COMMUNISTS IN U.S.

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25177, 7 May 1947, Page 7

COMMUNISTS IN U.S.

Evidence before COMMITTEE (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 5. Mr J. Edgar Hoover. Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, told the Appropriations Committee of the United States House of Representatives that “Communists have penetrated every field of activity in the United States,” and over the last few years the penetration has been intensified. Communists had penetrated into radio, newspaper, movie, and Labour organisation spheres, and for every one of the 74,000 members of the Communist Party there were 10 other individuals to do the party’s work. Mr Hoover was testifying at hearings on the Appropriation Bill for the Justice Department. He said the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s fingerprinting activities were so far behind—2,B9l,B3l prints—that many people with criminal records and of questionable loyalty might now enter strategic industries and “may do harm.” The Appropriations Committee, although tt slashed deeply into other Government appropriations, decided to ask the House to grant the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the entire 35,000,000 dollars it sought for its operations in the next fiscal year. This unusual action by the committee is said to have been based in part on Mr Hoover’s evidence that Communists had penetrated every field of activity in the United States.