My investigation, conducted in concert with other seasoned observes of Communist activities, convinced me of one amazing
fact; namely, that the Communists did more to help Hitler than all his German Bunds put together. Not that the Nazis here did not try, but they were simply no match for the Communist machine. From August 23, 1939, to June 22, 1941, the duration of the pro-Hitler Party Line, the Communists not only stole the show but were the show.
The partnership between Hitler and Stalin was not merely a mutual admiration treaty. A secret understanding, reached by both dictators called for certain �auxiliary operations� to be directed, primarily at the United States.
So well was this accomplished that tons of literature, predominantly anti-British and anti-Semitic, were shipped from Hamburg by way of Vladivostok for propaganda here. . . .
So closely knit was the Stalin alliance with Hitler that members of the German-American Bund were ordered to join the Communist Party and use its machinery to harass American industry. The order came from Berlin.
An indication of the importance to Moscow of propelling the Party Line was seen in the bills submitted to the Soviet Embassy and the Amtorg Trading Corporation, listing mammoth cable expenses incurred by the New York to Moscow axis. Instructions, orders, counter orders, and more instructions were rushed, at a giddy pace, from the Kremlin to East Twelfth Street.
It was important, too, to unearth industrial secrets. Trusted Party agents, of varying ranks and stature, quizzed workers in American plants on a whole gamut of essential details. What are the technical
facilities? Capacity? Production statistics? Destination of materials produced?
All these questions and many more were put to key workers, as innocently as possible, often over a cp of coffee or a glass of beer. The prized answers, carefully collected, were routed to the Chancellery of Berlin via Moscow.
( pages 77 � 79 )
Meanwhile, the young men of America were being conscripted under the Selective Service Act. To those who were in the armed forces, artfully designed literature urging �peace� was sent. No draftee, of course, relished war, and the Party Liners made the most of their opportunity.
Communist stalwarts, or those who hewed closely to the Party pattern, went a step further and refused to register or serve in an �imperialistic� war. As for the inductees, they were treated to a constant propaganda barrage. To make conversion more palatable, Communist girls, members for the most part of the Young Communist League, contributed their wares and their sex with equal vigor to soldiers and sailors alike. Sex too is a weapon in carrying out the Party Line, and the girls used it lavishly.
In Chicago we probed deeply into the roots of the sprawling Communist plant. How were all the plans made? Bit by bit, the evidence was pieced together. Secret meetings, furtively held in private homes and remote places, were the scene for the plotting that was daily translated into work stoppages and strikes, the cost of which was far beyond dollars.
These meters, we found, were taking place throughout the Midwest, the seat of our industrial might. Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin were the staging areas for the strike plans. How effective the Party Liners were in pulling the switch in American plants is apparent from old statistics. In January, 1941, for instance, 150,000 man-days were lost on Army contracts alone. In February the tempo was stepped up to 469,000 man-days.
In the first twenty days of March, the Communists could boast of having deprived the
Army and Navy of 412,000 man-days; and this does not include the losses at Universal Cyclops Corporation and Stewart-Warner corporation.
Congress had passed a conscription law, but the Communists had effectively vetoed it, our draftees being compelled to train with broomsticks and other make-believe weapons. The crescendo of the Peace-and-Strike campaign was reached in the spring of 1941. Now power on American soil not even the government itself, could keep the arty Line from zooming towards its goal.
By April I saw a grim picture of despair. America, effectively chained to endle4ss industrial chaos, found it as impossible to arm
herself as though her resources were dried up and her man power stricken by a plague. Hundreds of factories, trophies of the Party Line, were idle. Strikes quenched the smoke of thousands of chimneys. Browder�s chieftains were exultant: Moscow would sit up and take due notice of their loyalty and zeal.
In the countless plants which I visited in connection with my investigation, the signature of the Party Line was as clear as though it had been inscribed in red ink.
( . . )
In April the situation became worse, �ghost� factories dotting the entire Midwest, and reports from other parts of the country were equally gloomy. Many writers and commentators, watching our precious hours to arm ourselves dribbling down the Communist drain, began to speak out. Over the din of the thumping of the Party Line drums, they tried to warn America that the Communists were doing Hitler�s work in this country.
coast-to-coast network, he described the minute doings of the conspirators and even reported the way in which they boasted of their success in particular plants then gripped by strikes.
For a long wile, the Communists had been trying to silence opposition of allsorts. Writers and commentators who exposed them were given the slander treatment. Literary gentry, friendly to the Communist cause, would be enlisted in the all-out effort to blacken and defame those who were outspoken in revealing Communist trade secrets. To squelch Walter Winchell, however, colossal preparations were needed.
Winchell was a formidable enemy. Not only had he mercilessly pummeled them through the years, but he was rubbing salt into their wounds by reporting every word and gesture at their clandestine sessions. The time had come for vengeance.
To erase Winchell and still his diatribes, a special conference was called in an obscure Chicago meeting room on April 8, 1941. Extra precautions were taken to insure that absolutely no one except the trusted hierarchy was admitted to that room Credentials were checked and double-checked to prevent any intruder from slipping in.
Yet an undercover operator did manage to sneak in!
The Communists, we learned from him were furious over Winchell�s success in pointing his accusing finger at them and were determined to punish him appropriately.
The meeting, called at the insistence of Robert Minor, National Secretary of the Communist Party, was presided over by Pat Toohey, then State organizer for Illinois.
Toohey got to the point immediately. �We�ve got instructions,� he said, �to start a campaign to take Winchell off the air. Nobody needs to be reminded how important that job is.�
This was the plan : hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of letters were to deluge the radio network and Winchell�s sponsor, all protesting his attacks upon �an innocent political party.� Organizations, thousands of them, some real but most of the fictitious, were to join to fight Winchell�s persecution.�
�Above all,� Toohey warned, �the name of the Communist Party must be kept out. The protests should seem spontaneous and real.�
The scheme, elaborately drawn up, was doomed to failure because Winchell exposed it before it got under way. His information
about the Communists, accurate to the last detail, could come only from a Communist functionary. And the Communists were never able to find out who among them was feeding Winchell his powerful ammunition.
HEY, WINCHELL WAS A FRAUD AND HAD DUPED AN EXPERIENCED AGENT !
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On May 27, 1941, I submitted a full report to Robert Stripling. In it I stressed the fanaticism with which the Communists and their front organization were adhering to the Party Line.
Typical of the earnestness with which the front organizations followed the Party Line was, again, the performance of the American Peace Mobilization.
On June 17, 1941, Frederick V. Field, its national secretary, gave this bit of gratuitous advice to America: �Keep America out of Europe�s war, improve the standard of living, retain and defend out constitutional liberties and work for a people�s peace.�
Exactly ninety-six hours later, this same Field called off the picket line around the White House. Why? Russia had been attacked by Hitler. The new Party Line was in effect, the war model.
Hastily, the old slogans were ripped down and new ones substituted. The chant �Peace!� turned instantly to the cry �War!� In the place of �Strike!� men everywhere were exhorted to �Work!�—hours and working conditions to e ignored.
( . . )
For a total of 668 days the Communists had succeeded in keeping America from flexing her industrial muscles. Now, not content with mere defense preparations, the bellowed on very rostrum for war. . .