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|"Aints of U.S. Commanist(s | ‘Veterans’ Drive Centers ae Di.» y D..1. Tt mm om _ Vil Fidit lO nuLe Legion (Fourth of a Series) By Oliver H. Crawford HE neat office of theVeterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at 100 Fifth ave., New York, is conveniently close to national headquarters of the Communist Party, which supplied most f its personnel for the Spanish Civil War. . Now, it ts providing the leadership for the Communist Party's qually desperate attemnt to infiltrate the American fecian v career Gait 4RINCIICaN LeEZION as the keystone of its effort to gain a commanding role in veterans’ affairs. ; Robert Thompson, a storm: petrel lot of publicity. who served with the International’ Brigade, has been named generalis- simo of the veterans’ campaign for {he Communist Party—a drive held second only to their youth program by the inner leadership. Already debounced in Congress— something to his honor in Com- munist ranks considering his 26 Wears—Thompson served wilh dig- linction with the Army Air Force nt javing been decorated for his servi: t Buna. The Communist Party, you lear from the rank and ile in New York, expects no Jess of him in the critical veterans’ campaign. . . a . {\DDLY enough, ft will be ih . VJ american Legion posts estab- ~~ lished by the American Federation of Labor-—both oldtime stumbling blocks of the Communists—that the first fight is to be waged. __ “be gampaign is in the uaturc, Dale__ 4a La- 4a The Philade!phia Inquirer o=—ef=s last-ditch attempt Comm k 1 vious failure. The unists' first eflort to gain control in veterans’ circles, jt seems, ‘was to Jound their own organizations, controlled un- dercover, In the hope that one of them might attract enough non-!} Communst veterans to challenge the Afiérican Legion or Veterans of | Foreign Wars. H Thompson admitted the failure of this plan in as many words as he, took command of the new drive to’ corral World War IT veterans. “The Legion and V.F.W. are where the veterans are going." Thompson said. “Already over 500,-| 000 are in the Legion wnd around, 700,000 are in the F.V.W. : ; -s 8 6 | | (4°. HE American Velcrans Com- | A = mitiee is the most prominent ; of ihe new veterans’ organizations. - I agree jt has a very nice-sounding | program, that it has ample finances‘ and that it has been putting out a’ “But the result of all this is that : you have a million and a quarter in| the established veterans’ organiza-: tions—and in the largest of these | new organizations, the American| Veterans Committee, you have only I talked to several oldtime Com- munists who told me that the party | and its predecessor, the Interna-' {tonal Workers of the World (1. W. W.), made the same mistake after -[the First World War. “We could have got in on the | ground floor of the American Legion,” a grizzled veteran of the Pittsburgh Steel strikes told me. “In- stead, we fooled around trying to organize cur own veterans’ posts. When the Legion caught on, we were in, the cold.” = =z ¢ Seem od 1203.90URE