HOW SECRETARY KELLOGG JUGGLES RECORDS
Follette, Robert M. La Jr.
How Secretary Kellogg Juggles Records Flimsiest Sort of Propaganda Used to Create Belief Mexico is Base of Bolshevik Plot Against United States By ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, JR. (Abbreviated Speech...
...Bolshevik aims in this respect were succinctly set forth in a resolution of the third congress of the Red Internationale of Trade Unions, July 8 to 22,1924, as follow*: It was resolved: "4...
...If it had emanated from any other source than that of the Secretary of State of the United States, there is not a reputable newspaper editor in the United States who Would have authorized its publication in the columns of his newspaper...
...No doubt he is able to quote chapter anq verse from resolutions of the Third International declaring a ferocious purpose to provoke revo» lution in those regions...
...Furthermore, the only other reference in this document to Mexico or to the activity of Mexicans is a statement in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, in which a labor deputy protested against the activities of the Russian minister to Mexico, and a second statement from the Mexican Federation of Labor to the same effect...
...Says the Star—and I quote only a portion of the editorial— Under the banner of an "all-American anti-imperialist league" the radical forces directed from Moscow are at work to break down American influence in Latin-American affairs...
...the Communist Party*of America must become the defender of the oppressed peoples of Latin America...
...this continent...
...Olds should be vindicated...
...President, I have just been informed by the Senator from Idaho [Mr...
...It is "an appeal to the toilers of Latin America...
...D. Instructions on March 15, 19(26, to communists in the United States issued by the executive committee in Moscow...
...That is the force, in this country at least, of the co-called Bolshevists which is so worrying Secretary Kellogg and which has had such a "play" in the newspapers of the country...
...Let it be said in all fairness that some form of denial haa been made by the Secretary of State of the dispatch in the St...
...On May 6, 1925, President Calles, of Mexico, replying to the statement of Tchitcherin, minister of foreign affairs of Soviet Russia, sai-I: Mr...
...The report describes manifestoes issued, and says that "direct contact with Mexico was maintained * * * through the visits of Comrades Johnstone, (k>mez, and Lovestone to Mexico and through steady correspondence...
...Tchitcherin said "We have succeeded in reestablishing diplomatic relations which give us a political base in the new continent with the neighbor of the United States—Mexico...
...That is the same paragraph which appeared in Secretary Kellojrg's statement...
...but I venture the assertion that of those Senators who have read it there is not one who believes that any such inference is to be drawn from this document, or that any such, charges are proven by it...
...Olds, an Assistant Secretary of State, had called in the heads of the various press associations here in Washington and had taken up with them the question of getting this same sort of misinformation carried to the country...
...President Calles officially served notice on the Government of Russia and all others concerned that he would not tolerate such activities on the part of that Government: and yet, in this vicious piece of propaganda sponsored by Secretary of State Kellogg and therefore given publicity in every metropolitan newspaper in the United States, he omitted this answer of President Calles to Foreign Minister Tchitchcrin...
...THE opening paragraph of the document, "Bolshevik Aims and Policies in Mexico and Latin America," is not quoted...
...Mexico is a natural connecting link between the movement of the United States of North America and Latin America, therefore, Mexico mxtst be the center of union...
...At that time the candidate for President of the Communist Party in this country was one William Z. Foster, and he polled a total vote in the United States of 36,386...
...President, this might be interesting to Senators...
...In other words, to reaji?* their ideals these people have alwaj> depended and do now depend upon their own efforts, and do not care to sidetrack or denaturalize their own native problems through the interference or intervention of extraneous foreign factors and influences of which our people are ignorant, which are wholly alien fco our struggles, and wholly incomprehensible to our character and our mentality...
...The only evidence, the only statement in the memorandum concerning Mexico or Mexicans demonstrates that the Mexican Government is opposed to communism...
...It has nothing to do with the Mexican Government...
