To the Editors of the CRIMSON, Gentlemen:

Over Tuesday morning's coffee we read shrieking headlines in the Herald of Henry Wallace being accused of un-Americanism by one Walter S. Steele, head of something called the Coalition of Patriotic, Fraternal, and Civic Organizations.

CRIMSON readers may be interested to know a little about Mr. Steele's own background. I find half a dozen references to Steele in the index of John Roy Carlson's "Under Cover." Tracking them down, one finds the patriotic Mr. Steele being buddy-buddy with such fine un-Americans as Joseph S. Kamp, editor of a fascist sheet hailed by the Nazis, the seditionists James True and Liz Dilling, and John B. Snow, the "gentleman fascist."

Of this group, Carlson wrote: "Personally I regard Snow as one of the most calculating fascist minds in America serving the interests of old guard, reactionary business men. His closest collaborators were Joseph P. Kamp, Merwin K. Hart, Cathrine Curtis, WALTER S. STEELE (editor of National Republic) and John B. Trevor of the super-patriotic American Coalition. All served the same masters and all shared in Snow's views."

By way of introduction to Steele, Carlson sent him a copy of his bogus anti-Semitic hate sheet, the "Christian Defender", which never failed to gain him entry into fascist circles. And sure enough, "Steele . . . received me cordially and we became quite friendly, for I know quite a few of the boys Joseph P. Kamp, for instance, with whom Steele had worked closely. And James, True and Elizabeth Dilling, and John Snow."

"A self-style expert on anti-democratic forces, Steele testified before the Dies Committee . . . Steele's testimony filled 402 pages, but less than seven pages were devoted to Nazism and Faselsm, Of 393 pages devoted to Communism, about 20 were set aside to prove that the American Civil Liberties Union was a Moscow Front.

One could go on, but the point is made. Americanism has reached a pretty low point when it must be defended by this friend of fascists, seditionists, and Hitler, Japanese, and Franco agents. And the press of Boston has reached a pretty low point when it headlines such people's insane accusations. I have my differences with Henry Wallace, but I will cheerfully forget them whenever such slimy characters as Mr. Steele creep out of the woodwork and start screaming "un-American," at one of the finest Americans of the present day. Allen H. Barton   Chairman, HLU Summer Exec   Leverett F-12