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COMMUNIST THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES
THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE
ADMINISTRATION OF THE INTEKNAL SECUEITY
ACT AND OTHER INTERNAL SECURITY LAWS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITeK^T ATE8 '" SENATE
EIGHTY-SIXTH CONGKESS
FIRST SESSION
PART 4
DECEMBER 7, 1&59
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
f-"" o WASHINGTON : 1960
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
JAMES O. EASTLAND, Mississippi, Chairman
ESTES KEFAUVER, Tennessee ALEXANDER WILEY, Wisconsin
OLIN D. JOHNSTON, South Carolina EVERETT McKINLEY DIRKSEN, Illinois
THOMAS C. HENNINGS, Jr., Missouri ROMAN L. HRUSKA, Nebraska
JOHN L. McCLELLAN, Arkansas KENNETH B. KEATING, New York
JOSEPH C. O'MAHONEY, Wyoming
SAM J. ERVIN, Jr., North Carolina
JOHN A. CARROLL, Colorado
THOMAS J. DODD, Connecticut
PHILIP A. HART, Michigan
Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security
Act and Other Internal Security Laws
JAMES O. EASTLAND, Mississippi, Chairman
THOMAS J. DODD, Connecticut, Vice Chairman
OLIN D. JOHNSTON, South Carolina ROMAN L. HRUSKA, Nebraska
JOHN L. McCLELLAN, Arkansas EVERETT McKINLEY DIRKSEN, Illinoi-,
SAM J. ERVIN, Jr., North Carolina KENNETH B. KEATING, New York
J. O. SouRWiNE, Chi(f Counsel
Benjamin Mandbl, Dimlor oi litfeai -h
n
CONTENTS
Page
Witness :
Dennis, Eugene 239
North, Joseph 181
COMMUNIST THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES
THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
MONDAY, DECElffBER 7, 1959
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee To Investigate the
Administration of the Internal Security Act
AND Other Internal Security Laws,
OF the Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington^ D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to order, at 10 :30 a.m. in room 2226,
New Senate Office Building, Senator Koman L. Hruska, presiding.
Also present: J. G. Sourwine, chief counsel; Benjamin Mandel,
director of research; Frank W, Scliroeder, chief investigator; and
Robert C. McManus, investigations analyst.
Senator Hruska. The subcommittee will come to order.
The witness is Joseph North, who has already been sworn in execu-
tive session. That will be considered as the equivalent of being sworn
here. The record will further show that the witness is accompanied
by his counsel, Mr. Joseph Forer, of Washington, D.C.
Very well, Mr. Sourwine, will you continue, sir ?
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. North, what is your present residence address ?
TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH NORTH
Mr. North. I can't hear you.
Mr. Sourwine. Your present residence?
Mr. North. You will have to excuse me. I am a little hard of
hearing,
Mr. Sourwine. I am sorry. What is your present residence?
Mr. North. My office, residence or office ?
Mr. Sourwine. Residence.
Mr. North. 281 East Broadway.
Mr. Sourwine. And what is your telephone at that residence ?
Mr. North. It is just being changed and I don't recall it just now.
Mr. Sourwine. What is your present business address ?
Mr. North. 23 West 26th Street.
Mr. Sourwine. And your business telephone?
Mr. North. Oregon 9-9450.
Mr. Sourwine. And what is your occupation or profession ?
Mr. North. I am a newspaperman and author.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. North, when and where were you bom ?
Mr. North. I was born in the Ukraine in 1904, May 25.
Mr. Sourwine. In Odessa?
Mr. North. No, no, it was near Nikolayev.
181
182 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. SouRwiNE. And under what name were you bom ?
Mr. North. I don't understand the relevancy of that question.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Well, we intend to show the identity of the indi-
vidual, sir.
Is is not true that you were born Jacob Soifer; that you later
changed that name legally to Joseph North ?
Mr. North. That is true.
Mr. SouRwiNE. When and where was this change made?
Mr. North. My recollection is it was in New York City.
Mr. Sourwinb. You are an American citizen, are you not ?
Mr. North. Yes.
Mr. SouRwiNE. By derivation ? That is, your father, Jesse Soifer,
Avas naturalized by the court of common pleas of Delaware County,
Media, Pa., November 21, 1910 ?
Mr. North. As I remember.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You were still a minor at that time and you got
your citizenship by derivation ?
Mr. North. Yes.
Mr. SouRwiNE. When and where did you enter the United States?
Mr. North. Well, at the age of some 9 months, when I was brought
here, it is a little difficult for me to tell you in exact detail, and some-
times these records, as I understand them, are not always kept. This
question was asked me before, as you know, and I made every effort
to find out from the port of Baltimore, and my understanding is that
is where I was brought in at that age.
Mr. SoTjRwiNE. You came when your father did in 1905 ?
Mr. North. Pardon?
Mr. SouRwiNE. You came when your father did in 1905 ?
Mr. North. I was told I was brought here afterward by my mother,
approximately a year or so.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, have you recently been engaged in an
extensive speaking tour ?
Mr. North. I would like, Mr. Sourwine, to know what the object
of this hearing is, why you take me from my post as a newspaperman
to come down here, harass me now, as you did several years ago, your
committee did, and I would like to have clear what the purpose of
all this is, to ask me a question as to where I spoke and what I spoke.
Isn't there something called the first amendment to the Constitution
of our countrj'^ which guarantees my right to speak wherever I wish
without being interrogated ?
Mr. Sourwine. No one questions your right to speak, but you do not
have a right to refuse to testify with regard to what you have done
unless you claim the fifth amendment privilege in connection with it.
The committee's purpose in questioning you, sir, is based on the fact
that the committee has reason to believe that you have been for many
years a member of the Communist Party, that you have been active
in Communist affairs, that you are knowledgeable with respect to ac-
tivities of the Communist Party, and that you have information which,
if you will furnish it, will be valuable to the committee.
Senator Hruska. The chairman might add that a further purpose
would he that through witnesses like yourself, if our information and
advices are correct, Ave will learn about the activities of the Communist
Party, those which are current, those which are announced for execu-
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 183
tion in the near future, their methods of operation and similar facts
which will enable us, then, to consider proper legislation which will
be recommended to the Congress for its debate and adoption.
Mr. North. Well, Senator, you know, I was before this committee
several years ago, as Mr. Sourwine indicated, and I did not see any
results from that committee regarding legislation, and I regarded it
then and now as a harassment, because primarily you do not, or the
committee members do not, agree with the ideas or like the ideas I
present in my writings, and therefore I feel that this is an infringe-
ment upon the first amendment of our Constitution, which gives me
and every American the right to write the tmth as he sees it, the right
of freedom of press, the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly.
That right, it seems to me, all that I have read in my civics books
since I was a child in this country, and made me so proud of my Na-
tion, was this was the one thing that every American was guaranteed
by the Constitution, and so I have operated all my years on that as-
sumption, and I still feel that way, and I believe that this committee is
infringing upon that right, and I certainly feel that way as a news-
paperman particularly as we are coming into an election period today
when the rights of the newspapers to present their views on the candi-
dates becomes even more sacrosanct than ever before.
Therefore I think as a newspaperman, one who has all his life been
in his professional career a newspaperman and author, I resent the fact
that I am called here and asked such questions, and therefore I must re-
fuse to answer this on the basis of the first amendment ; and secondly,
I wish to say that I believe that this committee's functions are in-
jurious to the question of the internal welfare of the country, inasmuch
as I myself am called down here, a man who, for over a quarter of a
century, has fought for the rights of people, for the civil rights of our
Nation ; for the rights of the Scottsboro boys when they were threat-
ened with lynching, from that time on.
I have fought for the rights of the Negro people, for the rights of
labor, for the rights of our country to live in amity with all nations,
and therefore I don't see why a person who has a record of this sort
should be regarded as one to be called before an internal security sub-
committee.
Senator Hruska. If you want to assert your privilege, Mr. North,
you may do so. We are not especially interested in a harangue of too
great a length.
I think you have repeated yourself at least three or four times in
trying to set yourself up as a newspaperman, of good sincerity and
good worth, which this committee will not try to impugn in any way.
The committee would very much resent the idea that we are calling
you here to harass you and to deny you your rights, and to have what-
ever opinions you believe or want to believe.
This committee is always interested in internal security and the right
of free speech and free press.
Its fimdamental purpose is to preserve those rights from attack by
those organizations and by those people who seek to destroy the docu-
ment upor which they are f ound^, and we have as much interest, and
perhaps just a little more, than some of the Avitnesses who appear be-
fore us, to preserve those rights.
184 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Now we have made a statement here from this side of the bench,
Mr. Sourwine as well as myself, as to the legislative purposes of this
testimony.
They are to find out as to those things which we consider necessary
and in fact, indispensable, if we expect to treat legislatively with the
threats of Communist subversion and activity in this country intelli-
gently and well.
It is to that end we are addressing ourselves, and not for 1 minute to
try to deny to you the right to write as you choose and to talk as you
please.
Now, if you don't desire to answer the question of counsel, please
assert the grounds upon which you do not wish to answer and then we
will follow the regular procedures of this committee.
Mr. North. Pardon me. Senator. The grounds that I have indi-
cated so far are the grounds of the first amendment and also the
gi'ounds of due process of the fifth amendment and considering the
fifth amendment, I also exercise my rights on the basis of my privilege
under the fifth amendment not to appear as a witness against myself.
Senator Hruska. Very well.
The Chair will rule that the refusal of the witness to answer on the
basis of the first amendment is rejected. It is sustained, however, as
to his refusal to answer on the basis of the fifth amendment.
Are there any further questions, Mr. Sourwine ?
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. North, will you tell us what have been the sub-
jects of your speeches in your recent speaking tour ?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer on the grounds just given.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Will you tell us what groups you have addressed ?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer on the same grounds.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. "Will you tell us who has paid your expenses on
this tour ?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer on the same grounds.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Were not your expenses on this tour paid by the
Communist Party, U.S.A. ?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer on the same grounds.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Are you the same Joseph North who is presently
foreign editor and staff writer of the Worker ?
Mr. North. Same grounds.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Have you been connected with raising funds for
the Worker ?
Mr. North. Same grounds.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. North, did you ever attend a meeting at the
home of Matthew Snyder, 227 Harrison Avenue, Norwood, Pa. ?
Mr. North. Pardon me?
Mr. Sourwine. Did you ever attend a meeting at the home of Mat-
thew Snyder, 227 Harrison Avenue, Norwood, Pa. ?
Mr. North. Norwood, Pa. ?
Mr. Sourwine. Yes.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 185
Mr. North. Same ground.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Did you not, as a matter of fact, attend a secret
Communist Party meeting there on September 6, 1959 ?
Mr. North. Secret Communist Party meeting where ?
Mr. SouRWiNE. At the home of Matthew Snyder, 227 Harrison
Avenue, Norwood, Pa. ?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer on the grounds given.
Senator KbusKA. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Do you have any knowledge, Mr. North, respecting
a meeting held at the Essex Hotel in Philadelphia on October 10 of
this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Communist Party,
U.S.A.?
Mr. North. Same grounds.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Are you, Mr. North, a member of the Communist
Party, U.S.A. ?
Mr. North. For the reasons I have previously given, I will not an-
swer that.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Isn't it true, Mr. North, that you have been an ac-
tive member of the Communist Party since the early 1930's, speaking
frequently at Communist rallies and writing extensively in explana-
tion and dissemination of the Communist line.
Mr. North. I stand by the previous answers.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Isn't it true that you are one of the national leaders
in this country in Communist cultural affairs ?
Mr. North. Same grounds.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, I want to read you an article, an excerpt
from an article about you which appeared in the New Masses of June
27, 1939. I want you to listen. My question when I conclude will be
whether the statements made in this article as I read them are true.
(Eeading:)
A present New Masses editor and one of the founders of the weekly is Joseph
North. A veteran newspaperman, North started his career in progressive jour-
nalism 10 years ago when he became director of publicity for the International
Labor Defense and later editor of its magazine, the Labor Defender. It was he
who helped build the Scottsboro case in 1931 into a new issue.
After the founding of New Masses, North's brilliant stories on such events as
the Terre Haute strike, the New York taxi strike and the release of Angelo
Herndon, put him in the front rank of the country's reporters.
In 1936, he left New Masses to become the first editor of the Sunday Worker.
The following year he went to Spain covering the front and behind the front
for New Masses and the Daily Worker; returned from Spain last fall, and
rejoined the New Masses editorial staff in February.
He recently paid a 3-week visit to Hollywood and has prepared two articles
on the changes that have been taking place in the movie colony.
They will appear in the New Masses within the next few weeks and will be
followed by two articles by Ella Winter.
The question : Are the statements contained in the article from the
New Masses true ?
Mr. North. They certainly sound very impressive, but I will have
to reply the same way I did before.
66493 60 -pt. 4-2
186 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. SouRwiNE. Are you the same Joseph North referred to in that
aiticle^
Mr. North. I believe I must reply in the same fashion, sir.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SoiTRwiNE. Mr. North, I show you a photostat of the cover of
a book "Robert Minor," an informal biography, by Joseph North.
I will ask you if you are the Joseph North who was author of that
book?
Ml". FoRER. Senator, I wonder if we can get a ruling on tliat. This
does not seem to be consistent with your statement you made at the
beginning that the committee did not propose to interfere with the
witness' freedom of speech and press.
Tt just goes against the grain to me to see any committee question-
ing a man about what books he wrote.
Now, it may be that there is some particular fact in there that Mr.
Souiwine is interested in, let him ask about the particular fact. But
to just ask a man, "Did you write this book ?" I think that is not right.
i just don't think it is in accord with what you youreelf said.
Senator Hruska. Mr. Counsel, if he is to ask about a fact when he
doesn't know if it is this witness who has written the book, it would
be objected to as being totally out of order.
Mr. FoRER. No, no, he can ask the question about any fact he is
interested in.
Suppose in the book the author said he killed somebody. He can
ask Mr. North, "Did you kill somebody?" but why should he ask him
why he wrote a book.
Mr. SouRWiNE. That will become evident if the witness will answer
this question.
Mr. FoRER. I don't think it is a proper question by your own frame
of reference. Senator.
I don't think you should question witnesses on the books they have
written.
Senator Hruska. The chairman suggested in executive hearing that
that executive liearing would probably be taken advantage of for the
purpose we now hear expressed by counsel.
Mr. FoRER. I am talking about the opening statement you made at
this open hearing. Senator.
Senator Hruska. The inquiry as to whether the witness has written
a book certainly in no way impinged upon his right to speak nor to
write as he chooses. I cannot see any impingement on his right to
do it.
Mr. FoRER. You ai"e just wrong.
Ml". North. Pardon me. I would like to say. Senator, I am a man
Avlio does a great deal of writing. I am also engaged in writing books.
T will say that the fact that I write books I am called before an
august body such as this to be questioned about writing books makes
me think of what Milton said about this very thing that happened in
his day, that you may as well burn a man as burn a book.
It is the same kind of approach and as a matter of fact, the question
of writing books preceded the burning of the books in Nuremburg,
preceded the burning of Jews and liberals and burning of people in
that country.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 187
Senator Hruska. Mr. North, the committee has not suggested that
it is objecting to your having written the book.
It is not proposing to burn the book or you.
It simply wants to know as a foundational question, as I under-
stand it from Mr. Sourwine, whether or not you wrote this book.
