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About Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 1957)
Page 6 Section 2 THE CAPITAL JOURNAE Salem, Oregon, Thursday, January 24, 1957 ,-The (QJJ) Story- CHAPTER 16 FBI's Battle for Survival Chapter 16 In 1940, President Roosevelt and Mty. Gen. Robert H. Jackson laved the FBI (rom being destroy td by attacks as savage as any ever seen in the jungle of Wash ington politics. j, Edgar Hoover once told a visitor: "No one outside the FBI and the Department of Justice ever knew how close they came to wrecking us." j Who were "they"? The records from the archives of the FBI tell the tory, a story ot plots ana Intrigues and insinuations. Rpaclion Violent The main attack began after Hoover went before a House sub committee on appropriations or Jan. 6 to make his annual report on how the FBI was spending lis hare of the taxpayers douar ano nerformine its duties. In discus sing President Roosevelt's procla mation ot :epi. f. iswu, ammum.i"K the FBI's broadened responsibility for national security, Hoover said: . " . . when this work was as signed to us we organized ... the General Intelligence Division, which will have supervision of es- Dionaee. sabotage, and other sub versive activities, and violations of the neutrality regulations ... We have also initiated special investi gations of persons reported upon a: being active in any subversive activity or rn movements detri mental to the internal security. "In that connection, wc have a general index, arranged alphabet ically and geographically, avail able at the Bureau, so that in the event of any greater emergency coming to our country we will be able to locate immediately these various persons who may need to be the subject of further investi Hoover's statement was like the lice I point of a dentist's probe touching an exposed nerve in a decayed tooth. The reaction was violent. The first attack came from Rep. Vito Marcantonio, left wing Congressman from New York, who told the House that Hoover's security preparation "lay the foundation ... for a Gestapo aystem in the United States." ; Red Campaign An Informant gave the FBI a report on a Feb. 6 meeting of Communist leaders In Washington where plans were made for a cam paign against -Hoover and the Mil. This report said: "It was proposed at this meet ing that the campaign shmilil have two principal phases, one an at tack upon the Bureau us violating civil liberties and secondly n per sons! attack upon the director . . . Communist writers were assigned to this second phase of the cam paign. It was also planned at the meeting mat the services ot cer tain Congressmen would be enlist ed In endeavoring to obtain Con grMsional restrictions upon t h e Bureaus activities." The rumor in Washington at this time was that Hoover had lost his strongest supporter when Ally Gen. Frank Murphy left the De partment of Justice to become an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court and that the new, liberal attorney general. Jackson, would put the handcuffs on Hoover and the FBI at the first opportunity. : The storm broke against the Flr on Feb. 6. Special agents arrested 10 men and a woman in Detroit and a man in Milwaukee who had been indicted on charges of con spiring to recruit volunteers for the Spanish Loyalist Army. All of them were either admitted Com munists, members of known Communist-front organizations or op enly Communist sympathizers. The arrests had hern ordered by the Justice Dcpartmrnt. FBI Callrd "Mrnacr" The cry arose across the coun try that these arrests were an example of the FBI's persecution f people who happened to have political views contrary to those of Hoover. Hoover was called n greater menace than 'a nest o( spies." The FBI was described as an OGPU, a Gestapo, a sinister menace to intellectual freedom. There were doubts raised in the minds of honest people who then ant had reported that the national destroying the various unions." committee of the Communist Party They called on the President and had met in New York City and the attorney general to suspend agreed that "the time is ripe" to make the Detroit cases a national issue. A decision was made, the Hoover pending an investiga,:on, Rep." Emanuel Celler of N e w York was among those to defend informant said, to "canvass trade. Hoover. He told a radio audience unions and all kinds of progressive organizations throughout the coun try asking them to demand an in vestigation of the FBI." that Hoover "... was a special assistant attorney general (who) had nothing to do with the arrest or so-called persecution of individ- These demands came In a fuals. He simply handled the cases flood of mimeographed resolutions , n the courts as they were pre- rl (VsiGriU IfiHtsrtrll mji a trnn tiinpnrtrr H i fciffcui Hoover al a Iftne hri Hir Htl'a I Inquiry fnl cpmmunllm ai j ' andrr hrar fire. Her. Hoover I MttaroRiif4attjrtiiM I !' in" , i'iV -1 r-rattra am voiced these doubts without wait-1 country, Hoover has the voluntary was given in a column by Joseph ins to hear the facts. support of all who delight in Alsop and Robert Kintner. who re- The New Hepublic discussed the I Eonsster movies and ten-cent de- ported that Jackson had looked DurDortedlv adoDted hv I a h n r ! sencd to him arrests in an editorial headed weme magazines . unto the Mil s activities and "to " . ,.T. . Attacks Diminish American IHtJ'iJ " l he mnir;i7ine ..T.mv Mil rnlirs d hAn hnnn. his surnnsn ' fmpm-prrH that lh ""'" ful that Jackson would take their i tiurrai' was operated along legiti- indie jiijfs. said: "In foreign countries people are forced by their governments t o submit tn their f.pslflpns. In this side against Hoover and the FBI But Jackson startled them. He stood by Hoover. One explanation STORE HOURS: Inquiry Demanded Early in March, an FBI inform- Thev said. "There every evidence to believe that J. 0ne 0 tnose listening to Celler s Kdsar Hoover is preparing for a broadcast was attorney Morris repetition of the shameful Palmer Katzeff, then living in Boston, who raids, in which he participated, had been one of the lawyers de with the object of attacking and 'fending those rounded up for de portation in the Palmer raids. Katzeff wrote Hoover: "The casei of 1919 Immediately came back to my mind and I also recalled that you had nothing to do with the irregularities and harsh treatment of aliens suspect ed of being Communists; 1 also recall a hearing .... at which you deplored as sincerely as we did the incidents attending t h e circumstances connected with ar rests of aliens in New England, and I recalled how genuinely I was impressed by your sincereity M u'oll ac u.ith vnnr thnrnnphnp!; o,nmrfnt on,) tthe guests r Mt it mu rfntv hi heine one nf r.dsar. he saia, from personal knowledge ay word in defense'of a man unjustly accused of wrong-doing.' The attacks on Hoover and the FBI began to diminish and lose force after an incident during the dinner given on March 16, 1940, by the White House , correspond ents. President Roosevelt was t h e guest of honor at the head table, whicB was placed on a raised plat form to give the hundreds of diners a view of the Chief Executive. Roosevelt spotted Hoover among what are they 1 leit It my QUiy as oenig one 01 --- . u;lf" the very few footloose men up to trying to do to you on the Hill, the present moment who could Hoover shook his head and re- plied, "I don't know, Mr. Presi dent." Roosevelt grinned and turned his thumbs down on the table, "That's for them," he said. The word soon spread around Washington that Roosevelt had turned thumbs down on the at tackers of Hoover and the FBI, (Tomorrow: The FBI Goes to War.) SAUD SEES FRANCO ENVOY ALGECIRAS, Spain Wl King Saud of Saudi Arabia, en route to the United States, received a representative of Generalissimo Franco in his royal suite during a stopover of the liner Constitu tion here Wednesday. MONDAY I FR'DAY II OTHER DAYS : 12 NOON TO 9 P.M. 10 A.M. TO 9 P.M. 9:30 A.M. 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