...President—¦ that the Government of the United States with all it%strength, with all the evidence it has of a convinced anti-Bolshevist sentiment among all but a handful of the 110,000,000 of its citizens, should attempt to justify what it has done in Nicaragua, and its suspicious attitude toward Mexico, by admitting that it stands in dread of the hand of Soviet Russia reaching across the ocean and striving to clutch Mexico and the Central American Republics...
...The only inference to be drawn from that fact is that the Secretary of State intended that this piece of propaganda should be taken as a justification for our action in Nicaragua and our attitude toward the Government of Mexico...
...They are told to "maintain the closest contact with the labor movement'' in Cuba, the Philippines, etc...
...President, if I may trespass upon the time of the Senate for just a few moments more, I wish to read briefly from an editorial in the New York Times referring to this "fishy" piece of propaganda handed out by the Secretary of State...
...A survey of the headlines of the metropolitan press on the following morning will show what construction was placed on the publication of That memorandum, which had behind it the authority and the dignity of the position which Mr...
...I for one am very hopeful that a thorough investigation of this entire matter will be made by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, because, if the charges as made in the St...
...C. The theses approved at the sixth session of the enlarged executive committee of the Communist International in Moscow...
...Mr...
...President, I do not know how many Senator, in this Chamber have read the document made public by Secretary Kellogg following his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...
...All this evidence consists simply in the statements by Russians in Moscow or Americans in Chicago as to what they would like to do in Mexico...
...If they are not true, then the Secretary of State and Mr...
...President, it is right here at home whei* all the trouble referred to in the memoranduHl is occurring...
...He denounces the Communists in Moscow for trying to provoke "an international conflict" with the United States...
...In view of this, the Government of tie Republic will not tolerate any abuse of its good faith Which might seek to use it as an Instrument for the realization of maneuvers or designs <rf an international political character, or for th* propagation of principles which it does not ap*> prove...
...The next resolution referred to is numbered 7. Some of the resolutions are apparently left out...
...His own citations prove, first, that he has no evidence connecting the Mexican Government -with the Communist International at Moscow, and, second, that even Mexican labor has vpeoYy resisted Communist activity...
...F. Citations of the plans of American Communists for "joint action with the exploited peoples...
...14, 1927) DO NOT intend at this time to discuss the situation existing in Nicaragua further than to say that I believe the' action of our Government is unjustified and unconscionable...
...With what result...
...Louis Post-Dispatch of November 27, 1926: An alarming story of alleged Mexican efforts to foster Bolshevism throughout Central America, thus threatening American control of the Panama Canal, went out from Washington 10 days ago— This is under date of November 27, and I am reading from page 1143 of the Congressional Record, where the article appears, having been inserted by the junior Senator from Montana [Mr...
...In order to understand the full significance of the publication of this document, it i3 necessary to remember that tremendous public interest had been created in Secretary Kellogg's appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...
...Although the character of the story was such as to arouse deep resentment against the Mexican Government, no authority was given for the statements it contained...
...With that background, the publication of this statement, "Bolshevik Aims and Policies in, Mexico and Latin America," on the authority of the Secretary of State could have no other result, and I believe tihat the Secretary was fully aware of the fact that publication of this document would receive the interpretation which it has received in the news columns of the metropolitan papers of the United States...
...He read the opening paragraph of the Baltimore Sun's, as follows: It is difficult to write moderately of the formal statement made before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations by Secretary of State Kellogg...
...President, that language wai omitted from the document made public by Sec Tetary of State Kellogg, and yet It must hav4 been brought to his official attention at the time and a dispatch upon it*must be in the arc-hives of the State Department...
...Some of the newspapers have editorially drawn the same inference...
...President, this document is the flimsiest sort of propaganda...
...Communists in the United States have been repeatedly instructed to devote special attention to the struggle against "American imperialism" in Latin America and to the organization of resistance to the United ' States...
...Bolshevik leaders have had very different ideas with respect to the role which Mexico and Latin America are to play in their general program of world revolution...
