Chapter VI: Part 6

Mr. TAVENNER. I will give you an opportunity to explain that a little later.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Don’t let me forget because I sued Mr. Budenz about it.

Mr. TAVENNER. I will give you an opportunity to explain that.

Mr. WILLIS. Sued whom?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I sued Mr. Budenz for the statements that he made.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Ward F. Warren identified Thomas Rabbitt as a person he knew to be a member of the Communist Party, that he sat in closed party meetings with Thomas Rabbitt.

Senator James Sullivan identified Thomas Rabbitt as a member of the Communist Party.

Kathryn Fogg, K-a-t-h-r-y-n, identified Thomas Rabbitt as a member of the Communist Party, and described fraction meetings which he attended with her.

Jess Fletcher, who was a well-known member of the Communist Party in Seattle, identified Thomas Rabbitt as a member of the Communist Party and stated that he had sat in many Communist Party meetings with him and that he had attended, that Rabbitt had attended, Communist Party meetings in his home; that is, in Fletcher’s home.

Nat Honig identified Thomas Rabbitt as a member of the Communist Party.

Harriett Riley identified Thomas Rabbitt as a member of the Communist Party.

H. C. Armstrong identified Rabbitt as a member of the Communist Party.

Now, you knew at the time of those hearings that Thomas Rabbitt during those hearings had been identified as a Communist Party member by numerous individuals; didn’t you?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I knew that at those hearings those people whom you have named had said that he was a member of the Communist Party.

Mr. TAVENNER. When I asked you that question, you told us that you had never heard that Thomas Rabbitt was a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I don’t think I said I ever heard. You asked if I knew that he was a member of the Communist Party, and I said no, I didn’t know.

Now, I could go through, and I don’t want to take the time of the committee, I could tell you like, for instance, Armstrong, Sullivan, and all of the others, not all of the others, many of those, Kathryn Fogg, were all members of the State legislature, and they had various fights and conflicts and so on, and some of them were eliminated from the legislature, and some weren’t, and so on.

I could go through, Jess Fletcher was in the building-service union of which Rabbitt also was a member. There was fighting and division and dissension there.

Now, I think in view of all this, I think it ought to be remembered I came out in the State of Washington in August of 1944 and many of these things that have gone on, and so on, I know nothing of, or knew anything about it.

As a matter of fact, one of the principal jobs I had in the Democratic Party was to try to smooth out a lot of the fighting and dissension that had gone on between the so-called conservative and progressive wings of the Democratic Party out there. It was a job that I was apparently quite successful in.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did you attend a number of meetings, the purpose of which was to oppose the holding of the Canwell hearings?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I mean the Progressive Party had meetings and, of course, to oppose the Canwell committee.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you bitterly opposed to the conduct of those hearings?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Decidedly so.

Mr. TAVENNER. Was the hearing picketed?

Mr. O’CONNELL. The hearing was picketed; yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you in the picket line?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I wasn’t actually in the picket line.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did you take part in the picketing?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I was there and I was encouraging the picket line to be orderly and to make sure that its conduct was correct and so on.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you arrested in connection with a disturbance calculated to break up those hearings?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I was arrested for disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct, but I was acquitted on that charge.

Mr. TAVENNER. So you were keenly interested in the Canwell hearings?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I was decidedly opposed to the Canwell committee. As a matter of fact, of the 7 members of the committee, I think we eliminated 6 of them in the following elections.

Mr. TAVENNER. You knew very well that Tom Rabbitt had been identified over and over again in the course of those hearings as a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I, of course, was not inside the meetings. I mean, I didn’t hear a lot of the testimony.

Mr. TAVENNER. Do you mean to tell us that you didn’t know that Tom Rabbitt had been identified as a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I knew, for instance, in the press and the press reports, and from information given to me that various people in there had said that Rabbitt and others were members of the Communist Party.

Mr. TAVENNER. Then we cannot rely on your statement of this morning and yesterday when I asked you whether or not you knew that Tom Rabbitt, or had heard that Tom Rabbitt was a member of the Communist Party when you were dealing with him in the pension union and in the work of the Progressive Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Now, I said, and if my testimony is that I had not heard, I want to change it, but I said I did not know of my own knowledge and my testimony is that I did not know of my own knowledge and even today I do not know of my knowledge that Rabbitt is a member of the Communist Party.

As I understand it, he has not admitted that he is. I think according to your report he refused to testify and invoked the privilege of the fifth amendment as far as he was concerned.

Mr. TAVENNER. Didn’t almost the same witnesses identify William Pennock as a Communist Party member during those same hearings?

Mr. O’CONNELL. That is correct.

Mr. TAVENNER. So what is true with regard to Mr. Rabbitt, is true with regard to Mr. Pennock?

Mr. O’CONNELL. My testimony is that I didn’t know of my own knowledge that they were members of the Communist Party.

