decided that whoever was involved would have to register with the----
Mr. TAVENNER. You had a discussion? You and who else?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Myself, Mr. Silberstein, Mr. Waybur, Mr. Stone,
and at different times some of the other people who are listed on the
committee stationery there. I can’t remember just which one.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was Mr. Stone known to you to be a member of the
Communist Party?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; he was not. His father had been the dean of
the school of journalism out at the University of Montana.
Mr. TAVENNER. Does that mean the son can’t be an active member
of the Communist Party?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I don’t want to argue with you, Mr. Tavenner.
Mr. TAVENNER. Why present that as a reason?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I wanted to tell you how I knew Mr. Stone and
how I happened to know him. He, of course, was a Montanan, and I knew
him that way, and I knew him when I was in Congress. I think he was in
the press gallery when I was in Congress for the Federated Press, if
I remember correctly, but I certainly had no knowledge that Mr. Stone
was a member of the Communist Party and have no such knowledge, even at
this moment.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, I think the record should show at
this point Mrs. Mary Stalcup Markward at the instance of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation entered the Communist Party in the city of
Washington and served there in an undercover capacity and by reason of
her diligence in her work she was elevated finally to the position of
treasurer of the Communist Party for the District of Columbia.
She appeared before this committee and testified and among other things
identified members of the newspaper club of the Communist Party in the
District of Columbia. Of those persons identified as members of that
club she named John B. Stone, and when asked to give the committee her
knowledge of his activities stated that he had been active within the
National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill, and stated that, “I know
Rob Hall suggested him for membership due to his activity with the
Progressive Party.”
Was Mr. Stone active in the Progressive Party in Montana, when you knew
him there?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Of course the Progressive Party--Mr. Stone was
in Montana in the late twenties and early thirties and so on, when he
might have been identified with the old Progressive Party of Bob La
Follette and Senator Wheeler.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was he active in the Progressive Party in the
District of Columbia?
Mr. SCHERER. I want to ask the witness the same questions I
did about Silberstein. When did you last see Stone?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I think the last time I saw Stone was in 1948.
Mr. SCHERER. Where was that?
Mr. O’CONNELL. That was here in Washington, D. C.
Mr. SCHERER. In connection with what activities?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Doing press work for the National Committee to
Defeat the Mundt Bill.
Mr. SCHERER. Is that the last contact you had with him?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes. I had no--that was the last contact and
the only contact I have had with him outside of the fact that when
he lived out in Montana and because of my political activity and
prominence out there, I knew him at that time.
I was just wondering when he became--when Rob Hall nominated him for
membership or whatever he did--does she date that any time?
Mr. TAVENNER. Her membership in the party was from 1943 to
1949, so it would be within the limits of that period.
Mr. O’CONNELL. I got the impression from what you said that
he was recommended because of the work he had done in the National
Committee to Defeat the Mundt Bill.
Mr. TAVENNER. No; I may not have stated that clearly. I would
like to restate it.
When Mrs. Markward was asked as to her knowledge of Stone’s activities
within the National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill, she testified:
“I know Robert Hall suggested him for membership”--that meant
membership in the Communist Party--“due to his activity with the
Progressive Party.”
Mr. O’CONNELL. The Progressive Party wasn’t organized until
1948.
Mr. TAVENNER. That would indicate that it must then have been
about 1948 or 1949 when this occurred.
Mr. O’CONNELL. My distinct feeling--I don’t know what he may
have done, but my distinct feeling about Mr. Stone is he was not a
member of the Communist Party as long as I knew him.
Mr. SCHERER. Do you know what Stone is doing today?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No, I really don’t.
Mr. SCHERER. The last contact you had with him then was, as
you said, 1949?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I would say, I think the last contact I had
with him was in 1948.
Mr. SCHERER. Do you know what his activities were following
1948?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I really don’t. I haven’t kept up with
him. I think--well, I know at the time he was writing some stories,
children’s stories, or something of that kind. He was talking about it.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you select Stone as the publicity man for
the National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I probably had more to do with his selection
than anybody because of course I knew him as a newspaperman.
