Did you write such a letter?
Mr. O’Connell. Yes, I wrote such a letter.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you a subscriber to the Daily Worker?
Mr. O’Connell. No; I don’t think—I was a Member of Congress at that time and the Daily Worker was delivered like a lot of other newspapers are to my office. My particular recollection of that—that is 1937—was that a man by the name of Paddy King was an avowed Communist in the State of Montana and is quite a familiar character around there came to my office and asked me if I would do this and I think I told him I would confine it strictly to the labor coverage of what the Daily Worker was doing, coverage on labor, on strikes, on labor’s rights, and so on. I wrote the letter at that time.
Mr. Scherer. Was what you said in 1937 true about the Daily Worker?
Mr. O’Connell. That was written in 1937.
Mr. Scherer. 1937. It surely has changed since I became acquainted with it. I have just been reading the account of some of the hearings we had in Newark a couple of weeks ago.
Mr. O’Connell. A lot of things have changed since 1937.
Mr. Scherer. I said if what you stated in 1937 was true about it, the paper surely has changed since my acquaintance with it.
Mr. O’Connell. You will remember that was the period in which the CIO was beginning to organize and there was considerable, we had the little steel strike, we had Memorial Day massacre at Republic Steel near Chicago; there were many things happening in the labor situation at that time, and in my opinion the Daily Worker covered them better and did a better job than any other paper I knew of.