Mr. VELDE. You stated you did have a suspicion that they were members of the Communist Party at the time you were dealing with them in the pension union. Now, will you tell this committee upon what you based that suspicion?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Largely, I was decidedly surprised when I heard the testimony of many of the people who testified in the Canwell hearings. I was surprised by Kathryn Fogg who, for instance, was a Democratic leader in South King County whom I knew real well. I didn’t dream she was a member of the Communist Party or had been one. When she came and testified that she had been a member of the Communist Party and had met in meetings I was certainly surprised.

And H. C. Armstrong----

Mr. VELDE. When did you first suspect that Rabbitt and Pennock were members of the Communist Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, the first suspicion that I had was actually around the period of time of those hearings out there. Up to that time it had been my job as executive secretary of the Democratic Party, I had to cover the whole State of Washington. I went around on tours and trips and speaking schedules and so on, and my contact with Rabbitt and Pennock largely during the first 2 years I was out there, 1945 and 1946, really was when I would come in to talk to a meeting of the King County Democratic Central Committee that they were sitting on as delegates, Democratic delegates from the 35th Legislative District.

Mr. VELDE. Yet they were district committee members of the Communist Party in the State of Washington.

Mr. O’CONNELL. That I do not know.

Mr. VELDE. It was fairly well known among politicians at least that they were; is that not true?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, I don’t think so because--of course, I was completely dependent upon information from Democratic Party leaders out there who had been active in the Democratic Party for a long time. For instance, Rabbitt and Pennock were on various committees all through the Democratic Party and were actually, of course, members of the legislature, 1 in the senate and 1 in the house.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were they working with the Progressive Party after that?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes, but, my position as far as Rabbitt and Pennock--today it is easy to go back 5 and 6 years and the developments that have gone on and the exposures that have been made and so on, have been much greater in the past than they were then. It was not my job to determine whether Rabbitt or Pennock was a Communist.

Mr. VELDE. We acknowledge that, of course.

Mr. O’CONNELL. As far as the Democratic Party was concerned, we had certain platforms, certain programs.

Mr. VELDE. But it is difficult for me to believe in your associations, the various associations you had with them, that you did not know that they were members of the Communist Party. I want to say that with all respect to you as a former Member of Congress.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I didn’t like Rabbitt; I had very little to do with Rabbitt. I fired him as a Progressive Party staff man in about May of 1948.

My first connection with him, where I was close to what he was like and what he did and so on, all that was from about the latter part of March 1948 down until May and in May of 1948 I removed him from the staff of the Progressive Party. I didn’t really like him.

Now, up until Bill Pennock, actually I had talked with Bill Pennock many times and he was much more, I would say, a real Democrat. He was in the Democratic Party conclaves; in their meetings and so on, and, of course, a much more personable fellow and all that, but until Bill Pennock actually announced, and regardless of this testimony that is there, and I talked with Bill Pennock after this testimony was given, and he vociferously denied that he issued statements in the papers and in the press and everything and pension union statements were made, up to the minute Bill Pennock made an open statement just before he was going on trial in the Smith Act cases in 1953 or 1954, whenever they were out there, I certainly had some real, real doubt whether Bill Pennock was a member of the Communist Party.

And I think you will find that pretty generally out there, if you went out and talked to ordinary people out there, who were working in the Democratic Party, chairmen and State committeemen and so on, and all of that kind.

Mr. VELDE. Well, it is entirely possible.

Mr. O’CONNELL. For instance, Governor Wallgren, who had been in the Congress for 10 years, and had been United States Senator for about 6 years, Governor Wallgren appointed Pennock to a position as assistant superintendent of institutions out there.

Mr. TAVENNER. However, that wasn’t after 1948.

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, that was in 1945.

Mr. VELDE. At that time, how would you determine in your own mind whether or not a person was a member of the Communist Party? What standards would you use? I am talking about the Wallace campaign.

Mr. O’CONNELL. About which campaign?

Mr. VELDE. The Progressive campaign with Wallace. What standards would you use to determine whether or not a man was a Communist?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Taking Rabbitt specifically, the reason I removed him as a member of the staff in the Progressive Party in 1948, in 1948 the Progressive Party was under attack, particularly nationally, as being Communist controlled and Communist dominated and being a Red party and so on, and we had, particularly in South King County, an organizer by the name of Belden who was a member of various veterans’ groups out there.

Belden was organizing Progressive Party clubs----

Mr. VELDE. With all due respect, I think you could tell what standards you would use.

Mr. O’CONNELL. When Belden was asked by people whether or not this was a Red party, Belden, of course, would deny it and go on and say the kind of people who were in it.

Rabbitt was critical of the way that he said that it was not a Red party and the inference which he left which was in effect a denunciation of the Reds and all of that and, of course, I figured if he is touchy about that on the subject and all that, why, there is probably some basis for it, for the charges that have been made against him.

Mr. VELDE. You have not answered the question at all, in my opinion. Let me ask you this: You were familiar with the fact that the Soviet Union had established an espionage network here in the United States by 1948, were you not?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I was not. I don’t know whether that is true even today. I mean, you asked me and I don’t know. I would have to be shown and somebody would have to show me where they are and the proof. I don’t know whether that is true.

Mr. VELDE. Are you familiar with the various Smith Act trials?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I have read a lot about the Smith Act trials; yes, sir. But in none of the Smith Act trials they were not charged with espionage and treason or anything of that kind.

