Mr. Smith Went to Washington

In the heady days of the First New Deal, Edwin S. Smith left his job as Massachusetts' commissioner of labor and industries and went to Washington as one of the three members of the original National Labor Relations Board. During the next seven years, the New Deal-blessed labor-organizing drive reached flood tide, and with it, the NLRB rose to influence large areas of the U.S. economy. The A.F.L. accused the board of being blatantly pro-C.I.O., and one A.F.L. leader declared that his union would "refuse to abide by NLRB decisions until Edwin S. Smith* is investigated to see if he isn't more interested in Russia than the U.S." In 1941, a special House investigating committee reported that Smith had shown "a disturbing . . . interest in and support of persons and organizations . . . opposed to the American system of private enterprise." In mid-1941, Smith's term ran out, and Franklin Roosevelt did not renew it.

Last week Edwin S. Smith went to Washington again, to appear before a Senate Internal Security subcommittee investigating past and present Communist infiltration. Asked whether he had been "a secret member of the Communist Party" during his NLRB days, he refused to answer, on the ground that he might incriminate himself. Asked what he does for a living, he explained that he imports and distributes newsphotographs, books and records from behind the Iron Curtain. He added: "I am not a spy!"

Smith was the second major figure of the NLRB's powerful years to refuse an answer to the Communist question. In both 1948 and 1950, Nathan Witt, who was the NLRB's assistant general counsel from 1935-37 and then its secretary until 1940, ducked behind the Fifth Amendment. Ex-Communist Louis Budenz testified that Smith and Witt were "under Communist discipline" while on the NLRB. Later, ex-Communists Whittaker Chambers and Lee Pressman swore that they had known Witt as a Communist in the '30s.

Little by little, history was beginning to reveal some fuller explanations about the NLRB's doings in the critical pre-World War II period.

*Not to be confused with Donald W. Smith, an NLRB member from 1936 to 1939.

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