Now then, if you don't want to answer the question, say so, but it
is foundational to other questions and it has a legitimate purpose, in
the opinion of the chairman, and the chairman so rules.
Mr. North. I must then say, as to the other answers.
Senator Hruska. Very well, same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. Chairman, the blurb in this book, and by that
I mean the article about the author which appears on the back
cover of the book, reads as follows, and I would like to have the witness
listen, and the question at the conclusion will be whether this state-
ment about you is true.
Born in 1904, son of an immigrant blacksmith, Joseph North went to work at
the age of 12 in a Pennsylvania textile mill.
From the age of 13 he worked summers in the shipyards of his hometown
until he completed his education, getting his bachelor of arts degree at the
University of Pennsylvania.
After a few years in daily journalism he began writing for the labor press in
the twenties and later became editor of the Labor Defender at the time of the
Scottsboro case.
In 1934, he was a founder of the weekly New Masses and served as editor dur-
ing most of the 15 years of its existence. During this period North became noted "
for his memorable reportage. He covered the big strikes of the thirties, the move-
ment of the unemployed and the farmers and the battles for Negro rights in
the South. Covering the Spanish War for the Daily Worker and the New Masses,
he was the only American correspondent to cross the Ebro with the International
Brigades.
Mr. North. Anything bad about that ?
Mr. Sourwine. Pardon?
Mr. North. I really don't understand. Why did you call me before
you, because I did what you are reading there ?
Senator Hruska. The witness will please refrain from interrupt-
ing the question.
This is a question, Mr. North.
Mr. Sourwine (reading) :
On his return he traveled frequently throughout the land as well as in
Mexico and Cuba.
He was in Europe as war correspondent during World War II writing from
London under the blitz, and from the concentration camp of Dachau on V-E
Day.
His syndicated column, "Assignment U.S.A.," appears in the Daily Worker
and The Worker.
North was one of the editors of Proletarian Literature in the United States, an
anthology of the writings of the thirties.
He is now completing a book based on his own experiences which describes the
moral and intellectual impact of the great events of the past three decades.
The question is, is this statement about you true ?
Mr, North. I find that question, to me as a writer, sir, extremely dis-
turbing.
I don't see the relevance of it to anything regarding internal
security.
Mr .Sourwine. This is relevant two ways
188 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. North. I don't see why a man who has been described, even if
that were so, why he should be brought down here with the obloquy
which always attends the subpenaing of a person before this com-
mittee— to me, sir, this is sometliing to be fearful for about our coun-
try; that you should bring that before a writer and ask him such
questions as that.
Would you perhaps indicate what sentence, what part of that is a
threat to internal security ?
The fact that I helped the Scottsboro boys; the fact that I was
with labor; the fact that I tried to defeat fascism in Spain with my
writings
Mr. SouRwiNE. This question is pertinent in two ways, Mr. North,
as I attempted to tell you when you interrupted.
It is pertinent as to identification as to who you are and what your
background is, and it is pertinent as qualifying you as an expert in
certain fields.
Mr. North. I cannot answer that any differently than I answered
the previous questions.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. North, are you aware that Elizabeth Bentley
identified you as a recruiting agent for Soviet espionage in the United
States?
Mr. North. I thought we went through that nauseating and that
disgusting kind of stuff years back and I refuse to answer that for the
reasons I have previously given. It is an insult.
Senator Hruska. The chairman will make the same ruling.
Mr. North. It is an insult to ask that same question after these
years.
Senator Hruska. If it is nauseating, it must be to certain people.
Other people consider it a legitimate inquiry.
Nevertheless, the chairman rules the same way.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Have you, in fact, acted as a recruiting agent for
Soviet espionage in the United States ?
Mr. North. Aren't you repeating yourself ?
^ I just indicated what my answer was to the previous question and
didn't these come up 4 or 5 years ago ?
I thought the understanding was that we, that you had some other
fish to fry at this hearing today, and these are all the blasted and
destroying kind of charges which sickened the people throughout the
whole McCarthy period, and the whole world was horrified by what
they saw here, and now you try to reinvoke that gospel once again of
McCarthyism.
Is that your purpose ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. I am giving you an opportunity to destroy this ques-
tion by a denial, if you wish to.
Have you, in fact, served as a recruiting agent for Soviet espionage
in the United States ?
Mr. North. You know, that question, sir, is revolting. I never
Senator Hruska. Let the Chair suggest that if the witness doesn't
choose to answer, he may do so.
The constant reiteration of tirades such as that which we have
had
Mr. North. No, I never have, sir. I have never.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 189
Senator Hruska. It will serve no purpose. If the witness doesn't
desire to answer, please say so.
Mr. North. No, I have never. The answer to that is "No."
Mr. SouEWixE. You have never acted as a recruiting agent for
Soviet espionage in the United States ?
Mr. North. No.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Are you aware that Louis Budenz identified you as
one of the top Communists in the United States ?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer that question.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you ever recruit an American correspondent or
radio correspondent for Soviet espionage ?
Mr. FoRER. Really, Senator
Mr. North. I don't know what you are talking about.
Mr. FoRER. This is ^oing into the same area that we went into.
Mr. SouRWiNE. This is legitimate cross-examination on the witness'
answer.
Mr. FoRER. If you have evidence that this man committed espionage,
you ought to present it to a grand jury.
He denied it, and then you go on and slush and ask such details.
Now present it to a grand jury if he committed a serious crime. I
just think it is a decent thing to do. _
Mr. North. You think that is fair, Senator ?
Senator Hruska. The Chair would like to observe the counsel is not
the witness.
Mr. North. I have just answered that.
Senator Hruska. The counsel is not the witness, and we should bear
that in mind.
Mr. North. I, sir, stated to you that the answer to that question was
"No," whether I have ever been — what was that? — an espionage
agent
Mr. SouRW^NE. The question was not whether you were an espionage
agent ; the question was whether you ever acted as a recruiting agent
for Soviet espionage in the United States.
Mr. North. The same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. Chairman, I offer for the record excerpts prop-
erly identified from testimony previously given under oath by four
persons ; namely, Remington, Hayden, Rossen, and Bentley.
I won't take the time to read them. May they go into the record ?
Senator Hruska. They will go into the record at this point.
(The document referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 19" and reads
as follows:)
Exhibit No. 19
Testimony of William Remington before House Committee on Un-American
Activities, May 4, 1950, page 1797
Mr. Tavenner. It was through Mr. Joseph North that you met Mr. Jacob
Golos, was it not?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
Mr. Tavennek. Did Mr. North introduce you to him?
Mr. Remington. Yes. * * *
Mr. Tavenneb. And at the same time, or I believe it was at a later time than
your introduction to Golos, you met Elizabeth Bentley?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
190 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Testimony of Mr. Remington before the above comrnittee on May 5, 1950,
pages 1830-1832
Mr. Tavenner. You told us in your earlier testimony that at the home of your
mother-in-law in New York you met a person by the name of Joseph North?
Mr. Remington. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. When did you first meet him?
Mr. Remington. I met him at the home of my ex-mother-in-law — I want to
make it clear that there is no longer any legal relationship or personal relatlon-
.ship or any other relationship — sometime in the winter of 1939-40, when I was
living in New York City.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you meet him frequently at the home of your mother-in-
law?
Mr. Remington. I went to the home of my mother-in-law almost every weekend
from New York. I believe he was in her house for anywhere from a few minutes
to a few hours half of those weekends, or certainly a great many of those week-
ends; I couldn't say how many. He was a frequent visitor, in other words.
Mr. Tavenner. Where did he live?
Mr. Remington. He lived in what had been the garage of the house of my
former mother-in-law, which was perhaps 50 feet from my ex-mother-in-law's
house.
Mr. Tavenner. And on the same property?
Mr. Remington. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you become very well acquainted with Mr. North during
the period you knew him there?
Mr. Remington. I became acquainted with him as a frequent visitor, as a per-
son with whom I had many social conversations.
Mr. Tavenner. I am not certain whether you have told us over how long a
period of time you associated with Mi-. North there at the property of your
mother-in-law?
Mr. Remington. During the academic year 1939-40, when I was at Columbia, I
believe I saw him many of the weekends that I was in Croton. I was there, as
I have indicated, almost every weekend. In May of 1940 I accepted employment
in Washington. I was in Croton perhaps once during the summer, when I may
have seen him.
During the winter of 1940-41 I was in Croton on a few occasions, although I
was residing In Washington. During the summer of 1941 I was in Croton at
least once. During the winter of 1941^2 I believe I was In Croton once or twice.
On most of these occasions I believe that I would have seen Mr. North, becau.se.
as I indicated, he was a frequent visitor at my ex mother-in-law's house. Both
houses were in the same yard, and there was constant running back and forth.
Mr. Tavenner. I believe you testified earlier that you knew Joseph North
to be a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. Remington. I knew him to be editor of the New Masses, and I certainly
assumed that he was a member of the Communist Party.
Mr. Tavenner. In your conversations with him over the course of approxi-
mately 2 or 2^ years, did he argue with you or state in your presence many
times views indicating to you that he was a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. Remington. Yes. I so interpreted what he said.
Mr. Tavenner. There is no question about it, that you recognized him as a
Communist?
Mr. Remington. No question in my mind.
Mr. Tavenner. After you became employed by the War Production Board,
did he show any interest in your work with the War Production Board?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. What was the nature of that interest?
Mr. Remington. He was interested in whether or not the administration in
Washington was making a sincere and determined effort to produce war material.
Mr. Tavenner. Is that all?
Mr. Remington. That was the nature of his interest, the only nature of his
interest which became apparent to me.
Mr. Tavtenner. And did not he desire to know, or did he desire to know, any-
thing about the character of your work or the nature of the organization of
I he War Production Board?
Mr. Remington. He was. as I recall, certainly interested in the nature of the
organization of the War Prcxluction Board. I am sure I described to him the
nature of that organization.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 191
Mr. Tavenneb. Yoti mean by that, how it was organized and how it func-
tioned ?
Mr. Remington. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. And was he also interested in the personnel of the Board, as
to who they were?
Mr. Remington. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenneb. Was he interested in learning facts relating to the personali-
ties of different members of the Board?
Mr. Remington. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenneb. What other matters, if any, did he indicate an intei-est in.
in regard to the War Production Board?
Mr. Remington. I recall he indicated an interest in knowing whether any
high-ranking member of the Board would write an article for his magazine.
He did secure such an article.
Mr. Tavenneb. Did you assist in any way in procuring such an article?
Mr. Remington. No, sir.
Mr. Tavenneb. Will you tell the committee whether or not arrangement was
made by Mr. Joseph North to invite you to dinner to meet a friend of his?
Mr. Remington. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenneb. When did that occur?
Mr. Remington. That occurred in the winter of 1941-42. I l>elieve it was
during the period of time when I was up in Croton ai-ound Christmas. I
could not place it more definitely than that. I know that I was in Crotnn for
a weekend early in that winter.
Mr. Tavenneb. What year was that?
Mr. Remington. The winter of 1941-42.
Mr. Ta\t:nneb. Then where did you go for dinner, do you recall?
Mr. Remington. I recall having lunch with Mr. North and a friend nf his,
to whom he introduced me, at a restaurant in midtown Manhattan. That
restaurant has been identified in previous hearings, as you know.
Mr. Tavenneb. And what is the name of it?
Mr. Remington. It is a restaurant, Child's or Schrafft's, it slips my mind at
the moment, in the vicinity of Lexington Avenue and 32d Street, thereabouts,
within a block or two.
Mr. Tavenneb. Was the person whom you met at that dinner Jacob Golos?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
Mr. Tavenneb. Did Mr. North state to you why he wanted you to meet Mr.
Golos?
Mr. Remington. Yes, he did.
Mr. Tavenneb. What statement did he make?
Mr. Remington. He said that what I had been telling him alKmt the .sincerity
of the administration in pushing for a high level of war production was very
interesting; he thought a friend of his, a writer, would like to learn or should
learn about it, perhaps.
Mr. Tavenneb. Do you know whether Mr. Golos was a member of the Com-
munist Party or aflSliated with it or with any Communist-front organization
at that time?
Mr. Remington. No.
Mr. Tavenneb. Mr. Chairman, the records of the committee show that Mr.
Golos is now deceased; that he was identified by Manning Johnson, in his
testimony before this committee, as the head of World Tourists, which has been
cited as a Communist-front organization ; and that he was named in a letter
by the office of the Attorney General to the District of Columbia Federal court,
asking that a special grand jury investigate his alleged misrepresentations and
omissions in connection with filing registration statements with the State De-
partment as agent of a foreign government.
(Same hearing, pp. 1835, 1836 :)
Mr. Walteb. Didn't you feel that meeting somebody who was introduced !<■
you by a Communist, there might have been something unusual about her?
Mr. Remington. Sir, I didn't know at the time that Mr. Golos was a
Communist.
Mr. Wood. But you knew the man who introduced you to Mr. Golos was a
Communist.
Mr. Remington. I knew Mr. North was a Communist, but I knew an A.ssistaiil
Vice Chairman of the War Prwluction Board had written for Mr. Norths
magazine during that period.
192 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. Wood. Mr. Golos was introduced to you by Mr. North, who was known to
you to be a Communist, and Mr. Golos in turn introduced you to Miss Bentley.
All those facts didn't register in your mind as making Miss Bentley a bad risk
to give confidential information to?
Mr. Remington. They did not.
(Ibid, pp. 1853, 1954:)
Miss Bentley. Not personally ; no. I knew of his activities through Mr. Golos.
He was one of the editors of the New Masses, and in addition was a lookout man
for Russian intelligence. By lookout I mean he was always on the lookout for
good Communists who could be used on Russian intelligence work. That is why
he was in touch with Mr. Golos, who was a Russian intelligence agent.
Miss Bentley. Every person they picked up came from the Communist Party
via these lookouts. Joe North was one ; * * *
m ***** *
Mr. Tavenneb. Do you know anything about the contact between Mr. Golos
and Mr. Joseph North relating to Mr. Remington?
Miss Bentley. Very definitely. At the time that I met Mr. Remington, which
must have been early 1942. I was already in contact with other Communists who
were planted in the American Government to get information for Soviet intelli-
gence. Mr. Golos at that time had a bad heart and was turning over more and
more of these people to me. He came to me and said : "We have one more for
Washington." He told me all about Mr. Remington. He said : "He has been in
the party quite some years, and I have checked him and he is OK. He was re-
ferred to me by Joe North, and he is OK. In addition to that, he is a highly
respectable person."
Testimony before Investigations Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Ex-
penditures in the Executive Departments, July 30, 1948, as reprinted at p. 1871
by the House committee in connection with the above testimony :
Senator Ferguson. When did you first meet Elizabeth Bentley?
Mr. Remington. I have been racking my brains now for a year and a half since
this thing first came up to try and place exact dates, and I am not sure of exact
dates. I can give you approximate ones. I was introduced by Elizabeth Moos
to Joseph North, and Joseph North was in Elizabeth Moos' house half of every
day and most evenings in 1941 — pardon me, in 1940. I knew him, and I talked
with him and I used to disagree with him, but I would see him around the house
a great deal, and I am easy to get along with, and I don't pick fights. Joseph
North in 1941 — pardon me, in 1942, sometime in the spring, summer, or fall of
1942, he introduced me to a man whom the FBI tells me is named John Golos.
