When was the first time that anyone of these men talked to you about what you called Russia or the Communist Party?
Mr. Fehrenbach. The first time was shortly after I went to work for Sam Jaffe, and Phil Jasser came in there.
Mr. Griffin. What did he say to you?
Mr. Fehrenbach. Well, he was telling me how wonderful it would be if everybody made the same amount of money whether they owned the store or whether they worked for it, and I can’t remember all the stuff he used to give me because he would very seldom get very far before Sam would interrupt and make him get out because Sam refused to let him talk to me if he was there.
Mr. Griffin. I see. Did you get some indication that perhaps Sam didn’t even want to have these political talks going on?
Mr. Fehrenbach. I always had the feeling that he didn’t like it, because now they was more or less down on Sam because of the fact that they used to fly the Russian flag in the synagogue and that was the Jewish temple there, and Sam put up a very strong protest about flying the Russian flag and said if they was going to live in the United States and be U.S. citizens then they should live by the U.S. flag, and because of that it was my understanding, whether it ever happened or not, but I have been told by two or three different ones, I can’t say particularly who they were right now, they were even threatening to throw Sam out of the synagogue because of it.
And I know whenever he came up there or if he ever came in and caught them talking to me about getting on the right side of the fence and joining their party and attending some of these meetings he would immediately jump on him, make him get out and he would lecture to me for 5 or 10 minutes not to pay any attention to them.
Mr. Griffin. Do you know of other young men in Muncie whom these men approached?
Mr. Fehrenbach. No; I didn’t. Not at that time I didn’t know any of the other young fellows. Most of them were all of the age of Sam. Lawson was, I think, about the youngest and, of course, his sons-in-law were a little older than I. I would say they was in their late twenties.
Mr. Griffin. Perhaps I should make my question a little more clear. Were there other people your age in Muncie whom, that you know of, your friends or what not?