Mr. Tavenner. He did call you and you refused?
Mr. O’Connell. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Why did you refuse?
Mr. O’Connell. Because I didn’t want to do it.
Mr. Tavenner. What was your reason for not wanting to do it?
Mr. O’Connell. Let me see what it was. If I remember correctly, my objection was to “tackle both ideological and organizational problems which labor must solve to gain its ends in 1948.”
And my particular objection, of course, was that I had never been involved, never was a member of a labor union or trade-union, and I didn’t, I couldn’t speak as a laboring man or as a member of organized labor. There was no particular way that I could particularly expound on what labor’s role was because I wasn’t qualified to do it. I had either been in political office or had been engaged in political organization.
Mr. Velde. Did you know at that time that the Pacific Northwest Labor School was a Communist organization?
Mr. O’Connell. No.
Mr. Velde. What was the date of that?