Dies Irae

Should the Dies Committee be continued? That annual question was up again before the House. The answer would be yes; Martin Dies would perhaps get another swatch of money, perhaps an other $100,000.* In the meantime he had some bad moments.

Many a House committee witness testified on the un-Americanism of Dies' study of un-Americanism. One well-noted point: in Axis propaganda broadcasts, according to FCC listeners, Martin Dies was one of the most-praised of all Americans.

Red-faced Martin Dies demanded an explanation. FCC's Chairman Fly, a favorite Dies target, replied: "Representative Dies . . . received as many favorable references in Axis propa ganda to this country ... as any living American public figure. His opinions were quoted by the Axis without criticism at any time. . . . The remarkable thing . . . is that Congressman Dies should be presented to Americans by Nazi and Fascist propagandists as an authority whose opinions should be heeded." Scarcely had this deft needle slipped in when up rose Massachusetts' young Thomas H. Eliot, to deliver the sharpest attack on Dies the House ever heard.

"[The committee has] all too often acted irresponsibly. . . Rash and reckless in a time of national danger. . . . The Dies Committee's definition of 'subversive' is so fantastic as to defy belief. . . .

A vote against the Dies Committee is a vote for responsible government. " As evidence, young Tom Eliot cited chapter & verse from a new Dies dossier of "subversive" Government employes.

On the list, said Eliot, were:

P:An employe who endorsed the NYA (also endorsed by Warden Lewis E. Lawes and a member of the Dies Committee).

P: One Mary Johnson --because a different Mary Johnson drew a picture for a Communist paper in 1936.

P:One George Saunders, a Roman Catholic from San Francisco --listed by Dies as a Communist of Pittsburgh.

P: An employe who once signed a petition against the Dies Committee.

*He has already spent $385,000 since 1938.

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