Mr. TAVENNER. How many persons normally composed the staff of
the National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Actually in 1948 the only ones outside of
Mr. Silberstein, Mr. Waybur, and one or two of those people on the
letterhead, if they were in town and would come to the meeting, the
actual people working in the office were Mr. Stone and myself and a
stenographer.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you have more than one stenographer at a
time, usually?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I think when the situation, as far as the
legislation was concerned, was critical we may have had additional
stenographers to help get out additional material.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was Rose Clinton ever a member of your staff?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Not to my knowledge. I don’t know anybody by
the name of “Rose Clinton.”
Mr. TAVENNER. The quarterly statement submitted by you for the
period ended June 30, 1949, filed July 9, 1949, reveals that she was
employed by your committee.
Mr. O’CONNELL. If she were, I certainly don’t recollect or
remember her. She was probably an ordinary stenographer. Her name
means--I have no recollection, and it means nothing to me.
Mr. TAVENNER. Have you any recollection of her?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I can’t, I think--does it show she was a
stenographer there?
Mr. TAVENNER. Yes; shows she was paid a salary of $250 for the
month of June.
Mr. O’CONNELL. I can’t remember. There could have been. I
remember one little girl there and the name I remember is Marjorie. I
think her first name was Marjorie. I don’t know if that was in the 1948
period or the 1950.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, I think the record should also
show that according to the testimony of Mrs. Mary Markward, Rose
Clinton was known to her as a member of the Communist Party in the
District of Columbia and assigned to the Northeast Club of the
Communist Party in this city.
In the course of her testimony Mrs. Markward said:
Rose Clinton, I believe she was active in the Committee To Defeat
the Mundt Bill in 1949.
Mr. O’CONNELL. I wasn’t in the city of Washington in 1949 in
connection with the National Committee to Defeat the Mundt Bill.
Mr. TAVENNER. However, were you not chairman for the National
Committee to Defeat the Mundt Bill during that period?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes.
Mr. TAVENNER. You signed quarterly reports showing who were
employed and the amounts of salaries paid?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I am pretty sure the reports were sent to me in
Montana in 1949, and I signed them.
Mr. TAVENNER. Are you acquainted with a person named Tom
Buchanan?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I think he did the presswork for the committee
in 1950.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you employ him?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No. When I came down here in 1950 he had
already been employed by Mr. Waybur or Mr. Silberstein; I don’t know
which. I think, wasn’t he a reporter, had been a reporter for the
Washington Star?
Mr. TAVENNER. Yes; he was until he was removed from that
position. Did you know Tom Buchanan to be a member of the Communist
Party?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I did not.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, I think the record should also
show that Tom Buchanan was identified in the testimony of Mrs. Mary
Stalcup Markward as an ex-Washington newspaperman assigned to the Youth
Club of the Communist Party when he became a member of the Communist
Party in Washington, D. C.
Later he was transferred to the Newspaper Club of the Communist Party
in Washington and since that time has been an employee of the Civil
Rights Congress in Washington.
Mr. O’CONNELL. Does it state when he became a member of the
Communist Party?
Mr. TAVENNER. I am not certain that it does. I do not have her
testimony with me. But I am not certain as to the number of years of
Communist Party membership before he was assigned to the Newspaper Club
of the Communist Party.
Was Ruth Rifkin an employee of your committee?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I can’t remember now. The name doesn’t--wasn’t
she a notary public?
Mr. TAVENNER. She could have been a notary public.
Mr. O’CONNELL. Didn’t she run in addition to being a notary
public, didn’t she run a mimeograph shop or something of that kind?
That is the recollection that I have.
Mr. TAVENNER. According to your report covering the period of
April 1950 she was employed in a secretarial capacity. She was paid for
secretarial services.
Mr. O’CONNELL. I think she ran a secretarial service shop and
did mimeographing and so on. That is my recollection.
Mr. TAVENNER. How was she employed by you?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I think we took particular materials to her
sometimes to dictate and then to have her run off on mimeograph.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was she known to you to be a member of the
Communist Party?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No, she was not.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, I would like for the record to
show Mary Stalcup Markward in the course of her testimony before this
committee also identified Ruth Rifkin as a member of the Communist
Party.
