Evening star. [volume], September 12, 1939, Page A-5, Image 5

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Business Men Aided
Communist Party,
Dies Witness Says
At Least a Score Gave
$1,000 Each, Financial
Secretary Testifies
J, By JOHN C. HENRY.
At least a score of well-known
business or professional men have
contributed as much as $1,000 each
to the Communist party in the
United States, the Dies Committee
was told today by Robert W. Weiner,
the party's financial secretary.
Mr. Weiner declined to identify
these donors on the ground it might
embarrass them, but offered to turn
their names over to an individual
not connected with either the Com
munist party or the committee
which is investigating un-American
activities. Such an individual, he
* suggested, could determine legiti
( macy of the donations.
In the two and one-half years
ending last July 1, the national
headquarters has received total in
come of about $563,000. of which al
most $250,000 was in contributions
, and most of the remainder in dues
from members.
' The witness denied emphatically
that the party in the United States
had received any subsidy from Rus
sia or other foreign sources since
he became financial secretary in
1933.
Starnes Presses Point.
Representative Stamps, Democrat,
of Alabama quizzed Mr. Weiner on
the possibility of contributors get
ting money from abroad and then
turning it over to the party.
•'Suppose you came to my office
and gave a contribution to the
party, how do I know where you
got the money?” Mr. Weiner coun
k tered.
“Then you're not prepared to
swear there were no foreign funds
supplied the party?” Representative
Starnes pressed.
“I'm swearing for myself, not for
you. For all I know, we may have
received money from a bank rob
bery.”
The witness gave the party re
ceipts from all sources as follows:
1937, $258,316; 1938. $191,722, and
1939 (six months', $113,146.
He testified that a proportion of
all receipts is retained by district
and sectional organizations, the fig
ures given being only the sums
reaching national headquarters.
Before today's hearing began a
United States marshal served on
committee members papers in the
suit filed last week by William
Dudley Pelley, head of the Silver
Shirts. Mr. Pelley sued each mem
1 ber for $500,000 for damages grow
ing out of their investigation of
his organization. Chairman Dies
laughed heartily as the marshal
distributed the papers.
ivecaus ->o suosiav.
Among uses of Communist funds,
Mr. Weiner explained, have been
political activities in many States.
Liberal and progressive candidates
have been supported regardless of
party. Many times without their
consent or knowledge, he added.
The witness said he recalled no
subsidy by national headquarters of
. activities in the District of Colum
bia. Neither was any money sent to
San Antonio. Tex., he said, for the
recent rally which led to a riot.
Funds have been donated for sup
port of strikes on occasion, he testi
fied.
For many years the party did all
Its financial business on a cash
basis, keeping its funds in safe de
posit boxes. A bank acocunt system
was started in 1937. Mr. Weiner said,
but he refused to admit the earlier
^arrangement was for the purpose of
leaving no record of certain deal
ings.
At present, two bank accounts are
maintained, both in cue name of
Weiner. One such account is in the
Chase National Bank and the other
in the Amalgamated Trust Co., both
of New York. Personal and party
v funds are not segregated, he ad
mitted.
Meanwhile, Government officials
and employes who are members of
the League for Peace and Democracy
had been promised an opportunity
to tell the committee whether they
were still active in the organization.
The decision to hear them was
reached by the committee after Ben
Gitlow. former general secretary of
the Communist party in the United
States, had testified the league was
"a Communist Front organization. ’
Demanding appearance of the
^Government officials. Representative
Mason, Republican, of Illinois said
the league had issued a statement
defending the non-aggression pact
between Nazi Germany and Soviet
Russia.
He asserted that officials of the
league included Paul Sifton, deputy
wage-hour administrator, and F. A
Silcox, chief of the Forestry Service,
V-. ___ # r*i_i_1 i
In
Mason's demand, Chairman Dies
said the league members would be
asked whether they were still activ*
vand whether they “approve the real
purposes'" of the league.
