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he other day Mrs Roosev dden e out w Bembership in any & a1] fronts. "For us to subject many people to the fear that belonging to a particular organization will brand them as Communists seems somewhat foolish," she wrote in her column. "You should be able to belong to any organization and even to talk to known Communists and still feel entirely secure that your own democracy could not be questioned until you had committed an act that was visibly undemocratic.” noon, « Should you be able to belong to Ku Klux Kian, then, without any- . body's daring to question your democracy? . Should you be able to belong to a Fascist group, unquestioned? d_why did Mrs Roosevelt reject Communist Muriel D d th Congress of American Women? Couldn't Communist Draper say, "I nave & right to belong to this organization and still feel entirely secure that my democ— racy cannot be questioned until you catch me doing something undemocratic?" Mrs_ Roosevelt isn't simply defending innocent people who join Commu- nist fronts without knowing what they're getting into. She's arguing that anybody should be able to join "any organization" (Communist, Fascist, etc) anda take full part in its activities, without being blamed in the least. : The eftect of Mrs Koosevelt's words is te help all such organizations. Seemingly she doesn't realize that her words contradict her own earlier words to Congress of American Women. She probably doesn't appreci- ate the full significance of what she wrote in her column. It takes time to think things out...and Mrs Roosevelt just hasn't time. . ts MRS ROOSEVELT WANTS HER FRIEND ALGER*HISS TO BE TRIED IN VERMONT. AS soon as Hiss asked for transfer of his approaching retrial to Vermont, Mrs Roosevelt endorsed the appeal in her newspaper column. She didn't tell her readers that Hiss is a friend of hers and was her guest in White House. She suggested that Vermonters aren't apt "to con- demn people by association and to be unduly suspicious of actions long past." And ver on year Mrs Roosevelt mercilessly lashed Whittaker®Chambers and Elizabetfi Bentley for actions long past. And during recent Hiss trial she denounced Chambers for his testimony, and asserted nobody should believe a word he said. Apparently this was advice to jurors as well as everyone else. t Mrs Roosevelt's remarks on Hiss case are much less harmful than her sponsorship of a Communist front and her sudden defense of all fronts. We hope that during her week-ends at Hyde Park, NY, and her long walks with Fala she allows herself a moment for reflection...and that a few of her many readers will write to her and point out that her defense of Communist fronts is inconsistent with her own blunt rebuff to the Congress of American Women. Yours faithfully, October 14, 1949 100-3505/° Subscription Kate: $24.00 per oar, USA, Reproduction in whole or part without written authorization le prokibited. 70