I would remind those present in this hearing room that we are here at the direction of the Congress of the United States to discharge a highly honorable duty and a specific official obligation that has been placed upon us by Public Law 601, enacted by the 79th Congress. You are here by permission of this committee throughout the hearings. I trust that you will conduct yourselves as guests of this committee. A disturbance of any kind or audible comment during the course of testimony, whether favorable or unfavorable to any witness, will not be tolerated.

For infraction of this rule, the offender will be immediately ejected from this room and not allowed to return. I trust it is necessary to only call this matter to your attention once and it will not be necessary to have it repeated.

This committee wants it understood that in the conduct of this hearing it is not interested in any dispute between employers and employees or between one union and another union. Neither is it interested in the internal affairs of any union. It proposes to follow, however, and uncover, if it can, to the full limit of its abilities and resources the subversive Communist conspiracy and activities of any person as to whom reliable information indicates Communist Party affiliation and activities, whether that be in the field of labor or any other field, and regardless of who the person or group of persons may be.

The Committee on Un-American Activities consists of nine Members of the House of Representatives. Each member is also a member of one other major congressional committee. Since the workload of this committee is so constant and heavy, it has been found necessary to divide the committee into subcommittees of three members when the work takes attention away from Washington, D. C. Thus, the committee members are away from the Capitol on less occasions. This arrangement is also in the interest of saving expense as well as facilitating the necessary work of the committee. On such occasions the House of Representatives officially excuses our absence from our other daily duties at our Nation's Capital.

If any person in or about Milwaukee desires to cooperate with this committee during our brief stay here, we invite such person to promptly see our legal counsel, Mr. Tavenner, or our investigator, Mr. Jones. Before I terminate that comment, may I say that, being informed as we are that the Milwaukee Bar Association has appointed a panel of nine members of the Milwaukee Bar Association to represent before this committee any witness who is not able otherwise to have legal counsel, we want to very earnestly compliment the Milwaukee Bar Association for making that arrangement. Congress takes the position before this committee that every witness should, if he desires, have legal counsel.

May I make it clear that the fact that a lawyer appears before this commitee as legal counsel for a witness should not be taken as any disparagement against that lawyer so doing. We invite counsel to be present.

However, may I state a positive limitation on the privilege legal counsel has before this committee? Since we are not a court, we do not follow strictly the rules of evidence. We permit no lawyer to address the committee. We do not have time, and it is not that sort of forum. The right of the lawyer to advise his client is limited to the

witness' constitutional rights. We do not expect an ethical member of the bar to put words in the mouth of the witness. We want the witness' testimony and not that of the lawyer.

Mr. Tavenner, are you ready to proceed?

Mr. TAVENNER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DOYLE. Will you please call your first witness?

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. James R. Eggleston, will you come forward please?

Mr. DOYLE. Will you, please, raise your right hand and be sworn? Do you solemnly promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I do.

Mr. DOYLE. Will you, please, be seated?

TESTIMONY OF JAMES R. EGGLESTON

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you state your name, please?
Mr. EGGLESTON. James R. Eggleston.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you spell your last name?

Mr. EGGLESTON. E-g-g-l-e-s-t-o-n.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Eggleston, do you appear here before the committee in response to a subpena served upon you?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes; I do.

Mr. TAVENNER. It is noted that you are not accompanied by counsel. You probably heard the statement just made by the chairman indicating that every witness who appears before this committee is entitled to counsel if he desires.

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. I want to be sure that you understand that. If you do not desire counsel now, you still have the opportunity of consulting an attorney at any time during the course of your testimony. Do you desire to proceed without counsel accompanying you?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I desire to proceed without counsel, sir.

Mr. TAVENNER. When and where were you born, Mr. Eggleston? Mr. EGGLESTON. I was born July 13, 1925, in Martinsville, Va. Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, briefly what your formal educational training has been?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I attended high school in Martinsville, Va. From there I went to Virginia State College; from Virginia State College to the Milwaukee School of Engineering; from the Milwaukee School of Engineering to Chicago Tech.

Mr. TAVENNER. What degrees did you receive, if any, upon completion?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I am sorry to say I received no degrees.

Mr. TAVENNER. When did you complete your educational training? Mr. EGGLESTON. I haven't completed it yet.

Mr. TAVENNER. When did you terminate your work at college, in what year?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Fifty-one I think would be correct.

Mr. TAVENNER. How long have you lived in the vicinity of Milwaukee?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Since 1947.

Mr. TAVENNER. Have you lived continuously in Milwaukee since 1947?

Mr. EGGLESTON. For brief periods of 4 or 5 months I have been out of the city.

Mr. TAVENNER. The committee has information about the existence in Milwaukee of an organization known as the Young Progressives of America. Have you had occasion to have any knowledge of that organization?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I joined the Young Progressives of America in 1948. After hearing the political conventions of all the major parties in that year, I joined that organization.

Mr. TAVENNER. The committee is desirous of knowing to what extent, if any, the work of that organization is being controlled, directed, or influenced by the Communist Party, so my first question to you about that organization is whether or not during the course of your membership you learned of any of its officers being members of the Communist Party.

Mr. EGGLESTON. During my membership in that organization the chairman of the Young Progressives of America was a member of the Communist Party.

Mr. TAVENNER. What was the name of the chairman?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Betty Gossell.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you spell the last name?

