q L!
10. A
ll in a Day's W
ork
115
11. T
he Isms
129
12. T
he Fourth E
state
133
13. F
.D.R
137
14. M
rs. Franklin D
. Roosevelt
149
15. W
hat the Dies C
omm
ittee Did
157
16. "M
e Too"
173
17. Y
outh
181
18. T
hey arc Still H
ere
193
Notes
209
Appendix
218
Exhibits
269
Index
276
7
CH
AP
TE
R X
AL
L IN
A D
AY
'S W
OR
K
"When
I'm n
ot th
ank'd
at all, I'm th
ank'd
enough,
I've d
on
e my
du
ty, an
d I'v
e do
ne n
o m
ore."
—H
enry Fielding
One w
intry day in 1939, a very beautiful wom
an called at the office. S
he was dressed in the best of taste,
was w
ell educated
and in
telligen
t. She said
that sh
e tau
ght sch
ool in
Baltim
ore, w
as keen
ly in
terested in
C
omm
unism, and had been gathering inform
ation on th
e subject. S
he claim
ed to
know
the n
ames an
d ad
-d
resses of so
me o
f the m
ost activ
e Co
mm
un
ists in
Philadelphia and prom
ised to furnish them w
hen she com
pleted her investigation. I thanked her, and told her that this w
ould be a real help to the Com
mittee.
Every S
aturday morning she cam
e back to report, but d
id n
ot b
ring th
e info
rmatio
n I so
ught. S
he k
ept
puttin
g m
e off w
ith o
ne ex
cuse after an
oth
er. One
snowy day, she telephoned, saying that she w
as taking a cold, and had decided to spend the night in the M
ay- 115
flow
er Ho
tel. Sh
e said sh
e finally
had
ob
tained
the
information w
anted, and asked if I would stop by her
room for it on m
y way hom
e. "You w
ill be on your way
home anyw
ay, and it will only take a m
oment for you
to run by my room
and pick up the file." I said I w
ould come, but explained that I could not
leave b
efore th
e House ad
journ
ed at 5
o'clo
ck. A
s I h
un
g u
p, q
uestio
ns p
op
ped
into
my
min
d. H
ow
did
M
iss R—
know w
here I lived, and why had she gone
to th
e trou
ble o
f find
ing
ou
t my
residen
ce? I decid
ed
to sk
ip th
e hotel an
d g
o d
irectly h
om
e. The d
ecision
was fo
rtunate.
Our investigator checked at the hotel. In the room
ad
join
ing
hers, th
ere was a p
ho
tog
raph
er. It was th
e o
ld b
adg
er gam
e. Had
I go
ne to
her ro
om
, she w
ou
ld
hav
e asked
me to
be seated
, slipped
into
my lap
, and
embraced
me, an
d at th
at precise m
om
ent th
e door
would have opened from
the 'room w
here the photog-rapher w
as stationed. They w
ould have had my picture
in a co
mpro
misin
g p
ositio
n, an
d D
ies and th
e Com
-m
ittee wo
uld
hav
e been
tho
rou
gh
ly an
d co
mp
letely
discredited. C
lose on the heels of this incident was another, m
ore serious since it involved m
y young son Bobby. W
e had receiv
ed th
reats of k
idnap
pin
g, an
d w
e had
warn
ed
Bobby n
ever to
get in
a car with
a stranger. O
ne d
ay
he cam
e run
nin
g h
om
e as fast as his little leg
s cou
ld
carry him. O
ut of breath, he explained between gasps
that tw
o m
en in
a car had
asked
him
to g
et in, an
d
had told him they w
ould drive him hom
e. Bobby, heed-
ing o
ur w
arnin
g, to
ok o
f like a scared
rabbit, an
d g
ot
home in nothing fiat. T
hen
, wh
en m
y w
ife arrived
ho
me fro
m v
isiting
m
e in th
e hosp
ital follo
win
g m
y o
peratio
n in
1940,
there w
as a steady
stream o
f teleph
on
e calls all nig
ht
lon
g, w
ith co
mfo
rting
remark
s like th
ese: "W
