Reece Committee

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As the egalitarianism of Marxism is attractive to many, socialism could have attracted many followers in America, anyway. But there is no doubt that it could not possibly have affected us so widely and so deeply as it has, had it not been heavily financed.
— Committee chairman Carroll Reece[1]
Rep. Reece in 1946.

The congressional Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, known during the 83rd Congress as the Reece Committee, was an investigative group in the United States House of Representatives enacted to probe the activities of tax-exempt organizations for potential subversion. It was created at the advocacy of conservative Tennessee Republican B. Carroll Reece in response to the insufficient investigations, findings, and conclusions of the previous Cox Committee.[2]

Reece presented the following criticisms of the Cox Committee in urging for the re-enactment of the select committee during the 83rd Congress:[2]

“
  1. Time and facilities were inadequate.
  2. Excuses concerning grants to Communists were too readily acceptable.
  3. Trustees and officers were not under oath.
  4. Only a few Foundations were investigated.
  5. The propaganda activities of Foundations were not investigated.
  6. Foundations were not asked why they did not support projects of a pro-American type.
  7. Extensive evidence was not used.
  8. The Ford Foundation was not investigated.
 ”

The U.S. House voted in late July 1953 to approve of creating the special committee.[3] The majority of Republicans supported it, while less than half of Democrats did. The forty-nine GOP congressmen who voted against it, largely Moderate Republicans, included future U.S. president Gerald Ford (R–MI), future moderate/liberal U.S. senators Hugh D. Scott (R–PA) and Jacob Javits (R–NY), as well as Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr. (R–NJ), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[4]

Crucial in the committee's research was Norman Paul Dodd (1899–1987),[5] the chief investigator, in addition to attorney Katherine Casey.[6] Dodd was interviewed years later, where he went into full details on the committee's investigation and events that occurred.[7]

U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt
Foundations and Comparable Organizations, 83rd Congress
Jesse Wolcott.jpg
Angier Goodwin.jpg
B. Carroll Reece.jpg
Wayne Hayes bioguide picture.jpg
Gracie Pfost.jpg

Comprisal

The select committee comprised of three Republicans and two Democrats.[2] The GOP members were Reece, Jesse P. Wolcott of Michigan, and Angier L. Goodwin of Massachusetts. Although Wolcott was among the majority of Republicans who voted for the resolution enacting the committee,[3] Goodwin, who was among the remaining members of the previous Cox Committee,[2] did not vote in the affirmative.

The two Democrats appointed to the committee were Wayne L. Hays of Ohio and Gracie Pfost of Idaho.[2] Neither voted for the enactment resolution[3] and would prove to be obstacles to the committee's investigation. Hays was among the members of the previous Cox Committee.[8]

Investigation

When the investigation began, the committee faced the necessity to define the term "un-American." According to chief investigator Dodd:[7]

“ ...in that report, I specifically, number one, defined, to us, what was meant by the phrase un-American. And we defined that in our way as being a determination to affect changes in the country by unconstitutional means. We have plenty of constitutional procedures assuming that we wish to affect a change in the form of government or that sort of thing. And therefore any effort in that direction which did not reveal itself of the procedures which were authorized by the Constitution could be justifiably called un-American. ”

The Carnegie Foundation and Ford Foundation were the main targets of the committee's investigation.

Ford Foundation

Among the more interesting and specific subjects of the investigation included the funding by the Rockefeller Foundation for Nazi collaborator and sexual revolutionary Alfred Kinsey,[2] who was documented to have paid pedophiles to rape children.[9]

According to Dodd, he was called to meet Ford Foundation administrator Horace Rowan Gaither, Jr., known as Rowan Gaither.[7] Gaither admitted of the foundation's objectives:

“ Mr. Dodd, we are here operating in response to similar directives the substance of which, that, we shall use our grant-making power, so to all the life in the United States, that it can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union. ”

Dodd questioned why Gaither and the foundation withheld such information from the American public, to which they were indebted due to their tax-exempt status. Gaither responded:[7]

“ We would not think of doing any such thing. ”
Ohio representative Wayne L. Hayes attempted to derail the committee.