Mr. WILLIS. Was she assigned or had anything to do with the
Newspaper Club of the Communist Party?
Mr. TAVENNER. No, sir. I am certain she was not, but I
would like to turn to that testimony, if I can locate it. I think it
important to read that testimony, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. WILLIS. I asked that question because the witness
identified her as some kind of a secretarial service or mimeographing
service.
Mr. O’CONNELL. My only recollection about her was that
her shop was close to the Lawyers Guild office there and she did
secretarial work and got out mimeographing and my connection with her
was of course completely mechanical.
Mr. TAVENNER. Who selected her for the performance of their
work?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I would imagine Mr. Silberstein told me she did
that kind of work and where her office was and where her shop was.
Mr. TAVENNER. Were you acquainted with Elizabeth Sasuly?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes, I was.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was she employed by the National Committee To
Defeat the Mundt Bill?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I am pretty sure she was. I think she was
employed both in--well, I couldn’t say whether she was employed both in
1948 and 1950 or just in 1948, or just in 1950, but my recollection is
she was employed both of the times I was down here in 1948 and in 1950.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was she known to you to be a member of the
Communist Party?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I had no knowledge that she was a member of
the Communist Party or not.
Mr. TAVENNER. I think the record should show Elizabeth Sasuly
appeared before this committee on July 12, 1949, at which time she
refused to answer any and all questions put to her by the committee
pertaining to her membership in the Communist Party or any questions
relating to Communist Party activities in the city of Washington.
Mr. WILLIS. In light of that I think it is important for the
witness to try to refresh his memory as to whether she was in fact
employed on his return to Washington in 1950 or do the payroll records
so indicate?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Of course, Congressman, also I had no knowledge
she was before the committee.
Mr. WILLIS. I am not implying it. I want to be fair with you.
You are a lawyer and you can see the point.
Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes.
Mr. TAVENNER. Possibly I can clear that up from reference to
the records. The report covering the second quarter of 1950 by you
to the House of Representatives shows that in April 1950 Elizabeth
Sasuly was paid salary and expenses of $359.89. Does that refresh your
recollection?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes. My recollection, I knew she was employed
by the committee, but I wasn’t sure which year, whether it was in 1948
or 1950 or whether it was both of those years, as a matter of fact.
But, I again, I repeat that I had no knowledge that she was or was not
a member of the Communist Party.
Mr. TAVENNER. Returning now to Ruth Rifkin----
Mr. O’CONNELL. If I remember correctly, was Miss Sasuly cited
for contempt?
Mr. TAVENNER. No.
Mrs. Markward was asked the question:
Are you acquainted with an individual by the name of Ruth Rifkin?
To which she replied: “Yes.”
She was asked the question:
What was the nature of your relationship with Ruth Rifkin?
And Mrs. Markward testified as follows:
I got a transfer card from this individual together with a note
saying if I contact her I was to say I was Evelyn’s cousin. I
believe she was living at McLean Gardens at that time. I called and
made an appointment to meet her. She was quite cautious about the
way this meeting should take place. We met at Union Station and
had dinner later. I learned later she was working for the United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
“Question. Where did she come from?
“Mrs. MARKWARD. New York.
“Question. What was the purpose of your contacting her?
“Mrs. MARKWARD. I contacted her as Evelyn’s cousin.
“Question. Did you pick her up on your rolls?
“Mrs. MARKWARD. Because of her working with the UNRRA in
the State Department, I could not transfer her in our organization
as such. However, I talked to her. She seemed extremely capable and
a good Communist. So I spoke to Elizabeth Searle about seeing if
she could be picked up by some organization that did take members
working for the Government and Elizabeth Searle took the address
and how to get in touch with her and said she would see what could
be done.
“Question. Did you subsequently see Ruth Rifkin?