Mr. VELDE. No; of course they were charged with advocating the overthrow of our form of government by force and violence.

Mr. O’CONNELL. It even goes back further than that, conspiring to teach and all that, but in none of those trials I don’t know any development of espionage or spying. Of course, I am not familiar with all the testimony. I have not read it all.

Mr. VELDE. Are you familiar with the Rosenberg case?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I am familiar with the Rosenberg case.

Mr. VELDE. Certainly from the result of that you must have had the suspicion that there was an espionage network operating in this country.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Even today I am not convinced that the Rosenbergs were involved in Soviet espionage. Right now I think there is serious doubt of it.

Mr. VELDE. Even though they were convicted under our American system of jurisprudence?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Even though they were convicted and executed I still feel it. You see, Congressman, I have a genuine interest in civil liberty. It is not a Communist interest in civil liberty. I have studied the testimony in the case of the Rosenbergs and so on. I think it is seriously lacking, at least in my mind, and from my very meager experience as an attorney, it is seriously lacking in fundamental proof of their guilt. I think Dr. Harold Urey, many scientists and so on, feel the same way about it.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. O’Connell, I note when speaking of Pennock and Rabbitt that a great part of your answers has dealt with the period when you were secretary for the Democratic Party. But it was after the Canwell hearings that the Progressive Party was established. It was in the spring of 1947.

So at the time that Pennock and Rabbitt were associated with the Progressive Party this information had already come out in the Canwell hearings?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. And you have spoken of what happened before the Canwell hearings.

Mr. O’CONNELL. That doesn’t prove to me, I mean knowing many of the people that testified--for instance, Jim Sullivan, I know Jim Sullivan’s attitude and motives. I know precisely that he was president of the Washington Pension Union and he lost his job and Pennock got it.

I could go through with those, I could go through each one and show the particular reason why they testified. I judge by what Budenz said about me--Budenz knew I wasn’t a member of the Communist Party. He didn’t dare testify that I was.

Mr. VELDE. Will you tell us----

Mr. O’CONNELL. Will you let me finish, Congressman.

Mr. VELDE. You did not answer my question a while ago as to how you would judge whether or not a person was a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I really haven’t thought about it. I can’t give you precise standards and tests. I, for instance, don’t think, I mean the standards and tests set down in the Communist Control Act of 1954 are good; I think they would embrace a lot of people who are non-Communists. I think it would involve a lot of people who are not members of the Communist Party if you were to take those tests, for instance. I think it is entirely too broad.

Mr. TAVENNER. The sum and substance of your testimony is that the eight witnesses whose testimony I have quoted here are not worthy of belief and therefore, you just ignored their testimony when the matter came up of associating Rabbitt and Pennock with you in the Progressive Party work?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Not only as far as I was concerned, but as far as the people of the State of Washington, particularly in the districts that these representatives were concerned, and the Legislative Assembly of the State of Washington itself, this job was so poorly done by the Canwell committee that the committee was never re-created, and in the last session of the Legislative Assembly of Washington State had Canwell before it for contempt for the destruction of the records of his committee.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you answer my question, please?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, the thing I am trying to point out to you is that I know how those hearings were conducted. There was no opportunity, no opportunity for cross-examination; no opportunity for witnesses to come in on the other side, or anything. I mean, people were paraded there, like Budenz, and the others, came there and made long, long statements; they just went on and on and made statements about almost everything imaginable and conceivable.

Mr. TAVENNER. You still haven’t answered my question.

Mr. O’CONNELL. As far as I was concerned that did not prove to me that Rabbitt or Pennock or anybody named in there was Communist.

Mr. TAVENNER. My question was whether or not you absolutely ignored the testimony in the selection of those people to assist you in the work of the Progressive Party.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, I wouldn’t use the language that I totally ignored it, or anything, but I was not motivated in my dealings with them by anything that was developed in those hearings. Now, you promised me an opportunity to----

Mr. TAVENNER. I will.

Mr. O’CONNELL. All right.

Mr. TAVENNER. You have told us that you were acquainted with Barbara Hartle.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes, I think that is a correct statement that I was acquainted with her.

Mr. TAVENNER. You stated that you had met her probably 5 times.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I met her the first time in Montana. Then I met her a few times in the State of Washington.

Mr. TAVENNER. I asked Mrs. Hartle in the course of the testimony taken in June 1954 to tell the committee to what extent the Communist Party in that area was interested in the work of the Progressive Party. You will find it on page 6215 of her testimony. Her reply was this:

