Mr. O’Connell. No, sir; I don’t.
Mr. Tavenner. You have told us that you spoke on numerous occasions at meetings of the pension union.
Mr. O’Connell. I wouldn’t want to make it numerous. I spoke several times. I spoke at their State conventions, I know that, during the period while I was executive secretary of the Democratic Party and while I was executive secretary of the Progressive Party.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you familiar with the testimony of Ernest Paul Stith before the Canwell committee?
Mr. O’Connell. If I remember, he was an investigator for the Canwell committee. I don’t know what his testimony was.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Stith analyzed a report contained in the January 30, 1947, issue of the New World relating to a program that was conducted at the Tri-County Snohomish, Whatcom, and Skagit Legislative Conference. The analysis goes on to show that 21 of the 99 delegates at that convention represented the pension union. The speakers included William Pennock, president of the Washington Old Age Pension Union, and Jerry O’Connell, former Democratic Party State executive secretary.
Mr. O’Connell. I think that is the meeting I was talking about.
Mr. Tavenner. That is the one you were referring to. Terry Pettus was editor of the New World. Was that a Communist paper?
Mr. O’Connell. I don’t know whether the New World was a Communist paper. There apparently was some distinction; they later became the Northwest edition of the People’s World, and, of course, the People’s World, as I understand it, is a Communist newspaper.
Mr. Tavenner. And Frank Batterson, chairman of the Snohomish County Communist Party was a speaker. You say that is the occasion to which you refer?