HEARINGS ON LEGISLATION TO OUTLAW CERTAIN UN-AMERICAN AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1950 UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, PUBLIC HEARING Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10:30 a. m. in room 226, Old House Office Building, Hon. John S. Wood (chairman) presiding. Committee members present: Representatives John S. Wood, Francis E. Walter, Burr P. Harrison, John McSweeney (arriving as noted), Morgan M. Moulder, Harold H. Velde, and Bernard W. Kearney. Staff members present: Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., counsel; John W. Carrington, clerk; William Jackson Jones, investigator; and A. S. Poore, editor. Mr. WOOD. The committee will be in order. Let the record disclose that a quorum is present, consisting of Messrs. Walter, Harrison, Moulder, Velde, Kearney, and Wood. Mr. TAVENNER. In continuing the legislative hearing on H. R. 7595 and H. R. 3903, we have this morning, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Omar B. Ketchum, director, national legislative service, Veterans of Foreign Wars. I believe he is here. Mr. KETCHUM. That is right. Mr. WOOD. Will you stand and be sworn. You solemnly swear the evidence you give this committee shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. KETCHUM. I do. Mr. WOOD. Have a seat, sir. TESTIMONY OF OMAR B. KETCHUM Mr. TAVENNER. Will you please state your full name, Mr. Ketchum? Mr. KETCHUM. My name is Omar B. Ketchum, director, national legislative service, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. Mr. TAVENNER. In accordance with procedure adopted by the Senate and also by the House committees in taking testimony on matters of this kind, we ask each witness this question: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? Mr. KETCHUM. I will be glad to answer that question. I am not, never have been, and never intend to be a member of the Communist Party. 68369-50- -3 2139 Mr. TAVENNER. I believe you have a prepared statement? Mr. KETCHUM. That is correct. Mr. TAVENNER. Do you desire to read it? Mr. KETCHUM. I should like to read it, and then if there are any questions I have some extemporaneous remarks pertinent to certain phases of our presentation. Mr. TAVENNER. That is fine. Will you proceed to read it, please. Mr. KETCHUM. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am grateful for this opportunity to present the views of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States with respect to pending legislation designed to curb the spread of and to defeat the machinations of the Communist Party in the United States. (Representative McSweeney enters hearing room.) Mr. KETCHUM (continuing). For many years the Veterans of Foreign Wars has concerned itself with the danger to our democratic institutions and our way of life by the constant and continual pressure of the international Communist movement in this country. The Americanism and National Security Committees of our National Conventions for years past have labored over the problem of how to properly defend ourselves from the inroads of this insidious movement and still retain, strong as ever, those fundamental concepts of our Bill of Rights. The problem is a continuing one and we know that this Committee on Un-American Activities has devoted tireless effort to bring about an American solution. We are also aware that this committee for many years has dedicated itself to the task of ridding our social and political structure from the menace of anti-American ideologies; and we have come to look to this committee as the instrument through which our people may express their need for an effective defense against the spread of communism in the United States. The fiftieth national convention of the VFW in August 1949 adopted a resolution, by unanimous vote of the delegates present, to outlaw the Communist Party in the United States and to provide appropriate penalty for those who adhere to its principles. The current resolution reads as follows: [Resolution No. 67. To outlaw the Communist Party] Whereas communism is and continues to be a major scourge and menacing threat to all that we hold dear as liberty loving people; and Whereas the motives and objectives of communism is to get control of the world and to destroy the capitalist system and the governments that operate under it through the promotion of internal disorder and strife; and Whereas during the past decade particularly, communism has made sweeping inroads toward the accomplishment of its objective throughout the entire world, including the United States of America, by securing and procuring for its agents positions of trust and responsibility, in both our State and Federal Governments; and Whereas millions of American dollars have been spent by the FBI, the Army and Navy Intelligence, and other executive agencies to detect and keep under surveillance Communists, since the party was organized in this country a generation ago; and Whereas the best method to combat communism is by detection, exposure, and prosecution; and Whereas the United States Government, by and through its various agencies, has successfully detected and exposed innumerable Communists actually engaged in acts of treason against the United States Government; and Whereas it is axiomatic that any constitution of a free people must possess the inherent power to protect and defend that constitution: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Fiftieth National Encampment, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, That the President and the Congress be petitioned to enact legislation outlawing the Communist Party in the United States, and be it further Resolved, That, should it be necessary, every effort be made to amend the Constitution so as to authorize the Congress to outlaw any organization which advocates overthrow of the Government by force and violence. Approved by the Fiftieth National