Dewey Commission Dewey Commission The Dewey Commission (officially the "Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials") was initiated in March 1937 by the American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky. It was named after its chairman, the philosopher John Dewey. Its other members were Carleton Beals, Otto Rühle, Benjamin Stolberg, and Secretary Suzanne La Follette, Alfred Rosmer, Wendelin Thomas, Edward A. Ross, John Chamberlain, Carlo Tresca, and . It was seen by some at the time, as Dewey feared it would be, as a Trotskyist front organization. Following months of investigation, the Dewey Commission
American Freedom and Catholic Power pressured to cancel subscriptions to "The Nation" by Cardinal Francis Spellman, an action denounced by Eleanor Roosevelt. The series of articles formed the basis for the book published by Beacon Press in their book series entitled Series in Freedom and Power. When the book was released, "The New York Times" refused to accept advertising for the book and many bookstores refused to carry it. However, the book sold 240,000 copies in its first edition. It was praised by John Dewey, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Henry Sloane Coffin, and Horace Kallen as well as scholarly reviewers. A work of rebuttal, "Catholicism