In 1935 , Dilling returned to her '' alma mater '' to accuse such people as university president Robert Maynard Hutchins , educational reformer John Dewey , activist Jane Addams , and Republican Senator William Borah of being communist sympathizers . Retail tycoon Charles R. Walgreen asked for her help to obtain a public hearing after his niece complained that professors at the university were communists . They demanded the closure of the university . The Illinois legislature convened to discuss the matter , ultimately deciding that the claims were unfounded . Dilling delivered a frenetic half-hour speech at the Assembly , with calls from the audience to " kill every communist " . She declared , " It is certain that the University of Chicago is diseased with Communism and that its contagion is a menace to the community and the Nation . " Dilling 's next book , '' The Roosevelt Red Record and Its Background , '' published two weeks before the 1936 presidential election , was less successful . Like much of her later writing , it was largely a disjointed series of quotations . President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's " Jew Deal " ( as many including Dilling were calling the New Deal ) was already a central theme of '' The Red Network , '' and it was already being debated elsewhere . Dilling later claimed that the House Un-American Activities Committee was founded largely thanks to her two books . She wrote a pamphlet attacking Borah , entitled '' Borah : " Borer from Within " the G.O.P. '' , fearing that if he won the presidential nomination voters would be forced to choose between two communists . She distributed 5,000 copies at the Republican National Convention , and claimed credit for his defeat
Republican National Convention
1936 Republican National Convention
Elizabeth Dilling