INVESTIGATION OF COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES IN THE SEATTLE, WASH., AREA-Part 3 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1955 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES, PUBLIC HEARING Washington, D. C. A subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m. in the caucus room, Old House Office Building, Hon. Morgan M. Moulder (chairman) presiding. Committee members present: Representatives Morgan M. Moulder, Clyde Doyle, and Harold H. Velde. Staff members present: Frank S. Tavenner, counsel. Mr. MOULDER. The subcommittee will be in order, please. Let the record show that the Honorable Francis E. Walter, chairman, Committee on Un-American Activities, pursuant to the provisions of law creating this committee, appointed Representatives Clyde Doyle, of California, Harold H. Velde, of Illinois, and myself, Morgan M. Moulder, of Missouri, as chairman of a subcommittee to conduct this hearing. All the members of the subcommittee are present. The hearing today is a continuation of the hearings initiated in Seattle on June 14, 1954, and resumed in Seattle on March 17, 1955. The purpose of the hearings in Seattle was to discover the activities of the Communist Party in the Pacific Northwest area, the extent of Communist infiltration in that area, and the methods resorted to by the Communist Party in the accomplishment of its objectives in that area. Two outstanding witnesses were heard: Mrs. Barbara Hartle, during the hearings of June 14, 1954, and Mr. Eugene V. Dennett during the hearings of March 17, 1955. It is the hope of the committee that the witness to be heard today will throw additional light on the subject of this inquiry. Today's witness was subpenaed to appear before the committee at the March 1955 hearings in Seattle, but due to illness was not heard at that time. Mr. Tavenner, are you ready to proceed? Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Jeremiah Joseph O'Connell. Mr. MOULDER. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony which you are about to give before this subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. O'CONNELL. I do. TESTIMONY OF JEREMIAH JOSEPH O'CONNELL Mr. TAVENNER. What is your name, please, sir? Mr. TAVENNER. Are you also known by the name of Jeremiah J. O'Connell ? Mr. O'CONNELL. Well, I would presume that my baptismal name in the Catholic Church was probably Jeremiah J. O'Connell, but during grade school, high school, college, and law school, and in my political career I have always been known as Jerry J. O'Connell. Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. O'Connell, you are acquainted with the practice of the committee to permit witnesses to be accompanied by counsel and to confer with counsel if a witness desires? Mr. O'CONNELL. Yes, I understand that, sir. Mr. TAVENNER. It is noted that you are not accompanied by counsel. Mr. O'CONNELL. I had expected Senator Langer of North Dakota to appear with me, but his office notified me today he was out of town and wasn't going to be able to get back until this afternoon, but I have worried about this thing, and I have been under tension about it, and I am anxious to get it over with. Mr. TAVENNER. You are satisfied, then, to proced without having counsel with you? Mr. O'CONNELL. Yes, sir. Mr. TAVENNER. Of course, should it develop at any point in your testimony you desire to consult counsel, you may address your request to the committee. When and where were you born, Mr. O'Connell ? Mr. O'CONNELL. I was born in Butte, Mont., on October 4, 1908. Mr. TAVENNER. Where do you now reside? Mr. O'CONNELL. I now reside at Great Falls, Mont. Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, briefly what your educational training has been? Mr. O'CONNELL. Well, I received my grammar school education at St. Patrick's School in Butte, Mont., my high school education at Butte Central Catholic High School in Butte, Mont., my liberal arts education at Mount St. Charles College, now known as Carroll College, where I graduated with an A. B. degree. Mr. TAVENNER. In what year did you graduate from that college? Mr. O'CONNELL. 1931. Mr. TAVENNER. Where did you receive your A. B. degree? Mr. O'CONNELL. Mount St. Charles College, now known as Carroll College, in Helena, Mont., in 1931. Through the late Senator Thomas J. Walsh, of Montana, I obtained employment here in the District with the Democratic National Committee, later in 1931, and attended law school at Columbus Law School here in the District. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you receive a degree? Mr. O'CONNELL. No; I did not. I was elected to the Legislature of the State of Montana in 1931, when I was only 21 years of age and while a senior at Mount St. Charles College. I came back here and went to law school and then in 1932 during the summer vacation I went back and sought renomination and reelection to the State legislature and was successful. I served in the 1933 session of the State legislature. Also in a special session of the legislature in the latter part of 1933 and the early part of 1934. In between I came back and continued taking law courses in between the legislative sessions and so on, and later studied law privately at home and in a law office at Butte, Mont., and then in 1934 I was elected to the State Railroad and Public Service Commission of Montana, which is a statewide elective office in the State, and then in 1936 I was elected to the 75th Congress of the United States from the First Western District of the State of Montana. I served one term, from 1937 to 1939, and was defeated in the 1938 general elections. I won the Democratic nomination. In 1940 I again won the Democratic nomination and was defeated in the 1940 election by Jeannette Rankin. After my defeat I edited a statewide weekly newspaper called Jerry O'Connell's Montana Liberal. I also was active politically and particularly in the organization of an old-age pension group in which I had the principal activity or principal organizational activity in the State. Mr. TAVENNER. Is that in the State of Montana? Mr. O'CONNELL. That is right. Mr. TAVENNER. What was the date of the organization of the oldage pension group by you? Mr. O'CONNELL. Well, I actually think that I-it is quite a long while ago now-it was 1939, if I remember correctly. I began holding meetings in various parts of the State and we were advancing a State, it was a State initiative for improvement of the pension situation as far as senior citizens were concerned in the State. I think that came out in 1938 campaign, I had originally been endorsed by the Townsend organization for reelection to Congress and then during the 1938 general elections Dr. Townsend flew from Hawaii into my district and made 3 speeches against me, 2 or 3 speeches. I am not sure which. And the result was a considerable division in the Townsend organization as it existed in the State then, and out of that I am pretty sure at that time there was a gentleman by the name of Arthur L. Johnson, who was promoting I think what he called the general welfare acts or general welfare plan, and on a State pattern, using that general welfare act we promoted a pension plan