ell, is your husband dead yet?" 116
"I'm d
oin
a lot o
f pray
ing, b
ut n
ot fo
r what y
ou
think. I am praying that D
ies dies." We finally had to
have an unlisted telephone installed. T
his is o
ne o
f the m
ost p
ow
erful w
eapo
ns u
sed
again
st an an
ti-Com
munist: h
arassmen
t of h
is loved
ones. T
hese are ty
pical o
f our co
nstan
t torm
ent fo
r sev
en y
ears. But m
ore im
portan
t, as well as m
ore
tragic, w
ere the ex
perien
ces of so
me fo
rmer S
oviet
officials. G
eneral Walter G
. Krivitsky, w
ho had served un-d
er Stalin
for a lo
ng
time, fled
to th
e Un
ited S
tates w
hen he became disgusted w
ith the brutality of Com
-m
unism in practice, as distinguished from
Com
munism
in theory. H
e told an astounding story of the plans and purp
oses o
f the K
remlin
; how
they
had
built secret
armies in
every
country
, and h
ad sp
ent m
illions o
f dollars for propaganda purposes. H
e declared that the ultim
ate goal o
f Stalin
was th
e conquest o
f Euro
pe,
Asia, and the A
mericas. I w
anted him to testify before
the Com
mittee because it w
as vital that the Am
erican people should have the benefit of his inform
ation, but he w
as afraid th
at the O
GP
U, th
e Krem
lin S
ecret P
olice, would assassinate him
. F
rom
notes I m
ade at th
e time, th
is is the su
b-
stance of our conversation. I asked "S
urely they are not that powerful in the
United
States?"
He replied: "I w
as chief of the Western D
ivision of the S
oviet Intelligence, and I know that there isn't
a country
, there isn
't an in
dustry
of im
portan
ce, and
there isn
't a tow
n o
f ind
ustrial im
po
rtance w
here
OG
PU
mem
bers are n
ot g
atherin
g in
form
ation
, and
tran
smittin
g it to
the S
oviet U
nio
n. T
hey
hav
e their
agen
ts in th
e So
viet E
mb
assies, and
no
t even
the
Soviet A
mbassadors know
the identity of the OG
PU
operatives."
117
General K
rivitsky was prevailed upon to testify
on the assurance that we w
ould protect him and con-
ceal his identity. I tried to get a comm
itment from
our G
overnment that it w
ould help to protect him, but ap-
parently no one in our Governm
ent wanted him
to testify. S
hortly after his startling revelations, which
told so accurately the plans of the Krem
lin, he was
found in his hotel room in W
ashington, D. C
., shot to death. T
he death was pronounced suicide, but there
are too many sim
ilar instances to accept that verdict w
ithout reservations. A
nother former agent of the S
oviet Union w
ho had given us valuable inform
ation was found shortly
afterward dead from
a reported heart attack. Exam
i-nation disclosed that he had been shot through the eye w
ith a fine steel bullet. Still another informant w
as the victim
of a hit and run driver. In another case, C
omm
unist Party leaders created a justifiable suspicion that they knew
more about w
hat happened to one Juliet S
tuart Poyntz than they w
ere w
illing to tell. From our established know
ledge of what
the Soviets do to spies when they are through w
ith them
we m
ay safely assume that the lips of this A
merican
wom
an had been sealed forever. Witnesses have testi-
fied that she know too m
uch and was on the point of
breaking with her S
oviet masters.
