Americanism, Inc., II

In spite of indignant critics who accused him of neglecting Fascism and smearing liberalism, Martin Dies calmly announced, in May of 1939, that he was going to go right ahead investigating un-American activities in his own peculiar way. "I am going to leave no stone unturned," he said, "let the chips fall where they may." After all, he pointed out, his committee was currently poking into the affairs of native fascists, and had even uncovered a plot or two.

But the home-town Hitlers Dies produced for scrutiny scarcely answered his critics. The chairman got hold of George Deatherage, head of a tiny group known as the Knights of the White Camelia. Deatherage regaled the committee with his ideas concerning the need for booting radicals and Jews out of the country. He proudly claimed membership in an international anti-Communist organization which had headquarters in Rome but admitted that the German consul in this country had refused his requests for aid. The Nazis knew a small-time operator when they saw one, even if Martin Dies didn't.

Deatherage, whose outfit would have had a hard time breaking up a Sunday School picnic, was merely exhorted to mend his ways, and sent home. As for larger game, Dies explained that if he treated Father Coughlin or Reverend Gerald Smith harshly, he might be accused of being anti-religious. When Representative Dickstein demanded angrily why the committee didn't investigate the America First group, Dies remarked blandly that he had no evidence that the Firsters were engaged in subversive activities.

Three months after Pearl Harbor, the committee issued a report on Japanese espionage. It was a huge document, but as many well-informed individuals pointed out, its contents were largely known before-hand. Discomfited, Dies remarked that at least the report was "educational."

In the summer of 1943, the committee tangled with the War Relocation Authority, which was handling the touchy problem of Japanese-Americans moved inland from the Pacific Coast. Committee investigators reported that the internees were among the best-fed civilians in the world, and a sub-committee charged that the Relocation people had released 23 members of the fearsome Black Dragon Society. But Representative Eberharter, third man on the sub-committee, made a minority report. He denied that the Japanese were being coddled, noted that of the 16,000 released by the WRA, none had been hauled in for subversive actions, and called the report of his colleagues "feeble."

Dies preferred to consider himself beleaguered from left and right, and so did his comrades-at-arms. In 1942, during intense floor debate, veteran Diesman Noah Mason listed the committee's enemies. He named Deatherage, Fritz Kuhn, William Dudley polley, and several groups he claimed were Communist fronts. Then Mason called the roll of the committee's friends, which included the American Federation of Labor, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Elks, and the Society of Mayflower Descendants. But Mason forgot to mention admirers from abroad. The Federal Communications Commission had solemnly reported that Dies got as much favorable comment from the Axis radio as any living American public figure.