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Martin Dies Jr.

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For his son, the Texas state senator, secretary of state, and jurist, seeMartin Dies Jr. (politician, born 1921).
Martin Dies Jr.
Dies chairing a 1938 meeting of the
House Un-American Activities Committee
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
fromTexas
In office
March 4, 1931 – January 3, 1945
Preceded byJohn Calvin Box
Succeeded byJesse Martin Combs
Constituency2nd district
In office
January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1959
Preceded bydistrict created
Succeeded bydistrict abolished
ConstituencyAt-large district
Chairman of theHouse Committee Investigating Un-American Activities
In office
1938–1944
Preceded byoffice established
Succeeded byEdward J. Hart
Personal details
Born(1900-11-05)November 5, 1900
Colorado City, Texas,U.S.
DiedNovember 14, 1972(1972-11-14)(aged 72)
Lufkin, Texas,U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Myrtle McAdams
​
(m.1920)​
Children3, includingMartin Dies Jr.
Parents
Alma materUniversity of Texas
National University School of Law(LLB)
Occupation
  • Lawyer
  • politician

Martin Dies Jr.(November 5, 1900 – November 14, 1972), also known as Martin Dies Sr., was aTexaspolitician and aDemocraticmember of theUnited States House of Representatives.[1]He was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second and after that to the six succeedingCongresses(March 4, 1931 – January 3, 1945). In 1944, Dies did not seek renomination to the Seventy-ninth Congress, but was elected to the Eighty-third and to the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1959). Again, he did not seek renomination in 1958 to the Eighty-sixth Congress. In 1941 and 1957, he was twice defeated for the nomination to fill a vacancy in theUnited States Senate.Dies served as the first chairman of theSpecial Committee to Investigate Un-American Activitiesfrom 1937 through 1944 (Seventy-fifth through Seventy-eighth Congresses).[2][3]

Background

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He was born inColorado City, Texas,on November 5, 1900,[4]toMartin Dies Sr.,who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1909 to 1919. He studied at theUniversity of Texasand obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree at theNational University School of Law,Washington, DC.[3]

Career

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Dies worked as an attorney inMarshall, TexasandOrange, Texasand eventually became a district judge.[3]In 1931, Dies was elected from Texas2nd Districtto theHouse of Representatives,a constituency that his father represented for a decade, thus becoming a second generation Democratic U.S. congressman.[3][5]

After theWall Street Crash of 1929,Dies wrote in the ChicagoHerald-Examinerthat the "large alien population is the basic cause of unemployment."[6]: 377 

Due to the support of fellow TexanJohn Nance Garner,he became a member of the importantHouse Rules Committee.At the beginning, Dies fully supported theNew Dealas it aimed to provide relief for the distressed rural areas, which he represented in Congress. However, being a conservative Southerner, he turned against it after the 1936 election, when labor unions started to play a much bigger role in national politics.[3][7]

In 1938, he started as a chairman of theSpecial Committee to Investigate Un-American Activitiesand remained at its helm until 1944. At ease with newsmen, Dies was frequently in the national media spotlight.

House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities

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Dies relaxes as he speaks to reporters (November 7, 1938)

Dies andSamuel Dicksteincreated theHouse Committee Investigating Un-American Activities,initially nicknamed the Dies Committee, later becoming HUAC in 1946. Dies was its first chairman, serving for seven years from 1938 to 1944, and declaring a crusade against right-wing and left-wing subversives in the government, and other organizations nationwide. Dies' committee mainly targeted communist infiltrators and sympathizers. Samuel Dickstein was named in the 1990s as a Soviet agent in theVenona projectmaterials.

Dies Committee and the KKK

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Dies receives "Heil Hitler"from first witness John Metcalfe, former Chicago reporter, then committee investigator who infiltrated Nazis under name Hellmut Oberwinder (August 12, 1938)

In pre-war years and during World War II, HUAC was known as the Dies Committee. Its work was aimed at investigating fascist and communist subversive activist. Dies targetedGerman Americaninvolvement inNaziandKu Klux Klanactivity, such as theGerman American Bund.As to investigations into the activities of the "Klan", some members of the Committee showed reluctance to investigate. When HUAC's chief counsel Ernest Adamson announced that: "The committee has decided that it lacks sufficient data on which to base a probe," committee memberJohn E. Rankinadded: "After all, the KKK is an old American institution."[8]However, Dies himself personally beratedImperial WizardJames A. Colescottfor the Klan's anti-Catholicism.[9]

As chairman, Dies pursued Nazis, labor unions, New Deal agencies, and communist or communist-affiliated groups, from which he gained a national reputation and even published a book about his exploits,The Trojan Horse of America(1940).[3]

Shirley Temple and Hollywood

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Dies speaks with fellow committee memberJ. Parnell Thomas,who had recently sponsored a bill of impeachment against Secretary of LaborFrances Perkins,to discuss forthcoming testimony of Felix McWhirter (May 23, 1939)