This is no com
plete roster of anti-Com
munists
who have m
et untimely ends under suspicious circum
-stances, even in the U
nited States. M
ore recently, on T
hanksgiving morning 1959, the lifeless body of Povl
Bang-Jensen, D
anish representative to the UN
, who
had refused to betray the Hungarian F
reedom F
ight-ers, w
as discovered on a well-traveled path in a N
ew
York C
ity park. The circum
stances were such as to
lead many know
ledgable people to believe that this was
a case of murder by the C
omm
unist&
In Septem
ber 1938, when I tentatively suggested
118
the formation of a patriotic organization to com
bat N
aziism, Fascism
, and Com
munism
I received a letter from
Herbert B
ayard Sw
ope saying that he was inter-
ested. I was beginning to have doubts about the advis-
ability of the plan, and so advised him. Follow
ing my
address in October at the H
erald-Tribune F
orum in
New
York C
ity, Swope's representative insisted that I
call at his office. Swope told how
he had been respon-sible for R
oosevelt's early success, and was very flatter-
ing to me personally. H
e implied that he, or som
eone acting for him
, was in a position to change the P
resi-dent's opposition to m
e to an attitude of friendliness. H
e offered to make a contribution to set up a pow
erful anti-N
azi organization which I w
ould head. I told Mr.
Swope I had never accepted a contribution from
anyone, did not intend to, and w
as going to keep the investi-gation on a high plane. T
hat night, I learned that the President had issued his bitterest personal attack on m
e. O
n my return to W
ashington, I wrote S
wope,
summ
arizing our conversation and my refusal. M
y let-ter w
as fortunate, because shortly afterward the new
s correspondent M
arquis Childs, one of the ardent chron-
iclers and trumpeters of the N
ew D
eal, came to m
e and said that he had "heard that I had gone to see H
erbert Bayard S
wope for m
oney, and that there was
going to be a big exposé of it. I told him to go ahead,
and expose but to remem
ber that when he did I w
ould release the real story, including m
y fortituous letter to Sw
ope. Childs never w
rote the story, nor did Harlan
Miller, w
ho spoke to me about it later.
What w
as perhaps the most incredible and am
-bitious attem
pt to destroy the Dies C
omm
ittee was
made early in 1940, follow
ing our second Com
mittee
report. As I look back, it takes on a certain antique
Venetian flavor; it w
as the kind of device some old
courtier of the Middle A
ges might w
ell have used to rid his m
aster of a troublesome enem
y. 119
It beg
an o
n Jan
uary
22, 1
940, w
hen
Fran
k E
. H
ook (D
.-Mich
.) rose in
the H
ouse o
f Rep
resenta-
tives, an
d d
eclared in
tragic to
nes th
at it was h
is duty, "as a red-blooded A
merican," to present certain
facts. Hook p
roceed
ed to
unfu
rl his "facts." C
ongress-
man M
artin Dies had attended a banquet at w
hich Fritz
Kuhn, th
e Nazi B
und lead
er, was p
resent. D
ies had
corresponded, or lunched w
ith, or consorted in several diverse w
ays, with m
en who had know
n men w
ho had once spoken to m
en who w
ere mixed up w
ith Nazi and
Fascist elem
ents in Congressm
an Hook's beloved A
mer-
ica. Th
en cam
e Ho
ok
's piece d
e resistance, th
e final
thrust intended to end this Dies person and his devilish
investigation. A
ll that w
as uttered
up to
now
was a m
ere pro
-logue to this finale, this fatal m
orsel which H
ook pro-ceeded to fling dow
n before the horrified House of R
ep-sentatives. "T
he House," said M
r. Hook, "knew
well that
William
Dudley P
elley was a F
ascist. The D
ies Com
-m
ittee had
, after investig
ating h
im fo
r nin
ety d
ays,
bro
ught fo
rth n
oth
ing—
abso
lutely
noth
ing—
that
would
incrim
inate h
im." "W
hy?" d
eman
ded
Hook.
