Mr. Dulles. Did you suggest that this advertisement had been drafted before he collected the money?
Mr. Weissman. Yes.
Mr. Dulles. And you used this advertisement as the basis for the collection of the money, or was it used for this purpose, as far as you know?
Mr. Weissman. As far as I know; yes.
(At this point, Representative Boggs withdrew from the hearing room.)
Mr. Weissman. May I see the ad for a moment? There are a few things I would like to point out in this.
Mr. Jenner. Give the exhibit number, please.
Mr. Weissman. It is Exhibit No. 1031.
Mr. Jenner. Tell us the genesis of the advertisement, the black border, the context, the text, the part which Mr. Grinnan played, you played, and Mr. Schmidt played in drafting it, how it came about, what you did, in your own words. How the idea arose in the first place—and then just go forward.
Mr. Weissman. Well, after the Stevenson incident, it was felt that a demonstration would be entirely out of order, because we didn't want anything to happen in the way of physical violence to President Kennedy when he came to Dallas. But we thought that the conservatives in Dallas—I was told—were a pretty downtrodden lot after that, because they were being oppressed by the local liberals, because of the Stevenson incident. We felt we had to do something to build up the morale of the conservative element, in Dallas. So we hit upon the idea of the ad.