Martin Dies, Jr.
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Martin Dies, Jr. (November 5, 1900–November 14, 1972) was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. His father, Martin Dies, was also a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Dies was born in Colorado City, Texas. Dies was elected to Texas's 2nd District in the House of Representatives in 1930. Originally, Dies supported the New Deal, but he turned against it by 1937. Dies along with Samuel Dickstein created the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities, initially nicknamed the Dies Committee, later becoming HUAC in 1946. Dies was its first chairman, serving from 1937 to 1944. He has been criticized for his failure to have the Committee properly investigate the Ku Klux Klan. At the time, the Klan was especially strong in Dies' District and he had spoken at several of its rallies.[citation needed]
While there had been earlier Congressional hearings on Communist and Nazi activity, such as by Hamilton Fish in 1932 and McCormack and Dickstein in 1934, the Dies Committee hearings captured greater public attention. In 1937, the Committee investigated Hollywood figures for sending greetings to a leftist French paper, Ce Soir. The committee was criticized for including on the list Shirley Temple, who was 9 years old at the time.[1]. Testimony was taken by the Committee against Michigan Governor Frank Murphy during his re-election bid in 1938, by witnesses who proclaimed that Murphy was "a Communist or a Communist dupe". Murphy was defeated, and President Roosevelt denounced the incident at a press conference, saying that "The Dies Committee made no effort to get at the truth," [2]. Other groups subject to Dies's investigations were the U.S. Department of Labor, the WPA Federal Theatre and Writers' Project, and the NLRB. In January 1939, the new Congress voted to quadruple the Dies Committee's budget. The official Report of the Committee Report was released in January 1940 and was toned down, with the material divided evenly between Communists and Fascists. Dies wrote his own book, The Trojan Horse in America with a larger focus on Communism.
In 1940, Frank Eugene Hook alleged in Congress that Dies had ties to William Dudley Pelley. However, the documents Hook used to make his case turned out to be forgeries.[1] Dies was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1941. Dies was a critic of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, having found 280 salaried CIO organizers within its ranks funded by the Soviet backed CPUSA. Dies retired from the House in 1944 after the CIO began a voter registration drive in his district and found a candidate to oppose him. Dies supported the anti-Roosevelt Texas Regulars in the 1944 presidential election.
Dies was reelected to the House in 1952 in an at-large seat when Texas received another seat through reapportionment. Dies ran for the Senate again in 1957, finishing second to Ralph Yarborough. Dies retired again from the House in 1958.
[edit] External links
- Martin Dies, Jr. from the Handbook of Texas Online
| Preceded by John Calvin Box |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 2nd congressional district 1931–1944 |
Succeeded by Jesse Martin Combs |
| Preceded by District created |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's At-large congressional district 1953–1958 |
Succeeded by Robert R. Casey |
| Preceded by Ottis E. Lock |
Texas Senate, District 3 1959–1967 |
Succeeded by Charles Wilson |
