Mr. Justice BLACK, with whom Mr. Justice DOUGLAS concurs, dissenting.
The petitioner, having registered with the Secretary of State as a foreign agent, was convicted of wilful refusal to inform the Secretary of certain business activities in which he systematically attempted to influence the political thought of this country on behalf of Germany. The trial judge charged the jury not to convict the petitioner unless he had actual knowledge that the Act and the regulations required him to supply this information to the Secretary, and that having such knowledge he had refused to answer the Secretary's question with the 'deliberate intention of avoiding the requirement of the statute.' The jury found, and it is not questioned here, that the petitioner was a paid German propagandist engaged in various business activities, in all of which he made use of the same kind of propaganda calculated to further the interests of Germany in the United States. The Court holds that the congressional enactment required petitioner to reveal to the Secretary only the particular propaganda activities in which he engaged pursuant to his agency. It holds that the petitioner could keep secret, without violating the law, those propaganda activities undertaken on his own behalf, which were of exactly the same type and were intended to accomplish exactly the same purpose as those for which he had been hired by his German principals.
To this construction of the Act I cannot agree. I think that § 3(c) of the Act, which authorizes the Secretary to require statements 'of the activities of such persons as agent of a foreign principal' must be read in the light of the general purpose of the Act and in close connection with § 6, which permits the Secretary to prescribe the 'rules, regulations, and forms' necessary to carry out the Act. By such a reading, the Secretary was authorized to ask the question the petitioner failed to answer.
The general intent of the Act was to prevent secrecy as to any kind of political propaganda activity by foreign agents. Both the House and Senate Committees reporting the Bill under consideration declared it to be their purpose to turn 'the spotlight of pitiless publicity' upon the propaganda activities of those who were hired by foreign principals. Appreciating that 'propaganda efforts of such a nature are usually conducted in secrecy', they wanted to make full information concerning it 'available to the American public' and sought by 'the passage of this bill' to 'force propaganda agents representing foreign agencies to come out 'in the open' in their activities, or to subject themselves to the penalties provided in said bill.' They declared that the purpose of the Bill was to require all such hired agents 'to register with the State Department and to supply information about their political activities, their employers, and the terms of their contracts.'
What emerged from extended congressional investigations, hearings and deliberations was this Act, intended to provide an appropriate method to obtain information essential for the proper evaluation of political propaganda emanating from hired agents of foreign countries. As the House and Senate Committees considering the Bill said, it 'does not in any way impair the right of freedom of speech, or of a free press, or other constitutional rights.' Resting on the fundamental constitutional principle that our people, adequately informed, may be trusted to distinguish between the true and the false, the bill is intended to label information of foreign origin so that hearers and readers may not be deceived by the belief that the information comes from a disinterested source. Such legislation implements rather than detracts from the prized freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. No strained interpretation should frustrate its essential purpose.