North introduced me to Golos, as I knew North, and Golos was a friend of
North's, and North told me Golos was writing a book about war mobilization,
and he thought that I could help keep him going on the right track. Golos and
North ha I lunch together, and I was with them, and my wife was with us, some-
time in the spring or summer of 1942.
Hollywood hearings, pp. 136, 137
Mr. Hayden. * * * I called and talked to a man named Joe North, whom he
(V. J. Jerome) had mentioned to me. I went up and talked to him in this
building that I guess was headquarters for the whole caboodle. There was
general conversation. * * *
Mr. Tavenneb. Did you meet with any other Communists while you were in
New York?
Mr. Hayden. Not to my knowledge. The only two I met that I considered
Communists were V. J. Jerome and Joe North.
Ibid, testimony of Robert Rossen, p. 675
Mr. Tavenneb. With regard to two of the pictures you have previously men-
tioned, the pictures entitled "They Won't Forget" and "Body and Soul," Joseph
North on June 5, 1948, suggested that a roll of honor order be established, and
that the order include Robert Rossen for these two pictures. Do you recall
that?
Mr. Rossen. No ; I don't.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 193
Mr. Tavenneb. Are you acquainted with Joseph North?
Mr. RossEN. I decline to answer that question on the grounds previously
stated.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. Chairman, I offer for the record excerpts from
the book by Elizabeth Bentley, "Out of Bondage," and ask that they
be incorporated.
Senator Hruska. They will be received for the record and for the
use of the committee.
(The material referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 20" and reads
as follows:)
Exhibit No. 20
Excerpts re Joseph North from the book by Elizabeth Bentley, "Out of Bondage"
"Bob and his wife, Jennie, packed up their belongings, left their Knickerbocker
Village apartment, and departed for Washington, thereby adding yet another
person to my list of Communist contacts in the U.S. Government. This was
only the beginning. As time went on, the number grew so large it was almost
physically impossible to handle. Over a period of many years Yasha had built
up a series of 'look-outs' — people strategically situated in Communist-front
organizations or in the party itself — through whom he could contact Commu-
nists who would be useful for espionage work. Among these were Joseph North,
editor of the now defunct New Masses and at present on the Daily Worker"
(p. 156).
"* * * A brilliant student in economics at Dartmouth College and later at
Columbia University, he (William W. Remington) had by the early part of
1942 obtained a position in the U.S. Government, at which time he came to our
attention. Stranded in Washington without a Communist vmit, he approached
his friend, Joe North, then editor of the New Masses, on one of his trips to New
York, and asked him for a contact. North, sensing his potential usefulness as
an agent, promptly alerted Yasha, who looked up his record with the C^tral
Control Commission and found that Bill had been a member of the party in good
standing for some time" (p. 178).
"* * * It was the middle of November and I decided to do my Christmas
shopping early, so that I wouldn't find myself caught in the last-minute rush.
This was a formidable job ; not only did I have my personal purchases, * * *
but I had to purchase presents for all our agents, Yasha's as well as mine.
For some strange reason, it was a tradition in the N.K.V.D. that at Christmas
everyone who worked for them — no matter in what capacity — received a
gift. * * * Therefore, as a token of appreciation, we made it a point to give
each of them a nice present at Christmas.
"These varied in value and type according to the worth of the individual
and his personal preferences. * * * Earl Browder always received several
jars of Russian caviar (all provided by the N.K.V.D.) ; * * * Kazakevich was
given a steamer basket of fruit and jams from the Hicks fruit store, and Joe
North a basket containing several bottles of rye" (pp. 209, 210).
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. North, have you ever received
Mr. North. May I ask a question ? How many years must a man
live with this kind of nonsense being thrown at him ? How many
years ?
Senator Hruska. The Chair again wants to remonstrate with the
witness that this is no place for the witness
Mr. North (interposing) . Do you think it is fair ?
Senator Hruska (continuing). To utilize as a forum for the expo-
sition of his own views.
Mr. North. If you were in my place, do you think that's fair? I
ask you, sir.
Senator Hruska. Mr. Witness, let the chairman remind you again,
you are the witness, and the cliairman has a duty of presiding here.
66493 60 -pt. 4-3
194 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
The chairman is not here to be interrogated. . You are the person
to be interrogated.
The counsel will proceed.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. North, have you ever received military training
under Communist auspices ?
Mr. North. What's that?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Have you ever received military training under
Communist auspices ?
Mr. North. I don't know. That seems such a weird question.
Please explain that question somewhat.
I don't Know how to answer it.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You know what military training is ?
Mr. North. What are you referring to ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. You know what military training is.
Mr. North. Under Communist auspices?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Well, I am trying to break the question down to
see what part
Mr. North. Military training, I understand, of course.
Mr. Sourwtne. Do you understand what Communist auspices
means ?
Mr. North. Put the two together and what do you say ?
Mr. Sourwine. I am asking you if you ever received military train-
ing imder Conununist auspices.
Mr. North. I just don't understand it and I will just have to answer
it with the answers I gave you before on the fifth amendment.
Mr. Sourwine. Did you, Mr. North, serve under Commimist lead-
ership in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War ?
Mr. North. Are you asking me that as something injurious to inter-
nal security ? You mean to have served against fascism
Senator Hruska. Mr. Witness, we want to get along with you. We
want to be as patient with you as we can.
Mr. North. You? I am the one.
Senator Hjiuska. If you wish to assert your right to answer the
question or to refuse to answer the question, please do so, but do not
precede it or prolong the proceedings by these long explanations and
these rather derogatory remarks about the committee and its pro-
cedures. We think we know what we are doing. We may be mis-
taken, but we are the committee and we would like to go through with
this proceeding in as orderly and as proper a fashion as we can.
Your time or ours will not be conserved by your reiteration, by these
derogatory remarks to the committee and the questions asked.
You have a simple expedient provided by the Constitution under
which we are living, and you need simply say you refuse to answer
and why.
Mr. FoRER. He should be able to object.
Senator Hruska. I am asking him to object but not to make a
speech each time which in each instance reflects upon the good faith of
this committee and upon its effort to try to do a job as it sees that job.
Mr. North. I am sorry, sir.
Senator Hruska. You are sorry, but this is the third or fourth
time I have raised the question.
Mr. North. You must remember that I am on this side of the table
and you are on that side. It is a little hard on the witness when he
has such questions thrown at him as I hear.
COMMUNIST THREAT TBOIOUQH THE CARIBBEAN 195
Isn't that true?
Senator Hruska. You needn't answer them if you don't want to.
All the Chair is suggesting is that instead of making a speech, you
simply assert your right to not answer if ^ou choose to do so.
Mr. North. Well, I must object to this question, because I believe
it is irrelevant and doesn't serve any purpose for the function of this
committee, and I must stand on that question.
Senator Hruska. And you do on the same basis you had raised
before, the first and fifth amendments ?
Mr. FoRER. He hasn't refused to answer at this point. He is ob-
jecting at this point.
Senator Hruska. Well, the objection is overruled.
Mr. FoRER. All right.
Senator Hruska. And the witness is directed to answer.
Mr. North. Well, I will have to add all grounds that I gave before
to that question.
Mr. FoRER. For refusing to answer, he means.
Senator Hruska. I didn't hear the witness.
Mr. North. I refuse to answer on all the grounds that I previously
have given.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, for the purpose of saving time at this
point, I will summarize these items of information, all of which are
documented.
Mr. North. Can you speak a little louder?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Yes. I am going to summarize certain items of
information about you, all of wliich are documented. I want you to
listen very carefully.
Mr. North. Go ahead.
Mr. SouRwiNE. In this case, I want you to interrupt for the pur-
pose of correcting any statement which you know to be untrue or
maccurate.
You were one of Jacob Golos' lookouts for espionage recruits.
Mr. NoRra. That is false, sir.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You knew Golos as Yasha.
Mr. North. As what?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Y-a-s-h-a.
Mr. North. I knew him as what? I don't understand what you
are saying.
That is false.
Mr. SouRwusTE. You knew Jacob Golos as Yasha.
Mr. North. That is false.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You contacted William W. Kemington as a recruit
for the underground apparatus of the Communist Party ; you ap-
proached
Mr. North. Excuse me.
Mr. FoRER. By not answering that, that is not admitting it is true.
Senator Hruska. The record will show that.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You approached Nat Einhom for a correspondent
to cover the Finnish war. Einhom suggested Winston Burdett. You
then contacted Burdett and introduced him to Golos.
You were in the Lincoln Battalion in Spain, where you were asso-
ciated with Communist military commanders from vanous countries.
196 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
I tell you, Mr. North, a photograph dated April 1938, of you among
a group of Americans, members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade ap-
pears in the book, "The Lincoln Battalion" by Edwin Rolfe.
The photograph is on page 27 of that book.
I tell you that you were at that time the Daily Worker correspond-
ent covering the Spanish Civil War.
I show you a group photograph under the caption "When Browder
Visited Spain."
Will you look at it please? This appears in the Daily Worker,
Thursday, July 18, 1940, page 5. This photograph was printed in
1940.
Mr. FoRER. So, what's the question ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Have you looked at the photograph, sir? You had
better keep it before you while I ask this question.
Isn't it true that this picture shows you in a group together with
Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party; Robert
Minor, former Communist leader now deceased; Dave Doran, now
deceased, former leader of the Young Communist League; Luigi
Gallo, inspector general of the International Brigades; and Vladimir
Copic, commanding the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at the time the
picture was taken ?
Mr. North. The same reasons that I gave you before, I will not
answer tliis question.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling. •
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. Chairman, I do not know whether this docu-
ment is of such quality that it can be reproduced.
Maybe it ought to be the order that if technical reasons permit, it
will be inserted in the record ?
Senator Hruska. Very well, without objection, so ordered.
(The picture referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 22" and is repro-
duced on the opposite page.)
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, were you, in 1939 and 1940, editor of the
New Masses?
Mr. North. Same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Did you know Richard H. Rovere as a member of
the staff of the New Masses at that time ?
Mr. North. Same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you assign Richard Rovere to write several
articles attacking Gen. Walter Krivitsky as "Smelka Ginsberg" ?
Mr. North. Same answer. What year are you talking about now ?
Mr. SouRWiNE. This was in 1939, sir.
Mr. North. That was 20 years ago.
Mr, SouRwiNE. That is correct.
Mr. North. Twenty years ago you are asking an editor if he re-
members whether assignments he gave 20 years hence.
Mr. SouRwiNE. If you don't rememl>er, all you need to do is say so.
Mr. North. I give the same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. Chairman, I otfer for the record a list of arti-
cles appearing in the New Masses magazine with the titles and dates
of the articles, carrying the byline of Joseph North.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
197
198 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Senator Hruska. It will be received for the record.
(The document referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 22" and reads
as follows:)
Exhibit No. 22
articles bt joseph north appearing in '.'new masses" magazine
"Henry Ford's Empire Totters." ( Apr. 15, 1941, p. 3. )
"How They Won at River Rouge." (Apr. 22, 1941, p. 5.)
"A Billion Dollars in Mexico." ( Jan. 7, 1941, p. 7. )
"Mustering the Soldiers of Peace." ( Feb. 4, 1941, p. 9. )
"We Are Many. (30th anniversary issue, Feb. 18, 1941, p. 7. )
"Sixty Years a Fighter." (Mar. 18, 1941, p. 12.)
"How Long Shall We Wait" ( Oct. 7, 1941, p. 20. )
"The Production Offensive." ( Nov. 4, 1941, p. 4. )
"The Truth Does Come." ( Nov. 11, 1941, p. 11. )
"130,000,000 Soldiers." ( Dec. 23, 1941, p. 8. )
"America at War." (Apr. 28, 1942, p. 4. )
"Eyes on the South." (Oct. 27, 1942, p. 3.)
"Conspiracy in the South." ( Nov. 3, 1942, p. 7. )
"Jan Valtin's Last Chapter." ( Dec. 8, 1942, p. 19. )
"Thoughts on a Sunday Morning." ( Dec. 29, 1942, p. 19. )
Mr. North. Pardon. May I ask a question of Mr. Sourwine?
Senator Hruska. Surely.
Mr. North. Are you putting articles in the record, Mr. Sourwine,
writings, titles of articles ?
Mr. Sourwine. Titles of articles, yes.
Mr. North. So it does impinge on a man's writing, does it ?
Mr. Sourwine. I beg your pardon ?
Mr. North. So it does impinge upon what a man has written.
Mr. Sourwine. This is a list of material you have written, yes.
Mr. North. I just wanted to get that straight.
Senator Hruska. The record should not stand as indicating that
the submission of a list of writings for the record impinges on any-
one's writings.
It is simply a list of the articles he is alleged to have written, but
nobody, least of all this committee, is seeking to impinge upon any-
body's rights.
Mr. North. Pardon, Senator. The list of articles you are sup-
posed to have written and that which you have written is on your
docket there for some consideration so the question of writing is
entering into this.
Senator Hruska. Exactly. Does the witness seek to prevent the
committee from considering material that has been written ?
For what purpose is the material written ?
Mr. North. But what happens to the first amendment to the Con-
stitution under these circumstances?
Senator Hruska. Nothing at all ; its efficiency is completely recog-
nized.
This committee doesn't object to your having written those things.
It doesn't want to prevent you from writing further articles if you
wish.
We simply want to put the articles you are alleged to have written
into the record for our consideration.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. North, I have just finished reading a book
"No Men Are Strangers" which bears the byline of Joseph North.
Are you the Joseph North who wrote that book ?
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 199
Mr. North. I must answer the way I previously answered.
Senator Hruska. The objection will be ruled upon in the same
fashion.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Will you tell us whether this is true, that this book
has been published by the Foreign Literature Publishing House, a
publishing house of the Soviet Union, as stated by the Worker of
October 25, 1959, page 6?
Mr. North. Same answer.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Will you tell us with whom you made arrange-
ments for this publication ?
Mr. North. Same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Will you tell us what compensation you received?
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. North. Published in addition to what elsewhere ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Has it been published elsewhere according to your
information? I would be very eager to know these things.
I would be very happy to have you tell us where it has been pub-
lished, if you know.
Mr. North. I am asking you. I mean just what relevance has this
got. I still continue to ask th& question about a writer and his rights.
Now you are asking me whether my book was published elsewhere
in this world.
It may be that it will be published in five or six countries. I will
be very happy that it is. But why do you put that down as some
kind of a black mark against the man's name ?
Senator Hruska. Mr. Witness, you must be laboring under some
persecution or inferiority complex of some kind.
We are here on an exploratory proposition. On the most elemen-
tary questions you insist it is a black mark whether we ask you
whether you wrote a book or not. Apparently you are not very proud
of your productions.
Mr. North. I am proud of everything I have written.
Senator Hruska. And do not want to disclose you have written
them.
Apart from their merit, we want to establish for our legislative
purposes whether you wrote them and where they were published.
If you insist it is a black mark against yourself, your constitutional
rights will be fully observed.
Mr. North. I stand by what I have written all my life. I have
been on the side of truth, on the side of our people, on the side of
peace. But I don't see why, at senatorial hearings, what I have writ-
ten becomes germane to what you are ostensibly seeking, which is the
question of danger to the internal security.
Senator Hruska. Well, an effort has been made to explain to the
witness the purposes for which these questions are asked. We haven't
received much cooperation from him and we cannot furnish the un-
derstanding. We can furnish the light, but not the understanding.
