He had first been a New Dealer while also an isolationist. Eventually, in 1937, he split from FDR on domestic policy also and earned the enmity of labor.

It was likely his isolationism which defeated him, a stance which his opponent had stressed. His defeat appeared to signal a shift toward internationalism in the West and Midwest, even more so than the defeats of former Senator Gerald Nye in North Dakota and Senator Henrik Shipstead of Minnesota.

Yet, Mr. Wheeler, while steering perilously close to treason in his opposition to the European war, nevertheless was of good moral character, far more so than the likes of Theodore Bilbo. But Mr. Bilbo was so disreputable that he made little difference, whereas Senator Wheeler had still exerted influence, keeping alive isolationism.

In California, the PAC candidates had not fared well in the primaries. In 18 states, 194 incumbent Representatives had been renominated, despite 116 of them being opposed by PAC for their stand on the Case bill.

The people appeared little motivated to throw the rascals out, but the aftermath of the OPA fight might yet arouse the electorate from its apathy in the fall.

The Navy had given an E award to a company, National Industries, in December, 1945 while it was under indictment for war frauds. The award was made less excusable by its having been made after the war was over.

He next tells of quiet pressure being applied to try to stop the investigation by the Kilgore Committee in the Senate into Nazi activities in America during the war. The Army and Justice Department investigation in Germany had yielded many interesting facts, such as the revelation from the files of former Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop that Charles Lindbergh would be more useful to the Nazis were his name to be kept out of the press as he had requested.

He next tells of the revelations regarding William Rhodes Davis out of the investigation, covered more thoroughly below by Marquis Childs. He adds that while Hermann Goering could only recall the name of John L. Lewis as one of four persons Mr. Davis had stated would be helpful to the Germans in the 1940 election to defeat Roosevelt, other German officials recalled that the other three were Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana, former President Herbert Hoover, and former FDR kingmaker Jim Farley—who had turned against Roosevelt for a third term and even declared himself a candidate for President at the Robert E. Lee Hotel in Winston-Salem, in February, 1940. Mr. Pearson states that these latter three had no knowledge of their being targeted for use by the Nazis, but unwittingly had played into their hands.

Senator Wheeler, for instance, had several private conferences in defense of Nazi agent George Sylvester Viereck while the latter was on trial for sedition. He had also given a speech supportive of Senator Lundeen after he had been exposed as having speeches written for him by Mr. Viereck. Senators Curley Brooks of Illinois and Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska, plus Senator Scott Lucas of Illinois, all appeared fearful of the influence of the Chicago Tribune and were trying in consequence to stop the Kilgore Committee inquiry. So was Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, a friend of Senator Wheeler.

Mr. Lewis, despite it being obvious in 1940 that Mr. Davis was cozy with the Nazis, had allowed Mr. Davis to pay $50,000 for a broadcast of Mr. Lewis in which he denounced President Roosevelt and urged labor to support Wendell Willkie. Mr. Lewis had also sought through Assistant Secretary of State Adolph Berle to get the State Department off the back of Mr. Davis, after Mr. Davis told Mr. Lewis that he was being shadowed everywhere he went, including outside his apartment at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Mr. Pearson next states that the security chief at Oak Ridge had stated that he had not made any statement that there was a security issue at the Tennessee nuclear facility, as attributed to him by the counsel for HUAC.

The investigation in occupied Germany conducted by Assistant Attorney General O. John Rogge had uncovered a consistent story in separate statements from Hermann Goering, Herbert von Strempel, formerly of the German Embassy in Washington, and Joachim Hertslet, Herr Goering's agent in the Western hemisphere. Herr Hertslet had told Herr Von Strempel in fall, 1939 that he had five million dollars to invest in defeating President Roosevelt in 1940. At first skeptical, Von Strempel confirmed with Goering that Hertslet was his agent.

William Rhodes Davis had called on Goering in the spring of 1939 and boasted of his friendship with John L. Lewis and that he believed he could enlist Mr. Lewis's opposition to Roosevelt. Mr. Davis then became the conduit for the money, which was estimated to be at least five million dollars. Herr Goering had told investigators that the Nazis were prepared to spend between 150 and 200 million dollars to defeat President Roosevelt.

Mr. Lewis had been helpful to Mr. Davis in securing the support of Vincente Lombardo Toledano, the head of the Mexican Confederation of Workers and powerful within the regime of Mexican President Cardenas, for finalizing the oil deal between Mexico and Germany which moved the oil expropriated from the British and American companies in March, 1938 via tankers supplied by Mr. Davis through then neutral Italy and via Vladivostok and along the Siberian Railway to the West, enabling enough oil to fill the gap needed to launch the Blitzkrieg of September, 1939 against Poland. Even in late 1939 and early 1940, oil continued to slip via these routes through the British blockade erected after the start of the war.

Mr. Childs had interviewed Mr. Hertslet at the Mayflower Hotel during the time in question but had never learned of the entire scope of his role in the operation. He confirmed with the Justice Department all of the information which Goering had provided.

Mr. Davis was able to get Mr. Lewis to endorse Wendell Willkie and supplied $50,000 toward a broadcast by Mr. Lewis denouncing FDR and asking labor to support Mr. Willkie. Mr. Davis later admitted to a grand jury that he had contributed $40,000, presumably Nazi money, to the Willkie campaign. One of Davis's associates stated that he had contributed $100,000 to an anti-war committee.

After the defeat of Mr. Willkie, Mr. Davis went to Florida to try to dissuade Mr. Willkie from supporting the Roosevelt foreign policy. Shortly afterward, Mr. Willkie spoke to Mr. Childs and told him that he knew nothing of the Davis contribution to his campaign and would not have accepted it if he had. Mr. Childs expresses his personal belief in that statement by Mr. Willkie. Subsequently, Mr. Willkie backed Lend-Lease and went on a world tour, including the Far East and Russia, at the request of the President.

Mr. Childs states that he would, in a subsequent column on the subject, seek to demonstrate Mr. Davis's motives for these intrigues.

As we have indicated previously, it was thought within the intelligence community of the time that Mr. Davis might have been eliminated by British intelligence to end his interference in the war effort. Mr. Davis ostensibly died of a heart attack on August 1, 1941 in Houston.

At the time that peace was hanging in the balance and efforts were being made to try to obtain Russian cooperation in a practicable plan for sharing the atomic secret and insuring its use only for peaceful purposes, the timing of such a book was anything but propitious. "You don't get the kitten into the house that way."

And the counsel for HUAC had reported that there were scientists at Oak Ridge who were in favor of world government, had spoken to persons outside the United States and intended to do so again, thus posing a security risk to the country. Mr. Grafton fails to see how such scientists posed any threat, but the fact that the committee was holding up such views as security risks suggested where its thinking was. (Mr. Pearson reports that the assertion was, according to the security chief at Oak Ridge, made up from whole cloth by the HUAC counsel.)

The House Military Affairs Committee was moving to restore military oversight of the atomic secret, which had been removed from the civilian commission proposed in the Senate bill.

These occurrences suggested that some of the country was rejoicing at each controversy, making it harder to deal with the Soviet Union, counting these controversies as blessings, while the rest of the country was trying to encourage cooperation and peace.