Red Issue (Cont'd)

The Communist Party of the U. S. is a minuscule organization of earnest, disadvantaged and voluble souls who dislike the current economic system and are passionately convinced that they know the one right way to better it. After 17 years of almost simultaneous growth and fission, the Party now comprises some 51,000 members, being far outstripped in strength of numbers by such organizations as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or the Camp Fire Girls. Hence the disproportionate amount of public attention which the Party commands can be reasonably interpreted only as a testimonial to the potency of its ideas or its tireless agitation. Enormously flattered were Communists last week to find politicians and patriots throughout the land uniting to catapult them into the headlines, make the espousal or denial of their ideals a major issue in the 1936 Presidential campaign.

The Red Issue originated when New Deal haters like Publishers William Randolph Hearst and Robert R. McCormick exploited the fact that U. S. Communists had decided to concentrate their efforts this year on defeating Franklin Roosevelt's Republican opponent as the greater of two political evils. The issue was dignified when President Roosevelt took notice of Publisher Hearst's fulminations by issuing, over White House Secretary Early's signature, an angry blast at a "certain notorious newspaper publisher" (TIME, Sept. 28). It was further inflated when Republican National Chairman Hamilton took up Publisher Hearst's cry that the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union's President David Dubinsky was a Red if for no other reason than that he was sending funds to the Spanish proletarians, began loudly challenging President Roosevelt to prove the good faith of his anti-radical protestations by removing Mr. Dubinsky from the list of New York's Democratic Presidential electors. The Red Issue attained top importance to U. S. voters when Franklin Roosevelt, stepping out of the White House to become the Democratic nominee, last week made it the theme of his first outright 1936 political speech.

In fighting tones, the nominee trumpeted to New York's Democratic State Convention at Syracuse: "Tonight you and I join forces for the 1936 campaign. . . . I need not tell you there will be-- there are--many false issues. In that respect, this will be no different from other campaigns. Partisans, not willing to face realities, will drag out red herrings--as they have always done--to divert attention from the trail of their own weaknesses. . . .

"And in this campaign another herring turns up. In former years it has been British or French--and a variety of other things. But this year it is Russian. Desperate in mood, angry at failure, cunning in purpose, individuals and groups are seeking to make Communism an issue in an election where Communism is not a controversy between the two major parties. Here and now, once and for all, let us bury that red herring and destroy that false issue. . . . I have not sought, I do not seek, I repudiate the support of any advocate of Communism or of any other alien, and that goes for any other alien 'ism,' which would by fair means or foul change our American democracy."

After this spirited defense, Nominee Roosevelt abruptly took the offensive, set out to turn the Red Issue to his own political advantage. "There is," he continued, "no difference between the two major parties as to what they think about Communism. But there is a very great difference between the parties in what they do about Communism. And I will tell you why Communism is a manifestation of the social unrest which always comes with widespread economic maladjustment; we in the Democratic party have not been content merely to denounce this menace. We have been realistic enough to face it. We have been intelligent enough to do something about it. . . . In the spring of 1933 we faced a crisis which was the ugly fruit of twelve years of neglect, neglect of the causes of economic and social unrest. It was a crisis made to order for all those who would overthrow our form of government.

"Do I need to recall to you the fear of those days. . . . Supplies in their basements. . . . Plans to get their fortunes across the border. . . . Hideaways. . . . Homeless boys. . . . Farmers who banded together with pitchforks. . . . Powerful leaders of industry and banking . . . came to me in Washington in those early days of 1933 pleading to be saved. . . . We met the emergency with emergency action. But far more important than that, we went to the roots of the trouble and attacked the cause of the crisis. We were against revolution. And, therefore, we waged war against those conditions which make revolutions -- against the inequalities and the resentments that breed them. . . ."

If Nominee Roosevelt actually believed that by this speech, wildly cheered by New York Democrats, he would dispose of the Red Issue "once and for all," he was sadly disappointed. His opponents merely redoubled their pumping at the bellows of accusation.