...So again I state that the only evidence in this document sponsored by Secretary of State Kellogg which tends to show what the Mexican Government is doing shows that that Government and those who support it are as unsympathetic with the principles of the Russian Government as is Secretary of State Kellogg himself...
...al law, strictly to respect the soverign right of all peoples to give themselves such institution* and to adopt such a regime which in their judgement were most desirable...
...I now proceed to quote further from President Calles' official note in answer to the statement made concerning this declaration of Tchitcherin...
...It is an undeniable fact," he continued, "that the Mexican Government today is a Bolshevist government...
...Inclosing Mr...
...I now quote, and the document itself quotes: Resumption of diplomatic relations with Mexico...
...That is the great army of support which is backing this alleged propaganda against American imperialism...
...Olds said to these responsible heads of the press associa« tions of the United States...
...As evidence of the Bolshevist menace he submits the following documents: A. A resolution passed in July, 1924, by the third congress of the Red International of Trade Unions which was held in Moscow...
...Said the New York Times editorially in its issue of January 13, under the heading, "Too Easily Scare*!:" :, No one need question the sincerity of Secre* tary Kellogg in confessing that the Washington administration is frightened by Bolshevist aa* tivities and threats in Mexico and Central Amer-ica...
...B. A speech on February 4, 1926, by an unnamed representative of the .American Communist Party at the sixth session of the enlarged executive committee of the Communist International...
...We cannot prove it, bat we are morally certain that a warm bond of sympathy, if not an actual understanding, exists between Mexico City sad Moscow.*1 Mr...
...New York World, New York Evening Post, and Baltimore Sun...
...They have announced and undertaken to carry out similar grandiose projects in India and China, in England and Germany, as also in France...
...On analysis, Secretary Kellogg's charges against Mexico collapse ignominously...
...Mark you, Mr...
...The Mexican Government is based on the right trade-unions and the radical small bourgeoisie...
...Mexico gives us thus a very convenient political base in America for the development of nur further ties...
...The only statement which Secretary Kellogg was willing should be released for publication was the memorandum relating to Bolshevism in Mexico and I*tin America...
...Such drivel offered by the Cabinet officer in charge of foreign relations to the Senate-committee in charge of foreign relations is, we believe, without previous example in the history of this country, from the administration of George Washington to the administration of Calvin Coolidge...
...TEE background, however, for Secretary of State Kellogg's action in this matter is not complete without reference once more to the charges which were made in a reputable newspaper in this country that Mr...
...B. Communication addressed to the soviet minister by the central committee of the Mexican Federation of I^abor, by direction of the seventh congress of that organization...
...Mr...
...The time is not long distant— Says this delegate from the United States— when !>atin America will become the China of the Far West and Mexico the Canton of Latin America...
...President, to any careful reader that statement from Tchitcherin proves that the Mexican Government in his estimation is opposed to Bolshevism and is unsympathetic with it...
...Government is revealed in the following extract from the report of Tchitcherin...
...I desire to refer briefly to the dispatch in the St...
...Kellogg has not cited one single Mexican document, official or otherwise...
...made at the third session of the Union1 Central Executive Committee in March, 1925...
...V * SENATOR LA FOLLETTE asked unanimous consent to have printed in the Congressional Record editorials from the New York Times...
...G. More citations of "activities and plans" of American Communists, as stated on November 12, 1920...
...This has nothing to do with Mexico...
...The author of the memorandum goes on to say: Similarly, a representative of the American Communist Party, speaking at the sixth session of the enlarged executive committee of the communist intcrnationale on February 4, 1926, declared— Mr...
...This is what a representative of the Communist Party in the United States thinks the party in this country should do...
...For more than a year," he said, "the State* department had been concerned over the relations between the United States and Mexico, and those relations had now reached a very acute Stage...
...It is necessary to remember further that the meeting of the Committee on Foreign Relations was held in executive session, and that only such portions of Secretary Kellogg's statement as he chose tn make public were made available to the press and to the people of this country...
...The author of the memorandum issued by Mr...
...It is this well-known fact which makes it seem not a little humiliating— And this is from the New York Times, I remind you, Mr...