To a very considerable extent. After the reconstitution the
Communist Party recognized its revisionism of Marxism-Leninism in
the political field, and decided that the correct program was for a
new third anti-imperialist party. After this ideological campaign
had proceeded for at least a year the Progressive Party was founded
preceded for a period by the Progressive Citizens of America. The
Communist Party viewed this as a development along favorable lines
and in this district threw considerable effort into the support
and building of it and was able to furnish the top leadership as
well in the State. Hugh DeLacy, head of the Progressive Citizens of
America, Jerry O’Connell, and Tom Rabbitt, head of the Progressive
Party, all three of whom were in executive positions, were members
of the Communist Party to the best of my understanding. I have less
knowledge of O’Connell’s Communist Party membership than of DeLacy
and Rabbitt, but have sat in Communist Party meetings with him when
all present were Communists, and I understood him to be one also,
or at least so sympathetic as to make no actual difference. Many
Communist Party members were for the founding of the Progressive
Party in this State and worked in it after its founding. They
numbered in the hundreds. The policy of the Progressive Party in
this State was controlled by the Communist Party and if there
were any problems at all along this line they came from national
demands or from demands of persons and groups working also in the
Progressive Party and whom the Communist Party wanted to retain
and influence. Other Communist Party leaders also in leadership of
the Progressive Party were William J. Pennock, Karley Larsen, Fair
Taylor, Tom Rabbitt, Jerry O’Connell.

Then she proceeded to refer to other Communist Party members active in the Progressive Party.

I want to call to your attention the fact that she stated that the Communist Party furnished the leadership to the Progressive Party in the State. The first person she named in that capacity was Hugh DeLacy. What was Hugh DeLacy’s position in the Progressive Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Hugh DeLacy had no position in the Progressive Party and no office in the Progressive Party, in the State of Washington.

Mr. TAVENNER. Was it in the Progressive Citizens of America?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I think he was head of the Progressive Citizens of America. We had actually, when the Progressive Party was organized we had a real fight because the Progressive Citizens of America were coming in, they had an organizational drive which was in support of Wallace as such, but when the Progressive Party of Washington was actually set up the leadership came not from the people who were in the Progressive Citizens of America, but from people who were in the Democratic Party.

Mr. TAVENNER. And people who were in the Young Progressives?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I don’t think we had any Young Progressives.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did you have any position, prior to the formation of the Progressive Party in any organization other than the Democratic Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No. As I told you, we had an organization known as Roosevelt Democrats; I was executive secretary of it.

Mr. TAVENNER. Other than that, you had no position in any group or branch?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, and Tom Rabbitt was not the head of the Progressive Party. Russell Fluent was.

Mr. TAVENNER. But he did hold an executive position as stated by Mrs. Hartle?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, he did not.

Mr. TAVENNER. What was his position?

Mr. O’CONNELL. As I said, he was on the staff from about, I would say----

Mr. TAVENNER. Isn’t that an executive position, being a member of the staff? Was he paid for his services?

Mr. O’CONNELL. He was paid for his services.

I mean, as I understand, he was not in an executive position. He had an organizational job to do this southern King County. I mean, he was assigned to organizational work, but it certainly wasn’t, I mean he wasn’t chairman or vice chairman, or secretary, or any executive position as I know it. And because of the kind of job he did out there, I dropped him from the staff.

Mr. TAVENNER. Now, DeLacy has been shown to have been a member of the Communist Party by witnesses other than Barbara Hartle and since her testimony. Rabbitt has also.

Mrs. Hartle stated she had less knowledge of Communist Party membership on your part, but that she sat with you in Communist Party meetings when all present were Communists. Is that statement true or false?

Mr. O’CONNELL. That statement, as far as I am concerned, is false. I never sat in any Communist Party meeting with her, at least that I knew was called a Communist Party meeting. I have never sat in when all present were Communists.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did you sit in any Communist Party meeting when some of the persons present were not Communists?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I do not know what her definition of a Communist Party meeting would be. That is the first thing that bothers me about that statement. I, for instance--I mean if the Communist Party called a meeting, as I understand her statement here, if the Communist Party called a meeting I know I never went to that meeting.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did you sit in a meeting of Communist Party members?

Mr. O’CONNELL. If she means, for instance, that a meeting of probable Democrats in the 35th District, people who were in the Democrat Party were there and there was a meeting----

Mr. TAVENNER. You speak of the Democrat Party each time. This testimony relates to the Progressive Party. Why not refer to that period of time?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, she said she sat in Communist Party meetings with me when all present were Communists. Likewise with the Progressive Party. I mean there could have been a Progressive Party meeting called and all that, and all of the people there present might have been Communists to her knowledge but certainly not to mine. She is careful; I mean she qualifies, she says, “I understood to be one or at least so sympathetic as to make no actual difference.” She had doubts.

Mr. WILLIS. At this point that is what this has just about boiled down to in my mind, Mrs. Hartle’s description. This morning I sat here and listened to the period of time when you were chairman of the Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill. You became associated with or had business relations with Mr. Silberstein, Mr. Stone, Rose Clinton, Tom Buchanan, Ruth Rifkin, Elizabeth Sasuly, Tilla Minowitz, Carl Marzani, Lillian Clott, and Alexander Wright. In each instance you had an explanation, although we read from the record that others had said that these people were Communists, that you did not know about them. Well, that is a little difficult but it could have happened. I am not reproaching you, but you become a little more indifferent when you will not accept, for instance, the pronouncement of a court, the highest court of the land, that Rosenbergs were Communists. You refuse to accept that; you still are not convinced.

