Mr. Tavenner. Was it after the Internal Revenue Bureau learned of the type of grants being made under this trust that it took the action it did to remove the tax exemption status of the trust?
Mr. O’Connell. My best recollection, Mr. Tavenner, is that Congressman Dies made a speech on the floor, and if I remember correctly, in which he discussed the Robert Marshall Foundation in which he went into the various grants that we had made and shortly after that, on whose initiative I don’t know, the Bureau took up with the foundation the matter of its one exemption and the Bureau exemption was removed and I believe as trustees we appealed it to the courts and the courts decided against us.
We appealed, I am sure the briefs will show that we appealed to the courts on the basis that the grants were being made for the purpose of organizing and developing of trade unions and for organization of unemployed people and not for the theory of production for use rather than for profit. I am sure the briefs will bear me out on that. I of course had nothing to do with the preparation of them.
George Marshall, who is Bob Marshall’s brother, was the manager of the trust funds and as I said, the trustees usually met annually, once a year.
Mr. Tavenner. You were aware, were you not, that the Communist Party in the State of Washington just 2 years prior to the probate of this will, endeavored or at least proposed a plan for legislation to set up exactly the same type of economy in the State of Washington?
Mr. O’Connell. I knew nothing about that. The first time I ever went to the State of Washington in August 1944——
Mr. Tavenner. Robert Marshall you say was from the State of Montana?
Mr. O’Connell. No, Robert Marshall was actually a New Yorker, his dad was Louis Marshall, a partner of Samuel Untermyer, outstanding corporation lawyer in New York.
Mr. Tavenner. Was a great deal of his experience in the forestry service on the west coast?
Mr. O’Connell. No; 3 years of his service in the Forestry Department were at Missoula, Mont., but not on the west coast. We are in the Rocky Mountain area, you see.