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--- (COMMUNI | \ By Frank C. Waldrop NE of the most interesting | the river as she journeyed down act _# “crv 4 tb 2) — /} LEAVEL -_ f _ one stories I ever covered in my Hfe turned up in the course of snvestigating communism in the early New Deal of 1933-36. That assignment had carried me from the incredible expert- ment in socialism under Mra. it’s personal direction wp at Keedsville, W. Va. all threuzh the Sonth Atlantic by- wars. The Reedsville experiment is . by gow forgotten, perhaps, but it is en evidence of the noxious growth that can come from pretty words, & all the world knows, the mountains and valleys of West Virginia are filled with where they are, but resist the idea of going out in search of a Jiving elsewhere, Mrs, Roosevelt set about in 1933 to remedy that at tax- payers’ expense. Displaced coal iminers were “re-settled” on «® ‘tract of worked-out land, in houses that had been prefabri- cated by somebody that Louis McHenry Howe, Mr. RFoose- yelt's personal agent, recom- mended. FPHERE were titty of tnese & houses at tne scare. Lever the number was run up to some 200, or more. I went through many of them, talked with the people and examined the opera- tion in closest detail. At best, you would have to eall ft pathetic. The poor, unfortunate miners were shoved around by a succes sion of so-called “planners,” who were bent, bound and deter- mined that Reedsville would show the world the superiority of thelr organized operation as against Individual initiative. had a “co-operative” dairy, as J] remember, little strips of land for “personal” use ,of those who dared, and every- thing else was run from the top. They set out to make Reeds: wilie a gem of “balanced” agrl- culture and industry by trying to bully several firms, including General Electric, inte running Planis there, no matter what geod reasons to the contrary. The whele thing, in its final factual form, was nothing more than Mrs. Roosevelt's version of the collective farm that is as old as Pussia and now is hardened into mw government bureaucracy by the Russian government, i er —_— aw, people who can't nfake a living with foreign dignitaries. These fakes were te impress Eurepe with the bheasilth, strength and happiness ef the Eussian empire. As fast as the impcrial boats went by, each village collapsed and the actors, actresses and prop men hurried across short cuts to set up the same scene at ancther bend in the stream. So with Reedsvilie's masters, in a way. For it was soon ob- vious that the -Reedsvilie project was without’a sound basis. The people living there under gov- ernment seal couldn't stand it. They dribbled off in all direc- tions, mostly to the hills. Somewhere around my house there still is today a child's rock- ing chair that I bought et the Reedsville handicraft shop. It’s- a good chair. But it cost about. five times the price of a better. chair, not to mention ail the time, trouble, and expense volved in getting it in such an out-of-the-way place. © that Potemkin village at Reedsville collapsed and ultk mately was sold off by the gov- ernment at a terrible loss. But ghe prep men who had built it ran on to build many others at a cost of millions upon millions of the people's doliars. Rexford Guy Turweil was eut to “roll up my slecves and make America over.” The image in all such minds was Boviet Russia, which, as I have demonstrated here in the most careful dera!l, had already by 1933 becn blown high sky as « fraud, a fake and ea fallure- of cood goverminent or @s an en- terprise for human welfare. | Just the same, “Potemkin vil. jages,” but built of good, salid American lumbcr. stone and con- ro CORDED crete at staggering cost, were . JUN set up all around. I visited 6U 28 1950 many of them and took sam- plings on a broad scale. Ll) aan ia x NE by one. they all went the same route of expensive cone struction, attempted soclaliza- tion, collapse and sale at a loss. Yet never did the Executive branch of our federel govern: ment either acknowledge the error of its policy or bring to punishment those who hed saddied it with this multi-mil- Hon dollar effort to reduce U. 8, citizens to wards of govcrnoment, The only piace in the gorvern- ment any sentiment In that direction develup.d, was in Con gress and out of thal eventually came the House Committee on wrAmerican Activities. Page imes-Herald LY Wash. Post —_- Wash. News Wash. Star N.Y. Mirror -—— 100 - 3 69507, 4 EEDSVILLE had another ‘ , Russian aspect, too. Every: body has heard about the “Po | But I haven't told shout that’ aost inforestine ciarcv that Fran Milos’ ICPrestine slorv that i raw across m checking on the WPA ; “tembkin villeees” that Empress | ‘That one. which he ta do with,” " mat iy oft tren , Calieiine the Great had her the Indians, will have to kee» . at te wa - Joi ov i: paynmige, Potemkin, build afung + until tomorrow, Date iad