"Why w
as this man D
ies shielding Pelley?" T
he answer
to this question, Hook said, he held in his hand. H
e held in his patriot's hands photostatic copies of certain let-ters, w
hich
he to
ld th
e House, h
ad b
een w
ritten b
y
William
Dudley P
elley. C
ould
one d
oubt it? T
hey
were o
n P
y's o
wn
letterhead
s. Th
ey w
ere written
to D
avid
B M
ayn
e, P
elley's "resid
ent" in
Wash
ing
ton
, and
a mem
ber o
f the S
ilver Shirt L
egion, and they were signed "P
elley." T
hey
referred to
vario
us frien
dly
relation
ship
s that
existed between P
olley and Dies.
Pelley
was n
ot w
orry
ing
abo
ut a D
ies inv
estiga-
tion, these letters revealed,—not unless D
ies changed h
is min
d. "A
s I travel th
rou
gh
the co
un
try," ran
on
e of th
e dam
nin
g ep
istles Hook w
aved
at the H
ouse,
120
"frequently discussing 1940 political issues, I am m
ore th
an ev
er con
vin
ced th
at the g
reatest issue to
be d
e-cided w
ill be the continuance of the Dies C
omm
ittee. T
he issue rests between D
ies' supporters and the White
House. If F
.D.R
. wins, D
ies is done ; and if Dies w
ins, there w
ill be no third term for R
oosevelt, neither will
there b
e a dictato
rship
. Fu
rtherm
ore, w
ho
ever w
ins
Mr. D
ies' end
orsem
ent fo
r the P
residen
cy w
ill be
elected." T
hus sp
ake P
elley's letters. T
here it w
as—th
e case again
st Dies—
in all its h
ideo
us lin
eamen
ts. D
ies, a political hero of Pelley, the F
ascist villian I T
his was expected to solve the D
ies problem.
Ho
wev
er, the real sto
ry w
as differen
t. It was
Gard
ner Jack
son, fo
rmerly
and su
bseq
uen
tly o
n th
e G
overnment payroll, w
ho had conceived the brilliant idea of disposing of D
ies by linking him w
ith Pelley.
Jackson had been connected with som
e of the organi-zatio
ns in
vestig
ated b
y th
e Com
mittee. Jack
son em
-ployed a youth nam
ed Harold W
eiskjrg, who had been
with the L
aFollette C
ivil Liberties C
omm
ittee, to get evidence that D
ies was trafficking w
ith Pelley. W
eis-bur got in touch w
ith Mayne, and prom
ised him a G
ov-ernm
ent job if he could link Dies w
ith Pelley. W
eisburg sp
ent th
ree week
s rakin
g th
rou
gh
files furn
ished
by
M
ayne, and found nothing. Mayne, pressed for results,
and tem
pted
by th
e pro
spect o
f a Govern
men
t job,
finally
pro
du
ced a letter, w
hich
he so
ld to
Jackso
n
for $105. Jackson invited a group of ten C
ongressmen, in-
clud
ing
Ho
ok
, and
two
New
Deal m
emb
ers of o
ur
Com
mittee to his hom
e for dinner, for a strategy meet-
ing on how to destroy the D
ies Com
mittee. T
he company
being properly softened with drinks and a good dinner,
Jackson passed around photographs of the letters sup-plied
by M
ayne, an
d ask
ed h
is guests to
join
in an
attack
on th
e Com
mittee an
d m
yself, in
an effo
rt to
defeat th
e resolu
tion to
exten
d th
e Com
mittee's life.
121
John M
. Coffee, (D
.-Wash
.), an ard
ent N
ew
Dealer, observed the letters did not look genuine to him
, and he w
anted no part of it. Hook, how
ever, declared h
imself p
erfectly satisfied
, and
prep
ared to
mak
e the
attack. On the day before the R
ules Com
mittee w
as to decide about continuation of the C
omm
ittee, Hook took
the floor, and delivered the speech. N
aturally
, the sto
ry w
as wid
ely p
ub
lished
in th
e new
spap
ers. I was in
Tex
as, but S
ecretary S
triplin
g
went to Jerry V
oorhis, a mem
ber of the Com
mittee, and
asked
to ex
amin
e the letters. W
hen
Voorh
is called
Hook, to
ask h
im to
gran
t the req
uest, H
ook refu
sed!