While there had been earlier Congressional hearings oncommunistand Nazi activity, such as byHamilton Fishin 1932 and McCormack and Dickstein in 1934, the Dies Committee hearings captured greater public attention and scrutiny. In 1938, the Committee was criticized for includingShirley Temple,who was 10 years old at the time,[10]on a list ofHollywoodfigures who sent greetings to theleftistCommunist-owned French newspaper,Ce Soir.[11]TheRoosevelt Administrationmentioned the attacks whenHarold Ickes,Secretary of the Interior,stated: "They have found dangerousradicalsthere led by little Shirley Temple. "Secretary of LaborFrances Perkinsadded that Shirley Temple was born an American citizen and should not have to debate such "preposterous revelations".[12]The Committee responded to these attacks via anNBCbroadcast, in which the testimony of Dr.J. B. Matthews,which launched the Shirley Temple outcry was readverbatim.In this testimony, Dr. Matthews stated:

The Communist Party relies heavily on the carelessness or indifference of thousands of prominent citizens in lending their names for itspropagandapurposes. For example, the French newspaperCe Soir,which is owned outright by the Communist Party, featured hearty greetings fromClark Gable,Robert Taylor,James Cagney,and even Shirley Temple.... No one, I hope, is going to claim that any one of these persons in particular is a Communist.[13]

Backlash

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ActressFlorence Eldridge,actorFredric March,and Martin Dies atDies Committeehearings in Los Angeles (1940)

Dies was criticized for using his Committee to further his personal campaign to undermine theNew Dealagenda during the late 1930s and early 1940s. For example, Michigan GovernorFrank Murphylost his re-election bid in 1938 after being labeled "a Communist or a Communist dupe" during testimony before the Committee. Roosevelt himself labeled this incident as a "flagrantly unfair and un-American attempt to influence an election."[14][15]TheLabor Department,theWPA Federal Theatre ProjectandWriters' Project,and theNational Labor Relations Boardwere subjected to similar denunciations.[16]While the Committee ostensibly investigated both suspected Communists and Fascists, Dies was concerned primarily with a supposed Communist conspiracy, as reflected in his own book,The Trojan Horse in America.[17]In 1940, CongressmanFrank Eugene Hooksought to discredit the Committee, and Dies personally, by presenting evidence linking Dies to the agitator and spiritualistWilliam Dudley Pelley;but Dies was able to show that the documents cited by Hook were forged.[18]

Dies articulated concerns of the "racial question" as it related to minimum wage provision under the Fair Labor Standards Acts, stating, "What is prescribed for one race must be prescribed for the others, and you cannot prescribe the same wages for the black man as for the white man."[19]

Encouraged by his victory over Hook and a quadrupling of his Committee's budget, Dies' accusations became progressively more scurrilous.[20]In March 1942, he wrote a letter to Vice PresidentHenry Wallaceclaiming that 35 members of theBoard of Economic Warfare,which Wallace chaired, had been members of Communist organizations. He singled out one member in particular, Maurice Parmelee, as both a Communist sympathizer and anudist,based on Parmelee's 1926 book,The New Gymnosophy.[21]Parmelee was indeed an advocate forgymnosophy,a form ofasceticismoriginated by two German nudist activists, but its relevance to American national security was never convincingly explained.[22][23]

Dies' public charges and rumor-mongering after June 1941 came at a time when theUSSRwas a member of theallied nationsresisting the Nazi offensive in Europe and North Africa. Rather than assisting the effort to ferret out Nazi spies duringWorld War II,Dies continued his pre-war fixation and focused almost entirely on Communist spies in the U.S. government—a precursor tothe McCarthy eraduring the 1950s.[24]

Later life

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Martin Dies Jr., official portrait for the US Congress (1952)

Dies was an unsuccessful candidate for theUnited States Senatein a special election held in late June, 1941 to fill the seat vacated by the death of SenatorMorris Sheppard.Dies finished a distant fourth, losing to the sitting Governor,Pappy O'Danielwho narrowly beat CongressmanLyndon B. Johnsonin Johnson's first run for the Senate.[25]

Dies was a critic of theCongress of Industrial Organizations,having found 280 salaried CIO organizers within its ranks funded by the Soviet-backedCommunist Party of the USA.Dies retired from the House in 1944 (or 1945[3]) after the CIO began a voter registration drive in his district and found a candidate to oppose him. Dies supported the anti-RooseveltTexas Regularsin the1944 presidential election.[citation needed]

Dies was reelected to the House in 1952 in an at-large seat when Texas received another seat throughreapportionment.In 1957, he ran for the Senate again in aspecial electionto finish the term ofPrice Daniel,who left the Senate to become governor of Texas. Dies finished with 30 percent of the vote, second toRalph Yarborough,who led with 38 percent. RepublicanThad Hutcheson,aHoustonlawyer, finished third with 23 percent.[26]No runoff was then required in Texas special elections, though Dies and Hutcheson collectively held 53 percent of the vote. Yarborough hence took the Senate seat, which he held until January 3, 1971. Dies was a signatory to the 1956Southern Manifestothat opposed the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court inBrown v. Board of Education.[27]Dies retired again from the House in January 1959. From 1953 to 1959, "he held no important positions."[3]

