Fate and Texas gave Martin Dies an impressive physique, a durable voice, a seat in Congress. Mr. Dies lately has given the U. S. a Congressional investigation. By the standards of past masters at inquisition his performance has not been brilliant. Ex-Senator (now Associate Justice) Hugo L. Black was at his best with a hostile witness, knowing well how to bait the trap, when to spring it. Senator Robert M. La Follette also knows the uses of the subtle query. Mr. Dies knows chiefly how to bellow. Last week he had the thrill of seeing his bellowing affect not just the ear of some baffled layman but the tympanums of that knowing politician, the Head of the Democratic Party.
To his investigation of un-American activities Mr. Dies has brought principally a $25,000 appropriation, a willingness (common to Congressional ferrets) to hear what he believes, a succession of renegade leftists, ex-union officers and members turned talebearer, avowed spies, patriotic citizens bursting with information about the Reds. Mr. Dies also has taken testimony about U. S. Nazis and Fascists, has even accepted aspersions against such personages as Tom Girdler. But in the main he has stayed on the Red trail previously traversed by New York's Representative Hamilton Fish.
Democrat Dies recently looked into the automobile sit-down strikes of 1937 in Michigan. The committee and its witnesses lit into C. I. O.'s United Automobile Workers of America as Communist-ridden lawbreakers, into Michigan's Governor Frank Murphy as a weakling official who condoned Communist sit-down tactics.
Circuit Judge Paul V. Gadola of Flint, whose contempt citations against General Motors strikers were ignored at the Governor's order in 1937, testified with much heat. Whereupon Representative Harold G. Mosier of Ohio, who was defeated by C. I. O. pressure in the recent Democratic primary, addressed the judge: ''Let's get this matter straight. Just to show there was no politics in it, Governor Murphy is a Democrat and you are a Democrat.'' "I am not," cried Judge Gadola. "I am a Republican! Until this New Deal coattail parade started, there wasn't a Democratic judge in Michigan!"
Ex-City Manager John Barringer of Flint, who said the city council had accused him of recruiting vigilantes and fired him, was asked by Mr. Dies whether Communists inspired the strikes at Flint. "It would not have been so bad," he replied, "if it had not been for the attitude of the La Follette [Civil Liberties] Committee and the treasonable attitude of Governor Murphy."
That was steamy stuff, not to be compared with the mere wiggling of Reds. Governor Murphy is up for re-election in a key State where the Republicans have a chance to win. He also is a maybe-maybe-not prospect for the U. S. Supreme Court. At all events he is a devoted friend and follower of Franklin Roosevelt. But now one of his pet oxen was being gored. Although politicians have long assured businessmen and others that it is perfectly proper for Congressional investigations to permit biased witnesses to air scandalous charges against honest citizens, in this case Franklin Roosevelt reacted like any indignant businessman.