To me her description is becoming pretty good, to be so tolerant as to be completely indifferent. Probably your mind is shut to having a standard to satisfy you as to whether a group is or is not Communist. I am entirely frank about it. Listening all morning my mind at this time, even more and more as we go along, is that maybe your sincere feeling--how did she describe that?

Mr. O’CONNELL (reading):

I understand him to be one also, or at least so sympathetic as to
make no actual difference.

Mr. WILLIS. Well, if she had used the words “so indifferent,” it would have been pretty close to my frank analysis of your testimony.

Mr. VELDE. Let me say I concur with your statement, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. WILLIS. If she had substituted the word “indifferent,” it would have been a close analysis of our appreciation of your testimony up to now. I look forward, however, to your contest with Mr. Budenz in that lawsuit that you mentioned.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I want to assure you that there is a difference. One can be a sincere American liberal and still fight for the political rights and civil rights of Communists. I can be non-Communist and yet not anti-Communist, just like I can be a Democrat and yet not an anti-Republican.

Mr. WILLIS. Yes, but you still have not given us a standard. It is hard to put in words--I do not know how to describe it--as to what is my standard, of what is a Communist. I would say that after a trial by all our courts, including a refusal of relief from the Supreme Court, refusal of appeals to two Presidents, with all the pressure brought on them, the courts and executive officers (I suppose they must have reviewed the record; they all seemed satisfied) but still you are not satisfied. So that makes it indifferent to me as to what your standard could be.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I do not want to go into all of the evidence as I understand it, but as an attorney I am completely suspicious of the testimony given by David Greenglass. He had real motives. He had everything to gain by what he was doing. During the pleas for clemency and since that time there has been other evidence produced that in my mind raises a real question, the positions taken by Dr. Harold Urey and by other scientists as to whether or not the so-called secret which was transferred or alleged to have been transferred and so on was a secret at all. These are the things that make me wonder about it. I am not satisfied.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. O’Connell, you of course, noted from the testimony that I read that Barbara Hartle, who has been qualified as an expert in this field, stated that the Communist Party furnished the top leadership in the State of Washington for the Progressive Party. She also stated that the policy of the Progressive Party in that State was controlled by the Communist Party.

Now in that connection I want to follow a little further along with her testimony to support the extent to which the Communist Party was in a position to control the Progressive Party. I made this statement to Mrs. Hartle on page 6216:

Mrs. Hartle, the committee staff has procured from the secretary of
state of the State of Washington a photostatic copy of the reports
required to be made by law of the proceedings of the nominating
convention for the year 1952--

that was the nominating convention of the Progressive Party--

It is noted that the certificate is signed by Thomas C. Rabbitt,
permanent secretary of the Progressive Party. You have heretofore
identified him as a member of the Communist Party, have you not?

Mrs. HARTLE. Yes, I have.

Mr. TAVENNER. The document referred to contains a
certificate of attendance at the nominating convention of the
Progressive Party held on the 9th day of September 1952. Will you
please examine the list and read into the record the names of those
appearing thereon who are known to you to have been members of the
Communist Party?

(The witness then proceeded to read the names of those she had identified.)

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you now count the number of those whose
signatures appear on the list?

Mrs. HARTLE. Yes; 33.

Mr. TAVENNER. I have kept a record of the number of those
identified by you as members of the Communist Party. Out of the
total list of 33 names, you have identified 19.

Mrs. Hartle further testified that while she was in the underground of the Communist Party, which meant after 1950----

Mr. O’CONNELL. Where is that?

Mr. TAVENNER. It is on the same page.

I received a brief description of what this Independent Party was.
I was told that it had been impossible to place candidates for the
Communist Party on the election ballot and that steps were taken
then to put Communist candidates on an Independent Party ticket and
take this means of bringing the Communist program into the election
campaign.

The result was that we furnished to Mrs. Hartle a list of 49 persons certified by an affidavit to have attended the nominating convention of the Independent Party. Mrs. Hartle was asked to examine that list. Of the 49 persons appearing on the list, she identified 36 as known to her to be members of the Communist Party.

Mr. O’CONNELL. That list, of course, is all 1952 with reference to the Progressive Party in 1950, with reference to the so-called Independent Party?

Mr. TAVENNER. That is right.

Mr. O’CONNELL. My testimony is that I left the State of Washington in October 1949.

Mr. TAVENNER. That is correct.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I could distinguish if we had the time, as far as these people were concerned, with reference to the Progressive Party as it existed when I was there.

(Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)

(The committee members present when the hearing reconvened were Messrs. Willis and Velde.)

Mr. WILLIS. The subcommittee will come to order.

Proceed, Mr. Tavenner.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. O’Connell, you told us a few minutes ago that Hugh DeLacy had not been connected with your organization; that is, the Progressive Party.

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I did not say that he----

Mr. TAVENNER. You said he was not in an executive position.

Mr. O’CONNELL. He was not in an executive position.

Mr. TAVENNER. Was he an organizer employed by you?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I do not remember whether he was there during the period when the party was actually organized, but he was there for a period of a few weeks.

Mr. TAVENNER. That was in 1948, was it not?