We have done the best we can.
Mr. North. This agreement, as I understand it
Mr. SouRwiXE. Are you the same Joseph North who recorded an
interview which was transmitted over the Polish radio from Warsaw
in English to North America on or about December 12, 1952, which
was critical of this country's Korean war effort?
200 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr, North. Will you repeat that ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Yes. Are you the same Joseph North who recorded
an interview which was transmitted over the Polish radio from War-
saw to North America, in English, on or about December 12, 1952,
which was critical of this country's Korean war effort?
Mr. North. This is the first time I ever heard of such a question,
but I will — I never heard of it before. I never heard of it before.
Mr. Sour WINE. You never heard of it before ?
Mr. North. No.
Senator Hruska. Did you ever record an interview for purpose
of transmission over the Polish radio ?
Mr. North. Not that I ever remember.
Mr. SouRwiNE. That is a complete answer, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Hruska. That is right.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, I put it to you as a fact that the follow-
ing is your passport record.
I ask you to listen carefully, and to interrupt to deny any statement
which you believe to be untrue or inaccurate.
On October 26, 1950, you were denied a passport to China as a rep-
resentative of the Daily Worker, the denial being stated to be based on
the ground that the issuance of the passport to you at that time would
be contrary to the best interests of the United States.
On July 23, 1937, you made application for a passport as a news-
paper correspondent, in the name of Jacob Soif er, requesting the pass-
]^ort be sent to you in care of C. A. Hathaway, 35 East 12th Street,
New York City, eighth floor. On this application you stated that
you were to go to France and Spain as a newspaper correspondent
for the Daily Worker. This passport was issued in July 1937.
On July 19, 1940, your passport was renewed at the American con-
• sulate general in Mexico City. You gave your occupation at that time
as a free-lance correspondent.
Your next passport application was made in 1943 in the name of
Joseph North. The application was accompanied by evidence that
your name had been changed by court order from Joseph Soifer to
Joseph North. The passport was issued January 15, 1945, authoriz-
ing you to go to the British Isles and Ireland for journalistic work.
This passport was amended in London on April 3, 1945, making it
valid for you to go to France for journalistic work.
In 1930, you were identifying witness on a fraudulent passport ap-
plication executed by Pat Devine. Devine was later convicted and
sentenced to prison for making his fraudulent passport application.
Mr. FoRER. Mr. Senator, may the record show that the witness'
silence does not mean he agrees with what the counsel read.
Senator Hruska. The record will so show.
The record will also show that the witness has had an opportunity to
comment upon any part of the record that was read ; that his silence
does not necessarily mean that they are all true.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, do you know T. H. Wintringham or did
you know Mr. T. H. Wintringham ?
Mr. North. I must answer those questions as I did before.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. North. On the grounds of the first amendment, the right of
freedom of press, freedom of association. I am a newspaperman and
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 201
I have met hundreds and thousands of people in my life for 30 years
and you are asking me specific questions of this sort that goes over
half a man's lifetime and you expect to have an accurate answer. I
have to use the fifth amendment on that, sir.
Mr. SouRWiNE. To help you refresh your memory I show you, Mr.
North, a photostat of a letter, the salutation of which is "Dear Com-
rade North," and the signature of which is "T. H. Wintringham."
I will ask you if you ever saw that letter ?
Mr. North. What's this? 1941? I have no recollection of this
letter, sir.
Mr. SouRwiNE. All right. Mr. Chairman, I ask that this letter, of
which a photostat has been shown to the witness, be inserted in the
record as the letter concerning which he says he has no recollection.
Mr. FoRER. Senator, I don't see how you can put a letter in the
record when it hasn't been identified.
Mr. SouRWiNE. It has been identified as the letter shown to the wit-
ness and concerning which he testified he had no recolleution.
Mr. FoRER. What probative value does it have ? Under that theory
any docmnent can go in the record.
If you identify it, it goes in the record. If you can't identify it, it
goes in the record.
Senator Hruska. Even without the offer made for the record by
counsel, Mr. Forer, the record will speak for itself.
A document was submitted to the witness. The witness says he has
no recollection of that document and that is what the state of the record
is, is it not ?
Mr. Forer. Yes, but you shouldn't print the record. There is no
guarantee that the record is accurate or trustworthy because the wit-
ness hasn't identified it.
Senator Hruska. Well, he says he has no recollection of it. All we
wish to have the record reflect is that he has no recollection.
Mr. Forer. So why put the letter in ?
Senator Hruska. Why have the hearing then ? To which you will
no doubt say : "Amen."
Mr. Forer. You anticipated me. Senator, but that wasn't going to
be my answer.
Senator Hruska. The legislative purpose is to establish whether or
not he saw the letter, has any recollection of it.
(The letter referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 23" and reads as
follows:)
Exhibit No. 23
Birmingham Ex. 50 Exh. 106B
SoccoBO Rojo, Plaza de Altazamo,
Albacete, Spain, August 11, 1941.
Deab Comrade North : You are the only member of the CPUS A with whom I
have corresponded ; that is why I write to you to ask your help in getting for my
friend Kitty Bowler the letter of recommendation from the party central com-
mittee that she needs.
She applied to join the Spanish Communist Party in January and was told all
foreigners applying must have a letter from their home party. This necessary
formality is strictly observed here. Letters to the United States have been
misunderstood and I hope you can hurry up the OK, which must, however, of
course, be sent by hand.
Comrnde Bowler, whom I have known since September of last year, when we
met in Barcelona, has been doing excellent work there as a journalist and in
66493 60 -pt. 4-4
202 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
other ways. People develop quickly in a revolutionary situation such as this
and show their qualities clearly. I worked closely with Kitty when myself
a journalist, touring the Aragon front with her for 10 days. When I joined
the International Brigade (I commanded the Anglo-Irish battalion for a short
time and am now being nursed by Kitty through typhoid) she worked for the
Manchester Guardian in Valencia, and I have had good reports of her work.
All that the letter from your central committee needs to say is that as far as
they know her political activity in America was that of a close sympathizer
with the party (as you probably know, she worked in the League Against War
and Fascism.)
She will join the party here under another name, because of certain work
undertaken for the movement.
One point you will probably allow me to clear up : as I have been 14 years in
the party you can I hope take my say-so on it. Kitty has written you as to her
arrest in Almacete, on suspicion of being a spy. She had come there to see me,
and the whole affair was a stupid blunder ; 3 days inquiry there yielded no
"evidence" and the whole affair is treated by those responsible for that sort of
question, here in Valencia, the present "capital," as something round about a bad
joke.
Hope you can this small job put through. When I've finished mixing soldier-
ing and having typhoid and writing a book, not to mention a bullet that got
acquainted with my leg, I'll try you with some articles for the Sunday Worker
and get back some of the reputation so badly bent by Abyssinia.
All the best, yours,
T. H. WiNTBINOHAM.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. Chairman, I also offer for the record at this
time an article from the New York Times of Friday, August 19, 1949,
by way of further identification of T. H. Wintringham.
Senator Hruska. It will be accepted for the record.
The document referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 24" and reads
as follows:)
Exhibit No. 24
[Prom the New York Times, Friday, Aug. 19, 1949 p. 17]
T. H. WiNTBINGHAM, MiLITABT WBITEB — ^AUTHOE OB" "NeW WAYS OF WaB," DiES —
Led British Battalion in Spanish Civil Conflict
London, August 18 (AP). — Thomas Henry Wintringham, commander of the
British Battalion of the International Brigade In Spain in 1937, has died in Lin-
colnshire, it was announced today. His age was 51.
Mr. Wintringham was a specialist in gruerrilla organization and tactics. He
was the author of books on military subjects. He was expelled from the British
Communist Party in 1938 after being a member for 16 years. The party's po-
litical bureau charged he "refused to accept a decision of the party to break off
personal relations with elements considered undesirable to the party."
Mr. Wintringham was barred from entry into the United States in 1946 for u
temporary visit. His wife, the former Katherine Wise Bowler, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Robert Bonner Bowler of 235 East 72d Street, this city, spent months
in an unsuccessful attempt to get the ban lifted. She attributed it to his former
membership in the Communist Party.
In 1940 Mr. Wintringham brought out a book called "New Ways of War," which
was produced by Penguin in pocket size and became a handbook of Britain's em-
battled home guard. "Kind of homeowners' guide to killing people without get-
ting killed, which the local defense volunteer could thrust into his pocket along
with 'Hints on Gardening,' " an editorial writer on a New York newspaper called
it at the time. The book sold thousands of copies and was almost a prerequisite
of home defense work. The experience which went into it stemmed from Mr.
Wintringham's service in Sjmin.
Mr. Wintringham was one of the founders and guiding spirits of the Osterley
Park Training School for the home guard in England.
Born in Grimbsy, Lincolnshire, Mr. Wintringham was educated at Balliol Col-
lege, Oxford. He served In the First World War as an air gunner with the Royal
Air Force and later as a dispatch rider and machine gunner. Following a news-
paper career after the war, he became in 1933 correspondent of the Daily Worker
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 203
in Spain. He resigned that post to take command of the British battalion, and
was wounded in the Spanish Civil War.
Other books by Mr. Wintringham were "English Captain" (1939), "Armies of
Freemen" (1940), "Politics of Victory" (1941), "People's War " (1942, Penguin),
and "Weapons and Tactics" (1943).
In February 1943, Mr. Wintringham ran for election to Parliament against
Sir David King Murray, but was defeated.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, do you know William W. Remington ?
Mr. North. Pardon.
Mr. SouKwiNE. Do you know William W. Remington ?
Mr. North. Just a minute, sir. The series of questions I gave you
before.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. North. The first, fifth, due process.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. Chairman, I offer for the record a further ex-
cerpt from the testimony of William W. Remington before the House
Committee on Un-American Activities on May 4, 1950.
Senator Hruska. Without objection, it will be placed in the record
at this point.
(The document referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 25" and reads
as follows:)
ExHisrr No. 25
Excerpts from testimony of William W. Remington before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities in "Hearings Regarding Communism in the U.S.
Government," part 1, May 4, 1950
Mr. Tavenneb. Did you meet, at the home of your miother-in-law, Joseph
North?
Mr. Remington. I did.
Mr. .Tavenneb. Is he a person known to you to be a member of the Communist
Party?
Mr. Remington. I believe he is a member of the Communist Party; at the
time I knew him, at any rate (p. 1796).
Mr. Tavenneb. Was he active at the home of your mother-in-law in the pro-
mulgation of Communist views and principles?
Mr. Remington. He talked a lot.
Mr. Tavenneb. And you, after knowing of his position as a Communist Party
member, accepted his invitation to dinner, didn't you?
Mr. Remington. I accepted an invitation to dinner, but not to work with him
in labor union activities or anything else.
Mr. Tavenneb. It was through Mr. Joseph North that you met Mr. Jacob
Golos, was it not?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
Mr. Tavenneb. Did Mr. North introduce you to him?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
Mr. Tavenneb. Do you know who Mr. Jacob Golos is?
Mr. Remington. I do now. I did not known then (p. 1797).
Joseph North, hearings continued on May 5, 1950
Mr. Tavenneb. I believe you testified earlier that you knew Joseph North to be
a member of the Communist Party.
Mr. Remington. I knew him to be editor of the New Masses, and I certainly
assumed that he was a member of the Communist Party (p. 1830) .
Mr. Tavenneb. After you became employed by the War Production Board, did
he show any interest in your work with the War Production Board?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
Mr. Tavenneb. What was the nature of that interest?
Mr. Remington. He was interested in whether or not the administration in
Washington was making a sincere and determined effort to produce war materiel.
Mr. Tavenneb. And did not he desire to know, or did he desire to know, any-
204 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
thing about the character of your work or the nature of the organization of the
War Production Board?
Mr. Remington. He was, as I recall, certainly interested in the nature of or-
ganization of the War Production Board. I am sure 1 described to him the .
nature of that organization.
Mr. Tavenner. Was he interested in learning facts relating to the personalities
of different members of the Board?
Mr. Remington. Yes, sir. I recall he indicated an interest in knowing whether
any high-ranking member of the Board would write an article for his magazine.
He did secure such an article (p. 18,31).
Mr. Tavennek. Was the person whom you met at that dinner Jacob Golos?
Mr. Remington. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Did Mr. North state to you why he wanted you to meet Mr.
Golos?
Mr. Remington. Yes; he did.
Mr. Tavenner. What statement did he make?
Mr. Remington. He said that what I had been telling him about the sincerity
of the administration in pushing for a high level of war production was very
interesting ; he thought a friend of his, a writer, would like to learn or should
learn about it, perhaps (p. 1832) .
Excerpt from testimony of Elizabeth T. Bentley before the House Committee on
Un-American Activities in "Hearings Regarding Communism in the U.S. Gov-
ernment," part 1, May 6, 1950
Mr. Tavenner. Did you know Joseph North?
Miss Bentley. Not personally ; no. I knew of his activities through Mr. Golos.
He was one of the editors of the New Masses and, in addition, was a lookout man
for Russian intelligence. By "lookout," I mean he was always on the lookout for
good Communists who could be used on Russian intelligence work. That is why
he was in touch with Mr. Golos, who was a Russian intelligence agent (p. 1853).
Mr. SouRwiNE. Are you aware, Mr. North, that Ann Remington, the
wife of William Remington, had testified that you met Remington at
her mother's home ?
Mr. North. Will you raise your voice ?
Mr. SouRWiNE. Are you aware that Ann Remington, the wife of
William Remington, had testified that you met Remington at her
mother's home, that is, the home of Elizabeth Moos ?
Mr. North. I stand by the previous answers.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you ever live at the home of Elizabeth Moos ?
Mr. North. Same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, have you been outside the United States
during the year 1959 ?
Mr. North. Same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Specifically, were you in Cuba in January of this
year?
Mr. North. Are you inquiring further into my journalistic activi-
ties, my writing work ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. The question now is only as to your whereabouts.
Mr. North. Would you rephrase, repeat that question ?
Mr. SouRWiNE. Were you in Cuba in January of this year ?
Mr. North. Yes, I was. I went there in the course of my journalis-
tic work.
Mr. SouRwiNE. While you were there did you see Fidel Castro ?
Mr. North. Did I see him?
Mr. SouRwiNB. Yes.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 205
Mr. North. Yes, I saw him.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you talk with him ?
Mr, North. No, I didn't. I saw him at a meeting there of about
700,000 or 800,000 people that he addressed ; yes.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You had no conferences with him ?
Mr. North. Pardon.
Mr. SouRwaNE. You had no conferences with him ?
Mr. North. No, I had no conferences with him. I was there as
a journalist. I met many people and saw there the great surge of
the Cuban people for freedom which I wrote about which I think you
have no objection to as you have indicated.
I saw the work that Batista had done. I saw them get underway
in a program of land reform which I think is a splendid offering to
the people of Cuba to bring them up from their poverty that they have
suffered for centuries.
Yes, I went there for those purposes — to write about that.
Mr. SouRwiNE. I show you a pamphlet, Mr. North, "Cuba's Eevo-
lution; I Saw the People's Victory" and I ask you if you are the
Joseph North who wrote this pamphlet?
Mr. North. I must use the previous answers.
Sir, if you are interested in the people I will be glad to reply to
that.