Strip
ling lo
cated M
ayne at h
is hom
e, and ask
ed
him to com
e to the Com
mittee office. U
nder question-in
g, M
ayne read
ily ad
mitted
that th
e letters were
forged, and had been purchased by Jackson. Stripling
demanded to know
the whereabouts of P
elley, and when
May
ne seem
ed frig
hten
ed at th
is, hin
ted th
at a Co
m-
mittee su
bpoen
a mig
ht sav
e Pelley
from
the N
orth
C
arolina authorities who w
ere looking for him to serve
a susp
ended
senten
ce involv
ing b
lue sk
y law
s. Nex
t m
orning Pelley w
alked into the Com
mittee office. T
he C
om
mittee w
as called, an
d P
elley d
enied
that h
e had
ev
er met o
r written
to D
ies. Pelley
later repeated
his
denials before the Rules C
omm
ittee. T
he ty
pew
riter on w
hich
the fo
rged
letters were
written w
as located, and while H
ook was on the floor
comm
encing his second tirade against the Com
mittee,
Rep
. Fra
nk
Keefe
walk
ed
in w
ith th
e e
vid
en
ce,
den
ou
nced
the attack
, and
dem
and
ed th
at Ho
ok
's re-m
arks b
e exp
un
ged
from
the reco
rd. H
oo
k w
as dis-
credited, and took a severe beating at the hands of the R
ules Com
mittee.
Bu
t this w
as no
t qu
ite all. Th
rou
gh
the A
ttorn
ey
Gen
eral, two F
BI m
en w
ere imm
ediately
assigned
, ostensibly to investigate the authenticity of the letters, but actually to investigate S
tripling and myself, w
hile
122
Hook repeated his charges. T
he Adm
inistration got into the act. A
stooge working for the F
ederal Com
munica-
tions Com
mission volunteered to the press the inform
a-tio
n th
at "Rep
resentativ
e Dies h
as received
as man
y
favorable references in Axis propaganda in this coun-
try as an
y liv
ing A
merican
public fig
ure." W
hen
I im
mediately announced that F
.C.C
. employees assigned
to monitoring A
xis propaganda would be subpoenaed
the Com
mission quickly repudiated its falsehood.
One of m
y lesser crimes, trum
peted by Hook in his
orig
inal tirad
e, was m
y d
elivery
of a sp
eech to
the
Eco
nom
ic Council o
f New
York
. It was a d
inner
meeting for w
hich anyone could buy a ticket. As I sat
do
wn
, I spo
tted F
ritz Ku
hn
, fueh
rer of th
e Germ
an-
Am
erican B
un
d, an
d fo
ur o
r five o
f his lieu
tenan
ts, seated at a table. I knew
that the Liberals m
ight seize upon th
e mere p
resence o
f these N
azis to ch
arge th
at I w
as addressin
g a N
azi gro
up. T
herefo
re, when
I arose to speak I addressed m
y initial remarks directly
to Herr K
uhn and his cohorts. I denounced the Germ
an-A
merican B
und as a tool of Hitler, called for its prose-
cutio
n, an
d m
ade a p
lea for th
e religio
us an
d racial
toleran
ce which
is the b
asis of tru
e Am
ericanism
. N
otw
ithstan
din
g m
y stu
died
efforts th
e Lib
eral press th
roughout th
e country
carried p
ictures o
f the
Bu
nd
leaders, h
eadlin
ing
the fact th
at I was th
e prin
-cip
al speak
er at this d
inner m
eeting w
hich
they
had
attended! L
iberal radio comm
entators and columnists,
and New
Deal office holders, continued for years to rake
up and repeat the lies of the forged Pelley letters, and
my speech to the E
conomic C
ouncil dinner. N
ew D
ealers, in an
d o
ut o
f the G
ov
ernm
ent,
blamed the D
ies Com
mittee for F
rank Murphy's defeat
in his bid for reelection as Governor of M
ichigan. The
President consoled M
urphy by making him
U. S
. At-
torney General, and later appointed him
Associate Jus-
tice of the Suprem
e Court.