Mr. O’CONNELL. In 1948 when the organization work was being done. Then he later went on to the position with the national office of the Progressive Party.

Mr. TAVENNER. He finally became the head of the Progressive Party for the State of Ohio?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I think that is correct.

Mr. TAVENNER. According to his testimony, he was employed as a State organizer for the Progressive Party in Washington from sometime around February or March, perhaps even later, of 1948, up to somewhere around June of the same year.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I think that is comparatively correct. My remembrance of it is that the provisional committee operated from about March, I would say around March 23 of 1948, and we actually had the founding convention of the rest of the party in the State of Washington the latter part of May.

Mr. TAVENNER. DeLacy was a paid functionary for the Progressive Party during the period he indicated, was he not?

Mr. O’CONNELL. He was a paid organizer during that period.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did you employ him?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I could not say strictly that I employed him. I think that there was an executive committee group that was set up at the time.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you his superior?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I was his superior; yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. Now you indicated that you desired an opportunity to explain the testimony that Mr. Louis Budenz----

Mr. WILLIS. Before you come to that, you started to say 3 or 4 times that you had fired Mr. Rabbitt.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I fired Mr. Rabbitt; I removed him from the staff. Is that what you mean?

Mr. WILLIS. Yes. Why did you fire him?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I explained he was organizing in southern King County and he was supercritical of the work of a man by the name of Belden who was organizing clubs in what we call the 30th Legislative District of King County. The party was being attacked as being Communist or Communist-controlled or Red, and Belden was trying to explain as an ordinary individual that it was not Communist-controlled and was not Red. In the course of his explanation, at least, left anti-Communist inference; Rabbitt was critical of it.

Mr. TAVENNER. It appears from the certificate made under law to the State of Washington that he was secretary of the Progressive Party in 1952--that Rabbitt was secretary.

Mr. O’CONNELL. In 1952?

Mr. TAVENNER. Yes.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I, of course, of my own knowledge would not know if that is correct.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did he remain on the executive committee of the Progressive Party after the time you say you discharged him from his paid position?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, not as long as I was there. When I left in October of 1949, as I understand, in the early part of December a resolution was passed by the State board of the Progressive Party declaring my office vacant because I had not returned from the State of Montana. Either at that meeting or shortly after, Rabbitt was named by the executive committee. I think, first, the original title given to him was coordinator. Later I think he was made executive secretary. I know these things from what people have told me, but not of my own knowledge.

Mr. TAVENNER. I am not sure that you have answered specifically my question relating to the testimony of Barbara Hartle insofar as it referred to you. Barbara Hartle testified that you attended Communist Party meetings in which she was present where all the persons present were members of the Communist Party. Did you attend any such meeting or meetings?

Mr. O’CONNELL I think my explanation of that was that if I sat in a Communist Party meeting or what she considered to be a Communist Party meeting where all present were Communists, I had no knowledge that they were Communists or it was a Communist Party meeting. Since I read the testimony yesterday, I tried to recall all the meetings out there where there would be a possibility she was present. I just cannot recall the occasions I saw Barbara Hartle out there--usually on the street or something of that kind--and I cannot recall any meeting that she sat in that I was in. I just cannot remember any single meeting that she sat in there where at least I knew she was there. She might have been in another room or some other place, but she was not visible to me anywhere.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you a member of the Communist Party during the period of time you were in the State of Washington?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I was not.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you at any time while in the State of Washington, that is, between 1944 and 1949, affiliated in any way with the Communist Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I was not.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you at any time a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I am not now and I have never been a member of the Communist Party.

Mr. TAVENNER. You stated a desire to explain the testimony of Mr. Louis Budenz given at the Canwell hearings.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes. At the Canwell hearings, Mr. Budenz--I think to save time, and I want to save time, Mr. Budenz testified that--I think the substance of his testimony was that he did not know whether or not I was a Communist, very much like Mrs. Hartle does. I think it is significant that she was the second top Communist in the State of Washington; and yet if I were the leading Communist that she says I was out there, she still is not sure whether I was or not. I think that is quite significant.

Likewise with Budenz. He was not sure whether I was Communist, but he had heard some discussion about me in the Communist Party headquarters in New York. As far as he knew, in meetings that he had heard, I was supposed to be all right and I was a person they could get along with. He made many statements of that kind. Then he went into the statement about the assassination of Leon Trotsky, which to the press in the State of Washington, left the impression that particularly somehow or other I was involved. So I sued Mr. Budenz in a civil suit in the Superior Court of King County the very next day.

Mr. WILLIS. In New York?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; in the State of Washington--Seattle, Wash. I sued him for libel for the statements that he made about me. I fixed the sum of damages at $1,500,000. He was served with subpena, legally served with a summons, rather, in that suit, and through his attorneys defended the suit by taking advantage of his immunity as a legislative witness before the State legislative committee. He did not defend it.

Mr. WILLIS. What do you mean, he did not defend it?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I mean instead of letting the thing come to trial, instead of letting the issue come to trial on facts, to be tried on the facts, and so on, he and his attorneys hid behind his legislative immunity that he was in the State of Washington by virtue of a subpena to appear before the legislative committee of the State of Washington and under the laws of the State could not be legally served with a summons and sued in the State. The case was dismissed on that ground.

