Mobilization against the “fifth column” held the center of Washington’s stage again today, as Rep. Martin Dies charged that Nazi agents in Mexico had succeeded in establishing air bases along the United States border according to information he has received.
At the same time, in the Senate, Senator Bennett Champ Clark of Missouri warned that the hunt for members of the “fifth column” should not be confined to aliens alone but should include “many native-born Americans.” Referring to the activities of Gen. George Van Horn Moseley, as revealed by the Dies Committee, Clark said that Moseley should have been court-martialed for his Fascist activities.
Clark’s statement came in debate on the Senate floor after Senator Robert Reynolds had introduced a resolution calling for a Senate investigation of “fifth column” activities. In his address, Reynolds confined himself almost entirely to an attack on aliens, and this was disputed by Clark.
Meanwhile, it was revealed both at the White House, the Justice Department and on Capitol Hill that the Dies Committee is now working very closely with all Government agencies investigating “fifth column” activities. President Roosevelt at his press conference said much good material had been turned over to the Department of Justice by Dies and some not so good.
Dies said he planned to cooperate both with the F.B.I. and the State Department in conducting an intensive investigation into Mexican “fifth column” activities.
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