Mr. O’Connell. Largely, I was decidedly surprised when I heard the testimony of many of the people who testified in the Canwell hearings. I was surprised by Kathryn Fogg who, for instance, was a Democratic leader in South King County whom I knew real well. I didn’t dream she was a member of the Communist Party or had been one. When she came and testified that she had been a member of the Communist Party and had met in meetings I was certainly surprised.
And H. C. Armstrong——
Mr. Velde. When did you first suspect that Rabbitt and Pennock were members of the Communist Party?
Mr. O’Connell. Well, the first suspicion that I had was actually around the period of time of those hearings out there. Up to that time it had been my job as executive secretary of the Democratic Party, I had to cover the whole State of Washington. I went around on tours and trips and speaking schedules and so on, and my contact with Rabbitt and Pennock largely during the first 2 years I was out there, 1945 and 1946, really was when I would come in to talk to a meeting of the King County Democratic Central Committee that they were sitting on as delegates, Democratic delegates from the 35th Legislative District.
Mr. Velde. Yet they were district committee members of the Communist Party in the State of Washington.
Mr. O’Connell. That I do not know.
Mr. Velde. It was fairly well known among politicians at least that they were; is that not true?
Mr. O’Connell. No, I don’t think so because—of course, I was completely dependent upon information from Democratic Party leaders out there who had been active in the Democratic Party for a long time. For instance, Rabbitt and Pennock were on various committees all through the Democratic Party and were actually, of course, members of the legislature, 1 in the senate and 1 in the house.
Mr. Tavenner. Were they working with the Progressive Party after that?
Mr. O’Connell. Yes, but, my position as far as Rabbitt and Pennock—today it is easy to go back 5 and 6 years and the developments that have gone on and the exposures that have been made and so on, have been much greater in the past than they were then. It was not my job to determine whether Rabbitt or Pennock was a Communist.