Encampment, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Miami, Fla., August 21-26, 1949. Mr. Wood. Did I understand you to say that resolution was adopted by unanimous vote? Mr. KETCHUM. Yes. Approximately 6,500 delegates attended the convention, and there was no objection from the floor to the resolution. (Representative Walter leaves hearing room.) Mr. KETCHUM. We are aware of the objections that have been spread over the hearing records of this committee contending that there is a constitutional impediment to the outlawing of the Communist Party, and that outlawing the party would drive it underground, thereby retarding our efforts to detect and expose its operations. The Communist Party in the United States represents a conspiracy dedicated to the overthrow, by force and violence, of the Government of the United States. The Supreme Court has never made such a determination because the question has never been properly before that Court. However, some lower Federal courts have made such a determination and there is, therefore, sufficient basis to rebut the contention that the outlawing of such a conspiracy would be unconstitutional. We also insist this committee and the Congress ought not to be influenced by what a future Supreme Court might rule on some future issue involving a law that would definitely point to the elimination of the Communist Party in the United States. The enactment of such a law would once and for all sharply define the most important issue facing us today, an issue which, unless solved, bears the indelible imprint of our decline and fall as a great nation. We contend that the Communist Party represents a criminal conspiracy to overthrow our form of government. The lawyer's rejoinder is that an overt act is an essential element of a conspiracy. However, an overt act may be committed by a word, by the teaching and spreading of a criminal doctrine, by a joining of hands in a common effort to propagate a doctrine of terror. Surely, that fits the pattern of operation of the Communist Party. It has been contended that the Congress is outlawing the Communist Party would be making a "finding of fact" that membership in the party was membership in a criminal conspiracy. Our only answer is that it's about time. Eastern Europe and China have learned the bitter lesson of trying to rationalize their acquiescence of communism as the mere acceptance of agrarian or social reform. By making such a congressional finding of fact our law-enforcement agencies would have a much more effective weapon in eliminating disloyal and subversive elements because then membership in the Communist Party would be penalized. Don't get mired down in a bog of rationalization when the picture of what communism means for the United States is as clear as day. In your groping for a solution to the Communist menace, don't lower your sight and thereby fall into the trap cleverly advanced by the Marxist dialectic that communism is a political science, something that may be registered but not in the jailhouse. Many of the so-called liberals in our midst have decried the suggestion of outlawing communism, warning that we would make martyrs of Communists, that, by some strange twist of reasoning, they, underground, would become the inheritors of the Jeffersonian tradition, and that the rest of us, in Gestapo-like fashion, would preside over the liquidation of the Bill of Rights. Let's call a spade a spade and outlaw the Communist Party, rid the party of the semblance of legality by means of which they obtain monetary and spiritual support through front organizations. You won't be driving them underground, because the most serious part of the Communist movement is already underground. The Communist menace presents a challenge to our country, and how we meet that challenge in the next 5 years will depend the survival of western civilization. We can take a firm stand now athwart the path of communism by outlawing it, or we can play along with it until it has sapped our strength and weakened our defenses. Mr. WOOD. I am sorry to interrupt you, but one of the members has to leave and he desires to make a statement. Mr. MCSWEENEY. I have to be on the floor the minute the House convenes, and as a life member of the Veterans of the Foreign Wars in both wars, I want to commend you for your action and tell you how glad we are to have you before our committee. Mr. KETCHUM. Thank you, sir.. I appreciate that very much and am sorry you have to leave. Mr. WOOD. I am sorry I had to interrupt you. Mr. KETCHUM. That is all right, Mr. Chairman. I understand those things. (Representative McSweeney leaves hearing room.) Mr. KETCHUM. We will then discover, too late, that the Constitution of a free people necessarily bears the inherent power to defend itself. Surely, the Constitution is not so weak an instrument that it could be used as a vehicle of self-destruction. We urge you to take this forward step, to send to the House a bill that would outlaw the Communist Party in the United States. A brief word about the bill H. R. 7595, presently pending before this committee. This bill, patterned after the so-called Mundt-Nixon bill of the Eightieth Congress, defines certain prohibited acts which affect the security of the United States. The bill also requires the registration with the Attorney General of persons belonging to the Communist Party or Communist-front organizations, and also requires the registration of such organizations. Penalties are provided for failure to register and findings of fact, as to whether an individual or organization must register, are to be determined by a Subversive Activities Control Board. Judicial review of the actions of the Board may be provided before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the United States Supreme Court. Although the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States stands by its convention mandate that the Communist Party and any other |