Mr. SouRwiNE. We are interested in a number of facts that are
reported in this document and I want to ask you about those facts
and this question is a foundation for this.
Senator Hruska. The witness has objected to the question and re-
fused to answer on the same grounds he previously asserted. The
same ruling is hereby made.
Mr. SouRwiNE. This pamphlet, Mr. North, "Cuba's Revolution" is
published by New Century Publishers, 832 Broadway, New York 3,
Do you know New Century Publishers to be the Communist pub-
lishing house?
Mr. North. What relevance does that have whether the facts of
the pamphlet are truthful or not?
Isn't that what you are interested in, the truth ?
Senator Hruska. Mr. Witness, the question is very plain.
Mr. North. I must use the fifth amendment.
Senator Hruska. He may answer it or not as he chooses. As to
what the committee is pursuing, we are engaged in the pursuit of a
legislative purpose, which we believe to be valid and proper. Please
refrain from denying that, in order that we may make some progress.
Mr. North. On the basis of the first and fifth amendments, my
previous answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. North, is it true that this pamphlet was trans-
lated into Spanish as is stated in the foreword of the pamphlet itself?
Mr. North. It seems to me tliat that question is irrelevant and I
must object to it.
Senator Hruska. Same grounds having been asserted for refusal
to answer, the same ruling is made.
Mr. SouRWiNE. I think that was merely an objection, Mr. Chair-
man.
206 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Perhaps I misunderstood the witness.
Mr. FoRER. No ; he objected on the grounds of irrelevancy.
Senator Hruska. That objection is overruled.
Mr. North. Overruled?
Senator Hruska. Yes.
Mr. North. Then on the same grounds I must refuse to answer.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, was this pamphlet distributed in mil-
lions of copies throughout Cuba and Latin America ?
Mr. North. Well, I wish it were but I don't know. But I simply
must refuse to answer that question.
How would I know whether it was distributed in millions of copies
throughout Latin America ? How would anyone know ?
Mr. SouRWiNE. Was it widely distributed in Cuba ?
Mr. North. I don't know. I hope so, but I don't know.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, do you know that arrangements were
made witli the Communist Party of Cuba and upper Latin- American
countries for the distribution of this pamphlet ?
Mr. North. No ; I do not know not.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you arrange for the publication of this pamph-
let with New Century Publishers?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer that on the same grounds.
Senator Hruska. The same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Do you know who was handling the distribution of
this pamphlet in South America ? .
Mr. North. The same answer.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. North, the blurb about you on page 2 of this
pamphlet refers to a recent affair marking your completion of 25
years with the Worker.
What was this affair?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer that, sir.
Mr. Sourwine. Who sponsored it ?
Mr. North. On the same grounds.
Senator Hruska. The same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. On the occasion of this affair, it is stated in the
pamphlet, you received messages honoring you from various persons,
including a number of persons who are named.
Mr. North. Is that bad to be honored, sir ?
I don't understand why you bring such things up, even though the
Senator has explained it several times.
It seems to me some aspect of that should impinge on ^ou, too.
Mr. Sourwine. Those names are Sean O'Casey, tne Union of Soviet
Writers
Mr. North. Would you be honored if Sean O'Casey sent you a
message of greetings ?
Senator Hruska. Mr. Witness, the question is being asked of you.
It is not considered ordinarily suitable that the witness should ask
questions of the counsel who is interrogating him.
Mr. Sourwine. Among those were Sean O'Casey, the Union of
Soviet Writers, Nicholas Guillen of Cuba, Harry Pollitt of Great
Britain, D. Ibbaruri of Spain and John Howard Lawson, Angus
Cameron, Carl Marzani, and Michael Gold of the United States.
My question is, is there any one of those persons named who is not
known to you to be a Communist ?
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 207
Mr. North. I must reply as I did previously. I refuse to answer
this question for the grounds stated.
Senator Hruska. The same ruling.
Mr. North. But when you introduced that pamphlet I thought you
were interested in the conditions in Cuba.
Mr. SouRwiNE. I am, sir.
On page 4 of your pamphlet on Cuba's revolution you refer to
"the barbaric repression clamped on them, [on the union] not only
by Batista and not only by Batista's basic power — the U.S. State
Department * * *." Did you mean by this to imply that the U.S.
State Department controlled domestic policies in Cuba and exercised
that control to clamp "barbaric repression" on Cuban unions?
Mr. North. Well, what I have stated there, sir, is perhaps necessary
to — it will be necessary to go into some detail.
Batista in Cuba was regarded as the buteher of some 20,000 or
25,000 of its finest youth. He was regarded, also, as having been
kept in power through terror comparable to that which Hitler used
in Nazi Germany.
Now, he came in early in the 1950's and lasted until early this year,
1959.
It was conmionly felt in Cuba that he could not have so lasted if it
were up to the people themselves, some of whom were tortured to death
as anyone who goes to Cuba and reports objectively will know.
It was charged there that Ambassador Smith, former Ambassador
Smith, was known to have been a close friend to the regime of Cuba
under Batista, and had he raised his voice sufficiently, the American
people would not have permitted that to have gone on. But that he
did not do, for reasons best known to himself, and when the revolution
took place. Ambassador Smith resigned, because the people of Cuba
felt the natural ire, the natural anger of a nation which had been kept
in bondage for so long that they felt that he, as a representative of the
State Department, should have spoken out against the terror which
was conducted against Cuba.
Now, that is the feeling that the Cuban people have. It is a feeling
which I believe is just, is accurate, and if you notice, Ambassador
Smith did resign at the first part of this year, early January.
Senator Hruska. Doesn't that present some aspect of guilt bv
association, Mr. North ? You say he was a friend ; he associated with
the Batista regime, and therefore he was guilty of Batista's crimes.
Mr. North. Well, I will tell you. It is not a matter of guilt by
association. It is much more definite a fact than that.
There were bombers made in the United States which could not
]iave arrived in Cuba to bomb the people of Cuba — Batista could,
with Ambassador Smith knowing about it. Some of those bombers
dropped bombs which were made in the United States; the shell
fragments indicated that.
The people of Cuba felt, again, that if the State Department had
put its root down that would not have happened.
Senator Hruska. What has Smith to do with this?
Mr. North. As Ambassador and representing the State Depart-
ment, was culpable of a grievous wrong against the Cuban people, a
wrong which they did not blame the American people for.
208 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
That is very interesting information, Senator. If you go down there
PS an individual American citizen, you are treated with tlie greatest of
friendsliip by tlie Cuban people. All tlie tourists who go down there
feel that way, but the State Department, because of its record prior
to now, is regarded with a natural suspicion because of what has
happened to Cuba; the aid tliat was given to Batista; the fact it was
the U.S. military mission in Havana all during the time that Batista
was there helping train the Cuban soldiers to mow down their own
people in their fight for freedom.
Naturally, they would have a feeling of anger against the U.S.
State Department, and that is what I saw down there and I am not
the only one.
You will find there are many other correspondents who went there
and wrote similarly and felt similarly.
Mr. SouRwiXE. Mr. Witness, I promise to come back and let you
continue on this line. I will come back to the Ambassador, but this
particular question concerned the reference to the "barbaric repression
clamped" on the unions of Cuba by tlie V.S. State Department.
Now, holding it down to the repression of the unions, the question
was whether that meant that our State Depai-tment controlled domestic
policies in Cuba and exercised that control to clamp "barbaric repres-
sions" on the Cuban unions.
Is that a fact ?
Mr. North. On this score, Mr. Sourwine, I tell you this man
Mujal
Mr. Sourwine. How do you spell that name ?
Mr. North. M-u-j-a-l.
Mr. SouRWiisTE. Mujal?
Mr. North. That is right. He was the head of the trade unions of
Cuba. Pie was not there as the elected representative of the Cuban
working class : he was there to represent the forces that wish to keep
the Cuban workers in repression.
Now, that man, all throughout his stay in office, he fled the day of
the revolution because he knew the wrath of the people would be
turned on him for what he did when he acted as a chivato. That is
the dirtiest word in Cuba which means "stool pigeon."
He used to turn over the best of his trade union to the Batista
gestapo to be tortured to death. That is why he fled. That is why
he is down in Buenos Aires.
INIr. Sourwine. "What was his connection with the U.S. State De-
partment ?
Mr. North. Now Mujal was the head of that trade union setup all
the time that ORIT, which is a section of the trade unions here which
has cooperated with the State Department that deals with Latin
American labor, and it was felt that if OEIT had spoken up with
the blessings of the American State Department, because we are not
children and we know that the State Department has an interest, a
particular interest in Latin American relations of American labor,
U.S. labor — now, if they had spoken up against Mujal, it could
well have been that it would have curbed his brutalities against the
Cuban people.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 209
Mr. SouRwiNE. So the scheme of the State Department that you
talk about here as "repression" boils down to a sin of omission ? They
didn't say anything?
Mr. North. No; it was more active. The general support of the
State Department of Batista's regime allowed Mujal to stay in office
and allowed these serious reprisals that would be taken up.
Mr. SouRwiNTJ. Does the State Department have any official con-
nection with ORIT, or any control over that organization ?
Mr. North. Official?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Yes.
Mr. North. I don't know of any official control ; no. And I know
that when the Latin American trade unions made these charges there
were statements of the State Department that they had no official
relationship, but you can't convince anybody south of the Rio Grande
that that is the case.
Mr. Sourwine. You haven't been trying to, have you ?
Now I promised I would come back to Ambassador Smith.
On page 5 of this pamphlet you wrote —
Castro had gotten the guarantee of General Eulogio Cantillo to turn Ba-
tista and the big fortresses of Colombia and La Cabana, overlooking Havana,
over to the rebels. But the Batista coiuiuander reneged at the last moment
with the connivance of former U.S. Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith.
Do you have any knowledge of this ?
Mr. North. Well, the sources of information for that seem to me
to be very accurate and the fact that they were public property at the
time throughout Cuba and the papers of Cuba printing that, makes
me believe that that is an accurate statement, especially with the fact
that Ambassador Smith resigned quite hastily immediately after this,
Mr. Sourwine. Do you know why he resigned ?
Mr. North. Well, I know what tl'ie Cuban people feel.
Mr. Sourwine. But do you know why he resigned ?
Mr. North. No, do you? I don't know why he resigned.
I imagine he resigned because the Cuban people would have no more
of him.
Mr. Sourwine. On page 6 of your pamphlet you name several per-
sons with whom you talked while you were in Cuba. You named
Raul Castro; Commandante Ifgenio Almajeiros; Ernesto "Che"
Guevara ; Dr. Juan Marinello and Carlos Rafael Rodriguez.
Are all those persons known to you to be Communists ?
Mr. North. Pardon ?
Mr. Sourwine. Are all those persons known to you to be Com-
munists?
Mr. North. You know that question, sir, is a very unfair question.
I don't know that any of them are Communist. I may know that
several of them are Communists, but I wouldn't answer that question
for the reasons I previously have given.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Is there any of those named individuals who you
do not know to be a Communist ?
Mr. North. Same reply, sir.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
66493 60 -pt. 4-5
210 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. SouRwiNE. On page 8 of your pamphlet, "Cuba's Revolution"
you refer to "Che" Guevara as a "latter day Tom Paine."
What do 3'ou mean by that ?
Mr. North. Well, does that puzzle you, sir ?
Mr. SouRWiNE. Yes, it indicates that you have some knowledge
about Guevara that the committee doesn't have and we would like to
know what you meant by that.
Mr. North. Well, Tom Paine came to our country from Britain
to help us in our fight for freedom, right, during the revolution.
OK. Now Guevara who was an Argentine doctor, volunteered to
help the Cuban people fight against this fascist repression there.
Mr. SouRwiNE. This is what you meant ?
Mr. North. He came as a latter day Tom Paine to help the people in
travail, people in agony. That was one of the most outside chances
you ever saw when Guevara landed there in the southern coast of
Cuba. There is a whole literature that will be written about that, and
only nine of these men survived with Guevara being one of them and
went up into the hills there, the mountains in that part of Cuba and
fought there as bravely as any of the people fighting for liberation
have ever fought; whether they be in Ireland, the United States or
any country.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, on page 10 of your pamphlet "Cuba's
Revolution" you state
Mr. North. Excuse me. Do I make myself clear about Tom Paine?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Yes, you cleared that point up.
Mr. North. You see what I mean then.
Mr. SouRWiNE. You state on page 10 of your pamphlet "Cuba's
Revolution" that "I heard Fidel say the United States can learn some-
thing in democracy from revolutionary Cuba, and I agree it can."
Will you please tell us what the United States can learn in democ-
racy from revolutionary Cuba?
Mr. North. I would be very happy to and I am very happy that you
read that pamphlet. I hope you will agree with some parts of it. I
am sure you won't agree with all parts of it.
Now that question that you just asked, Cuba for about 50, 55 percent
of its population is nonwhite. Now, because the Grandees from
Spain, from way back discriminated against the colored peoples that
they had brought there in chains from Africa and made slaves of them,
the question of racism still obtained in Cuba.
Now one of the very first things and one of the first decrees pro-
mulgated by the new government when they were coming down out
uf the mountains when Batista had to flee there was the question of
race will be abolished once and for all as any kind of a judgment as to
whether you hold office or get jobs or be a member of the government
or whatnot, and they are doing it and I wish our country would do it.
You know that the general, the top general of the army is a Negro.
Do you know that the general of the air force is a Negro. The gen-
eral in Orients Province is a Negro. They are within a year, already
showing that if you have a medal, patriotic sufficiently, and show
yourself to be a true fighter for Cuba, regardless of your color you will
be advanced.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 211
Now think that there are evidences enough in our own country to
indicate that the lamentable situation of race has to be overcome. I
think you will agree with that.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. North, when you went to Cuba in January of
1959 did you go as a representative of the Daily Worker ?
Mr. North. I must answer that as I did previously.
Mr. SouRWiNE. While you were in Cuba in January 1959 did you
confer with Raul Castro ?
Mr. North. Confer?
Mr. SouEwiNE. Yes.
Mr. North. You mean interview ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Yes.
Mr. North. I interviewed any niunber of people while I am there.
Mr. SoTJRwiNE. I am only asking about Raul Castro.
Mr. North. I was one among a number who interviewed him.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Do you know Raul Castro to be a Communist ?
Mr. North. No, I do not know him to be a Communist.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Does the Communist Party, U.S.A., have fraternal
relations with the Popular Socialist Party of Cuba?
Mr. North. I must refuse to answer that on the same gromids as
I did.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you, in your article in the Worker of February
15, 1959, indicate with approval that the thesis of the Communist
Party of Cuba urged the government to "end the naval base at
Guantanamo" and that it also urged "the nationalizing of these pub-
lic services that are owned by foreign interests?"
Mr. North. Wliat's that ? Will you repeat that, please ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. I am asking you whether, in your article of Feb-
ruary 15, 1959, in the Daily Worker, you indicated with approval
that the thesis of the Communist Party of Cuba urged the govern-
ment to "end the naval base at Guantanamo" and also urged "the na-
tionalizing of these public services that are owned by foreign
interests?"
Mr. North. I don't recall that article.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Do you know whether it is true that the thesis of
the Communist Party of Cuba urges the government to end the naval
base at Guantanamo ?
Mr. North, I don't know.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Do you know of any plans for doing this?
Mr. North. No.