Dies returned to Texas to practice law.[28]

Death and legacy

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In 1920, Dies married Myrtle McAdams and had three sons: Robert, Jack, andMartin Jr.,who became a Texas state senator andSecretary of State of Texas.[29][30]

Dies died November 14, 1972, of an apparent heart attack at the age of 72.[31]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Ex-Rep. Martin Dies, 71, Is Dead. Led Un-American Activities Unit".New York Times.November 15, 1972.Retrieved2008-03-20.Former Representative Martin Dies, first chairman of the controversial House Committee on Un-American Activities, died tonight, apparently of a heart attack. He was 71 years old. engaging in "un-American activities."
  2. ^"Martin Dies Jr".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.Retrieved2011-04-19.Dies, Martin Jr. (son of Martin Dies), a Representative from Texas; born in Colorado, Mitchell County, Tex., November 5, 1900; moved with his parents to Beaumont, Tex., in 1902;...
  3. ^abcdefgh "Martin Dies, Jr".Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 July 1998.Retrieved27 December2022.
  4. ^"Dies, Anti-Red Solon, Is Dead".The Fresno Bee.1972-11-15.Retrieved2022-01-04.
  5. ^Parrish, Michael E.The Hughes Court Justices, Rulings, and Legacy.Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002. pp. 67–68.
  6. ^Navarro, Sharon Ann; Mejia, Armando Xavier (2004-01-01).Latino Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook.ABC-CLIO. p. 23.ISBN9781851095230.
  7. ^Pederson, William D.The FDR Years.New York: Facts on File, 2006. p. 211.
  8. ^John GuntherInside U.S.A.,(London,Hamish Hamilton,1947, p. 789)
  9. ^Newton, Michael (2010).The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi A History.Jefferson, N.C.:McFarland & Companypp. 100–101.
  10. ^Temple Black, Shirley (Oct 1989).Child Star: An Autobiography.New York: Warner Books (mass market paperback edition, first printing). pp.252–253.ISBN0-446-35792-8.
  11. ^Current Biography 1940, pp. 241–43
  12. ^Martin Dies Story, pp. 104–05
  13. ^Martin Dies Story, p. 104
  14. ^"CONGRESS: Dies and Duty".Time.1938-11-07.ISSN0040-781X.Retrieved2024-07-14.
  15. ^"Statement on the Sit-Down Strikes in Michigan. | The American Presidency Project".www.presidency.ucsb.edu.Retrieved2024-07-14.
  16. ^Current Biography 1940, at 242
  17. ^Dies, M.The Trojan Horse in America.Dodd, Mead & Company (1940). ASIN B0006AP2Q6
  18. ^"THE CONGRESS: Smoke".Time.February 12, 1940.RetrievedJuly 27,2021.
  19. ^Congressional Record, 75th Congress, 2nd Sessions (1937), 82:1404
  20. ^"Dies 'Un-American' hunt is a racket".The Daily Telegraph.Vol. VII, no. 9. New South Wales, Australia. 1 April 1942. p. 4.Retrieved15 September2020– via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^Parmelee, Maurice (1927).The new gymnosophy.New York: Frederick H. Hitchcock.
  22. ^Hartman, William E. (1970).Nudist society: an authoritative, complete study of nudism in America.New York: Crown. p. 21.
  23. ^Flynn, John T. (2005).The Roosevelt myth.Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute. pp. 306–308.
  24. ^Review ofThe Trojan Horse in Americaat spyinggame.me, retrieved September 7, 2016.
  25. ^Special Election 1941.Texas Almanac, 1943-1944. 1943. pp. 259–260.Retrieved2022-12-27.
  26. ^"TX U.S. Senate Special Election, April 2, 1957".ourcampaigns.com.RetrievedOctober 2,2013.
  27. ^Badger, Tony.Southerners Who Refused to Sign the Southern Manifesto.JSTOR.Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  28. ^ "Dies, Martin, Jr".Office of the Historian of the US House of Representatives.Retrieved27 December2022.
  29. ^"Martin Dies Seeking Third Congress Term".The Cameron Herald.1956-07-05.Retrieved2022-01-04.
  30. ^"A State of Remembrance"(PDF).State of Texas.2003-04-24.Retrieved2022-01-05.
  31. ^"Ex-Rep. Martin Dies, 71, Is Dead; Led Un-American Activities Unit".The New York Times.November 15, 1972.RetrievedJune 1,2021.
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U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of theU.S. House of Representatives
fromTexas's 2nd congressional district
1931–1945 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
District created
 Member of theU.S. House of Representatives
fromTexas's at-large congressional seat
1953–1958 		Succeeded by
District abolished

Public DomainThis article incorporatespublic domain materialfrom theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress

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