Red Hunt (Cont.j

Four U. S. Congressmen were observed last week peering into two children's camps on the Hudson River. They were four-fifths of the special House committee led by New York's big young Hamilton ("Ham") Fish Jr., authorized to discover evidence of revolutionary activities by the Russian Soviet in the U. S. Witnesses at their Manhattan hearings had told them they might see Red flags, hear juvenile profanity at the Communist-organized children's summer camps (TIME, July 28). Many a young Red nose was thumbed at them, many a hiss and boo was heard, but there were no Red flags and the newsgatherers who accompanied the Congressmen could not agree whether there was profanity or not (see p. 26).

Chief Charge. Back in Manhattan the committee returned to the charge, made by Grover Aloysius Whalen, onetime New York Police Commissioner, and supported by dubious documents, that Amtorg Trading Corp., Soviet commercial agency in the U. S., is also the secret U. S. headquarters for Soviet political propaganda and agitation (TIME, May 12). At the hearings, bomb squad detectives lined the walls. A Russian monarchist sat just behind the committee to prompt and whisper. Curious women fanned and gasped in the stuffy room.

Refutation. Prime Amtorg witness was Peter A. Bogdanov, thickset, blue-eyed, bearded Amtorg board chairman. He explained the history of Amtorg-- founded in 1924 as a U. S. concern owned by the Soviet Bank of Foreign Trade. In six years, he said, it has bought $580,000,000 worth of U. S. goods for export to Russia, secured $30,000,000 in credits from U. S. banks. Its trade had declined lately as a result of world outbursts against the Soviet's anti-religious program (TIME, March 10) and attacks upon it by Mr. Whalen. A Russian revolutionary since 1905, Comrade Bogdanov said he had served on the Soviet Central Executive Committee. When ordered to the U. S. to head Amtorg. he had resigned from the Communist Party. When he got his U. S. visa in Berlin no question was raised about his radicalism because he could honestly say he was no Communist.

Boycott Threat. Comrade Bogdanov denied that Amtorg indulged in Communist propaganda or served as a money conduit between Moscow and Communism. Said he:

". . . The accusations against the Amtorg are absolutely without foundation. . . . The Amtorg has built up a substantial credit position. The accusations against the company have undoubtedly harmed its reputation with some firms. The further development and even the continuance of Soviet-American trade will be an almost impossible task unless the accusations against the company are . . . as we confidently expect them to be, found to be baseless."

Into this last statement might have been read a threat of Soviet bovcott against the U. S. unless the Fish Committee exonerated Amtorg. In Moscow, Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Litvinov enunciated this threat explicitly. If the committee was not impressed, the business world that does a $100,000,000 per year business with Russia was. The New York Journal of Commerce took the committee to task for trampling about in a field of international trade where it had no business.

Dumping. Congressman Nelson viewed Soviet trade as a growing menace to the U. S., seemed to welcome a boycott. By his questions he developed the thesis that Russia, built up industrially with U. S. aid, would dump great masses of cheap goods into the U. S. to the ruin of domestic trade, a condition some already see under way in the pulpwood and manganese industries (see col. 3). Declared Congressman Nelson:

"Do you think it would help the condition of America to have you dump 250,000,000 bushels of wheat on the market or 100,000,000 feet of lumber at your price, or Russian coal at $3 delivered on the seaboard in New England?

"When your program is completed you will have a population of 140,000,000 souls, working at $40 a month with materials that cost the government nothing. And yet you are trying to tell me that it is good for America to have things produced by Russia dumped on our markets!"

Forgeries. Taking up the Whalen documents, Mr. Bogdanov contended that they were nothing but clumsy forgeries by monarchists, to discredit Amtorg and the U.S.S.R. He admitted he had no external proof, but his lawyers skillfully picked out of the documents mistakes which no Russian Communist might be expected to make. Instructions for an Amtorg official to carry with him back to the U. S. from Moscow were dated two days after his departure as shown by his passport. Names of potent Communist leaders were misspelled throughout. Improbable cable addresses were used. The all-important punctuation of "Workers of the World. Unite!" was omitted. The obsolete spelling of words, according to Amtorg lawyers, was "characterstic of [monarchist] emigres who have not mastered the reformed Russian spelling adopted by the Soviet Union."

Newsman. For external evidence that the documents were forged the committee, with obvious impatience, heard a tabloid newsman and a printer. John Spivak of the New York (porno) Graphic set out last spring to prove the documents false. He traced the Russian type in the letterheads to an East Side printer, one Max Wagner, who admitted printing them. Spivak declared the same documents had been vainly offered for sale to Harold Horan, Hearst newsman in Washington, before Mr. Whalen obtained them.

Printer. Next called to the stand was Printer Wagner, clad in a green suit and speaking a garbled mixture of Yiddish and English. He told of printing the letterheads for strangers who took away proofs but never returned to get the full order or pay their bill. He produced before the committee the actual type he had used which seemed to match the letterheads. He told of a police visit to his shop and suddenly startled the Congressmen by identifying the monarchist sitting behind them as one of his police visitors. That individual jumped to his feet to yell: "It's a lie!" Mr. Whalen advised the committee not to believe Wagner because he had a criminal record--30 days in jail for selling obscene postcards.

Other developments: One Michael Handler, a toothless little grey-haired man, who admitted he had had himself smuggled into the U. S. from Cuba, testified that from 1920 to 1925 he had served with OGPU, secret political police in Russia. Trembling with fright he told how he had attended an OGPU meeting in Moscow at which three agents were designated to go to the U. S. as Amtorg attaches for Communist propaganda.

To Detroit. Still pondering the authenticity of the Whalen documents, the committee transferred its hearings to Detroit, where most witnesses declared that Communism was no serious problem. Rev. Charles E. Coughlin of the Shrine of the Little Flower Church startled the Committee by testifying that Henry Ford was "the greatest force in the movement to internationalize labor throughout the world." Charles E. Sorenson, Ford's general manager, repeated his testimony that Russians were studying production methods in his plants, added: "Our relations with the Soviet Government have been entirely satisfactory and we are not ashamed of our association."

In Moscow. The Fish investigation moved the Soviet press to sarcastic anger. Izvestia cartooned Chairman Fish as a mountebank, ringing a bell, perched on the shoulders of Mr. Whalen. Pravda shrieked: "None of your Damn Business!" More serious, the Industrial Gazette asked: "Does the U. S. wish to trade with U.S.S.R. or not?"

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