Mr. Sotjrwine. When you went to Cuba, did you make arrangements
respecting the trip with any officials of the Popular Socialist Party of
Cuba?
Mr. North. I must decline to answer that for the previous reasons.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you make arrangements respecting your trip
with Fidel Castro or ony of his immediate subordinates ?
Mr. North. How's that again ?
Mr. Sour WINE. Did you make arrangements respecting your
Cuban
Mr. North. Why do you ask a question like that ? It's not clear to
me. It seems to me that that is an unjust question not only to me but
to a neighboring State.
212 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
You try to smear that country by the atmosphere that is engendered
on the whole question of Cuba.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Does it smear the country if you made arrangements
with the head of that country respecting your visit there?
Mr. North. It is clear, sir, that question — well, all right. I will
use the fifth amendment on that and the first amendment as well.
Senator Hruska. The same ruling.
Mr. North. The right of association, the right of freedom of press,
and so on.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. North. Excuse me. Can I ask a question at this point ? You
have asked me a lot.
Why is the first amendment regarded as sacrosanct for this commit-
tee ? I have often wondered as a writer. I would like to some time
discuss that.
May I ask that question ?
Senator Hruska. Have you any further questions, ISIr. Sourwine?
Mr. Sourwine. I have other questions.
Mr. North, did you interview Dr. Juan Marinello, the president of
the Popular Socialist Party of Cuba, the Communist Party of Cuba ?
Mr. North. Doctor who ?
Mr. Sourwine. Dr. Juan Marinello.
Mr. North. I don't recall whether I interviewed him or not. I
think it was several people at one point there that I was interviewing.
I don't remember. He wrote something.
Mr. Sourwine. In the "Worker of January 18, 1959, page 1 appears
an article under your byline in which it is stated, "I rode on it," (the
Malecon Highway) "this morning to interview Dr. Juan Marinello."
Mr. North. I don't recall.
Mr. Sourwine. That article continues, "I had met him here some
18 years before."
Apparently at the time you wrote the article you did remember Dr.
Juan Marinello.
Do you remember the previous meeting or the meeting in Cuba in
January of this year ?
Mr. North. Well, it could well be that I did interview him; yes.
Mr. Sourwine. Did you?
Mr. North. At this time
Mr. Sourwine. Do you remember having met him 18 years earlier?
Mr. North. Yes ; I believe I did.
Mr. Sourwine. What Avere the circumsfances of that prior meeting?
Mr. North. I don't recall what the circumstances were.
Mr. SouRAViNE. You don't remember where you met him ?
Mr. North. No.
Mr. Sourwine. You don't remember who introduced you?
Mr. North. No; I don't recall whether I met him at the Univei-sity
of Havana where he teaches philosophy or just where I met him.
I don't recall.
Mr. Sourwine. Does the Cuban Popular Socialist Party, the Com-
munist Party of Cuba, give full support to the Castro revolution ?
Mr. North. Well, have you, have you read the organs of the PSP
there in Cuba ?
Mr. Sourwine. We are asking you, sir, as an expert witness.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 213
Mr. North. All I can tell you is what I know from having talked
to many people in Cuba and from what I have read and my impres-
sions that they give very strong support to tlie land reform, from the
peasants to be given land and aid, to the trade unions to be democratic,
to the cutting of the rents by 50 percent which took place, to the cut-
ting of the telephone rate from a dime to a nickel ; all the things which
have advanced the interests of the people, everything they told me and
everything I read in the paper they gave strong support to.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you interview Castro's chief of police in Ha-
vana as you stated in the Worker for January 25, 1959 ?
Air. North. I probably did.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Do you recall his name?
Mr. North. I think it was Almajeiros.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Was he a member of the Popular Socialist Party ?
Mr. North. I don't know. Didn't say he was.
Mr. SouR^viNE, Did you have any letter or letters of introduction to
him when you went to see him ?
Mr. North. I went as a newspaperman with whatever credentials a
newspaperman has and those were newspaper credentials which in-
cludes a card from the New York Police Department.
Those were the credentials wherever I went.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you have any letter or letters of introduction to
him from the Communist Party or Communist Party officials in this
country ?
Mr. North. I told you I had only what I had which was my news-.
paper credentials and that is all I had.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Well, the answer to this question is "No." Is that
correct ?
Mr. North. Well, I answered it before the first time when I told
you all the credentials I had were the press credentials that a newspa-
perman has.
Mr. SouRwiNE. I would like a specific answer to the question
whether, when you went to see Almajeiros you had a letter or letters
of introduction from the Communist Party or Communist leaders in
this country.
Mr. North. I had no letters of introduction to Almajeiros except
those as a newspaperman. That is all I had.
Senator Hruska. And from whom were those letters ?
Mr. North. The official newspaper credentials that one has.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you interview Cuba's Interior Minister, Carlos
Rafael Rodriguez ?
Mr. North. Interior Minister ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Yes.
Mr. North. I don't think there is such a person. I think you have
your notes wrong.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Did you interview a Carlos Rafael Rodriguez?
Mr. North. I believe so.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you know Mr. Rodriguez ?
Mr. North. No, just like anybody you interview.
Mr. SouRwiNE. is he a Communist leader ?
Mr. North. Well, I don't recall him saying anything about that.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Did you have a letter or letters of introduction to
Rodriguez ?
214 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. North. Just what I told vou. My official newspaper credentials.
Mr. SouRWiNE. And none other ? .
Mr. North. None other.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you interview "Che" Guevara as you said in
the Worker of February 8, 1959 ?
Mr. North. I believe so.
Mr. Sourwine. To your knowledge, is he a member of the Com-
munist Party ?
Mr. North. No; I don't have any knowledge of that. He said
nothing about it.
Mr. Sourwine. Did you have a letter or letters of introduction to
him?
Mr. North. No; I don't recall any such thing except what I told
you — my credentials as a newspaperman.
Mr. Sourwine. Did Guevara say to you "I think the Communists
have earned the right to be one more party in this country" ?
Mr. North. No.
Mr. Sourwine. As reported in the Worker of February 18, 1959?
Mr. North. I don't recall him saying that to me, but I do recall
something attributed to him like that in the Cuban press and here in
New York, Herbert Matthews or one of the papers had it.
Mr. Sourwine. Have you ever met
Mr. North. Ho*v does that quote go that you just mentioned — have
earned the right to what ?
Mr. Sourwine. "I think the Communists have earned the right to
be one more party in the country."
Mr. North. How does the rest of it go ? I am not sure. Is that all
there is to it ?
Mr. Sourwine. That is all I asked you about, sir.
Mr. North. Oh.
Mr. Sourwine. Your answer is unchanged. Have you met Ernesto
"Che" Guevara on other occasions in other countries ?
Mr. North. It was the first time I ever met him as well as other
leaders of the Cuban people.
Mr. Sourwine. Did you ever interview the Communist mayor of
Manzanillo as you stated in your article of February 1, 1959 ?
Mr. North. What date was that ?
Mr. Sourwine. Manzanillo.
Mr. North. Yes ; we interviewed them when
Mr. Sourwine. Pardon?
Mr. North. There was a Communist mayor of Manzanillo who was
killed by the Batista people, tortured him to death and was a trade
union leader was was greatly revered by the people of Manzanillo.
Mr. Sourwine. I am talking about the one you interviewed. Did
you interview that man, and, if so, when ?
Mr. North. Well, I certainly didn't interview him, now, when I was
there, because he was dead and they had a funeral for him.
The picture was in the papers.
Mr. Sourwine. Did you interview him while he was alive ?
Mr. North. Well, there was a mayor of Manzanillo I interviewed,
not at that time, but a previous time.
Mr. SouRwncNE. Did you interview him, when you did interview him,
as a member of the Communist Party ?
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 215
Mr. North. I don't recall.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Does the Worker, of which you are foreign editor,
support the Castro revolution ?
Mr. North. I must decline to answer that, sir, for reasons given,
the first amendment as well as the fifth amendment.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you not write, in your article of February 1,
1959, appearing at page 7 of the Worker of that date :
Raul * * ♦ thanks the readers of this newspaper and all others in the States
who support their revolution.
Mr. North. I may have written it ; I don't recall the exact quote.
Mr. SoTiRWiNE. Mr. North, did you speak in support of the Castro
regime in Buffalo, N.Y., on Saturday, May 9, 1959, under the auspices
of the Friends of Freedom of the Press, as announced in the Worker
of May 17, 1959, at page 2 ?
Mr. North. I must refuse to answer that question on the same
grounds as previously.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. North, did you charge in an article in the
Worker of July 12, 1959, page 1, that the U.S. State Department was
mounting a military invasion of Cuba ?
Mr. North. Would you repeat that question ? ^
Mr. SouRWiNE. Did you charge in an article in the Worker of July
12, 1959, on page 1, that the U.S. State Department was mounting a
military invasion of Cuba ?
Mr. North. I don't recall that, sir. Mount? Was mounting what ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mounting a military invasion of Cuba.
Mr. North. I don't recall the article.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Mr. Chairman, I ask that the staff be instructed to •
produce this article, and it will be inserted in the record at this point.
Senator Hruska. It is so ordered.
(The document referred to was marked 25-A and reads as follows :)
Exhibit No. 25-A
[From the Worker, p. 1, July 12, 1959]
Teujillo Hibes Nazi Lbxjion To Invade Cuba
(By Joseph North)
A cutthroat brigade of Fascists from various lands — Nazi mercenaries from
Germany, Blue Legion Spaniards who fought Hitler's World War II battle in
the U.S.S.R. — are training in Dictator Trujillo's Santo Domingo to mount a
concealed State Department invasion of Cuba. And this assembly of blue-ribbon
killers is being trained for use against all progressive, liberation movements of
Latin America.
The danger is imminent. Cuban patriots have consistently warned against
the peril. It was actually confirmed in the New York Times July 3 by its Latin
American correspondent, Tad Szulc, in a dispatch from Ciudad Trujillo, the
capital of Santo Domingo. (Szulc is the reporter who admitted last week that
Trujillo is using napalm against Dominican patriots.) Cuba broke off diplo-
matic relations with Trujillo last week.
Szulc said (1) Trujillo has an "anti-Communist" Foreign Legion in his
country. (The pretext of anticommunisnt is as old as the anti-Comintem Axis
of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo.)
(2) This legion was set up last January "to counter anti-Trujillo groups in
Cuba and elsewhere."
(3) It consists of "volunteers of various nationalities."
216 COMMXJNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
The Times said the legion was "recently augmented by 300 volunteers from
Franco Spain who arrived last month." These are the Blue Legion gangsters.
In addition the legion "also has German and Yugoslav members, most of the
latter veterans of pro-Nazi wartime partisan groups."
In addition, the July 3 edition of the Times said plenty more : it quoted
Cuban Ambassador in London, Sergio Rojas Santamarino, as having discovered
that Trujillo has a vast network of agents in Europe, north Africa, and the
Middle East who are buying arms and recruiting mercenary soldiers on a "fan-
tastic scale."
The Cuban Ambassador, at a press conference, said counterrevolutionary ac-
tions were being plotted by Trujillo in conjunction with that unholy trinity —
Batista of Cuba, Peron of Argertiua, and Jimenez of Venezuela — all ousted by
their peoples.
The Cuban Ambassador said the Dominicans were able to "evade prohibi-
tions" in most European countries against arms sales to Caribbean governments.
This is done by tying up with companies that include "a big Swiss-German
concern called Oerlikon" for mortar shells ; the Yucatan Trading Co. of Amster-
dam ; the Grim Co. of Tunisia ; Agental of Antwerp, and a Swiss company owned
by Americans which he named as Lockwood, Bx-iten & Co.
As other agents, the Times said he named Jan Bocianski, in London, a Colonel
Julian, of New York, whose cable address he gave as "Black Eagle," another
American identified only as Mr. Azorow, Leopoldo Gambadello of Rome, and
Enrique Garcia, Jr., of the Dominican Republic.
Although officially, the United States has an embargo on sales of military
equipment to Caribbean countries, it is known that arms reach the dictators'
lands for use against their peoples struggling for freedom.
The pattern of the conspii-acy to overthrow the new Cuba is painfully clear.
Szulc said Trujillo is "under strong pressure" by his "top aides" to assume
"an offensive posture" instead of awaiting "another rebel attack from Cuba."
The fact is that the revolutionary title against despotism is rising high
throughout all Latin America, and patriots in all countries are on the move —
especially in those lands most under the iron heel — Santo Domingo, Nicaragua,
Trujillo and other dictators — in power as well as in exUe — try to blame the
actions against them on the new Cuba.
The Castro regime has said time and again that revolutions cannot be
exported ; they must be made by the peoples of the individual countries. And
the new Cuba is not involved in these actions.
But the dictators holler otherwise; and they have ample support, and in-
spiration, here in the United States — both in our press and our State Depart-
ment. The latter for months now has deluged the American people with anti-
Communist propaganda.
Trading on ignorance about communism and consequent longstanding preju-
dices, the State Department has inspired many reports that the new Cuba is
under increasingly Communist "domination." Congressmen and press editorials
have, for months, been depicting Premier Castro's brother, Raul, as either
"Communist or pro-Communist, trained behind the Iron Curtain" and similarly
with Commandante Ernesto "Che" Guevara, as well as many other heroes of the
revolution.
That is the first step — a la Guatemala . Picture the revolutionary government
as "Communist."
Next : newspapers have for weeks, especially in the past few days, been build-
ing the idea that civil war is impending in Cuba ; that the enemies of the regime
are gathering strength, about to go on the offensive.
Our big newspapers have seized on the fact that the Cuban Government has
branded the former head of the air force a traitor ; and has arrested the official
in charge of investigation of counterrevolutionary activities.
Now there is no question that imperialism and Cuban reaction are fomenting
counterrevolution. Multimillionaire latifundists — the big landowners — domi-
nantly United Fruit and other big U.S. concerns, as well as native reactionaries,
tipped their mitt some time ago. They could never abide land reform — the re-
turn of lands stolen centuries back from the Cuban people. The peasants, the
lowly peasants they scorned, are getting land. The big fact about Cuba is land
reform. In fact, the U.S. Government dispatched a strong note on this matter
to the Cuban Government, interfering in their domestic affairs, telling them in
effect, to go easy, or else. Cuba rejected the note in no uncertain terms.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 217
This State Department is the same one that backed United Fruit in the over-
throw of the progressive Arbenz regime a few years back. The same threadbare
plot is evident ; brand the regime "Communist," set up some domestic reaction-
ary as a stooge-rebel ; arm him — behind the scenes — with everything he needs,
and topple the government that has tried to represent the great mass of the
impoverished i)opulace.
That happened in Guatemala which was about as Communist as our New
Deal. With very little alteration in plot, though with some changes in cast,
but with a much bigger budget (for the job is bigger this time) we see the
same drama being played. The effort now is to try to bring the Organization
of American States — the OAS — into the picture to pin the responsibility on it.
Imperialismo Yanqui is no figment of a fevered Latin-American mind, as the
State Department apologists contend. It was real ; it is real. It is operating
now, and it plans to overthrow the new Cuba, to move on the new Venezuela, to
smash the liberation efforts in Santo Domingo and Nicaragua ; in other words,
to push the hands of the clock back throughout all of the nations where some
200 million live south of the Rio Grande.
It would be naive in the extreme to believe the State Department isn't in this
up to its neck. All past experience proves this. The facts of imperialism
confirm this. Statements from the horse's mouth make it painfully clear.