Obstruction by Wayne Hays

President Dwight Eisenhower, who turned against Joseph McCarthy in the latter's investigations of communist infiltration, similarly worked to undermine the work of the Reece Committee.[10] He urged committee member Hays to sabotage hearings via rude behavior and damage and undermine its overall committee's reputation, which the congressman did. Hays had been appointed to the committee for such purposes by House Minority Leader Sam Rayburn,[2] who had joined the majority of Democrats in voting against the resolution to establish the committee.[3]

According to Norman Dodd in an exclusive interview years later, Hays initially promised not to interfere with the committee's work if Dodd did not double-cross the Ohio representative.[7] However, Hays claimed that Dodd turned on him and obstructed the committee's work anyways.

When Aaron Sargent of San Francisco testified as a witness before the committee in alleging the staunchly liberal Illinois senator Paul Douglas to have had ties with socialist groups, Hays walked out along with Pfost, the committee's other Democrat.[2]

To prevent further sabotage from the Ohio congressman, committee chair Reece made the ultimate decision to halt further hearings.[7]

Findings

Among the committee's conclusions stated that significant foundations:[10]

“ ...have actively supported attacks upon our social and government system and financed the promotion of socialism and collectivist ideas. ”

The committee also unearthed that the Carnegie Foundation sought to exploit war as a means to control the American population effectively.[7] This parallels the setting in George Orwell's famous dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four where a perpetual war maintains sheer authoritarian control.

The Reece Committee also uncovered that the Carnegie Foundation sought to infiltrate the United States State Department to subvert American society towards left-wing ideologies.[7] The State Department, along with the United States Army, was investigated by Joseph McCarthy for communist infiltration around the time the Reece Committee conducted its work. Leftists have thus worked overtime to whitewash and deny the documented truthfulness[11] of McCarthy's claims, an example being liberal Wikipedia portraying communists uncovered by McCarthy (such as John Stewart Service) as having been supposed "victims".

Release

The committee's report was agreed to based on party lines, with Democrats Hays and Pfost refusing to sign,[2] and released in December 1954.[12] However, due to the timing coinciding with the highly covered Senate censure of McCarthy, it received comparably less attention.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ B. Carroll Reece quote: As the egalitarianism of Marxism is attractive to many, socialism.... AZ Quotes. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 FascinatingPolitics (December 22, 2019). The Reece Committee on Foundations: Conspiratorial Nonsense or an Expose of a Threat to the Nation?. Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 H RES 217. RESOLUTION CREATING A SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO CON- DUCT A FULL AND COMPLETE INVESTIGATION AND STUDY OF EDUCA- TIONAL AND PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS AND OTHER COMPARABLE ORGANIZATIONS WHICH ARE EXEMPT FROM FED. INCOME TAXATION.. GovTrack.us. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  4. ↑ Saltonstall-Davis-Frelinghuysen-Appleton family of Massachusetts. The Political Graveyard. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  5. ↑ Norman Paul Dodd. Find a Grave. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  6. ↑ Crino, Art (August 29, 2017). Foundations and the Reece Committee. The Northwest Connection. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Gallagher, Kevin (June 12, 2008). Norman Dodd On Tax Exempt Foundations. YouTube. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  8. ↑ Samson, Steven Alan. Charity For All: B. Carroll Reece and the Tax-Exempt Foundations. Liberty University. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  9. ↑ Allen, Tanya Granic (December 22, 2015). One woman’s quest to expose the pedophile Alfred Kinsey and his demented sex ed curriculum. LifeSiteNews. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Jasper, William F. (February 6, 2017). Foundations: Cutting Off the Toxic Funding Flow. The New American. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  11. ↑ Drummey, James J. (September 2, 1996). The Real McCarthy Record. The New American. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  12. ↑ December 21, 1954. REECE COMMITTEE REPORT. The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2021.

External links

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