The House Un-American Activities Committee, which has been criticized frequently for avoiding probes of right-wing organizations, may extend its program into investigating the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the Minutemen, the Black Muslims and other groups considered to be part of the “radical right,” it was indicated here this weekend.
Rep. Edwin Willis, Louisiana Democrat, chairman of the HUAC, said this weekend that the committee, in secret session, adopted a resolution last week authorizing a preliminary study to show whether extension into the right-wing area should proceed. A decision on such a step, he said, will depend on the results of the preliminary study.
Disputing charges that the HUAC ad never probed right-wingers, Rep. Charles Weltner, Georgia Democrat, pointed out that, in 1939 and 1940, the committee did investigate the activities of the German-American Bund and other anti-Semitic organizations.
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