“There is no inference,” Repre
sentative Dies said, "‘that the com
mittee suspects any one of disloyalty
to the American Government. This
will simply give them a chance t<
give us their views.”
Mr. Gitlow, who once served a
, prison term for his part in the Com
munist movement in 1922. concluded
his testimony yesterday after foui
days before the committee.
He said that if he had been sub
poenaed before the signing of tht
Russo-German pact. “I would not
have testified.”
“I've presented something in tht
nature of a confession.” he told tht
committee. “It was my duty to tel
the truth. I once believed that tht
Communist movement was to bettei
the existence of mankind and now
I believe it will achieve the direci
opposite. We cannot accept com
* munism as a sincere political forct
in the United States, but as part 01
a military machine whose head
quarters are abroad.”
C. I. O. Statement Is Denied.
The witness told the committei
that Communists “to a large degrei
were instrumental” in organizini
the C. I. O., and from its inceptior
put their resources into it.
Mr. Gitlow reiterated a statemen
made last week that John Brophy
director of the C. I. O., had accepte<
Communist strategy and money it
• campaign in 1926 designed to un
* seat John L. Lewis as president o
the United Mine Workers.
Mr. Brophy, in a letter to Chair
man Dies, branded these statement
as “wild, lying and slanderous," ant
said he never had received a penn;
from the Communists.
J
SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY.—LOADING A BOMBER—Soldiers of the German air force load a
big bomb onto the racks of one of their bombers which has been engaged in bombardment of
Polish cities and lines. —Wide World Photo.
Trap
<Continued From First Page.!
their capture—from the virtually
undefendable western sections, and
then using them for a well-organ
ized stand on some line west of
Warsaw.
Every Town a Battle Site.
Fighting took place in almost
every town and village from the
German border to the line which
now is just west of the capital. To
day these towns are largely in ruins
; —either destroyed by bombs from
the air, burned down, or both.
The destruction in the area
through which I passed, and it was
typical of all of Western Poland,
j resembled Northern France after
! the World War. The few walls still
! standing showed the gouges of ma
chine gun bullets. Hundreds of
; farmhouses were burned so thor
oughly that scarcely any debris re
mained and only the chimneys stood
I gaunt in the saddened landscape.
I entered Poland at Ketno in
1 Silesia and there. 6 miles from the
| border, found the first trenches.
They had been dug in a graveyard.
Beyond this first line of defense vir
; tuallv no trenches had been dug. for
j the Poles had retreated too fast to
| dig in.
Farther on I encountered my first
weird sight. The town of Lieruszow,
which had had 6.000 inhabitants,
about half of them Jews. In the
Sunday evening twilight it looked
like the ruins of Pompeii. The en
tire town was merely a series of
: charred walls.
After the Polish Army had left
Lieruszow, snipers killed 21 German
soldiers, and the penalty they paid
was a terrible sight. The Germans
said machine guns had been placed
! in various buildings which com
| manded the road leading into town,
| including the Jewish temple.
fineness unr ui Rriugrrs.
Then I met the first of a seemingly
: endless line of tattered refugees.
| Such a line is to be found today on
! almost any road in Poland.
| I counted 180 V-shaped hay
wagons of the type used throughout
Central Europe within one 20-mile
stretch on the road to Sieradz. They
were loaded with bedding and rep
resented about the only earthly be
I longings of their owners. One had a
i baby goat lying on a bed tick,
i I estimated there were 500 refugees
1 in the wagons in those 20 miles and
that, in all. I had seen 1,500 persons
being hauled along by slowly
starving horses and had passed 500
more on foot, some of them driving
cattle and goats. There were at
' least 500 head of cattle.
These refugees had fled before the
oncoming German Army but had
been overtaken and had been told
by the Germans to go back home.
I talked with a grandmother who,
with her daughter and son-in-law,
had walked 50 miles between Friday
and Sunday nights. Their bare feet
were bleeding. The daughter carried
her baby. The grandmother carried
a sheet, stuffed with clothes, over
her back.