Mr. TAVENNER. Was this the testimony to which you referred:

I will ask you, Professor, Do you know a former Congressman from
Montana by the name of Jerry O’Connell?

Mr. BUDENZ. Yes, sir.

Question. Do you know whether or not Mr. O’Connell was a member of
the Communist Party?

Mr. BUDENZ. Not that specific. I know that he was one
whom the party felt it must take care of because of his agreement
constantly with the party line. This came up in the case of
Congressman John T. Bernard, of Minnesota, and Congressman
O’Connell. The discussion came up in the national headquarters
of the Communist Party in the committee headed by William Winant
about how to take care of these Congressmen because they agreed
with the party line. And it was agreed that Bernard and O’Connell
both would get jobs with the International Workers Order, this
Communist-controlled front to which I have referred.

Now, it is my impression that--well, I know that Bernard got
it, and it is my impression that Mr. O’Connell temporarily also
received that cynosure through the cooperation of the party. I
heard the discussion in the party circles first, and later on I
heard that it was to be accomplished.

That is the testimony to which you refer?

Mr. O’CONNELL. That is the testimony to which I refer.

Mr. TAVENNER. You were employed by the International Workers Order, were you not?

Mr. O’CONNELL. In order not to prolong it--Congressman Willis did not hear this, but yesterday I testified about my connections with the International Workers Order. The original contact, as I remember, was made by Peter Shipka to advise the local Serbs and Croats which existed in the city of Butte. It was, as I remember, during a period when I think Hitler had already invaded Yugoslavia and it was a question of whether they were supporting Milhailovich or Pavlich. There was a lot of dissension going on between the Serbs and Croats. I was asked to go down and advise with them and help with them. Many of them I knew because of my political candidacies for legislature and for the railroad and public service commission and for Congress there.

Mr. TAVENNER. That is all in the record.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes. Then I was sent on a specific job to do with reference to these coal miners at Steamboat Springs who were applying for citizenship and were members of the International Workers Order.

Mr. TAVENNER. You were employed to go on speaking tours over the country for which you were paid $200 a month and your expenses?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I made only one speaking tour on the plan for plenty. The plan for plenty we had was an improved social security, called for improvement of the social security system as it existed at that time. I made some speeches. You asked me what I got, how much compensation I had received. I said in my opinion it would average about $200 a month.

Mr. TAVENNER. And your expenses?

Mr. O’CONNELL. And my expenses, yes. I knew nothing about Mr. Budenz’ discussion with the Communist Party headquarters or anything. I got a call from Mr. Shipka. I am sure it was Mr. Shipka, the treasurer of the organization, who asked me first to do these two specific jobs which I did within a short time. Then later he called me to make these speeches on a plan for plenty.

Mr. TAVENNER. Now I have before me an excerpt from the May 29, 1941, issue of Montana Labor News. The title is, “IWO Names O’Connell Rocky Mountain Director.” It is datelined New York, May 10. I will read it:

“Former Representative Jerry J. O’Connell, labor’s fighting
Congressman from Montana, has been appointed regional director for
the International Workers Order in the Rocky Mountain area, Herbert
Benjamin, executive secretary of that organization, announced
today. Mr. O’Connell will be able to continue his effort on behalf
of the labor movement on a much broader scale in his new post,”
Herbert Benjamin declared, “since the IWO is labor’s foremost
and largest fraternal benefit society. Our national membership
of 155,000 supports the trade-union movement and its individual
members on many fronts; providing insurance, sickness, and accident
benefits at low rates, a rounded program of club and fraternal
social life, plus a nationwide campaign for improving living
standards, and social security embodied in our plan for plenty.”

Mr. O’CONNELL. That is the first I knew--nobody told me that I was to be regional director of the IWO. As far as I can remember, as far as their clubs were concerned out in the Rocky Mountain area, they had one in Butte, which was the only one they had in the whole State of Montana. I think they had one down in this town called Steamboat Springs, Col. Those were the only two clubs that I know of in the Rocky Mountain area. There were certainly no--at least on my part, there was no idea I was to be regional director, because the first 2 assignments that I got were first to go down to advise this club in Butte and the other to go down to this Steamboat Springs, in Colorado, and clear up the question that the judge and the examiner were raising there. The judge at the time thought that the IWO and the IWW were one and the same. I brought Mr. Charles Cunningham, I think his name was, commissioner of insurance of the State of Colorado, to the judge to point out that the IWO was a fraternal benefit organization.

Mr. TAVENNER. You have explained all that in exactly the same detail.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes, but the concept that I was a regional director----

Mr. WILLIS. I am not so sure I followed you on the reason for the dismissal of the suit you filed.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I did not dismiss the suit.

Mr. WILLIS. I do not think I caught the point. Was it a jurisdictional question? Specifically, what was it?

Mr. O’CONNELL. It was a motion to quash. Actually, it arose on the motion to quash the service of the summons.

Mr. WILLIS. On what grounds?