P: In a signed editorial, Publisher Hearst asserted that the President's "Communist entourage," consisting of Felix Frankfurter, Donald Richberg, Administrator Tugwell, Secretary Perkins and Secretary Wallace, was sufficient proof of the Roosevelt radicalism.

P: From a Manhattan platform, unhappy Alfred E. Smith (see p. 18) snarled at the New Deal: "Why, even a Communist with wire whiskers and a smoking bomb in his hand is welcome, as long as he signs on the dotted line."

P: Hooverite Secretary of the Treasury Ogden L. Mills gravely pointed to the New Deal's "collectivist" goal.

P:John D. M. Hamilton tried to make the Spanish revolution an issue of the campaign by reviving his Dubinsky challenge. He issued a resounding "reply" to Nominee Roosevelt's Syracuse speech in which he plumped solidly for the Spanish Fascists by crying: "How long, Mr. Roosevelt, do you intend to affront the voters of America by retaining as one of your Presidential electors ... a man who rendered financial aid to Communists in Spain so that they might continue to horrify the civilized world with their murders of clergymen and their pillaging of churches"?* . . .

Matrons & Martyr. With this illuminating display of Red fire being touched off by the nation's political leaders, it was not surprising that lay patriots throughout the land should take renewed interest in Communism last week.

P: In Chicago's suburban Oak Park 100 American Legionaries with overseas caps and a big U. S. flag appeared at the First Congregational Church to censor an address to its young peoples' society by Illinois' Communist Gubernatorial Candidate Samuel T. Hammersmark. Also present were some 500 Oak Park matrons & men who hissed, booed, yowled, screamed "Liar!" and "Murderer" so lustily that the Legionaries were forced to reverse their role, protect the speaker from his audience. Up stood the church's Pastor Albert Buckner Coe at meeting's end, said to Red Hammersmark: "You are to be complimented for being more of a gentleman than most of our guests." Next morning Pastor Coe found his church sign smeared with red paint.

P: In Terre Haute, Ind., birthplace of the late great Radical Eugene V. Debs and scene last year of a general strike, Police Chief James C. Yates announced that Communist Presidential Nominee Earl Browder would not be allowed to make a scheduled campaign speech in the city. In Chicago, proceeding without delay to cash in on the publicity and sympathy sure to accrue from such tactics, the No. 1 U. S. Red flashed off telegrams to President Roosevelt and Indiana's Governor Paul V. McNutt protesting violation of "the most elementary democratic principles," swiftly entrained for Terre Haute. Chief Yates did not disappoint him, taking him and four companions in for "vagrancy" as soon as they stepped off the train. Enshrined in the county jail, Martyr Browder declaimed: "Our arrests today mark the complete suppression of all civil rights, aggravated by a political campaign. This is one of the many signs of Hitlerism in America."

Governor McNutt, onetime national commander of the American Legion, announced that he had "no authority." The White House telegram was passed on to Attorney General Cummings, who sagely remarked: "Apparently there is no Federal question involved. If there is, that would be different."

Meantime the Browder attorney supplied a sample of Communist "direct action" by locking himself in a Terre Haute broadcasting booth, reading off the nominee's prepared speech while Chief Yates and some 50 citizens fumed helplessly outside.

Released after 26 hours, Nominee Browder prepared to sue Terre Haute officials for false arrest and false imprisonment, sped back to Manhattan for a rousing welcome and a nationally-broadcast speech.

The press, liberal and conservative, entered indignant protest against Terre Haute's blatant violation of the Constitutional Bill of Rights. For such critics, Terre Haute's Republican Mayor Sam Beecher was ready with an answer. Said he: "Both of the major party Presidential candidates--Mr. Landon and Mr. Roosevelt--recognize Communism as a menace to this nation. Therefore, Communistic speakers are not welcome in Terre Haute."

* Mr. Dubinsky is a longtime Socialist who recently plumped for Roosevelt along with other progressive labor unionists. His reply to Chairman Hamilton's charges is that, being a Socialist, for years he has naturally fought Communism. Socialists and Communists, however, are no longer inconceivable bedfellows. Last year, the Red Comintern favored a world united front of Communists, Socialists, other radicals such as have lately joined forces in Spain.

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