Fighting Communism or New Deal Liberalism?
House Un-American Activities Committee Activities in Texas
World War I led to profound changes in American society. Perhaps more than the war itself was the impact of V.I. Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution. Lenin introduced the world to a communist regime and the fear that capitalism had become passé. The ensuing Red Scare and the creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) sought to protect American capitalism from the same fate that befell Russia’s Czar Nicholas. In doing so, many average Americans came under the government’s ever-watchful eye.
Martin Dies and the HUAC
After months of struggling with Congress over the fate of the New Deal, conservative Congressmen finally defeated (1937), which planned to extensively liberalize the Supreme Court by appointing younger justices supportive of the New Deal. However, the political fallout coupled with numerous labor strikes brought renewed attention to the threats of communism. As a result, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was formed, with Texas Congressman Martin Dies as its Chairman, as much to root out communism, as it was a conservative reaction to Roosevelt’s perceived far-Left liberalism.
In Texas, the activities of Martin Dies and the HUAC generally received favorable support. People often wrote letters asking Dies and the HUAC to investigate suspicious activities in their communities. Furthermore, Dies’ Texas constituents were vocal in supporting the elimination of many New Deal projects where they believed people were “…piddling and boondoggling for a government check.” Texans also believed subversives were infiltrating Texas’ public schools, universities, and labor unions.
HUAC and Texas’ Schools
For example, the sheriff in El Paso, Texas, provided Dies a list of names of those students and teachers from the El Paso School District he believed were communists. The sheriff claimed he had the minutes from a meeting supposedly influenced by communists planning to run a candidate for the Texas governor’s race in 1940. Furthermore, he claimed communists attempting to influence local Mexicans through a scheme to return Texas to Mexico after a communist-led revolution. Such allegations were made without concrete proof, and only served to draw attention and suspicion to people who opposed the invasion of their privacy.
At the University of Texas, Dies claimed the Progressive Young Democrats were part of a communist cell in Texas. After taking the multiple testimonies, Dies announced the existence of revolutionary groups supporting Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Again, Dies could not produce concrete evidence to support his accusations. However, a student active in university politics admitted years later that a communist cell did exist, but Dies and his “bumbling legislative investigators” never found them.
HUAC and Texas Labor Unions
Lastly, the conservative counter-movement against FDR also focused on his relationship with labor unions and minorities. Conservatives believed the Supreme Court’s intent in the Smith v. Allwright ruling was the increase in the political influence of Texas’ blacks at the expense of whites. This led Texas’ conservatives to solidify their opposition to FDR by forming the Texas Regulars and the Committee for Constitutional Government (CCG).
Led by W. Lee O’Daniel, the Texas Regulators attracted ultraconservatives (i.e. lobbyists, lawyers, and oilmen) fearful that FDR would ruin Texas by encouraging unions and supporting equal-rights for minorities. Therefore, their platform focused on accusations that communists influenced New Deal policies. They also advocated a restoration of white supremacy, which they believed was subverted by the Communist-controlled New Deal.
The Committee for Constitutional Government (CCG) was a national organization that believed the American people did not really understand the Constitution nor how FDR was manipulating it. As a result, its Texas affiliate raised significant amounts of money hoping to keep Roosevelt from an unprecedented fourth term in 1944. Even with staunch financial backing, the CCG produced a lot of smoke, but little real fire, and had few tangible effects on the direction of New Deal policies, the growth of Texas’ labor unions, or state and national elections.
Dies and the HUAC believed Roosevelt’s paternalism would endanger American capitalism. In Texas, Dies had many supporters who routinely kept an eye on anyone who did not fit into the mold of the patriotic American. These supporters were also fearful of the political changes wrought by the New Deal: the inclusion of minorities and women.
Reference:
Brinkley, Alan. "The Problem of American Conservatism" The American Historical Review (April 1994): 409-429.
Burlingame, Roger. 1962. The Sixth Column. J.B. Lippincott Company: Philadelphia and New York.
Elizabeth Simmons to Martin Dies, August 29, 1939.
Green, George. 1979. The Establishment in Texas Politics: The Primitive Years, 1938-1957. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman.
Maco Stewart to Martin Dies, September 21, 1938.
Rex G. Payne to Martin Dies, March 18, 1942.
Wendell Dibrell to Martin Dies, January 13, 1940.
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