Mr. O’Connell. All right.
Mr. Tavenner. You have told us that you were acquainted with Barbara Hartle.
Mr. O’Connell. Yes, I think that is a correct statement that I was acquainted with her.
Mr. Tavenner. You stated that you had met her probably 5 times.
Mr. O’Connell. I met her the first time in Montana. Then I met her a few times in the State of Washington.
Mr. Tavenner. I asked Mrs. Hartle in the course of the testimony taken in June 1954 to tell the committee to what extent the Communist Party in that area was interested in the work of the Progressive Party. You will find it on page 6215 of her testimony. Her reply was this:
To a very considerable extent. After the reconstitution the Communist Party recognized its revisionism of Marxism-Leninism in the political field, and decided that the correct program was for a new third anti-imperialist party. After this ideological campaign had proceeded for at least a year the Progressive Party was founded preceded for a period by the Progressive Citizens of America. The Communist Party viewed this as a development along favorable lines and in this district threw considerable effort into the support and building of it and was able to furnish the top leadership as well in the State. Hugh DeLacy, head of the Progressive Citizens of America, Jerry O’Connell, and Tom Rabbitt, head of the Progressive Party, all three of whom were in executive positions, were members of the Communist Party to the best of my understanding. I have less knowledge of O’Connell’s Communist Party membership than of DeLacy and Rabbitt, but have sat in Communist Party meetings with him when all present were Communists, and I understood him to be one also, or at least so sympathetic as to make no actual difference. Many Communist Party members were for the founding of the Progressive Party in this State and worked in it after its founding. They numbered in the hundreds. The policy of the Progressive Party in this State was controlled by the Communist Party and if there were any problems at all along this line they came from national demands or from demands of persons and groups working also in the Progressive Party and whom the Communist Party wanted to retain and influence. Other Communist Party leaders also in leadership of the Progressive Party were William J. Pennock, Karley Larsen, Fair Taylor, Tom Rabbitt, Jerry O’Connell.
Then she proceeded to refer to other Communist Party members active in the Progressive Party.
I want to call to your attention the fact that she stated that the Communist Party furnished the leadership to the Progressive Party in the State. The first person she named in that capacity was Hugh DeLacy. What was Hugh DeLacy’s position in the Progressive Party?
Mr. O’Connell. Hugh DeLacy had no position in the Progressive Party and no office in the Progressive Party, in the State of Washington.