This newspaper published the lowdown on the New York Times admission last
week that napalm was being used in Santo Domingo. Where can Trujillo get
that genocidal weapon but from here?
And so we see a topflight, brutally conceived conspiracy unfolding. Now, if
ever, is the time for decent-minded Americans to speak out, now before the
blood bath begins. Notorious Fascists, brought up and trained to kill en masse,
are roaming the hemisphere now. If they are used against our neighbors aspir-
ing to freedom, all Americans must realize that sooner or later they will be used
nearer home.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. North, is it the purpose of the Communist
Party, U.S.A., to provoke military intervention in Cuba and Latin
America?
Mr. North. Wliat's that ?
Mr. So^JRA^^xE. Is it the purpose of the Communist Party, U.S.A.,
to provoke military intervention by the United States in Cuba and
Latin America ?
Mr. North. Well, there is nothing I ever heard that sounds as non-
sensical to me as that assertion.
Everything that they have been trying to do that I have read in
their statements was to have the peoples of the two countries live in
friendship and no threats made against Cuba and that obtained all
throughout Latin America. That is not the question of the people of
the United States, the 178 million of us. It's the question of a small
handful who have vested interests in there and it is wrong to indicate
that there is animosity between our people and the Cuban people,
that is not so.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Do vou know John Pittman ?
Mr. North. I must refuse to answer that.
Mr. Sofrwine. Do you know his wife, Margrit ?
Mr. North. Pardon?
Mr. SouRWiNE. You know his wife, Margrit ?
Mr. North. Same answer.
Mr. SouRwiisTE. Mr. Chairman, I offer for the record an article
from the Worker of November 15, 1959, page 1, the title being "The
Pittmans To Send Us News From Moscow."
Senator Hruska. It is ordered included in the record.
218 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
(The article referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 26" and reads
as follows:)
Exhibit No. 26
[Prom the Worker, p. 1, Nov. 15, 1959]
The Pittmans To Send Us News From Moscow
John Pittman, formerly foreign editor of the People's World, San Francisco,
and of the Daily Worker, and his wife Margrit are now in Moscow where they
will act as correspondents for the Worker.
Their dispatches will appear weekly. For on-the-spot coverage of events in
the Socialist world, read the Pittmans every week.
John Pittmans first dispatches appear in this issue on pages 3 and 6.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Do you know the Pittmans referred to in that article
as members of the Communist Party, U.S.A. ?
Mr. North. I answered that question before. I mean I used the first
and fifth amendments.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Were you in Washington when Premier Khru-
shchev came here on his visit ?
Mr. North. I was, in the exercise of my journalistic duties, in Wash-
ington at that time.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you have any speech with Premier Khrushchev
when he was here ?
Mr. North. Did I what?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you speak with him ?
Mr. North. I would have had a hard time to get through Mr. Lodge
and all the other dignitaries that speak to him.
I did not speak to him.
Mr. SouRwiNE. The Worker of Sunday, November 29, 1959, carried
a story captioned "Cuban Labor Party Ousts Main Disputers" with
the byline "Joseph North."
Was that your article ?
Mr. North. I refuse to answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. North. On the previous grounds.
Mr. SouRWiNB. I offer this article for the record, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Hruska. It will be placed in the record at this point.
(The document referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 27" and reads
as follows:)
Exhibit No. 27
[From the Worker, p. 3, Nov. 29, 1959]
Cuban Labob Parley Ousts Main Diseuptees
(By Joseph North)
Havana. — Talk to the most experienced labor leaders here and to a man they
soberly assess the 10th convention of the Cuban Confederation of Labor (CTC)
as a step forward in the stormy progress of Cuba's revolution.
Three thousand delegates heard the vital matter of "mujalism" aired here and
they ousted virtually the main group of these misleaders from key positions on
the executive.
("Mujalism" refers to the corrupt and gangster-type rule which was foisted
on the CTC when Eusebio Mujal was general secretary. He supported the
Batista government. Mujal fled from Cuba to Argentina last January 1.)
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 219
MOST IMPORTANT
The congress chose an executive committee in which the leading posts were
assigned to adherents of labor unity, in the interests of advancing the revolution.
A single slate was drawn up by David Salvador, CTC general secretary, who
got a unanimous vote of confidence to do so after Premier Fidel Castro's remark-
able speech urging overall unity.
Castro asked the congress "to shake the tree so that all rotten fruits will
fall." He reemphasized in a 3-hour speech that anticommunism is the primary
weapon of the counterrevolution and imperialism. He urged the delegates to
oust any "chivato" from office. "Chivato" is the dirtiest word in Cuba, meaning
stoolpigeons who truckled to Batista and Cuba's enemies.
The slate which Salvador brought in included some mujalist elements. Hence,
the left-unity forces announced their abstention from voting, but declared
they would be guided by the congress' attitude as well as the way in which the
new executive fulfills the decisions adopted by the delegates.
NOT ALL OUSTED
The primary assessment, therefore, as the newspai)er Hoy as well as other left-
unity forces agree, was the advance in clarity and in unity, • v^en though not all
"mujalist" forces were ousted. The remarks, however, are weaker than before,
and it is confidently felt the dynamics of this revolution are working for their
final expulsion.
The withdrawal from the Inter-American Regional Organization of Labor
(ORIT) was, of course a big decision, and it was arrived at vmanimously. The
delegates felt ORIT backed Batista, Wall Street imperialism, and mujal.
Many other positive aspects are evident — defense of labor's every-day inter-
ests, international solidarity, etc.
The men and women from Oriente province, the cradle of the revolution, and
elsewhere cheered Lombardo Toledano, president of the Latin American Con-
federation of Labor (CTAL) from Mexico, and others like the delegates from
the German Democratic Republic, Chile, and the Soviet Union.
The congress came out fervently against the lies of the United Press Inter-
national, the Associated Press, and the Havana journals like Prensa Libre that
preach disunity — that disunity which in today's terms, Castro said, spells
mujalism.
In fact any American reading the U.S. press on Cuba would be astounded by a
visit here — the sunny tranquility of the streets, the people eager to get on with
the main job — to advance their standard of living from the bony poverty of a
semicolonial land.
A sugar delegate from Oriente province answered my question : "I live 50 per-
cent better today than I did a year ago and for the first time in my 42 years I
live with hope and joy for tomorrow."
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you, Mr. North, attend the convention of the
Cuban Confederation of Labor ?
Mr. North. Are you referring to the trade-union congress, 10th
Trade Union Congress ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. I am referring to the convention of the Cuban Con-
federation of Labor held very recently in Havana.
Mr. North. Yes, yes, I was there.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you attend that convention • . . .
Mr. North. I was there in the exercise of my journalistic duties.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you attend the convention as a delegate of the
convention ?
Mr. North. I gave you that answer. I was there in exercise of my
journalistic duty.
Mr. SouRwiNE. I am asking: Were you, perhaps, there in some
other capacity ?
220 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. North. No, no other capacity except as a writer and news-
paperman.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You did not attend the convention as a representa-
tive of the Communist Party, U.S.A. ?
Mr. North. There was a newspaper — I was there as '- newspaper
writer solely.
Mr. SouRwiNB. You did not attend the convention as a representa-
tive of the Communist Party ?
Mr. North. As a newspaperman, I attended that convention.
Senator Hruska. And as a newspaperman only ?
Mr. North. That is right.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Do you consider the withdrawal of the Cuban Con-
federation of Labor from the Inter- Americ? u Regional Organization
of Labor as constituting a Communist victory ?
Mr. North. Are you interested in hearing what the Cuban people
feel about it as I spoke to them ?
I will tell you. I regard that withdrawal in the viewpoint of
what they said about it and why they withdrew.
They felt that since there was no support given them at the time
that Mujal was the chivato, the stool pigeon turning over the best
fighters in the trade union to torture and death and since ORIT
always seemed to be lined up with the policy of the State Depart-
ment as well as Ambassador Smith during his tenure there, they felt
that they should leave it.
That was the statement made in the press from the convention.
It was a victory of the Cuban people and a victory for labor every-
where throughout the world.
(The following translation of the order as printed in "Gaceta
Oficial" for January 23, 1959, was later ordered into the record as
exhibit No. 28 and printed at this point in the proceedings:)
Exhibit No. 28
Tbanslation
Law No. 22 [Gaceta Oficial, Havana, Cuba, January 23, 1959]
Doctor Manuel Urrutia Lleo, President of the Republic of Cuba, notifies That
the Council of Ministers has approved and I authorize the following :
Whereas the deposed tyranny made use of all resources within their spurious
power to adulterate the union elections and to place in the Labor Center, and
in Federations and Unions, delinquents alien to the people, servants of interests
contrary to said class ;
"Whereas it is necessary to endow the Cuban workers with provisional direc-
tives to govern union organizations, accepting the enforcement of revolutionary
acts which liquidated the former fraudulent administration, even if only for
the period necessary to call and hold free elections ;
Whereas it is necessary to safeguard the property of the working class ;
Therefore by virtue of the powers vested in the Council of Ministers, it has
agreed on and I have approved the following :
LAW NO. 22
Article 1. — To declare as removed from their posts and as having terminated
their functions all persons who, as of the thirty-first of December of nineteen
fifty-eight, formed part of the Boards (Administrators) of the Confederation of
Labor of Cuba, of the Labor Federations for Industries, Provinces and all Syn-
dicates, Unions, and Guilds all over the Republic of Cuba.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 221
Article 2. — For the purposes of reconstructing and functioning of the Con-
federation of Labor of Cuba the following i)ersons appointed to the correspond-
ing posts shall be recognized as the provisional committee for administration :
In Charge of General Matters : David Salvador Manso
In Charge of Organization : Octavio Louit Venzan
In Charge of Finances : Jos§ Pell6 Ja^n
In Charge of Representation before OflScial and Employer Organizations :
Antonio Torres Chedebau
In Charge of Documents and Correspondence: Conrado B^cquer Diaz
In Charge of Propaganda : Jos^ Maria de la Aguilera Fernandez
In Charge of Foreign Relations : Reinol Gonzalez Gonzalez
In Charge of Internal Relations : Jesus Soto Diaz
In Charge of Legal Matters : Jos^ de J. Plana del Paso
The Committee for Provisional Administration of the Confederation of Labor
of Cuba, above mentioned, shall have legal personality (corporate) adequate to
govern and administer said confederation and to represent it before Official and
Employer Organizations, all in accordance vpith the rights and powers conferred
by the By-laws and Regulations of the said Confederation of Labor of Cuba
upon its board of administration.
Article 3. — The Committee for Provisional Administration of the Confedera-
tion of Labor of Cuba shall appoint provisional revolutionary administrative
committees for the Federations of Industries and Provincial Federations, the
Provisional Administrative Committees of the same to be composed of the fol-
lowing officers: In Overall Charge: In Charge of Organizition ; In Charge of
Finances; In Charge of Representation before Official and Employer Organiza-
tions, and In Charge of Documents and Propaganda.
The persons who are appointed to perform the mentioned offices in the
Federations of Industries and Provincial Federations, and in the Syndicates,
Unions and Guilds, shall be endowed with adequate legal personality to govern
and administer said labor organizations, and to represent them before Official
and Employer Organizations. All of this in accordance with the powers con-
ferred upon the Administrative Boards by the By-laws and Regulations.
Article 5. — The persons in charge of Organization and of Documents in the
Confederation of Labor of Cuba shall file with the Office on Labor Organizations
in the Ministry of Labor, through certified document, the legal status of those
persons holding offices on the Provisional Administrative Committees of the
Federations of Industries and Provincial Federations and of the Syndicates,
Unions and Guilds, and shall issue the credentials for these persons, to be
communicated to the respective employers.
Article 6. — The provisional administrative committees for the Syndicates.
Unions and Guilds shall not call general elections until a period of ninety business
days has elapsed from the date of effectiveness of this Law, after which they
will have a period of forty-five days in which to call and hold said elections.
Article 7. — A period of ten week days, which cannot be extended, computed
from the date of publication of this Law in the OFFICIAL GAZETTE of the
Republic, is granted to all administrators and officials of .LaV>or Org-mizations
who functioned as such on the thirty-first of December of nineteen hundred
fifty-eight, in order that they may return and deliver all documents and property
of any kind, belonging to the labor organizations in which they held office.
Article 8. — The Minister of Labor Is charged with the execution of the present
Law and of enacting interpretative and regulatory resolutions regarding same.
All laws and decrees contrary to its observance are repealed.
Therefore I order that the present Law in all of its parts be observed and
executed.
Issued in the Presidential Palace, in Havana, on the twentieth of January of
nineteen hundred fifty-nine.
(Signed) Manuel Urrutia Lleo.
Jose Mir6 Cardo>^a,
Prime Minister.
Manuel Fernandez Garcia,
Minister of Lahor.
Mr, SouRwiNE. "V\niile you were attending the convention of the
Cuban Confederation of Labor in Havana last month, did you meet
any delegates from the German Democratic Republic ?
222 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. North. No.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you meet any delegates from Chile?
Mr. North. No.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Did you meet any delegates at that convention from
Mexico ?
Mr. North. No.
Mr. Sourwine. Did you meet any delegates from the Soviet Union ?
Mr. North. No.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. Chairman, it is past 12 o'clock. I have no
further questions of this witness.
May I ask that the record be held open for examination by the chair-
man of certain excerpts from various publications with the possibility
of including them if they have pertinence with respect to the matters
concerning which the witness has been questioned ?
Senator Hruska. That is pursuant to the usual procedures of the
committee.
Mr. Sourwine. I had said I had no further questions of the witness.
I do have one more question.
I would like to read, Mr. North, an excerpt from a radio program,
"Three Star Extra," broadcast by Ray Henle on November 6, 1959.
I want to ask you, when I have concluded the reading, if you have
any knowledge of the matters referred to here. [Reading :]
We have a telejtraphed memorandum tonight from our Latin American
reporter, Edward Toiulinson, now on an^ extended tour. Mr. Tomlinson says
that the anti-U.S. riots in Panama are not Just an incident. He says they are
rather the result of years of planning by pro-Communist agitators who are
trying to break U.S. control of the Panama Canal.
Reporter Tomlinson says:
"Communist agitation against U.S. control of the canal dates back to the
early thirties when the Reds first became active In Panama. They have taken
advantage of every incident since then to whip up anti-U.S. feeling among the
Panamanian people.
'"When Nasser took over the Suez Canal, the Reds used the incident to organize
huge demonstrations against the United States In the Panama Canal Zone.
They led mobs of hundreds of students through the streets shouting against what
they called 'Yankee imperialist domination of Panamanian territory.'
"Panama has national elections next year, which is one of the things the
Communists are shooting at. They now have succeeded in whipping up so much
anti-U.S. sentiment over the canal that not even the most conservative candi-
dates dnre oppose them. They, and the i>ower-seeklng politicians, are making
such an issue of the canal that the U.S. position there is becoming extremely
serious.
"The Reds also are training their sights on the Pan American Conference con-
vening in Ecuador next February. They'll set up a cry against U.S. imperialism
there, and demand nationalization of the canal.
"This is part of the overall growing Communist strategy against the United
States In the Caribbean."
Do you have any knowledge of that ?