They had driven their three cows
off with them, but the cows had
died of exhaustion along the way,
they said
I passed farmhouse after farm
house where refugees had reached
home only to find nothing left but
a brick chimney. They were camp
ing out beside the ruins.
As I rode along the road to Lodz,
odors occasionally indicated bodies
had not yet been buried and made
the driver step on the gas.
The towrn of Lask was heavily
damaged, but practically no fight
ing had taken place in the 20 miles
between there and Lodz.
Lodz, a city of 700.000, was an un
believable sight for a point so near
the front lines. It was fully illumi
f—--- I
nated. although it is the headquar- j
teis for Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz, j
who is commanding the effort to
capture the trapped Poles to the j
north of the city. It was the first J
time in 10 days that I had seen a
city lighted at night.
German troops took over Lodz \
Friday, after the Polish forces had
withdrawn without a shot being
fired. The streets now are patrolled
by local Germans, of whom there
are 13.000, in civilian clothes and
wearing arm bands.
Yesterday truckloads of Jews
were seen in the streets, being taken
out to do manual labor. In an
other section I also saw bearded
Jews carrying stones, one by one. to i
help troops reconstruct dynamited
bridges.
Lodz was fast taking on a Ger
man appearance yesterday, with
radio trucks driving through the
streets pouring out German music.
Food was scarce, for the city has .
been cut off from all sides for sev
er? 1 days.
Ninety per cent of the stores were
closed. Long lines, some of them
stretching for half a mile, stood in
front of the shops hoping they would
open. There was no butter, coffee,
milk, eggs or bacon, and very little
meat.
Both German and Polish money is
being used in the occupied area
at the rate of two Polish zlotys to
one mark.
Berlin
(Continued From First Page.)
prevented. Tire circle around this
enemy group is closed."
"North of the Vistula,” it added.
| “German troops are nearing the
i stronghold of Modlin.”
There was a brief mention of air
force activity, including the an
nouncement that “a group of five
bombers shut off the eastern outlets
of Warsaw,” and that the Bialys
tok Station, 114 miles northeast of
Warsaw, had been destroyed.
Elaborating on this phase of the
communique, DNB, German official
news agency, reported successful at
tacks on Polish troop concentrations
in the Kutno area and numerous
damaging raids on railways.
DNB also said that the Polish
aerial counter-defense was "growing
steadily weaker” and that the Ger
mans destroyed 34 Polish planes on
runways in raids on airdromes and
two in an air battle.
Warsaw Surrender Expected.
Germany expected the Polish capi
tal to surrender at almost any
hour. Exponents of the “blitz
krieg' (lightning wan theory em
phasized the moral effect of con
quering Warsaw promptly so as to
hearten the German population for
the more menacing prospect of a
stiff fight on the western front.
It was admitted that, even with
Warsaw occupied, much of Poland
still would remain to be conquered.
But the impression of German civil
and military leaders was that, with
Warsaw captured. Poland might be
dismissed as a major consideration,
and the Reich then would be ready
to devote its full attention to Eng
land and France. Officials, mean
while, reported only minor skir
mishes on the Western front.
Goerlng Rushes to Front.
Field Marshal Hermann Wilhelm
Goering went to the Polish front la
night. The supreme commander of
the air force, who is also a leader on
the economic front, chairman of the
cabinet council for defense and holds
many other high offices, took per
sonal charge of aviation operations.
With Adolf Hitler already on the
front—close enough, it was said, to
“hear the staccato chatter of ma
chine-gun fire"—Marshal Goering's
departure meant the leader and the
second in command of Nazidom were
engaged actively in the offensive In
Poland.
Germans interpreted this to mean
the highest Importance had been
placed on a quick cleanup, and that
Marshal Goering felt he was needed
to provide more drive. But the ut
most confidence prevailed that the
stubborn Polish Army, caught be
tween Lodz and Warsaw, soon would
be brought to terms. Then infantry,
artillery and planes will be released
to turn the full force of the Eastern
army onto the Polish capital.