“Mrs. MARKWARD. Yes. She seemed disturbed by the manner in
which she had been contacted and she asked if this other person was
all right. I went to Elizabeth Searle about this and she said it
was all right because this other person was in a position that it
would be assumed she was calling about union business. Ruth Rifkin
and I had dinner together at the time we had this conversation.
Ruth Rifkin told me she was not in a position with UNRRA that she
wanted to seem identified with a union. Elizabeth Searle told me to
tell her not to call and talk to me over the telephone, so I had no
further contact with her.”
That is the testimony relating to her.
Mr. O’CONNELL. Now I want to clarify--was she with UNRRA?
Mr. TAVENNER. According to the testimony of Mrs. Markward she
was.
Mr. O’CONNELL. When?
Mr. TAVENNER. In the State Department.
Mr. O’CONNELL. I think UNRRA had been, I think it had actually
been discontinued by 1948.
Mr. TAVENNER. Suppose it was discontinued.
Mr. O’CONNELL. What I want to point out is that my
relationship with her is I brought her material to transcribe or to
mimeograph and so on. My recollection is she was running a secretarial
shop.
Mr. TAVENNER. Which of course was a period after UNRRA had
been disbanded.
Mr. O’CONNELL. What I wanted to make clear is I had no
connection with her while she was a Government employee.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. O’Connell, where did the committee have its
printing done?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I really couldn’t recollect.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was it the Superior Print Shop?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I am sure we have it in the report there.
Mr. TAVENNER. Your report so says.
Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes.
Mr. TAVENNER. Who was the owner of the Superior Print Shop?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I really don’t know.
Mr. TAVENNER. Who made the arrangements for the Superior Print
Shop to do the printing for your committee?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I just couldn’t recollect who actually did it.
I would imagine the stenographer in the office called them to come and
said we had certain printing to do or something of that kind. I wasn’t
acquainted, I wasn’t in Washington, D. C., with the various printing
houses and my actual work with the committee was largely on the Hill.
I was rarely in the office. I was out here contacting Members of the
House and Members of the Senate.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mrs. Markward in her testimony advised the
committee that the operator of the Superior Print Shop was Tilla
Minowitz, and she identified Tilla Minowitz as a member of the
Communist Party and as a member of the Community Club of the Communist
Party in Washington, D. C.
Tilla Minowitz was subpenaed before this committee on July 6, 1949, and
refused to answer any and all questions put to her by the committee
dealing with her membership in the Communist Party.
Mr. WILLIS. When was that?
Mr. TAVENNER. July 6, 1949. The report covering June 1949
shows the payment of a bill for printing in the amount of $195 and
the report covering March 1950 shows the printing of letterheads and
stationery on March 30, 1950.
Were you aware at that time that Tilla Minowitz had been identified and
had been brought before this committee and questioned regarding her
Communist Party identification?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I don’t know Tilla Minowitz, I don’t think
I have ever seen her in my life and the name means absolutely nothing
to me. The printing went to Superior Printing Co.
Mr. TAVENNER. You knew she was doing the printing for your
company because you signed these reports.
Mr. O’CONNELL. I didn’t know it was Tilla Minowitz. I knew it
was the Superior Printing Co.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did your committee ever employ the firm of
Presentation, Inc.?
Mr. WILLIS. What?
Mr. TAVENNER. Presentation, Inc.
Mr. O’CONNELL. I can’t recall. If I could see the report--What
does Presentation, Inc., do?
Mr. TAVENNER. We find a report covering June 22, 1949, which
says--
Presentation, Inc., 2118 Massachusetts Avenue NW., 25,000
pamphlets, $785.46--
as one of the items. Does that help you to refresh your recollection?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, I said before, in 1949 I was not down in
Washington. Those reports were sent out to me to be signed as chairman,
and I don’t know Presentation, Inc. I don’t know what they do, but that
report was made up.
Mr. TAVENNER. Another bill in June and September of 1949 is
for printing, done by Presentation, Inc., and the amount of the bill is
$1,075.38. Who selected Presentation, Inc., for this work?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I really wouldn’t know. I don’t know who did it.
