33. The Newark Peace Action Committee held an anti-war rally to promulgate the Communist Party's line, and used Michael J. Quill as its chief speaker to interpret that line (Daily Worker, October 4, 1940, p. 4).

34. An organization known as the Emergency Peace Mobilization immediately preceded the American Peace Mobilization in 1940. The Communists featured Quill at the Coney Island rally for peace which the Emergency Peace Mobilization staged (Daily Worker, August 13, 1940, p. 4). Quill also went to Chicago to address the Emergency Peace Mobilization (Daily Worker, August 31, 1940, p. 4).

35. Little needs to be said concerning the now generally recognized seditious nature of the American Peace Mobilization which threw the entire Commur ist weight in this country against the safety of our country from its foreign foes. Quill was a member of the national council of the American Peace Mobilization (Daily Worker, September 3, 1940, p. 4). He also addressed the Armistice Day Peace Rally, at Mecca Temple, November 11, 1940, under the auspices of the American Peace Mobilization. On February 6, 1941, we find Quill again featured as a speaker for the American Peace Mobilization at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

36. In a single day Quill, like all other Communists, changed his line on the present war. The war ceased to be an imperialist struggle between more or less equally guilty powers and became a "people's war for freedom." The entrance of Russia into the war was the thing which worked this amazing transformation in Quill's attitude. Since June 22, 1941, we find Quill as active in behalf of America's participation in the war as he was active against it prior to that date. There is probably no better criterion for recognizing a real Communist than this one. Among a host of speaking engagements which Quill has filled for Communists fronts since June 22, 1941, we find him as speaker for the Bronx Victory Labor Committee (Daily Worker, October 13, 1942, p. 3).

37. In recent months, the Communist Party's principal front for all things Russian has been known as the National Council for American-Soviet Friendship. Naturally, we find Quill affiliated with this organization (Soviet Russia Today June 1943, p. 21).

38. Not long ago, the Communist Party organized the School for Democracy in New York. Quill was one of the lecturers for the school (New Masses, May 26, 1942, p. 31). The School for Democracy has now been merged with the Workers School to form the Jefferson School of Social Science.

39. In December 1943, prominent Communists and Communist sympathizers joined to form what was known as the Reichstag Fire Trial Anniversary Committee and to honor Georgi Dimitrov, former head of the Communist International. Quill was among these Communists and Communist sympathizers (New York Times, December 22, 1943, p. 40).

In the foregoing pages, we have cited what is only a part of Michael J. Quill's long Communist record. It may be reasonably doubted whether Earl Browder himself has been a more influential Communist than Quill. Sidney Hillman cannot be unaware of Quill's record.

On May 8, 1940, when Quill was a witness before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, it was necessary for the Capitol police to eject him forcibly from the committee room on account of

his riotous behavior. The theme of his shrill outcry on that occasion was in absolute obedience to the Communist Party's line of the moment. At the top of his voice, Quill shrieked:

And I believe that this

I am opposed to going overseas and leaving America. is what is being done here under your leadership, Mr. Chairman. You are trying to bring about a war hysteria to stampede the American people into war. The basis of this accusation was, of course, the fact that members of Congress were doing all within their power to prepare America for any military emergency which might arise, a course of action which was then completely contrary to the line of the Communist Party and to the line of Michael J. Quill (who has never deviated in recent years from the party's line). Now, with one of the most ludicrous aboutfaces of all political history, Quill, the Communist Party, and the Communist leadership in the C. I. O. Political Action Committee propose to indict members of Congress for exactly the opposite, namely, of failing to take all possible steps to meet the military emergency which finally came upon us. The fraud of the Communist attitude as expressed through the C. I. O. Political Action Committee will not escape those who know the history which we have recited.

47

MERVYN RATHBORNE

Mervyn Rathborne is a leading figure in the C. I. O. political campaign. He is now California State secretary-treasurer of the C. I. O. notwithstanding the fact that he has been identified as a member of the Communist Party by a number of witnesses and by his adherence to the line of the Communist Party since 1935. It should be noted in this connection that the Communist Party has instructed its members to operate within other political parties and that this policy has been in actual operation in various States for some time.

Rathborne was a member of the American Radio Telegraphists Association in 1931 when it was formed. In October 1932, he resigned from the organization expressing dissatisfaction with its policies and methods. He then entered the employ of Lee De Forest, radio and television expert, in the latter's laboratory in Hollywood and taught at the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles. Subsequently he rejoined the American Radio Telegraphists Association and was a candidate for the post of secretary-treasurer on an antiCommunist ticket. He charged the Communist with sabotaging and disrupting the organization (letter of November 9, 1934). He said that "the nature of the Communist obliges him to carry on underhanded intrigues, plots, and plans in any other non-Communistic organization" (letter of December 11, 1934). He claimed that he had been advised by his opponents that his "well-being and health would continue to be good" only if he withdrew from the race for secretary

treasurer.

In the latter part of 1934, Rathborne declared that "the A. R. T. A. was in danger of being dominated and run by a small but powerful group of Communists." He quoted from the resolutions of the A. R. T. A. convention to show that resolutions had been adopted "endorsing, or ordering active cooperation with, the United States Congress Against War and Fascism," addressed by Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party (Daily Worker, January 4, 1935, p. 4).

Responding to this pressure from Communist sources, Rathborne did resign. His magazine C. Q. ceased its criticism of the Communists and began to support them. He was subsequently recommended for the presidency of the American Radio Telegraphists Association by Hoyt Haddock, the retiring president and a well-known Communist. Rathborne's record since this deal has been that of a consistent supporter of the line of the Communist Party.

