Parade of the Left

When the leftward hosts of Franklin Roosevelt swept the 1932 elections, they immediately staged a series of public trials, with Congressional committees as the juries, of prominent pillars of the Right. Wondrous entertaining to "forgotten" men was the parade of Charles E. Mitchell,

O. P. Van Sweringen, Richard Whitney, George H. Howard, et al., headed by the matchless act of J. P. Morgan & the Midget (see cut).

After their election victories of last November, it is now the turn of Rightists to try pillars of the Left, and ever since Congress convened they have been at it. Felix Frankfurter, Harry Hopkins, Frank Murphy led the parade, were obliged to take the witness chair and state publicly their political beliefs. Comparatively they made a much less diverting show, for the possession of even "radical" beliefs is less dramatic than the possession of great wealth, and these Leftists were far nimbler witnesses than the scared Rightists. Last week came the trials of two more Leftists, and again the performances fell short of their billing.

Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins took the stand voluntarily to answer the impeachment charges brought against her by Republican Representative Thomas of New Jersey (TIME, Feb. 6). Failure to deport C. I. O.'s Harry Bridges as an alien Communist was her crime. Dressed in matronly black, with a large white bow across her bosom, Miss Perkins read to the House Judiciary Committee a lawyer-like statement explaining: "I am certainly in favor of the punishment or deportation of any one who engages in [treasonable] conduct. . . . I also wish to emphasize that I am not in accord with the principles of the Communist Party. I do not share the economic or political views of the Communists. I regard many of their tactics as an impediment to the efficient functioning of the Government as well as of society at large."

She repeated that the reason she had not gone further into the case of Harry Bridges was that she was waiting for the Supreme Court to decide the parallel case of Joe Strecker, which Solicitor-General Jackson was about to prosecute for her with real vim (see p. 14). She expressed awe at the immense power she wields over aliens, as their investigator, prosecutor, jury and judge. Because of this, she said, she always tries to act "with scrupulous fairness." She said: "I have entire faith and confidence that Congress will protect me and secure my rights and reputation if I have done no wrong."

Chances of impeachment proceedings being voted against Miss Perkins: zero.

Other witness-of-the-week was Thomas R. (for nothing) Amlie, the Red rover from Wisconsin named by Franklin Roosevelt for the Interstate Commerce Commission, chiefly to provoke an airing of that sombre body (TIME, Feb. 6). Lumbering, loquacious Mr. Amlie conducted his self-defense before a Senate subcommittee with heavy, self-centred humor. He said he had always "hoped to make good in some big way," and now he had done so--"in the field of incompetency." Not since the appointment of Louis Dembitz Brandeis to the Supreme Court, said he, had there been such opposition as there was to him.

Senators wanted to know if, as the Wisconsin Legislature had averred, he was Communistic. "I am not a Communist," Tom Amlie said. "My differences with Communism are fundamental. . . . To charge me with being a Communist . . . is just as ridiculous as charging Glenn Frank." Fear of fascism in the U. S., he said, was his reason for advocating some form of democratic collectivism involving production control.

He said he favored Government ownership of railroads and thought he would be "an invaluable asset" to the ICC because, if Congress decided to take over sick railroads, he would be vitally interested in the plan's success.

Republican Senator Austin read from Mr. Amlie's writings statements such as: "Capitalism cannot be saved. . . . It is not worth saving." Mr. Amlie explained he held those views before the Supreme Court unbent. He did not now believe a capital levy would be necessary for five years or more.

Between them, Mr. Amlie and the Committee brought out very little about his qualifications for the ICC, before which he has appeared as a lawyer in a few cases relative to abandonment of rail services.

As the committee deferred its vote, chances of Mr. Amlie's confirmation remained against.

The House last week voted to ham-handed Martin Dies of Texas, Rightist drum major of the Leftist parade, his $100,000 expense money for further probing into UnAmerican Activities. Mr. Dies promptly went shopping for investigators, ex-G-Men preferred. But Speaker Bankhead struck one last minute blow for the Leftists. To a vacancy on the Dies Committee he appointed California's earnest young Representative Jerry Voorhis, good friend of Red Rover Amlie and, since the departure of Texas' Maury Maverick,* leader of the Young Turks in the House. Son of a millionaire, Jerry Voorhis turned down a fat sum his father offered to set him up in business. Instead, after getting his $BK at Yale, he worked as a cowboy in Wyoming, later in an automobile assembly plant, became a Socialist, lectured on labor problems at Pomona College until dismissed. He took the headmastership of a school endowed by his father, entered Congress as a New Dealer in 1936. On the Dies Committee, whose conduct he has called "reprehensible," Jerry Voorhis can be counted upon to temper Rightist blasts for Leftist lambs.

*San Antonio's Maverick, knocked out of Congress by Paul Kilday, is currently engaged in trying to wrest the city's mayoralty from Kil-day's friend, Charles K. Quin.

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