Investigation of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles Area

Mr. BALL. No.

Mr. WHEELER. According to the affidavit of registration, which you previously identified as signing, on the back of it is a list of petitions signed by each voter or signed by you as a voter.

You will note the second petition there is 164-F. That indicates that you signed a petition to remove criminal syndicalism laws off the statutes of the State of California.

Can you recall signing such a document?

Mr. BALL. No.

Mr. WHEELER. The document itself I have been unable to locate. However, here is a sample that may in some way refresh your memory. Mr. BALL. Grandpa died with the phrase on his lips, "Workingman," and that is all. That is all there was ever to it, in any sense of the word. All he cared about was the poor guy next door that wasn't making enough to live on.

That is why we went along with him. There wasn't anything vicious about anything that man ever did in that respect. He was a workingman all his life and he only died because he stopped working.

Mr. WHEELER. Going back to the year 1936, did you ever entertain any thoughts that perhaps any member of your family was a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. BALL. No.

Mr. WHEELER. What was the general attitude of the members of the family regarding communism, other than your grandfather?

Mr. BALL. Well, we never had any thoughts or any conversations with respect to communism, so far as we were concerned-I am sure I speak for all of us-so far as we were concerned. Lucille was busy making a living and I was doing the same thing. That is all we were concerned about. She had a career and-we were concerned about getting grandpa and mother from New York to California and getting back together and having our home together. We weren't concerned with communism or Democrats or anything like that, so far as that goes.

Mr. WHEELER. How were you employed in 1936?

Mr. BALL. I was employed by the Trocadero or the Coco Club. I would have to do some checking to find out just exactly which job I

was on.

I was working at the Trocadero as a page boy.

Mr. WHEELER. I have no further questions, Mr. Ball. However, I would like for you to add whatever you desire to the record.

Mr. BALL. I can't add anything to anything I have already said. It is merely a matter of our living grandpa, and anything we could have done to help him bide his time-that was all he was doing, was biding his time and he had no interest in life other than the workingman.

He sat around and read the Daily Worker day in and day out, and chewed about it to everybody that came in.

It was a little embarrassing at times, but there was nothing we could do about it, and the easiest thing to do and the thing that made him the happiest was to listen, which we all did. Anybody that ever came to our house listened to him, and I will tell for sure they didn't get out the door without listening. If we could get them in the back door, that was so much the better.

I know for sure, and I also know the reason grandpa never asked us to participate directly in anything was because he knew better than to ask us. We would listen to him, and it is evident we signed some documents because he asked us to sign them. That is the truth. Are you interested in when I went in Phoenix to the FBI?

Mr. WHEELER. Have you reported this matter that we have been discussing to any other Federal agency?

Mr. BALL. Yes. I went into the FBI in Phoenix, Ariz., about 2 years ago.

Mr. WHEELER. About 2 years ago?

Mr. BALL. Yes.

Mr. WHEELER. And you gave them practically the same outline you have given me today; is that correct?"

Mr. BALL. That is correct.

Mr. WHEELER. I mean there is no additional information you can add regarding it?

Mr. BALL. No. If it would be of any interest, I can tell you why I went in.

Mr. WHEELER. Yes.

Mr. BALL. I went to Phoenix without any prior arrangement for employment, and there was a place called Motorola that I heard about and decided it might be a place to apply.

However, in association with some of the people in the trailer court where I lived, I understood that there was quite an extensive security check. It was one of those secret projects-working on some sort of secret stuff.

Remembering my experience in California, and in deciding I wanted to go to Motorola, I decided the best thing to do, instead of worrying about this thing the rest of my life, was to go down to the FBI and find out if there was anything to prohibit me from going to work; check me first and then go out, and I knew if they wanted to hire me, I would have a job and not have a recurrence like at Vultee.

I told them exactly what I wanted to know and why I wanted to know it. The answer was that Motorola did have a security check that got back to that local FBI office in Phoenix. The rest of them had their own security checks and the FBI wasn't involved. In other words, I could go to any other plant or any plant I wanted, except Motorola, and be pretty sure of employment.

If they wanted to hire me, if there was anything in the record that would stop me from working, the chances are it would come out if I went to Motorola. Therefore I didn't go to Motorola.

Mr. WHEELER. I have nothing further.

(Whereupon, at 4 p. m., Friday, September 4, 1953, the statements were adjourned.)