Capital Comment

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Washington.

Since the McCormack committee investigated un-American activities and issued its report to the House of Representatives, there has been considerable agitation among House members and other groups for a nation-wide drive against subversive elements.

The attack was directed largely at Communists. In its report to the House, the McCormack committee emphasized that Communists were endeavoring to undermine American military forces through the dissemination of propaganda and other activities. It was also pointed out that Communistic propaganda was finding its way into the American schools.

Apparently the agitation against Communism has just now aroused the interest of government officials. Army and Navy officials had long since looked upon Communism as a menace. This is evidenced by the testimony which military officials gave to the McCormack committee during the investigation hearings.

Immigration officials in the Department of Labor have taken a keener interest in the activities of subversive elements since the McCormack committee report was published. Indications are that a general round-up of aliens engaged in subversive propaganda activities may be expected. Deportation proceedings will be initiated to get these individuals out of the country.

Representative Samuel Dickstein of New York, author of the resolution which created the investigation and vice-chairman of the investigating committee, feels that the committee’s report did not go far enough. In this respect he is at odds with Representative John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, committee chairman.

In a speech on the floor of the House the other day, Representative Dickstein said that the report should have contained, among other things, “additional discussion in detail concerning certain activities of the Nazi government in this country. I would have condemned the Ambassador from Germany for his activities in the United States in a dual capacity: he represented the German government here as an Ambassador, and at the same time he was very active in spreading propaganda within the borders of the United States.”

Representative Dickstein said that several times during the progress of hearings before the committee Ambassador Luther’s name and the name of the German Embassy “were brought into prominence and the evidence definitely indicated that he has been acting unjustly toward our people, in that while serving in his official capacity he also represented and gave comfort to groups in this country which were affiliated with a political party of a foreign government and which endeavored to instill in the minds of American citizens the pernicious racial and religious animosities which dominate that foreign political party. Naturally, Ambassador Luther had the opportunity through regular channels to deny these charges, but he did not do so; he probably claims diplomatic immunity.”

The New Yorker revealed that the committee had discovered instances where German consuls in this country assisted in the printing and spreading throughout the United States of “propaganda designed to align American against American on subjects contrary to the principles of this Government, and that they were a party to the disbursement of funds to carry on this work directly from the German consulates.” This information was not included in the committee’s report which was made public.

Among the recommendations which Representative Dickstein said the report should have contained are the following: That it be made a violation of the criminal statutes for any foreign group to import and wear uniforms while conducting their foreign propaganda; that it be a crime for steamship companies, other companies, or individuals to deliberately and intentionally smuggle these uniforms into the country for propaganda purposes; that the citizenship be terminated in the case of every individual who holds American citizenship and foreign allegiance in a dual capacity; that a specific charge should be made against foreign governments which endeavor to spread propaganda inimical to this country, and which set up machinery and appropriate money for propaganda with the intention to spread their foreign ideals in the United States.

One of the things which Representative Dickstein desires is to have the House of Representatives extend the life of the investigating committee with additional funds at its disposal so that facts already uncovered may be further investigated. He said, “The origin of all this propaganda must be found, and the source of all this foreign money for the spread of this propaganda in this country should be discovered and stopped. There are other facts which this Congress should have for the purpose of intelligently correcting the evils, so far as they can be remedied by legislation.”

There is a feeling among some in Washington that the battle of words among General Johnson, Father Coughlin and Senator Long, is doing American Jews considerable harm. The frequent mention of names of Jewish financiers by both Father Coughlin and Senator Long has become obvious.

In his radio address which was designed as an answer to General Johnson, Father Coughlin included a series of Jewish names in his list of financiers and mentioned only one non-Jew. In this radio talk, an appeal to racial prejudice was quite obvious. Senator Long, on the other hand, named a more mixed list. By the way, the Senator from Louisiana resents any intimation that his attack on a Jewish financier has any semblance of an attack on Jews in general.

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