Mr. O’Connell. I could not say strictly that I employed him. I think that there was an executive committee group that was set up at the time.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you his superior?
Mr. O’Connell. I was his superior; yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Now you indicated that you desired an opportunity to explain the testimony that Mr. Louis Budenz——
Mr. Willis. Before you come to that, you started to say 3 or 4 times that you had fired Mr. Rabbitt.
Mr. O’Connell. I fired Mr. Rabbitt; I removed him from the staff. Is that what you mean?
Mr. Willis. Yes. Why did you fire him?
Mr. O’Connell. I explained he was organizing in southern King County and he was supercritical of the work of a man by the name of Belden who was organizing clubs in what we call the 30th Legislative District of King County. The party was being attacked as being Communist or Communist-controlled or Red, and Belden was trying to explain as an ordinary individual that it was not Communist-controlled and was not Red. In the course of his explanation, at least, left anti-Communist inference; Rabbitt was critical of it.
Mr. Tavenner. It appears from the certificate made under law to the State of Washington that he was secretary of the Progressive Party in 1952—that Rabbitt was secretary.
Mr. O’Connell. In 1952?