ATTACK ON MISS PERKINS

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 February 1939, Page 14

ATTACK ON MISS PERKINS

“AIDED RADICALS.”

I Revelations of the Dies Committee ' investigating un-American activities have increased demands in the House of Representatives for the impeachment of Frances Perkins, President Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labour, and the first woman Cabinet officer, writes Chester Manly from Washington io the “Chicago Tribune.” | Members of Congress who advocate such action produced a voluminous mass of evidence from official records to support their contention that Madame Secretary Perkins has suspended or nullified the laws which she swore she would “well and faithfully execute.” ' The record discloses that Miss Perkins has either stayed indefinitely or contrived to circumvent the deportation of 5939 aliens who entered this country unlawfully. These aliens include many radicals and others wiih criminal records involving moral turpitude. I In at least 34 cases, according to re- | cords supplied by the State Departj ment. the Labour Department waived the moral turpitude ground of inadmissibility and permitted aliens here illegally to go to Canada and re-enter legally. 1 The advocates of impeachment ac1 tion against Miss Perkins attach much significance to a ruling of her Labour Department which halted deportation i proceedings against a large class Qi i radical aliens. I The ruling suspended, in a wide range of cases, the application of the law requiring the deportation of any

’ alien who belongs to any organisation ■' which advocates the overthrow of the > United States Government by force. ' I The records disclose that the basis . for the ruling was contained in a con- : fidential memorandum prepared at the 11 request of Miss Perkins in Jauary, ■ 1934, by Charles E. Wyzanski, jun., . then solicitor of the Labour DepartI ment. The memorandum was written in the case of Frank Borich. an alien and members of the Communist Nationi al Miners’ Union. i Wyzanski’s memorandum recommended that no deportation proceedings be prosecuted against an alien for membership in a Communist labour union, if it was a bona, tide union, and not a mere front for a revolution- • ary political organisation. His recommendation was adopted by the Labour Department. I The interpretation of the law as set forth in Wyzanski’s memorandum is in conflict with its interpretation by various United States Circuit Courts of | Appeals. The statute makes no distinction in the classes of subversive organisations. i Wyzanski admitted in his memorandum that the Labour Department could prosecute successfully deportation proceedings against such an alien member of a radical labour union as Borich. The memorandum also admitted

that the National Miners’ Union was a Communist organisation, belonging to the Red Internationale of Labour I Unions. i “This Red Internationale of Labour • Unions.” the memorandum continues, : “is a ‘revolutionary world union of workers,’ operates in the United States through the Trade Union Unity i League, i.s., the T.U.U.L., and advo- ! cates ‘a united struggle against international capitalism,’ rather than the 1 ‘nationalistic and patriotic stand of the reformist trade unions.’

“INSTRUMENT OF LENIN.’

In a report to the .Senate in 1924, John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, and now dictator of the C. 1.0., called the T.U.U.L. “the direct instrumentality of Lenin and Zinoviev of the Communist Internationale, and Losovsky of the Red Trade Labour Union Internationale.” The National Miners’ Union was organised in 1928 by John Brophy. Adolph Germer, and Powers Hapgood. who were denounced by the “United Mine Workers’ Journal” as “traitors,” and accused of attempting “to capture the United Mine Workers and to transform this splendid union into a Communist organisation.” Brophy is now Mr. Lewis’s righthand man as executive director of the C. 1.0. Germer is a general organiser, and Powers Hapgood is a field representative. Wyzanski’s ruling recommending leniency in the Borich case also recommended that the principle he expressed be applied not only in the National Miners’ Union, “but in all left wing labour unions that are not mere shields for political revolution, such as the Marine Works’ Industrial Union. Metal Workers’ Industrial Union, Tampa Tobacco Workers’ Industrial Union, the National Textile Workers, International Labour Defence. , and the Trade Union Unity League.” All these organisations have since disappeared, having been absorbed by . the C. 1.0.

The recommendations in the Wyzanski memorandum also are in conflict with citations from Court opinions submitted by United States Solicitor General Robert H. Jackson. In a petition to the United States Supremo Court for a writ of certiorari in the case of Joseph George Strecker, an admitted Communist, Jackson cites two decisions by Circuit Court of Appeals bearing directly upon the case of Borich, who was not deported.

| FAVOURS USE OF FORCE. ! One citation ([notes the Court as fol-1 lows: — , . j “H is a matter of common knowledge ; that I he Red Internationale of labour unions, and its American branch. Trade Union Unity League, is a body which is opposed to organised government and favours the overthrow of the United States by force. In numerous decisions by the Courts judicia , notice has been taken of this J ac L | and the Secretary of Labour has fuLj

as much right to accept common knowledge in this respect as have the Courts. i The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans made what appeared to be a. contrary ruling in the Strecker case. It ruled that an alien who joins the Communist Party is not by reason of that fact subject to deportation. However, the Court, held that evidence before the Secretary of Labour failed to show that the Communist, Parly now advocates force to over-! throw the United States Government.j The Government has asked the Supreme Court to review that decision. | j Representative Martin Dies (Demo-! crat. Texas), chairman of the House I Committee investigating un-American j activities, has accused Secretary Perlkins of trying to “throw” the Strecker case in order to establish a precedent 'which would save Harry Bridges, Australian Communist and C. 1.0. leader on the west coast, from deportation. The point made by Dies is that the Labour Department is seeking to omit evidence showing that Strecker advocated overthrow of the Government by I violence. | Miss Perkins for many months scorned a demand by the Seattle of-

fice of the Immigration and NaturalI isation Bureau that deportation proj ceedings should be brought against 1 Bridges, and finally she permitted a . warrant for arrest to be issued only ' after the Senate Commerce Committee '• had investigated her conduct. When [the Circuit Court of Appeals at New I Orleans upset the Strecker cape, Miss . Perkins ordered a stay in the Bridges matter, pending final determination by the Supreme Court.