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 considering the Mundt bill, which had already passed the House. We were to testify at a hearing before which I think Senator Ferguson was presiding and Senator Langer was sitting with him and apparently the hearings had gone on for several days and Senator Ferguson adjourned the hearings or at least announced there would be no further hearings at that time before many of us there had yet been heard.
Senator Langer then suggested that we go to his office, I think at that time he was chairman of the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads in the Senate, and we retired to his committee room. At that time we discussed particularly with him the situation as far as the Mundt bill was concerned and at his suggestion this committee to oppose the Mundt Bill was set up and at that particular meeting I was elected chairman of the group. Senator Langer, of course, had known me while I was in Congress and suggested——
Mr. Tavenner. What was the approximate date when you were selected as chairman of the committee?
Mr. O’Connell. My best recollection, my best guess would be some time in June of ’48.
Mr. Tavenner. You continued to serve as chairman of the National Committee to Defeat the Mundt Bill for how long a period?