...Nothing is said about whom the comrades visited nor with whom they corresponded, except that Comrade Gomez appeared as a fraternal delegate from the Chicago Communists to the Convention of Communists in Mexico City...
...Callea' statement: In conformity with this principle, Mexico extended to Soviet Russia the friendly hand of...
...Unfortunately that has not as yet been done...
...Continuing, I read further from Mr...
...What does that prove ? It proves, if it proves anything, that this third congTess of the Red Internationale of Trade Unions was appealing to the toilers of Latin America with a call to unite against American imperialism...
...But this is only one ot their glittering though futile plans of campaign...
...It would have gone not to the composing room but to the waste-basket aa a piece of sheer propaganda, unsup-ported by evidence of any kind or character* THE newspapers of the country had been saying, for days prior to the Secretary's appearance before the committee, that he was to come there to to inform the committee and to give them justification by chapter and verse of the Government's action in Nicaragua and elsewhere...
...A .close association between this league and the government at Mexico City is indicated...
...universal international brotherhood, with thi definite purpose to strengthen the relations of both peoples through just and reciprocal understanding based on mutual respect and interest...
...President, let me say that I believe the Senate of trie United States or the Foreign Relations Committee ought to take action to right the wrong done to a friendly Government by the Secretary of State in authorizing the publication • of this vicious piece of propaganda against a Government with which we have, or with which we should have, friendly relations...
...I looked up in the Chicago Daily ISTews Almanac the vote of the Communist Party for its candidate for President in 1924...
...That proves nothing agains the Mexican Government as to its aims or policies...
...Our plenipotentiary representative, Pestkov-sky, met in Mexico the most enthusiastic reception, receiving constantly from all sides expressions of the most friendly, even enthusiastic, attitude toward the soviet republic...
...He quoted the statement of Foreign Minister Tchitcherin of Russia, with regard to his conception of the significance of the recognition by Mexico of the soviet republic, but Secretary of State Kellogg failed to incorporate in the document the official statement of President Calles, of Mexico, answering the statement made by Foreign Minister Tchitcherin, and yet that statement appeared in the metropolitan newspapers of the United States at the time...
...Communists in the United States— Mr...
...Extract from report by the Soviet Foreiyn Minister Tchitcherin to t)«> central executive committee in March, 1925, at Moscow...
...At a later date I shall avail myself of an opportunity of discussing the Nicaraguan situation fully...
...The "theses" say that "Latin America also can and must beHow the Press Spreads Misinformation Secretary Kellogg The background, however, for Secretary of State Kellogg's action in this matter is not complete without reference once more to the charges which were made in a reputable newspaper in this country that Mr...
...They have set up as one of their fundamental tests the destruction of what they term American imperialism as a necessary prerequisite to the successful development of the international revolutionary movement in the New World...
...President, this is a communist delegate from the United States appearing somewhere...
...I desire now to read an Associated Press dispatch from Mexico City, under date of May 9, 1^>25, appearing in the New York Times, as follows: MEXICO CITY.—The American, ambassador, •fames R. Sheffield, declared at his regular conference with the newspaper men today that the relations between Mexico and the United States have been improved by the rvcent statement of President Calles with respect to a speech by the Rus.M»n Soviet foreign minister, M. Tchitcherin, that Mexico would not allow any country with which .she maintained diplomatic relations to use this friendship to carry out political propaganda...
...We know what they tried to do in this country, and what a wretched fiasco was the issue of all their plotting and mouthing .and pouring out of money...
...If it proves anything, it proves that the third congress of the Red Internationale heht the 22d day of July, 1924, regarded Mexico as a convenient base for ita operations, if they wet* able to operate at all...
...It has nothing to do with the complexion of the Mexican Government...
...President, what does that prove, if any« thing...
...However, I desire to have it printed in full at the inclusion of my remarks, and for the sake of brevity I .shall quote from an editorial analysis of the document a]ipearing in the New York World: Contemptible as the document is in its spirit, its purpose, its substance, and its reasoning, it is necessary to pause over it and analyze the character of the evidence on which the Secretary of State has put his seal...
