on three suspected Nazi spies
working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Congressman Martin Dies of Texas,
chairman of the Committee, gave two of the _National Republic's_
high-pressure men letters of introduction when they started out on a
little milking party in the name of patriotism. He received the
cooperation of Harry A. Jung, and he refused to examine the files of
James A. True when the above letter was brought to his Committee's
attention.

But these actions merit more detailed consideration.

XI

_The Dies Committee Suppresses Evidence_

Three Suspected Nazi Spies were quietly taken out of the Brooklyn Navy
Yard to the Dies Congressional Committee headquarters in New York in
Room 1604, United States Court House Building. The three men were each
questioned for about five minutes by Congressman J. Parnell Thomas[20]
of New Jersey and Joe Starnes of Alabama. The men were asked if they
had heard of any un-American goings-on in the Navy Yard. Each of the
three subpoenaed men said he had not, and the Congressmen sent them
back to work in the Navy Yard after warning them not to say a word to
anyone about having been called before the Committee.

When I learned of the Congressional Committee's refusal to question men
they had subpoenaed, I wondered at the unusual procedure--especially
since it promptly put Nazi propagandists (such as Edwin P. Banta, a
speaker for the German-American Bund) on the stand as authorities on
"un-American" activities in the United States. A little inquiry turned
up some interesting facts.

One of the Committee's chief investigators, Edward Francis Sullivan of
Boston, had worked closely with Nazi agents as far back as 1934.
Sullivan's whole record was extremely unsavory. He had been a labor
spy, had been active in promoting anti-democratic sentiments in
cooperation with secret agents of the German Government and in
addition was a convicted thief. (Shortly after Slap-Happy Eddie, as he
was known around Boston because of his convictions on drunkenness,
lined up with the Nazis, he got six months for a little stealing.)
Before going on with the Congressional Committee's strange attitude
toward suspected spies and known propagandists in constant
communication with Germany, it might be well to review a meeting which
the Congressional Committee's investigator addressed in the Nazi
stronghold in Yorkville.

[Illustration: Reproduction of a document showing that Edward
Francis Sulliva