Mr. EGGLESTON. G-o-s-s-e-1-1, I believe is correct.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee on what you base your statement that Betty Gossell, chairman of the Young Progressives of America, was a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Sometime after I became a member of that organization I was approached by Betty Gossell to join the Communist Party. Mr. TAVENNER. Can you fix the approximate time when that occurred?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I would say that occurred in August of 1949. Mr. TAVENNER. Tell the committee, please, just what occurred when she approached you to become a member of the Communist Party.

Mr. EGGLLSTON. When she approached me to become a member of the Communist Party she presented me with an application blank to join the Communist Party, and I was reluctant to do so because she couldn't tell me what would happen to that application blank after I signed it, so I told her as soon as she found out where that application blank was going that I would join the party. During that time that she was trying to locate, I would assume, where this application was going, I made my first contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr. TAVENNER. In other words, you became a member of the Young Progressives of America out of a conscientious decision on your part to join an organization for a definite purpose?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. And after becoming a member of it you were approached to become a member of the Communist Party by one of its officers?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. Why did you go to the Federal Bureau of Investigation with that information?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I would say that was based on the fact that I got myself into a situation that I could no longer control; that what these people were doing not only to the country but to my particular

group of people, I couldn't feel that I was able to handle it myself. Mr. TAVENNER. By a "group of people" are you referring to members of the Negro race?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes. So I went to them for, I would say, help, and I received the help because I was instructed to join the Communist Party and report to them regularly.

Mr. TAVENNER. You agreed at that time, then, to enter the Communist Party and furnish the Government important information it was interested in obtaining and that you had occasion to learn about? Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes.

Mr. SCHERER. Mr. Witness, is this the first time that it has been made public that you worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation while a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes.

Mr. SCHERER. In other words, those associated with you in the Communist Party during the time that you were a member of the Communist Party up to this point did not know that you were an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

Mr. EGGLESTON. No.

Mr. TAVENNER. You were instructed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to become a member of the Communist Party. What developed to give you the opportunity to become a member?

Mr. EGGLESTON. During my association with the Young Progressives of America, I came to know a group of people who later turned out to be members of the Communist Party that I didn't know at the time that I was in this group, and while I was associating with these people I became very familiar with Mary Keith, who was then in charge of the bookshop on Eighth and Wisconsin. While I was attending school, I used to go down to the bookstore to relieve Mary Keith to go out and have lunch. On several occasions after relieving her, she came in one day and said, "No one can attend the bookshop without being a member of the Communist Party," and Mary Keith signed me up as a member.

Mr. TAVENNER. That afforded you an easy opportunity of becoming a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes; and she also paid the initiation fee of 50

cents.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, what you know about the operation of that bookshop, to what extent it was operated by the Communist Party, if at all?

Mr. EGGLESTON. It was operated entirely by the Communist Party as a distribution center for their publications.

Mr. TAVENNER. Where was the bookshop located?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Eighth and Wisconsin. It was known as the Peoples Bookshop.

Mr. TAVENNER. Do you know how long it continued as a Communist Party bookshop at that location?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I don't remember exactly when it moved, but it left Eighth and Wisconsin and moved down to Sixth and State Streets. Mr. TAVENNER. How long did it continue in existence there?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I would say that it closed around the latter part of 1951.

Mr. TAVENNER. How did the Communist Party make use of this bookshop?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Selling its literature, making various contacts to individuals or to students who would walk into the bookshop just curious to buy literature, and they would be approached by the operator of the bookshop on different subjects.

Mr. TAVENNER. You mean that it was used as a recruiting medium?
Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes; to a certain extent.

Mr. TAVENNER. To bring persons into the Communist Party?
Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. Do you know whether the Communist Party literature in this bookshop was distributed to different groups or cells of the Communist Party in Milwaukee for their use?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes; the educational director of the youth group which I was assigned to used to pick up the literature at the bookshop and bring it to the meetings and sell the literature, give education out of the literature and bring the literature back to the bookshop that wasn't sold.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee approximately the time when you were signed up as a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I attended my first meeting in September of 1949. I would say I was a member approximately 2 weeks before that time. Mr. TAVENNER. How long did you remain active in the Communist Party?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I said until the fall of 1951, the early fall.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, to what group of the Communist Party you were assigned when you became a member in September of 1949?

Mr. EGGLESTON. I was assigned to what has been commonly called the youth group of the Communist Party.

Mr. TAVENNER. What membership did that group have when you became a member of it, as nearly as you can recall?

Mr. EGGLESTON. The first meeting that I attended, Bob Silverstine and Edith Gilman, at that time, were chairman and cochairman, respectively. Herb Major, Betty Gossell

Mr. TAVENNER. Just a moment. I want to be certain about the spelling of these names. You gave us Silverstine and Betty Gossell. You said Herb Major, M-a-j-o-r.

Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes. Victor Edelstein.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you spell the last name, please?

Mr. EGGLESTON. E-d-e-l-s-t-e-i-n. That is correct. And Bernice Edelstein. Andy Reams, who was the State chairman, attended this first meeting that I attended.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you spell the last name?

Mr. EGGLESTON. R-e-a-m-s. Helen Gillman, G-i-1-1-m-a-n. And this meeting was held at her home. That is just about all I can think of at the present.

Mr. TAVENNER. They were the members of the youth group when you first became a member of it?

Mr. EGGLESTON. Milton Spitz was also a member. S-p-i-t-z, I believe is correct.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, at this point what you learned to be the Communist Party purpose or objective in naving a youth organization of the Communist Party?