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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1962)
0 X 8 B SUNDAY, AUGUbl' 5, 1962 MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON 'Hidden Persuaders' Include Americans As Foreign Agents (Editor'i note: Tht con gressional spotlight was turned recently on lobby ists for (oreign governments. These lobbyists, among them Americans, earn high fees trying to win trade concessions or other favors for their employers. A Sen ale inquiry is being read ied. In the following dis patch, a veteran UPI re porter lakes the reader be hind the scenes of "lobby-ing-for-pay.") By LOUIS CASSELS United Press International Washington-IUPIl-Among the "hidden persuaders" who try to influence U.S. public opin- ion and public policy are sev eral hundred well-paid Amer icans who are agents ot for. eign governments. Relatively few work for communist countries. The vast majority are in the hire of non-communist nations which want something such as fi. nancial aid or trade conces sions from the United States. Their lobbying activities, usually carried on as quietly as possible, were briefly spot lighted last month when Con cress enacted a bill regulat- inc U.S. sugar imports for the next two years. Under this legislation, 24 foreign countries received quotas entitling them to sell sugar to American consumers at a price about 2.B cents a pound above the world mar ket. As a result of Its passage, 26 Washington lobbyists will ' collect about $500,000 in fees from those countries. Not Only Activity Lobbying on Capitol Hill Is not the only activity of these foreign agents. They also cm ploy public relations tech niques to create a favorable climate of opinion in America for their clients. It is not illegal for an American or foreigner to serve as the agent of a for eign power, provided he reg isters as such with the Justice department, submits periodic reports of his activitivies and labels any political propagan da he disseminates in this country by stating plainly it emanates from a registered foreign agent. Violation of the law is punishable by up to live years in Jail and a $10,000 fine Whether this law Is being adequately enforced and whether additional legislation may be needed are questions of immediate Interest to the Senate Foreign Relations com mittee. Puts on Staff Chairman J. William Ful brighl, (D-Ark.), has put a slaff of investigators to work digging into what he calls "attempts by foreign govern ments, or their agents, to In fluence the conduct of Amer ican foreign policy by tech niques outside normal diplo matic channels." Fulbright plans to hold public hearings which may get under way late this month. A preliminary report by the committee staff emphasizes it is not "necessarily wrong" for a foreign government to sup plement lis regular diplomatic mission with a Washington lawyer or an American public relations firm to present its case to Congress and the pub lic. 'Increasing Concern' But the report says there is "increasing concern" about t.hc use of "non-diplomatic representatives" to get results which a nation may ne unaoie nm United States to whip up sup port for the cause of Katanga President Moise Tshombe. Struelcns' activities were pub licly denounced by Assistant U. S. Secretary of State Carl Rown as a "big-money cam paign to convince Americans they ought to support Katan ga's secession." The Senate Foreign Rela tions committee staff strongly implied in its preliminary re port that the justice depart ment had been lax about en forcing provisions of the for eign agents' law. Staff Not Adequate Nathan B. Lenvin, chief of the justice department's for eign agents registration sec tion, said his staff of five at torneys is not adequate to make an exhaustive study of i all political propaganda reach ing the American public via foreign agents. Bui he said the section is "not aware of any clear-cut case where an agent has at tempted to mislead the pub lic by disseminating political propaganda without disclosing his affiliations" as required by the statute. Lenvin's boss, Alty. Gen. j Robert F. Kennedy, has un dertaken an investigation of his own to determine whether j more manpower is needed in j the foreign agents section, and whether the present law might be more vigorously enforced. Even If a foreign agent places the required label on a press release, photograph or film, there apparently is no requirement in the pres ent law that the warning be passed along to the public. Was Under Contract i Millions of Americans saw on television a movie short; entitled "Fortress Formosa," which extolled the cause of Generalissimo Chiang Kai- Shek's "Free China," without realizing the film was pro duced by an American public ! relations firm, the Hamilton Wright organization, which was under contract to Chiang's government. Free film footage Is only one of several devices by i which foreign agents tempt I U, S! news media to carry their clients' message to the i public. In the senate commit- i tees growing files are case. histories of newspaper and magazine reporters who have allowed public relation firms representing foreign countries to pay all or part of their expenses on supposedly objeo live fact-finding trips. The most flagrant case of irresponsibility by news media which has yet come to light involved a 10,10 deal hetupon AlpyanHnr 1.. Gill. : erma, then president of Mu-1 tual Broadcasting system, and the late dictator of the Do minican Republic, Rafael Tru jillo. Paid In Advance For a cash fee of $750,000, paid in advance, Guterma agreed that the Mulual net. i work would broadcast at least 425 minutes of "news'' , each month favorable to Tru- jillo's interests. Guterma later was booted out of Mutual presidency and sentenced to a prison term. Guterma was not tried for failing to label political prop aganda, but for failing to reg ister as a foreign agent in the first place. Nine persons have been in dicted during the past seven years for alleged failure to register, and the department is now satisfied that most if all of those who should to get through its normal oii- k-kimi-i nave uum- u. ounc lomatic dealings with the U.S. 11154, the number of officially government. registered foreign agents has "There is quite a bit of evi- climbed from 271 lo 411. A. r. said a committee in-1 Perusal of Files vcstigalor, "that some coun tries are using these agents lo make an end-run around (he President and the state department." Foreign lobbyists who de liver the goods arc highly paid. Washington attorney Charles Patrick Clark gets SR7.MHI a year from the gov ernment of Generalissimo Francisco Franco for "n'-omol-iiu: and encouraging friendly and understanding relations and good will between the United Stales and Spain." Displays Great Interest As an ex-enemy nation, Wrst Germany has also dis played a great interest in im nro'v'ng its U.S. "image" Ac cording to its olficial regis tration reports, the Julius Klein Public Relations firm of Chicago receives about $230,000 a year from West German interests for "dis- Perusal of the registra tion files, which are open to public inspection, shows nearly every country lo the world has one or more agents representing its interests, out side of diplomatic channels, in the United Stales. Japan currently has the biggest ros ier .12 agents.- including Thomas K. Dewey's Wall Slroet law firm Some agents work for sev eral countries at once. One such is 1. Irving Davidson, 41, a native of Pittsburgh. Davidson's registration statements show his hread-and-bulter account. which pays him $12.0011 a year, has him serving as the Washing ton voice and general handy man of Gen. Luis Soinoa, president of Nicaragua. But he has also In-cn involved in nu merous other activities, such as Irving to peddle Israel's nominating information in the I "UZ1" Bun to the U.S. Army. United States so that the ' Joins Other Lobbyists Amercan people may know.! Recently Davidson joined understand and support the ; the swarm of agent-lobbyists fact that West Germany is a hovering around the sugar political, economic and mill-;h ill. lie was representing tary ally of the wortd de-, Fcundor, which had never be iliocracies," fore been regarded as a sugar- Not all tlu- big-lime agents i producing country entitled lo are American citizens. When a quota Katanga Province tried to i The new law gives Ecuador secede Irom the Congo. Bel-1 the right to sell 25,000 tons eium s .Minstry ot Airuan ni fairs sent one of its officials. Michael Struelcns, to the of premium-priced sugar to American housewives annual ly for the next two .years MsHHMasssHHMHMHMss OS OS oSog Juin "Ills 7Z St33- i05 5.13 5 Q2J v Mm X tiCSf'-j. co u g r I w si:.. u,00a:S sg.'-j., '$2' f IH l-sls, So 1i U -st - .-B 55- yo2s f e-.,s ,. .. 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