123
The late M
rs. Evelyn W
alsh McL
ean was at that
time an
ou
tstand
ing
ho
stess in W
ashin
gto
n, an
d a
warm
and devoted friend of Mrs. D
ies and myself:-M
rs. M
cLean
was a rem
arkab
le wom
an, w
ith a b
rilliant
mind and deep loyalties. S
he believed deeply in the w
ork of the Com
mittee, and her varied contacts often
enabled her to furnish us invaluable information. W
hen she telephoned m
e to say that Justice Murphy had asked
her to
arrang
e a priv
ate con
ference w
ith m
e in h
er hom
e, I was reluctant, but accepted.
Wheh
Mrs. D
ies and I arriv
ed to
meet Ju
stice M
urphy, I could see that he was visibly agitated and
troubled. He shook hands and said, "M
r. Dies, I know
you have no reason to like or respect m
e. I am asham
ed of m
y ro
le in th
e sit-dow
n strik
es, but I w
as under
terrific pressure from the P
resident and many of m
y political friends, and I let them
pressure me against m
y better instincts. B
ut be that as it may, it is all now
past and beyond recall. M
y purpose in asking you to meet
me here is to tell you that I am
deeply concerned about the future of our country. I know
that the Com
munists
hav
e infiltrated
our G
overn
men
t, and th
at they
are sending valuable inform
ation to Moscow
, and are in-fluencing our foreign policy. Y
ou, Mr. D
ies are the only m
an in Am
erican who can say this, and regard-
less of the beating you are taking, I urge you to con-tinue your w
ork." T
here was m
uch more along the sam
e line, but this w
as the substance of his confession. I assured Justice M
urphy that I would persevere as long as m
y health perm
itted and as long as I could be reelected. M
urphy's story was not new
s to me, but his frank and
sincere confession confirmed m
y convictions. His heavy
obligations to the President, and his S
upreme C
ourt position, precluded a public adm
ission of his deep re-gret for his m
istake. His confession changed m
y feeling tow
ard him. I felt pity and sym
pathy for a good man
124
who w
as not strong enough to stand up in the face of the pow
er and prestige of the Presidency.
One m
ore revealing case history deserves mention
here bcause of its underlying significance. The story,
has been told by the Dies C
omm
ittee Secretary Stripling (w
ith all the deep-seated sense of humor and philosoph-
ical resignation necessary for all anti-Com
munists) in
his book, published in 1949, and now unfortunately
long out of print. His chapter heading is "O
ne Way to
Join the Arm
y."' It happened that tw
o of the final items on the D
ies C
omm
ittee agenda had to do with the issuance of a
visa for Mrs. E
arl Brow
der, and with the C
IO's P
olit-ical A
ction Com
mittee (P
AC
). In O
ctober 1944, Secretary of S
tate Cordell H
ull had inform
ed his staff that a visa must be issued to
Mrs. B
rowder "for the good of the country," since the
President w
as planning to meet again w
ith Stalin.
