Mr. Fehrenbach. No.
Mr. Griffin. Well now, then upon what do you base your conclusion that the meetings that you think they had upstairs were Communist meetings?
Mr. Fehrenbach. Well, back at that time there was no actually secret among any of them to the fact—they didn’t actually publicize it, don’t get me wrong, but they didn’t deny that they were Communists, and Sam, of course, had told me that the majority of them were all Communists.
Mr. Griffin. Sam Jaffe had told you that?
Mr. Fehrenbach. Yes; and told me not to listen to them and not to pay any attention to them.
Mr. Griffin. Did he tell you that his son-in-law, Max Pritcher, was a Communist?
Mr. Fehrenbach. Yes; he said that Max and all of them, and he said, now he says, “I don’t think Max or Seymour will ever say anything to you because,” he says, “I have given them definite orders not to say anything to you,” and he said, “I don’t think Lawson will ever talk to you.”
Mr. Griffin. Now, you don’t have any knowledge, though, do you, as to whether these people were what one would call card-carrying members of the party?
Mr. Fehrenbach. No; this I couldn’t say, at least I had never seen any of them with a card or none of them had ever shown me a card.
Mr. Griffin. Do you have any information that these men were doing anything other than discussing Marxist philosophy?