Meeting today for the first time, the Congressional Committee to investigate Nazi propaganda activities in the United States considered in executive session the selection of counsel and the determination of policy in connection with the conduct of its forthcoming nationwide investigation.
Representative John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, chairman, presided at the meeting.
It is understood that Ferdinand Pecora, the dynamic New York attorney who last spring conducted the stock market inquiry for a congressional committee, and Bainbridge Colby of New York, the former Secretary of State, are considered by the committee as leading candidates for the position as counsel.
Definite announcement as to who will be chosen will not be made until differences of opinion among committee members are ironed out.
Congressman Samuel Dickstein, chairman of the House Immigration and Naturalization Committee and author of the resolution by which the Nazi propaganda committee was created was named vice-chairman of the committee at its organization meeting today. His secretary, F. P. Randolph, will serve as permanent secretary for the committee.
Following a meeting of the committee today, it was announced that “the membership of the committee will make a thorough study into matters relating to the policy to be followed and will hold several preliminary meetings in executive session before public hearings will be announced. The first of these executive meetings will be held next Tuesday, at which time it is possible that final arrangements will be made regarding the initial meeting to be held for public hearings.”
Unless otherwise determined by the committee, meetings will be held regularly each Wednesday. The committee today designated the official name of the committee as the “Special Committee on Investigation of Nazi and Other Foreign Propaganda Activities in the United States.”
Bainbridge Colby, at his New York office at 36 West Forty-fourth street yesterday declined to comment on the committee’s mention of him as a likely candidate for counsel.
“I have not yet been advised by the committee on this matter,” he said. “Until I am, I have nothing to say.”
Ferdinand Pecora was in Washington yesterday and is expected to return at the end of the week.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