...Thus far Mr...
...It tells him to keep his hands off Mexico, because "no nation has the right to impose, nor to lay down for another, the doctrine which must control its activities...
...The Soviet Republic is extraordinarily popular in Mexico, antl Mexico gives us thus a very convenient political base for the development of our further ties...
...President, a story was printed in numbers of newspapers in the Urfited States, the lead of which, although I can not quote it verbatim, was to the effect that a Bolshevistic hegemony existed in Central and South America, and that Mexico was the center of it...
...The propaganda of communist ideas and principles in the various countries of Latin America is considered secondary to the carrying on of propaganda against the aims and policies of the United States...
...t rise now to voice my protest and to direct the attention of the Senate to the action taken by the Secretary of State in making public, following his appearance before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, a document entitled "Bolshevik Aims and Policies in Mexico and J«itin America...
...We come at the end of three documents by Mexicans: A. Speech by Mexican Labor Deputy Trevino in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies on Septem-ber 9, 1925...
...President, is the only portion of his statement before that committee which is given to the newspapers of the country...
...The newspapers of the country were awaiting his appearance and his statement before that committee...
...President, 1 repeat that the analysis of the document authorized by the Secretary of State shows that it does not contain one shred of evidence concerning the Bolshevist plot on the part of the Government of Mexico which was inferred from the sensational circumstances under which it was issued by Mr...
...But in this time we have succeeded in reestablishing diplomatic relations, which give us a political base in the new-continent with the new neighbor of the United States, Mexico...
...Our own ambassador in Mexico commended in his statement to the newspapers the answer of President Calles to Secretary of Foreign Affairs Tchitcherin's statement, and yet President Calles" reply is conspicuously absent from the document sponsored by Secretary of State Kellogg in his appearance before the Committee on Foreign Relations...
...That has nothing to do with the Government of Mexico, or with the activities or with the sympathies of that Government...
...Responsibility for the story has been traced by the Post-Dispatch correspondent to Assistant Secretary of State Robert E. Olds...
...Louis Post-Dispatch which I have just quoted, but as the Record of the date from which I have been reading will show, the correspondent of this newspaper reaffirms the authenticity of his statements and demands that the matter be investigated and that the'heads of these press associations, who are alleged to have been present at this conference, be brought before a responsible committee of the Congress where the authenticity of the story can be tested...
...C. Resolution adopted March 6, 1926, at the seventh annual convention of the Mexican Federation of Labor, asking the diplomatic representative of Russia to "abstain from lending moral and economic support to the so-called radical group, enemies of the Mexican Federation of Labor and of the government...
...I desire to read only a sentence from the editorial of the Washington Star of last evening...
...George Tchitcherin, the public official who is in charge of foreign relations of Soviet Russia, in an official statement has declared: "In America we confront an interrogation mark...
...Wheeler]— and was published in hundreds of newspapers throughout the United States...
...Abbreviated Speech in U. S. Senate, Jan...
...Ignominious failure all along the line...
...President, that was the official statement issued by the President of Mexico in response to a statement made by Secretary of Foreign Affairs Tchitchcrin, of Russia, in which he indicated that he hoped the recognition of Russia by Mexico would afford to the Russian Government a base of political operati'ms or...
...Louis Post-Dispatch are true, the people of the United States are entitled to know it...
...To unite the national struggle against American imperialism in individual countries in a general movement on a scale of the whole American continent, embracing1 the workers of all countries of Latin America and the revolutionary forces of the United States...
...I submit that, iusing language which admits of no other interpretation...
...This certainly cannot be taken as evidence of anything that the Mexican Government is doing, or that the Mexicans themselves are doing...
...Said Calles: As the views thus expressed may lend themselves to erroneous and unjustified interpretations in regard to our country, I, speaking as its executive, deem it pertinent to declare that at the time we decided to renew diplomatic relations with the Government of Soviet Russia the new Mexican Government was imbued fundamentally with the...