Because of the num
ber of its founders and sup-porters listed in our files the D
ies Com
mittee had been
interested
in th
e form
ation o
f the P
AC
by th
e late S
idney Hillm
an. We subpoenaed from
the New
York
Telephone C
ompany its record of incom
ing and outgoing long distance calls at P
AC
headquarters. These show
ed an astonishing num
ber of calls to the White H
ouse, m
ade by Hillm
an and others. Calls from
the White
House to P
AC
were largely m
ade by David N
iles, vari-ous P
residential secretaries, and Mrs. R
oosevelt. S
tripling at the time w
as in his thirties, married,
a pre-P
earl Harb
or fath
er, and h
ad b
een p
laced o
n
the deferred list by the Legislative D
eferment C
om-
mittee, headed by S
enator Burnet R
. Maybank. (D
-S
.C.) N
everth
eless, after the P
AC
story
was o
ut,
Stripling w
as called up by his draft board, and was
advised that there was a lot of pressure to put him
in the A
rmy on "direct orders from
the State D
irector of S
elective Service." S
hortly thereafter, Stripling w
as 125
asked
to call in
cognito
at the S
elective S
ervice H
ead-
quarters, where tw
o elderly Colonels suggested that he
get a job with G
lenn Martin C
ompany, w
hich they be-lieved w
ould make him
eligible for deferment. H
e de-clin
ed th
e sug
gestio
n.
As h
e was w
indin
g u
p h
is duties as S
ecretary o
f the C
omm
ittee, to enter military service, S
tripling was
adv
ised th
at Sen
ator M
ayb
ank
had
arrang
ed fo
r a thirty-day deferm
ent. Within five days he w
as ordered to
repo
rt. Pressu
res on
the d
raft bo
ard, in
clud
ing
the
needling by columnist D
rew P
earson and others, proved m
ore powerful than the norm
al and orderly procedures of a C
ongressional Com
mittee. O
ne week after induc-
tion soldier Stripling w
as visited by an Arm
y Captain
from W
ashington, D.C
., who offered him
a comm
ission, and a
perm
anent a
ssignm
ent, a
nd sta
ted th
at h
e
would
send
for h
im in
a cou
ple o
f day
s. Alth
ough h
e could not reveal this at the tim
e, what the C
aptain had in
min
d w
as security
work
on th
e A-b
om
b p
roject.
Nothing cam
e of this, nor of at least two m
ore re-quests for assignm
ent in intelligence work. P
acking to go overseas w
ith his outfit, Stripling w
as told that the S
ecretary o
f War h
ad o
rdered
him
kep
t in th
e States.
Visiting W
ashington in October 1945, C
hairman
Joh
n S
. Wo
od
, (D-G
a.) of H
CU
A to
ld S
triplin
g th
at they needed him
, and that he was going to get him
out of serv
ice imm
ediately
. Upon h
is return
to cam
p,
Strip
ling
was to
ld th
at ord
ers had
been
received
to
send h
im to
Tokyo. H
e used
the cu
stom
ary o
verseas
ord
ers furlo
ugh to
visit h
is family
. When
he retu
rned
to cam
p to pack for his Tokyo assignm
ent, he was told
that o
rder fro
m the S
ecretary o
f State h
ad tak
en h
im
off o
rders. H
is book th
us relates th
e win
d-u
p o
f his
fantastic Arm
y career : "F
or the next few m
onths, I functioned as a casual around the cam
p, working now
and then at latrine duty and at o
ther tim
es as sweep
er at the O
fficers' Club.
126
Tow
ard th
e end o
f the p
eriod
I becam
e messenger
bo
y, b
ut in
Janu
ary, 1
94
6. I g
ot m
y first d
efinite
assignment." T
his was as a m
ember of the faculty of the
Co
un
ter-Intellig
ence co
urse, w
ith h
is sub
ject "Su
b-
versiv
e Activ
ities in th
e United
States." H
is story
concludes :
"It was in
this ro
le that I com
pleted my A
rmy
career. I got a kick out of it, of course, and was a little
proud to rise dizzily to the estate of Master S
ergeant after h
avin
g b
een a y
ardbird
for so
long. T
he ex
tra m
oney, I might add, cam
e in very handy. We had had
a difficu
lt time in
that d
epartm
ent."
While S
tripling, with seven years experience in-
vestig
ating C
om
munism
, pick
ed u
p scrap
pap
er and cigarette butts from
the Arm
y parade grounds, Alger
Hiss sat at th
e elbow
of th
e Chief E
xecu
tive an
d
Com
mander-in-C
hief at Yalta.
127