VETERANS: March & Countermarch

At first the Communist Party did the American Veterans Committee a favor: it denounced the A.V.C. as a “bunch of Ivy Leaguers,” ordered Communists to bore into the American Legion instead. But the Legion was no pink tea party. A year ago the comrades got orders to countermarch into the A.V.C.

Last week one of A.V.C’s top leaders, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., admitted their success: “The Commies moved in, and from a flowering, inspiring group of young Americans, interested in the nation’s welfare, we have become a tattered and torn group. We are now bewildered and confused by the lies and tactics thrown at us by people who would not admit they were Communists but who at every turn of the road hewed to the Daily Worker line.” The A.V.C. was now stopped near the 80,000 mark in its drive for a million members, he said. Actually, it was still gaining 1,200 members a week.

The day after his speech, young Roosevelt realized that in publicizing the Communists’ success, he had hurt his own group. He promised to stay in, help defeat the Reds and keep it loyal “to the democratic traditions of our America.”