Active for some time in San Francisco, Rathborne was secretary of District No. 2 of the Maritime Federation of the Pacific, dominated by Harry Bridges. He was one of Bridges' right-hand men in the maritime strike of 1936 and shared offices with him at 112 Market Street. On August 12, 1936, Rathborne together with Bridges

attended a meeting in honor of Earl Browder, Communist candidate for President, held at Dreamland Auditorium, San Francisco.

John E. Ferguson, a former member of the Communist Party of California and a member of the Pacific Coast Marine Firemen, Oilers, Water Tenders, and Wipers Association, identified Rathborne as a party member with whom he had participated in meetings (hearings, vol. 4, pp. 2922 and 2930).

Peter Innes, Jr., a former member of the engine division of the Communist-controlled National Maritime Union, testified that he had attended Communist meetings together with Rathborne, one of them being held in Rathborne's home on Prince Street, San Francisco. Among those present were Roy Hudson, Communist Party commissar on the water front, Harry Bridges, Walter Stack, Kevels Cayton, all well-known Communists (hearings, vol. 13, p. 8073). As a Communist leader of the National Maritime Union, Joseph Curran furnished Innes with the name of Rathborne as an important West Coast contact. Rathborne arranged a meeting for Innes under the auspices of the American Student Union, a Communist-front organization, with a chapter at the University of California.

Joseph Curran corroborated this testimony declaring that he had worked closely with Mervyn Rathborne ever since the strike on the S. S. Pennsylvania, and that he had met with him and Harry Bridges in private sessions during the C. I. O. Convention in Pittsburgh (hearings, vol. 11, pp. 6489, 6490).

Rathborne came to New York in 1937, where he served as president of the American Radio Telegraphists Association and as president of the New York Maritime Council together with Tommy Ray, as secretary, another well-known Communist water-front commissar.

In March 1937, Rathborne endorsed the American League Against War and Fascism, which he had previously condemned (Daily Worker, March 2, 1937, p. 2). This organization advocated the stopping of munition shipments by organized seamen in the event of war. Subsequent to this affiliation, Rathborne spoke before the League of Women Shoppers, a Communist-front organization, at the Town Hall Club in New York City. The New York Times of May 9, 1937, reported Rathborne's speech as follows:

Maritime workers throughout the country are opposed to war and if necessary will use their organized power to prevent this country from engaging in a foreign conflict * * * They would agree not to handle war materials, he said. This was an exact expression of the Communist Party line of that period. Rathborne contributed to the official organ of the American League Against War and Fascism and was a member of its California Trade Union Commission (Fight, June 1937, p. 15; February 1937, p. 27).

Subsequently the Communist Party changed its position to one favoring collective security of the democracies against the Fascist aggressors. The New Masses of March 15, 1938, page 19, carried Rathborne's name signed to a statement of this new Communist front, the American League for Peace and Democracy, calling for the quarantining of the aggressor nations. He became a member of its national labor committee and endorsed its national congress in 1939.

The impact of the Stalin-Hitler Pact brought about the demise of the American League for Peace and Democracy and the birth of the

American Peace Mobilization which fulminated against the war as "imperialist," denounced conscription, lend-lease, and the national defense program, and picketed the White House. Rathborne turned with the Communist tide. He was a member of the national council of the American Peace Mobilization (Daily Worker, September 3, 1940, p. 4). In protest against the foreign policy of the President, he announced his resignation from the national advisory board of the National Youth Administration (New York Times, November 2, 1940, p. 13).

As a consequence of the new line of the Communist Party, following Hitler's attack on Russia, Rathborne is now a win-the-war delegate to the national convention of the Democratic Party.

Rathborne became the president of the American Communications Association (C. I. O.) which succeeded the American Radio Telegraphists Association in August 1937, and retained that office until October 1940, when he resigned because of alleged illness. In our report on Joseph P. Selly, we have dealt at considerable length with the activities and character of the American Communications Association.

Fred M. Howe, former secretary of the American Radio Telegraphists Association, testified that he had called Rathborne a member of the Communist Party to his face on the floor of union meetings and that Rathborne had not denied the charge. Howe presented letters from J. E. Croney, secretary of Local 5 of the American Communications Association of New Orleans and 2nd vice-president of its marine division, stating that Rathborne had been a Communist Party member since 1935, the year of his conversion Maurice Malkin, a former member of the Communist Party, testified that he had seen Rathborne “dozens of times" at the headquarters of the Communist Party at 50 East 13th Street, New York City. In rebutting this charge, Rathborne admitted before our committee that he had visited the party bookshop at the same address (hearings, vol. 13, p. 5767, 8126).

Rathborne supported the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, which has been characterized as subversive by the Attorney General.

He signed a letter in support of Simon Gerson, an avowed Communist, now writing for the Daily Worker, who was at that time. removed as assistant to the Borough President of Manhattan in New York City (Daily Worker, February 10, 1938, p. 1).

Rathborne's name appears on the list of those honoring Georgi Dimitrov, former head of the Communist International (New York Times, December 22, 1943, p. 40).

In the struggle between the Communist and the non-Communist wings of the American Labor Party in New York Rathborne is lined up with the former and has been a member of the executive committee of the Communist-dominated Progressive Committee to Rebuild the American Labor Party.

When the Communists were advocating American intervention on the side of the Spanish Loyalists, he signed a petition to lift the embargo on munitions to Spain (Daily Worker, April 8, 1938, p. 4). He was a sponsor of the American Relief Ship for Spain (letterhead, September 3, 1938).