NEW YORK—I think everyone must be glad that some progress is being made with the Communist Chinese in the matter of freeing the 11 United States airmen and other United Nations personnel now held in Red China.

This is a great test for Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and for the U.N. The Korean War was a test of its ability to join together, even on a voluntary basis, to fight a war for the sake of resisting aggression. Now the effort is being made through peaceful means to bring pressure on a country to do the things which the majority of the world feels should be done.

It is understandable, of course, that there will be difficulties, and whether the mobilization of the opinion of almost 60 nations will affect one nation that does not as yet belong to the world organization is difficult to tell. One can hope, however, that it will have an influence, and if the Chinese are reasonable now it will have a great effect on public opinion toward them in the future.

One of the most interesting things I have seen in the papers for some time is the action of the House Un-American Activities Committee in condemning Neo-Fascists and "hate" groups.

These "hate" groups seem to have increased of late, and are sending out more and more publications under the guise of super patriotism and of religious fanaticism. Some of these people make their major fight on the U.N., some pick out other groups of people and even individuals. All of them use some of the Hitlerian techniques. Their targets for attack are those who disagree with them, which for the most part are racial and religious groups and certain organizations.

The Congressional Un-American Activities Committee named both the National Renaissance party and Common Sense, and in condemning them found curiously enough that there was a duplication among the names of the people who support both groups.

It is interesting to find among these names that of Mrs. Elizabeth Dilling, who was one of the first people to publish a volume in which she listed many good and liberal Americans, among them Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, as being dangerous Communists.

I think by now that Mrs. Dilling is completely discredited, but once work of that kind is done it is carried on by all kinds of fanatics who have some special axe to grind of their own and if any kind of acceptance of their work occurs they are encouraged to go on and do a little more.

I am glad to see an investigation is being asked and I hope it will extend to many other "hate" groups.