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==Dies Committee (1938–1944)==

==Dies Committee (1938–1944)==

[[File:Dies.jpg|thumb|275px|right|Rep. Martin Dies exhibits criminal records of [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO) officials.]]

[[File:Dies.jpg|thumb|275px|right|Rep. Martin Dies exhibits criminal records of [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO) officials.]]

The House Committee on Un-American Activities grew from a special investigating committee established in May 1938 chaired by Martin Dies, Jr. and co-chaired by [[Samuel Dickstein]], himself named in the Venona project as a Soviet agent. In pre-war years and during World War II it was known as the '''Dies Committee'''. Its work was supposed to be aimed mostly at German-American involvement in [[Nazi]] and [[KKK]] activity. As to investigations into the activities of the "Klan," the Committee actually did little. 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 member [[John E. Rankin]] added: "After all, the KKK is an old American institution." Instead of the Klan, HUAC concentrated on investigating the possibility that the [[American Communist Party]] had infiltrated the [[Works Progress Administration]], including the Federal Theatre Project.  Dies was a critic of the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO), having found 280 salaried CIO organizers within its ranks funded by the Soviet backed [[CPUSA]].

The House Committee on Un-American Activities grew from a special investigating committee established in May 1938 chaired by Martin Dies, Jr. and co-chaired by [[Samuel Dickstein]], himself named in the Venona project as a Soviet agent. In pre-war years and during World War II it was known as the '''Dies Committee'''. Its work was supposed to be aimed mostly at German-American involvement in [[Nazi]] and [[KKK]] activity. As to investigations into the activities of the "Klan," the Committee actually did little. 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 member [[John E. Rankin]] added: "After all, the KKK is an old American institution." Instead of the Klan, the Dies Committee concentrated on investigating the possibility that the [[American Communist Party]] had infiltrated the [[Works Progress Administration]], including the Federal Theatre Project.  Dies was a critic of the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO), having found 280 salaried CIO organizers within its ranks funded by the Soviet backed [[CPUSA]].

In 1938 Hallie Flanagan, the head of the Federal Theatre Project was subpoenaed to appear before the committee to answer the charge that the project was overrun with [[communism|communists]]. Flanagan was called to testify for only a part of one day, while a clerk from the project was called in for two entire days. This may have had something to do with the fact that one of the members of the [[Dies Committee]] embarrassed himself by asking whether the Elizabethan playwright [[Christopher Marlowe]] was a member of the [[Communist Party]].

In 1938 Hallie Flanagan, the head of the Federal Theatre Project was subpoenaed to appear before the committee to answer the charge that the project was overrun with [[communism|communists]]. Flanagan was called to testify for only a part of one day, while a clerk from the project was called in for two entire days. This may have had something to do with the fact that one of the members of the [[Dies Committee]] embarrassed himself by asking whether the Elizabethan playwright [[Christopher Marlowe]] was a member of the [[Communist Party]].