1955 Earl Browder Communist Hired By Ford Foundation The F

Earl Browder Hired By [Ford Foundation] 'The Fund' - But Why?

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Nashville, Tennessee
24 Oct 1955, Mon \u2022 Page 4

Earl Browder Hired By 'The Fund' \u2013But Why?
By David Lawrence New York / New York
Herald Tribune Inc

WASHINGTON\u2014There's something strange and mysterious about the case of Earl
Browder secretary general of the Communist Party in America from 1929 to 1945
who it is announced has been hired by "The Fund for the Republic" at
a substantial salary per year for part of his time as a "source of
information and raw material"

"The Fund for the Republic" is one of the
so-called "liberal" organizations financed by the Ford Foundation and
one of the cries of protest raised by the "left wing" is that the
Government uses paid informants or pays ex-Communists as witnesses to testify
in trials involving Communist problems.

But so far as can be
discovered here there is no case on record in which the Government has ever
paid money to any person while he himself was under indictment.

There is pending
against Browder a criminal indictment accusing him of perjury.

But the curious aspect of the matter is that if Browder who claims to have forsaken the
Communist Party has done so why should he hesitate to furnish all the
information he possesses to his own Government? He was summoned a few days ago
to testify before the Senate subcommittee on internal security in executive
session. He was under oath. He is reported to have refused to give any information
of substance\u2014and of course in such a refusal he is protected against
prosecution under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Again and again it is
said the Federal Bureau of Investigation has endeavored to persuade Browder to
give under oath the history of the Communist Party as Browder knows it\u2014the very
material sought by "The Fund for the Republic"\u2014but he has declined to
do so.

The question
naturally arises whether "The Fund for the Republic" can be sure that
it is getting complete information from a man who declines to testify under
oath before his own government.

Various attempts have
been made in recent years to have Browder make a clean breast of what he knows.
There have been suggestions that some charitable foundation grant money to
finance him during the period when he devotes his whole time to refreshing his
recollection of what happened when he was in command of the Communist Party in
this country. These efforts collapsed because those to whom Browder talked
became convinced he was holding back the key parts of the story.

Browder's position is
that the Communist Party never engaged in espionage while he was connected with
it. Maybe he was unaware of that phase but if so he should not object to
telling who he met at meetings from 1929 to 1945 and what they said and what
officials of the American Government or other governments were in consultation
with him and when and under what circumstances.

A spokesman for
"The Fund for the Republic" says the organization isn't interested in
obtaining "espionage secrets" and that Browder will not write any
books or studies or "control a single comma or comment" that goes
into any of the projects for which $250,000 has been granted by the Ford
Foundation.

But the information
when made available to "The Fund for

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