Probe of Race Bias in Defense Hiring, Drive on Election Agitation Urged in Congress

An investigation of race prejudice in employment in defense industries was urged in the House today, while the Senate received the majority report of the Gillette Campaign Investigation Committee which asked a wider drive to force identification of groups circulating scurrilous material, much of it anti-Semitic, during election campaigns.

In the House, Herman Koppleman (Dem., Conn.) said he would accept the promise of Chairman Martin Dies of the House Committee on Un-American Activities to launch a probe of racial prejudice in employment in defense industries if evidence of such discrimination were offered.

Koppleman asked Dies on the floor of the House whether his committee had investigated charges that such discrimination regarding “several races” existed. Dies replied that he had heard both charges and denials but had seen no actual evidence. “I have such evidence and I’ll be glad to provide the gentleman with it,” Koppleman declared.

In an interview later, the Connecticut Congressman said he had received much evidence that discrimination prevailed both in his own state and elsewhere throughout the country. “Jews are subjected to racial discrimination, Negroes because of the fear of Communist influence among them and loyal Americans of Italian and German extraction because of their national background,” he declared.”

Koppleman said some of the evidence in his possession was factual, while the balance consisted of charges made by defense workers. “However, it is plainly the duty of the Dies Committee to investigate all charges, ascertain their truth or falsity and then either bring in remedial legislation or at least acquaint the public with the facts that such conditions prevail,” he declared.

In the Senate, a Federal and State legislative drive to rip aside the cloak of anonymity behind which an estimated one-half of the individuals and groups circulating scurrilous literature in connection with the 1940 Presidential campaign and the creation of a special congressional investigation to follow up this admittedly sketchy phase of the Senate campaign expenditures probe was recommended in the majority report of the Gillette committee.

“Such legislation should include the following objectives–unmistakable identity of the sponsorship of all campaign material and the name and address of printers of all campaign material.” the report declared.

In addition, the report recommended a campaign for the education of public opinion and a separate investigation “by a proper federal agency” of the activities of advertising agencies in creation and distribution of campaign literature without charge and without a report of expenditures to Congress.

Senator Gillette (Dem., Iowa) said today he thought the recommended congressional investigation of campaign literature should have as its principal objectives the determination of whether any of the groups sponsoring scurrilous material could be prosecuted for failure to report their expenditures and the drafting of suitable legislation to remove the cloak of anonymity from them in the future.

The report pointed out that its material consisted largely of the 400 examples volunteered by individuals receiving them, “with a special emphasis on that involving racial and religious issues.”

“This material throws an interesting light upon the interparty competition in setting up independent organizations for making expenditures and reveals the danger from racial, religious and class intolerance when these issues enter a political campaign,” it declared.

Of the campaign material labeled scurrilous and designed to appeal to racial and religious prejudice 82 per cent was found to have been issued in 15 pivotal states holding 50 per cent of the electoral vote.