Mr. TAVENNER. Notwithstanding your having signed the reports
covering those employments in 1949 when you say you were not actually
in Washington, we find in April of 1950 another printing of pamphlets
on the Mundt bill was done by Presentation, Inc., for which there was a
charge of $300.
At that time did you know that a person by the name of Carl Marzani, an
official of that corporation, was under sentence of the United States
district court after having been convicted for concealing his Communist
Party affiliations while an employee of the Federal Government?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I didn’t know that. In fact, I didn’t know
Presentation, Inc., and didn’t know anybody who was identified with it.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. O’Connell, is it not a fact that during the
period that the Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill used the offices of
the National Lawyers Guild, it also used the National Lawyers Guild
telephone, bearing number District 3205, to which both telegrams and
telephone tolls were charged to the National Lawyers Guild?
Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes; but with an understanding, as I remember,
that whatever expenditure was made on the telephone or telegraph was to
be paid by the National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you reimburse the National Lawyers Guild in
full?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I really don’t know. I went home directly after
the adjournment of Congress in September of 1950 and what disposition
was made after I left of those bills and so on by Mr. Waybur, I don’t
know.
Mr. TAVENNER. You say you don’t know?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I don’t know. As I said, my principal work was
always up here on the Hill. I usually came up in the mornings about
10 o’clock or 9:30 or so and was up here until either adjournment of
Congress or later, and so on, each day that I was here.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did Lillian Clott perform any services for the
National Lawyers Guild while you occupied its offices as chairman for
the committee to defeat the Mundt bill?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I can’t recall. I know Lillian Clott and all
that, but I can’t recall whether she did or not.
Mr. TAVENNER. What were the circumstances under which you
became acquainted with Lillian Clott?
Mr. O’CONNELL. As I remember, first of all her husband or
ex-husband, Herman Clott, is I think legislative representative here
for the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and I
knew him and I think through him I was introduced to her. I think she
later worked, if I remember correctly, with the United Electrical
Workers.
Mr. TAVENNER. Yes; and prior to that time didn’t she work in
one of the Embassies here in Washington?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I don’t know. I wouldn’t know whether she did
or not. When I came here Mr. Waybur, of course, was identified with,
I think he was legislative representative from the United Electrical
Workers and I went there lots of times to pick up my check and she was
working in the office there, and I think Senator Wheeler’s daughter was
also working there, Frances Wheeler, and she introduced me to her.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did she do any work at any time for the National
Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I don’t remember that she did.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was Lillian Clott known to you to be a member of
the Communist Party?
Mr. O’CONNELL. I didn’t know that she was or was not.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, I think the record should show
that Mary Stalcup Markward in the course of her testimony identified
Lillian Clott as a member of the Community Club of the Communist Party
in the District of Columbia, and that when called as a witness before
this committee in September 1954, in Dayton, Ohio, Lillian Clott
refused to testify regarding her alleged Communist Party membership on
the ground that to do so might tend to incriminate her.
Mr. WILLIS. Let’s take an informal recess.
(Brief recess.)
Mr. WILLIS. The committee will come to order.
You may proceed, Mr. Tavenner.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. O’Connell, are you familiar with the
testimony of Matthew Cvetic before this committee, relating to the
activities of the Communist Party in the western part of Pennsylvania
in connection with the National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I am not acquainted with that testimony.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Matthew Cvetic became a member of the
Communist Party at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
and after working quite a number of years for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation within the Communist Party, withdrew and testified fully
before this committee regarding his experience within the Communist
Party.
Mr. Cvetic testified that the District Committee of the Communist Party
of western Pennsylvania established a branch or a unit of the National
Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill. This branch or unit occupied no
office of its own but worked out of the offices of the Communist Party
of western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Cvetic further testified that petitions and pamphlets published by
the National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill were made available
in Pittsburgh for distribution by Communist Party headquarters. He
personally participated in the distribution of petitions and pamphlets
published by the National Committee To Defeat the Mundt Bill at the
instruction of the Communist Party functionaries in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Cvetic also testified that the officials of the Communist Party in
western Pennsylvania referred to the National Committee To Defeat the
Mundt Bill as “One of our organizations.”