Nazi Diplomacy Stiffens.
In the fields of diplomacy and
propaganda. Germany took an in
creasingly firm attitude, warning
England that Marshal Goerings
speech last Saturday was not an
offer to come to peace by compro
mise.
Statements by political leaders and
the press were interpreted as fore
ful suggestions to the small neutral
states that it might be expedient for
them to resist "violations of their
neutrality by Britain" and the Eng
lish blockade which hits their trade.
The general impression in gover
ment circles was that Britain's cal
culation on a war of at least three
years' duration meant the British
would attempt a hunger blockade as
their chief weapon.
“In other words,” said the well
informed Dienst Aus Deutschland,
“England admits it is not to be a
war against Nazi leaders, as adver
tised. but another brutal war against
German women and children.”
Germany to Retaliate.
But leaders said that, with access
to large and small neutral states
which was lacking in 1914. the block
ade now was less likely to succeed.
Other quarters indicated German
submarines would sink any ship car
rying to Britain articles labeled con
traband by Britain. These quarters
said the submarines would proceed
by international rules of submarine
warfare.
“What they try to cut us oil from,"
said one official, “we will, in turn,
try to prevent reaching England.”
Official quarters also expressed
considerable hope the conference of
the Oslo powers at Brussels would
take a firm stand against any Eng
lish blockade which would have an
adverse effect on normal trade of
neutral states. Moreover, it was
stated in informed circles, the British
blockade might force such countries
as Yugoslavia, Rumania, Russia.
Denmark and the Netherlands to
deal with Germany more extensively
than normally would be the case.
Domestically, Germany took addi
tional restrictive measures in the
matter of consumption of materials.
D. C. Residents
Continue to Return
From War Zone
Interesting Stories
Are Told by 'Refugees';
Others Still Stranded
Return of Washingtonians who
interrupted vacations, honeymoons
and business trips to flee war
Kdagued Europe continued today.
Each had his story to tell—of diffi
culties in securing passage, of the
attitudes of Europe's peoples.
Mayne R. Coe, jr., a chemist at
the Beltsville Agriculture Station,
and his bride of two months were
back home with a tale of financial
troubles brought about when they
paid for passage on an Italian liner
which failed to sail and did not get
their money back.
Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Hewes, the
latter a native of France who was
wed to Mr. Hewes shortly after they
met during the last World Fair, re
ported the French people “calm
about the war.” They returned on
the lie de France, but had to leave
their automobile behind. Mr Hewes
Is an employe of the Navy Depart
ment.
c.erman ' internal Trouble."
David H. Blair, jr„ a Princeton
University senior, who lives at the
Wardman Park Hotel, referred tc
the "internal trouble" in Germany
He also returned on the lie df
France.
Catl Nyquist, an artist, of 2156 K
street N.W., who returned on the
Manhattan last week end. said Eng
j land's only apparent "worry" wher
j he was there was the fear that
' "Chamberlain would back out of it.’
r The Coes, after losing passage anc
| money in Italy, made their wai
; across France and by some "financia
; manipulating” obtained quarters or
; the lie de France. Mr. Coe wa'
I graduated from the University o:
! Maryland in 1935 and his bride, the
j former Elizabeth Phelps, receivet
; her diploma recently from McKin
i ley Tech. They live at 2228 Tayloi
street N.E.
Other District residents strandet
i in Europe are being reported daily
Cancellation of the liner Britan
nic's sailing left Mr. and Mrs
Michael P. McDermott and theii
daughters. Frances. 15. and Elvira
13. in Kerry Ireland, without pas
sage. Another daughter. Miss Mar
guerite McDermott, and a son. A
McDermott, said they received wort
last week that the other member:
of the family would begin the re
i turn journey as soon as passage i:
available.