...For we doubt seriously that ever before in the history of this Nation has the head of the State Department appeared in public in a state of such utterly indecent intellectual exposure...
...La Follette said: Mr...
...This being the unshakable basis upon which our national Government has entered into relations with friendly countries, it has taken special care not to mix into matters which do not regard it in order to be able to exact at the same time a correspondingly absolute Tespect for the independence and sovereignty of Mexico...
...But with a neighbor of the United States, namely, Mexico, we have succeeded in reestablishing diplomatic relations, and this gives us a very useful political base for the development, of our relations in the new world...
...bask principle of interoation...
...The author says: The significance of Mexico in the eyes of the so-called Soviet...
...come a basis of support against imperialism...
...I further declare—Continued Calles—¦ considering it highly opportune to do so, that the* political and social reforms which Mexico is carrying into effect in order to assure for its previously disfranchised people their status as men, their right to live, to develop, and to improve themselves, to establish a just balance and equality for the welfare, prosperity, and progress of all, are based solely upon and are the fruit of their own sufferings and experiences...
...The New York Herald-Tribune of the same date says: Mexico base of red war on United States, Kellogg charges...
...I venture the assertion that a large percentage of the readers of the Philadelphia Public ledger are today convinced that Secretary Kellogg produced before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee evidence proving that Mexico was the center of a Bolshevistic plot against the Government of the United States...
...Let me say that that does not tell us whaS Bolshevik leaders have this in mind, or whert they are located, but I assume it refers to lead* ers of the Russian Bolshevik party...
...Kellogg holds in this Government...
...He said that "the Communist Party must become the defender of the oppressed peoples of Latin America...
...In the present state of things the nations living in I>atin Amevica are as a majority oppressed nations which soon or late will be drawn into the struggle against the imperialism of the United States...
...This American communist delegate is alleged to have said: The last and most important task of our party is the fight against imperialism...
...The first three paragraphs are by the author of this memorandum, whoever he may be...
...The Philadelphia Public ledger of Thursday morning carries a seven-column head: Mexico is center of Bolshevist plot against the United States...
...Further on in the article there appears what "purport to be quotations of what Mr...
...Thus Latin America and Mexico are conceived as a base for activity against the United States...
...object is world revolution, Kellogg declares...
...Kellogg says further: In the theses approved at the sixth session of the enlarged executive committee of the Communist International it is stated with respect to Latin America— This is the statement of some one not connected, either directly or indirectly, with Mexico or its Government— I.atin America also can and must become a base of support of the liberation government against imperialism (against imperialism of the United States...
...in America1", in this manner, we still stand before a question mark...
...I submit that that is sound doctrine...
...and this document, Mr...
...f.cl um remember further that a great majority of the people of the United States are what might be termed headline readers...
...This is authored by Secretary Ke31ogg or some one in his department...
...Naturally, they were exceedingly anxious to secure all available information concerning his statement...
...7. In the name of the Trade Union Educational League of the United States, to appeal to the toilers of Latin America with a call to create a united front against American imperialism...
...President, I want to bring to the attention of the Senate, another portion of the document...
...I do not think there is any Senator who will contend that the New York Times has any sympathy for P.olshcvism or for its activities...
...President, there is a very significant omission from this document of the Secretary of State, one which I do not beliova could have been made other than consciously...
...They are, in fact, everywhere today, outside of Russia, a discredited and hopeless lot...
...E. Extract from a report on "antiimperialist work" delivered to the fourth national convention of the American Communists at Chicago in August, 11*2-5...
...Olds, an Assistant Secretary of .State, had called in the heads of the various press associations represented here in Washington and had taken up with them the question of getting this same sort of misinformation carried to the country...
...Borah] that he has made a previous arrangement with Senators to have an executive session at 2 o'clock, so I will change my plan to read this entire document and will read only excerpts from it...
Vol. 19 • January 1909 • No. 2