Mr. O’CONNELL. On the grounds that Mr. Budenz had immunity as a legislative witness before the State legislative committee that he was appearing before in the State of Washington.

Mr. WILLIS. He was not from Washington--not a resident of the State of Washington?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; he was a resident of New York.

Mr. WILLIS. You filed suit against him in Washington at a time while he happened to be there?

Mr. O’CONNELL. While he happened to be there.

Mr. WILLIS. But he was there on State legislative business?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes.

Mr. WILLIS. And therefore was immune from service, and that was the basis for his motion to quash?

Mr. O’CONNELL. We served the summons on him. My desire was to get a test and a trial on the factual merits.

Mr. WILLIS. Was it filed in the State or Federal court?

Mr. O’CONNELL. In the superior court of King County.

Mr. WILLIS. His motion to quash was based on the fact he was served with the papers while he happened to be in the State of Washington on State legislative business and therefore was not subject to service process?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes.

Mr. WILLIS. And his motion came up before the court and the court dismissed the action?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes.

Mr. WILLIS. Did you sue him elsewhere?

Mr. O’CONNELL. And I did not pursue it elsewhere.

Mr. WILLIS. You did not file suit elsewhere against him?

Mr. O’CONNELL. By the time that was done he was gone.

Mr. WILLIS. I am not talking about that. You could have sued him. Anybody is subject to suit somewhere, and his domicile is the real place. I say did you not pursue him, upon dismissal of the suit in Washington and file another suit elsewhere?

Mr. O’CONNELL. You mean go to New York and file a suit against him?

Mr. WILLIS. Yes.

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; certainly not.

Mr. WILLIS. Or in the Federal court or in any court?

Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, I would have to go to New York. If he was a resident of New York, I would have to go to New York in order to get service; but I had him out in the State of Washington where I did get service on him.

Mr. TAVENNER. I desire to offer the photostatic copy of the news article from the Montana Labor News and ask that it be marked as “O’Connell Exhibit No. 7” for identification purposes only, and to be made a part of the committee files.

Mr. WILLIS. It is so ordered.

Mr. TAVENNER. I would like the record to show at this point that the International Workers Order was cited as subversive and Communist by Attorney General Tom Clark on December 4, 1947, and again on September 21, 1948, and that it was cited by Attorney General Francis Biddle on September 24, 1942, as one of the strongest Communist organizations. It has also been cited by other committees, including this committee.

Were you acquainted with its secretary, Herbert Benjamin?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I knew Herbert Benjamin. I am pretty sure he is the same Herbert Benjamin who was an officer in the Workers Alliance during WPA days, when I was in Congress. But I have actually had no contact with Benjamin in the IWO. In fact, this is the first I knew he had any connection with the IWO. But I knew him; I am sure he was lobbying here on the Hill with a man by the name of David Lasser while I was in Congress. I think he was with the Workers Alliance.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you acquainted with Louis Budenz prior to the time he appeared as a witness at the Canwell hearings in the State of Washington?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, I was not acquainted with him. Shortly before he left the Communist Party he wrote me a letter asking me to write a series of articles for the Daily Worker about Senator Wheeler, which I refused, which I rejected. That is the only contact I ever had. I never met Budenz, never saw him or anything, until he was out in the State of Washington.

Mr. VELDE. Did he want you to write articles favorable to Senator Wheeler?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, he wanted me to write anti-Wheeler articles. Senator Wheeler and I became tangled politically out there. I was going to run against Senator Wheeler for the Senate in 1940, and Senator Wheeler of course took care of me in 1938. So I did not get to run. I mean the fight, there were people who were anxious to defeat Wheeler from 1940 on down until he was actually defeated in 1946.

He wrote that letter to me, I would say, just shortly before he left the Communist Party.

Mr. WILLIS. Those articles were to appear in the Daily Worker?

Mr. O’CONNELL. In the Daily Worker; yes.

Mr. WILLIS. Would an unfavorable article appearing in the Daily Worker be harmful to one’s political life in those days in Montana?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No, I mean----

Mr. WILLIS. You did not want to inject yourself in it?

Mr. O’CONNELL. I did not want to write the articles, that is all.

Mr. WILLIS. I would say the best compliment to me in my district would be for the Daily Worker to say that I was a rotter.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, I think that would be true today. You would be surprised if you went out to the State of Montana and went into some of the mining camps and taverns and what not. For instance, we have a character in Butte by the name of Paddy King. Paddy sells the Daily Worker. He has silicosis. He is a real character around there. He goes all around the town. Everybody buys the Daily Worker from Paddy. They do not think much of it. Some of them read it, some of them throw it away, and so on.

Mr. VELDE. Do you still read it?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I do not. Of course, I do not live in Butte any longer. I actually do not think I have seen the Daily Worker since they used to be delivered to our doors here in Washington.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you acquainted with Alexander Bittelman?

Mr. O’CONNELL. No. Who is he?

Mr. TAVENNER. Alexander Bittelman has been identified in testimony as a functionary of the Communist Party in the city of New York.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I do not know any Alexander Bittelman.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, I have no further questions.