in the State of Montana on an initiative, we have an initiative law there. Mr. VELDE. May I ask a question, Mr. Chairman. You mentioned you studied law here at Columbus Law School and in a law office, I believe, in Butte, Mont. Mr. O'CONNELL. Yes. Mr. VELDE. Did you pass the bar of the State of Montana? Mr. O'CONNELL. Yes, I passed the bar of the State of Montana. Mr. VELDE. I do not think you mentioned that. When did that happen? Mr. O'CONNELL. I actually didn't pass the bar in Montana. I had been active politically and I didn't pass the State bar examination until June 23, 1950. Mr. VELDE. Since that time you have been a practicing lawyer? Mr. O'CONNELL. Since then I have been practicing law at Great Falls, Mont. Mr. TAVENNER. Have you been admitted to practice in any State other than Montana? Mr. O'CONNELL. No, I have not. Mr. TAVENNER. Have you held any other organizational positions of character in the State of Montana or elsewhere? any Mr. O'CONNELL. Well, in I think about February 1944 I was appointed by Sidney Hillman as CIO political action director for the State of Montana, and in about August of 1944-in that year I was elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention from the State of Montana and attended the Chicago convention in that year. In August of 1944 after the convention I was appointed assistant regional director for the CIO Political Action Committee with offices or headquarters at Seattle, Wash., under the director who was Roy W. Atkinson, and that region included Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana. After I went to the State of Washington, I became active particularly with one of the principal activities of the CIO political action committee was to advance and encourage registration for voting in the 1944 elections and in the State of Washington, particularly along the West coast there was a considerable influx of war workers during that period who, of course, were unregistered and my principal activity preceding the actual beginning of that 1944 general campaign was bringing about registration by getting the city councils in the various larger cities, particularly in the State of Washington, to hold a registration week and opening up the schools and then after the campaign, as I was explaining, the city councils called a registration week where there was the extended registration campaign or program carried on, and after that I then became assistant regional director for the CIO political action committee active with the Democratic organization, particularly in the State of Washington and of course also to some extent in Idaho and I don't think during that campaign at all that I appeared in the State of Oregon. I was back in Montana a few times in that connection but I spent the principal part of that time working with the Democratic Party organization in the State of Washington. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you hold any position in the Democratic organization in the State of Washington? Mr. O'CONNELL. At that time I didn't hold any. After the election-the Democratic Party was considerably successful in the State of Washington-and I think the Democratic Party leaders had a feeling that I had made a considerable contribution to the success which they had. Within a few weeks after the election the Democratic Party leaders in that State discussed with me taking a full-time position with the Democratic Party in the State of Washington as executive secretary of the Democratic Party. Mr. TAVENNER. That began in 1944? Mr. O'CONNELL. I was elected by the State central committee at Ellensburg, Wash., I think somewhere about in the middle of December 1944. Mr. TAVENNER. How long did you continue in that position? Mr. O'CONNELL. I continued in that position then until December, actually I ended my term as executive secretary some time in the beginning of the year, January 1947. In December 1946 a new Democratic State chairman was elected and he abolished the position of executive secretary and took the job and worked on the job on a full-time basis himself. Mr. TAVENNER. After that time did you hold an executive position with the Progressive Party? Mr. O'CONNELL. Well, let me, in order to keep it in chronological order, I would like to say that after that election there was of course a considerable division in the Democratic Party over the results of the election which were quite disastrous for the Democratic Party in 1946, and there was a considerable cleavage among what was considered to be the conservative forces in the party and the liberal forces in the party and at the convention at Ellensburg in December of 1946 the conservative element or conservative forces in the Democratic Party were in control by a very slight margin. The liberal forces in the Democratic Party then organized within the Democratic Party a group known as Roosevelt Democrats, and I was I think also called the executive secretary, or given the title, elected as executive secretary of the Roosevelt Democrats and I served in that position until April of 1948 when I resigned from the Democratic Party and actually began to work for the organization of the Progressive Party in the State of Washington. We had set up what we called a provisional committee for a new party. I had supported Henry Wallace for Vice President in the 1944 Democratic convention. I was a considerable admirer of his, and I joined with the people who were forming the Progressive Party, and I think then-I would say in probably May or June of 1948-the Progressive Party of the State of Washington was organized at a State convention in Seattle, Wash., and I was elected executive secretary of the Progressive Party at that convention, and I served in that capacity until October 1949, when I left the State of Washington and went back to the State of Montana and began studying law and preparing for the taking of the bar examinations which I eventually took. Mr. TAVENNER. After your return to the State of Montana in 1949 did you hold any other organizational positions? Mr. O'CONNELL. No; I did not. On many occasions-in October of 1949 I had made up my mind that I had given the best years of my life to political activity. In July of 1949 Mrs. O'Connell and I had a young son after having been married about 13 years. Mrs. O'Connell had a very, very difficult time in giving birth to our son, and for 5 days her life was in danger. Her folks live at Great Falls, Mont. She is a native of Great Falls. She wanted to go back there to be with her folks. Up to that time I had always studied law with the idea of being an attorney and I wanted to be one and so we went back to the State of Montana and I have not been engaged in any partisan political organization or affairs of any kind since my return to the State of Montana. Mr. TAVENNER. The committee has information that after that time you became chairman of the National Committee to Defeat the Mundt Bill. Mr. O'CONNELL. No. In 1948, I would say probably in June of 1948, while I was executive secretary of the Progressive Party of the State of Washington, I came down to the city of Washington here to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was then con |