Politicos fret over upsets in Dies ranks
But whether CIO is factor is undecided
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
In the ominous “one-two-three” order of Count-of-Monte-Cristo vengeance members of the dies Committee have fallen before the voters, creating a new political superstition in the House of Representatives.
Defeat of a third member – Rep. John M. Costello (D-CA) – of the investigating body which has become so obnoxious to the CIO and the New Dealers was the subject of speculation and barbed raillery about the House lobby.
A favorite wisecracking greeting of one Congressman to another was, “Don’t you want to go on the Dies Committee? There’s be a few vacancies.”
Was CIO a factor?
Just how much the CIO had to do with Rep. Costello’s defeat in Los Angeles has not yet been made clear, if it was even a substantial factor. The CIO has been taking credit for defeat of another Dies Committee member, Rep. Joe Starnes, in the recent Alabama primary, and for the withdrawal of the head man himself, Rep. Martin Dies, from the Texas primary.
The regularity of the defeats is getting on the nerves of House members still to face primaries. This is not so much from the Dies Committee angle, for there are only five members of that body, but from the appearance of new and unpredictable influences seemingly at work among the voters, of which the CIO is the most clearly recognizable.
Another angle seen
Rep. Costello’s district is described as a conservative one. It takes in part of Hollywood, where there is anti-Dies Committee sentiment prevalent, but the larger part of the district is outside Hollywood and a substantial-type community.
Rather than the Dies Committee angle which, it was reported, was not stressed, some Californians here ascribed Mr. Costello’s defeat to his opposition to the administration on numerous votes in the House. As they saw it, Democrats were rising up against a member who had failed to follow the administration.
Taken with other recent developments, it begins to appear that a voluntary “purge” is going on here and there by Democrats against those who have been bold in opposing the administration. This is borne out, contrariwise, in the success of those New Dealers who have made so much of their support of the administration – Senators Pepper in Florida, Hill in Alabama, Downey in California.
Conservative Democrats, who though they sensed a conservative swing, are having a rough time of it.