Mr. and Mrs. McDermott are na
tives of Ireland. They live at 43(
Park road N.W.
Rev. Warfield Safe.
The Rev. Gaither P. Warfield
superintendent of Methodist Epis
copal Church work in Poland, is safe
according to word received by hi:
l relatives in Rockville, Md. Hi
. father, Dr. Robert C. Warfield, salt
a cablegram received by the Metho
i hist Board of Missions in Nashville
Tenn., had been relayed to him. I
.read: "No cause for anxiety; an
well and safe.”
! The Rev. Mr. Warfield, who mar
| tied a native of Poland, has beet
| stationed in Warsaw for the past II
, years.
Tne Maritime Commission an
nounced. meanwhile, that the cap
tain of the S. S. City of Flint, whicl
is nearing Halifax w^th a load o
survivors from the sunken line:
Athenia. reported that three previ
ously uncounted survivors of the dis
aster are on board.
Presence of the trio, all New York
ers, brings the Flint's total of
Athenia survivors to 219, nearly half
of them Americans.
Two Coast Guard cutters, the j
Campbell and the Bibb, have met j
the refugee ship, supplied food and ‘
medicines and formed an escort for I
the remainder of the voyage.
The commission stated that the
survivors aboard the Flint, all of
whom lost their possessions when
the Athenia was torpedoed, will be
given railroad tickets to the homes
anywhere in the United States and
Canada by the Donaldson Line, oper
ator of the Athenia, when they
reach Halifax.
Budapest
(Continued From First Page.)
cations the Germans were making
much progress toward Lwow.
German mechanized units were
reported moving eastward in the
Kutno sector, with the German air
force continuing to bombard com
munication lines and centers far be
hind the battle lines. Kutno is 70
miles west of Warsaw).
Radio Station Closes. I
After a terrific all-day bombard
ment of Warsaw by planes, tanks
and heavy artillery that continued
well into the night, the radio station
there closed this morning with the
announcement it would return to
the air only ‘‘if something hap
pened.” The announcer added, "All
still is well."
It was the first time since the
German attack on Warsaw began
i.— ■ ——
last Friday that the official Polish
station had not broadcast the prog
ress of the battle throughout the
night.
Eleven tinkling notes, the opening
bars of Chopin's "Polonaise,” that
were sounded every 30 seconds by
a xylophone in the Warsaw radio
station, let Europe know Poland’s
capital still was Polish even after
the station had shut down.
The melodv frequently was inter
rupted during the day by announce
ments or code signals that German
planes had been spotted near other
cities or were proceeding in cer
tain compass directions. These
served as advance warnings for other
localities.
Earlier Successes Reported.
Earlier broadcasts had reported
the Poles beating back German
mechanized forces “in the suburbs”
of Warsaw after being subjected to
17 air raids, in one of which 60
planes concentrated on an anti-air
craft battery set up in the courtyard
of an apartment house-.
Though incendiary bombs set fire
to the building and low-flying
planes strafed the fleeing occupants,
he said, the battery still wa-s func
tioning from amidst a mass of
wreckage when the last air raid of
the day had ended.
Women and children were among
the chief casualties of the raids the
announcer said. But he added chil
dren still were helping to fortify the
houses, and that “every house is be
ing turned into an invincible
fortress.”
Among German losses of the day
he listed two bombing planes
brought down in an air battle over
the capital, and a German tank
which was separated from its file
; during the fighting and captured
near the main square.
Polish Staff Capt. Vaclav Lipin
ski added to this list the capture of
three German tanks outside the
Warsaw city limits and said three
German planes were shot down,
i Warsaw's Mayor. Stefan Star
: zinski, broadcast an order to the
> populace to remove barricades from
j certain streets in order to clear the
j way for traffic, and ordered all shops
! to stay open.
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duty are two new pieces of house
hold equipment—a washer that be
comes a useful kitchen table when
It isn't in action and an ironer that
folds into a handsome hardwood
cabinet, suitable for use in the living
room.
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