Mr. North. No, nothing at all about that, but since you asked the
question and it sounds nonsensical to me, completely senseless, I per-
sonally would like to see a friendship between the peoples of all the
Americas, between the United States, Mexico^ Cuba, all the way down
to Tierra del Fuego where we can live in amity and peace and respect
for one another, wliere the policy once called the good neighbor policy
■will be asserted in a new way and in such a new way that we live as
brothers in this hemisphere.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 223
On the contrary, it is against this idea of trying to whip up dif-
ferences and hatreds and so on. It is exactly the contrary I am writ-
ing for and what my outlook is is exactly the contrary to what you
have just indicated.
Senator Hruska. Well, Mr. North, isn't the fact that the United
States has been pursuing the very fine Pan American idea of which
you speak and which you advocate so enthusiastically and so eloquently
as best it can in many areas and at great expense to the American
Treasury ?
For example, from the years 1945 to 1957 alone, there have been
grants to the Latin American countries approximating $837 million
and credits of an even greater amount, to wit, $865 million, a total of
one and three-quarters billions of dollars. That seems to me to be far
from a situation which is attempted to be portrayed by many people
in the Americas.
Mr. FoRER. He said that his position was exactly contrary to what
that article was saying.
Mr. North. That is what I am referring to. That is the question
he gave me.
I know, sir, that there are many, overwhelming majorities of the
American people and I am sure there are some people in the Gov-
ernment that would like to establish friendship between our Nation
and those nations on a higher level than ever before.
I know that, but I know also there are very strong influences in our
country contrary to that, who are not mentioned by Mr. Sourwine,
who own many of the big interests in Latin America and that there is
another reason that the Latin American worker and the Latin Ameri-
can peasant feels as he does.
It is a real thing that has to be taken into account in our policy, in
our national policy.
I know the average American citizen — North American citizen as
they call us, Norte Americanos — we don't feel any antagonism toward
the Cubans and vice versa.
I have seen that, but it is the question of those who backed Batista
because they said that he gave them better rates and allowed him to
torture the Cuban people.
That is the question, and they are only a handful, sir, but there are
powerful influences in our country and that is what I am talking about,
and not our Nation as a whole, not our people as a whole.
Senator Hruska. Mr. North, in your pamphlet "Cuba's Revolution"
there is this language in page 17,
About 65 percent of Cuba's exports go to the United States, and about 75 per-
cent of her imports come from this country. This monopoly threatens Cuba's
sovereignty as well as its economy. This dependency was aggravated in the
last 25 years.
Would you think it well that we abrogate or cease or reduce sharply
our imports from Cuba in order to get away from this monopoly ?
Mr. North. That is not my feeling, sir.
Senator Hruska. What is your feeling ?
Mr. North. I think on the contrary, it would be very good if we
established even a more economical relationship with Cuba, but I
224 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
think that Cuba has the right to determine the various aspects of her
own economy.
For example, you take the su^ar which is its main product.
The Senator down from Louisiana, when he did not like some of
the thin<ijs Castro said, he said — it was in the AP or one of our wire
services he said: "We will take care of that boy with the beard. We
will cut the sugar quota and that will end his being a maverick."
Senator Hruska. Has that been done?
Mr. North. But the time to do that isn't up yet.
Senator Hrusica. What has been done, Mr. North, in regard to
sugar heretofore? How much sugar do they export into the United
States ?
Mr. North. I think a great majority of their sugar.
Senator Hruska. The great majority ?
Mr. North. The overwhelming.
Senator Hruska. At what price is it imported into America?
Mr. North. But the threat has been made. It was Senator Ellender,
Senator Ellender said — maybe you are familiar wnth the quotation —
lie said, "We will cut the sugar quota and that in effect, will cut off
Castro's beard."
Now that threat continues to be made and you have seen those threats
made.
Now if Cuba's economy were on a sounder basis and we as Americans
would not be against that, where she could have more of a say on
the price of her sugar so that starvation doesn't face them when some
people like Ellender say, "Let's reduce it by half a cent a pound" or
sometliing — so if they had a more varied market, if they were able,
for example, in Cuba to grow, not a monoculture, not just the one
crop, but the potatoes, tomatoes, onions instead of the one money crop,
the Cuban people would be able to eat better.
There is a howling poverty in Cuba. I am sure that you would be
affected by it.
Senator Hruska. I want to ask this question.
A])parently, you are characterizing the vast import and export of
trade between Cuba and America as something bad. That is the
implication here in your pamphlet and I just wanted to get the basis
of that, if you were willing to discuss it.
Mr. North. Solely this, sir, that no one economy should be so one-
sided as to depend on one market.
Senator Hruska. What harm would there be in suggesting a re-
duction of the sugar import quofa from Cuba to America?
Wouldn't that then giA^e tJieni some incentive to grow tomatoes and
onions and potatoes and reduce the dependence on the sugar crop in
Ts flint what you are driving at in this article ?
Mr. North. No, on the contrary there is room there.
Senator Hruska. You refer constantly, Mr. Witness
Mr. North. I am citing their economies on this score, not just my-
self and many who are not market economists, that a monoculture is
bad for a country. A single market is bad for a country because
the country becomes dependent on people such as Ellender who would
cut it for various reasons, Louisiana's sugar market and other factors.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 225
I think it would be very well for Cuba if they diversified her crop
and diversified her market without cutting down her trade with us or
vice versa.
I think we both stand to gain.
Senator Hruska. Monoculture is bad and I wonder if we in
America, in our efforts to be friendly and helpful, have not con-
tributed to that by our present quotas. For example, since we take
from Cuba 3,200,000 tons as a base figure each year at a price which is
very favorable, aren't we, as a country, contributing to that mono-
culture which you condemn, apparently, so severel}^ ?
Would not one of the ways to discourage a monoculture be to reduce
the sugar import from Cuba and thereby enable it to have some
incentive to get into other things you mentioned ?
Mr. North. You don't see it that way, sir. We have a difference
of opinion.
I think as much sugar as Cuba can sell here advantageously to her
people and as we want to buy, it should be fomented, it should be
encouraged.
Senator Hruska. At what price? What is your understanding of
the price which should be paid for the sugar they sell here ?
Isn't it a fact it is way over the world price by reason of an act
of Congress ? What more do you want ? "VMiat more do you suggest ?
What more would you have to offer ? Why are you criticizing the
sugar program here as a bad thing?
Mr. North. I am not criticizing it as a bad thing — pardon me — I am
criticizing the threats made to cut that quota.
Senator Hruska. They are not threats. They are efforts to help.
Wliy can't we view them as efforts to help Cuba ?
Mr. North. Oh, no.
Senator Hruska. In other words to get away from monoculture.
Mr. North. Mr. Senator, you talk to some of the Cuban people and
see how they feel about that. I wouldn't agree with that. They
wouldn't agree with that.
Senator Hruska. I'm sure they don't. I know of no country that
would disagree with the idea of selling its crop for double the world
price.
They wanted the good thing, but not some of the other things that
go with it.
Mr. North. They don't want loss of sovereignty.
Senator Hruska. You mean paying twice the price for sugar de-
prives them of sovereignty?
Mr. North. No, that isn't the reason. They don't want to be so
dependent. Look what happened under Batista.
Senator Hruska. "When the suggestion is made to lessen their de-
pendence on us by reducing their sugar quota, you object to it.
You want a monopoly and you don't want a monopoly. "Wliat's the
answer?
Mr. North. You see, you are bringing up just one point.
Now, from the time of 1903 on, there were certain measures that
were taken which I don't think were rescinded until 1933 or 1934 in
which tariffs, et cetera, imposed upon Cuban products benefited the
226 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
corporations that where they were made here and hurt the Cuban
people and they resented that and in times when -President Roosevelt
was in and the good neighbor policy was promulgated, that act was
repealed.
Now from that time on, the whole question of Cuba's economy tried
and the effort to make themselves more certain and not dependent
upon the mighty neighbor across — The Neighbor as they call us — has
occupied the minds of many Cubans. It is not as they want to reduce.
All I gathered from what they said and wrote, they don't want to
reduce relations with us economically, but they want to put them on
such a basis that never again will they have a Batista foisted upon
them mainly because they feel big American corporations saw to it
that Batista remained in power.
So politics and economics are intertwined.
Senator Hruska. What has Batista to do with the United States
engaging in a policy whereby we accept such huge quantities of their
imports and we sell them goods which they don't want to buy from us ?
What has Batista to do with that ?
Mr. North. He was able to retain power because certain of the big-
gest forces in this country financially, saw to it.
Senator Hruska. Well now, will you elaborate on that, because
that is interesting. Because if our forces here are exerting pressures
detrimental or subversive to the United States, whether they be Com-
munists or corporations, we would like to know about it.
Mr. North. Very good. When that very question — if you would
read the studies that are made today in Cuba on this score, what,
for example. International Telephone & Telegraph has done to their
electricity and telephone setup — if you woularead what some of the
big corporations like the United Fruit did in the Country Sign and
so on, you would get the exact statistics and figures which would
bear out the point I am making was not the American people as a
whole.
In fact, people like you may be ignorant of what these big corpora-
tions have done unless you make particular study and it would be a
good idea for the Senate to study what these corporations have done,
because it harms the interests of our country and our people as a
whole with the Cuban peoj^e and with Latin America, generally.
Now, under Batista, I. T. & T. jacked up the price of a telephone
call to a dime, doubled it from a nickel in the last 2 or 3 months.
Senator Hruska. That might even come to the United States. We
might even pay 10 cents here.
Mr. North. Might be, but they get one-fifth of what we get so it
meant 50 cents for a telephone call down there.
Being a monopoly, they got away with it. You can imagine how
you would feel against I. T. & T., tne telephone company, ii you had
to pay 50 cents. You, a Senator, even you wouldn't like that.
The same way the Cuban people felt about it. Every kilowatt on
that island, maybe 90 percent of it was run by Cuban Bond & Electric.
Now that is an affiliate of International Bond & Share. They own
everything that gave electric power and they set the prices accordingly.
Now you know monopoly, once they are in power, they — especially
in a small, weak nation like Cuba, the people felt that these were
exorbitant prices.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 227
Furthermore, on the foodstuffs, the fact the monoculture, that one
big money crop became the thing of the island, things that they grew
in 1800, 1900, some the dietary things like tomatoes, onions, rice,
they began to have to import from abroad, rice from South Carolina,
well, they paid U.S. prices for that rice and not what it would cost
them if it grew only a couple miles away.
Senator Hbuska. Mr. North, what is your idea for correction of
all these terrible abuses of modern times? What is your idea of a
correction ?
Mr. North. Well, first I think a political attitude toward the Cuban
people and toward the Latin American people generally respecting
their sovereignty
Senator Hruska. Will that correct the high telephone rates?
Mr. North. I am getting into that. Now it seems to me that in
order to do that, attention will have to be paid to the practices of
some of the big corporations of our country.
Take the United Fruit.
Senator Hruska. By whom?
Mr. North. By our Government, by you, by the people who are
elected, the electorates.
Senator Hruska. You mean when a corporation goes to Cuba and
does business in Cuba, you want the U.S. Congress to legislate as to
what it should do there ?
Mr. North. I think they should investigate what is happening.
Senator Hruska. With the view of passing laws to regulate it ?
Mr. North. May I ask you a question on this score ?
You were in Latin America recently as you indicated earlier this
morning.
Are you aware that the Guatemalan people do not feel that the
Communists overthrew the Arbenz government ?
They feel that the State Department were with United Fruit, over-
threw the Arbenz government, and that they did not put our Nation
in a good light with the mass of the people in Guatemala as well as
throughout Latin America.
They feel it is an imdue interference on the mrt of big corpora-
tions with certain of their allies within the State Department on their
sovereignty, or their economy, and so on.
I think that is a proper province for yourself and others in the
Senate too.
Senator Hruska. Would you like to make a comment on this ques-
tion? Would you be in favor of the U.S. Congress passing laws
which would regulate foreign corporations as to what they may do in
Cuba and have that binding on the Cuban people?
Mr. North. I would like to see an inquiry.
Senator Hruska. Where should tliis regulation come from, then ?
Mr. North. From the sovereign American people, in regard to their
corporations.
Senator Hruska. And to regulate their doings in foreign countries
as to what they can do and cannot do and have those laws binding on
Cubans?
Mr. North. I am not talking about binding on the Cuban people.
Their sovereignty has to be their business.
228 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
I'm talking about our people. If we know, for example, that
United Fruit is carrying fruit in the various actions down in Guate-
mala, have to speak up for it because it defects us.
Senator Hruska. Mr. North, as you have witnessed, we have a lot
of difficulty as an Internal Security Subcommittee keeping up with
subvei-sive practices even in America. How are we going to investi-
gate and foiTn judgments as to subversive and treasonable acts of cor-
porations that are citizens of other countries?
Mr. FoRER. Senator, earlier in this hearing you were asking ques-
tions aimed at what American Communists were doing in Panama or
Cuba.
Senator Hruska. Because they are comiected here and because it is
one and the same.
It is a worldwide conspiracy which is threatening the internal se-
curity of this country.
Now we are not trying to pass laws regarding Communists which
will be binding in Cuba or in Guatemala.
We are trymg to pass laws which will take care of it here and we
will legislate with regard to corporations here as we have done in the
past.
My question is how do we legislate in this country to govern the ac-
tions of business in other countries when that, in my mmd, seems to
be a matter for that country's legislature or the authorities to do.
How can we impose our authority On them ?
Mr. North. Do you mean how can we, our American Government,
impose our authority upon the American corporations under practices
in foreign countries ?
Senator Hruska. Exactly.
Mr. North. First of all, I would like to see as an individual Ameri-
can citizen, I would like to see as much energy and attention paid to
this international life, as much attention as paid to individuals like
myself.
Senator Hruska. You flatter yourself, Mr. North.
Going on in another room in this building here are hearings which
involve dozens of witnesses and before they are done, they will pertain
to the business of big corporations.
Mr. North. Excuse me for being immodest. I prefer not to be.
But I want to say this, sir, that in my opinion what any big cor-
poration does, I don't care which one you single out in a foreign coun-
try, an American corporation does in a foreign country affects the well-
being, the reputation, the prestige, the honor of the American Nation
and we cannot close our eyes to what say the Electric Bond & Share
is doing down in the hemisphere or United Fruit is doing there.
I think we, our own Government, has to pay attention to this.
What is Guatemala? Guatemala is less than the size of New York
State. It has 3i/^ million people or so. How could they, if United
Fruit, if their charges are accurate, it is in public print and you are
acquainted with it, how could they stop it?
Assuming it was so, the sovereign American people had to say to
<he United Fruit Corp., they have to say something which would
furb their excesses against the Guatemalan people.
I am not opposed to United Fruit dealing with Guatemala, but T
am saying what could be embodied in, let's call it the good neighbor
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 229
policy, where these facts could be taken into consideration and a good
neighbor policy would work.
I think the time is ripe for action in this hemisphere. They have
a lot to give us, to us, and we have a lot to give to them, so long as
strings are not attached, so long as there is general amity that operates
between our nations.
Senator Hruska. It is clear that we can't quite coincide in our
thinking.
It is difficult for me, as a lawyer and as a reasonable man, which I
hope I am, to understand how the legislature of this country can
intervene and interpose its authority in the interior of another nation
and I am sure that there are people who would very, very much resent
and oppose such sort of procedure.
Maybe you have some ideas that would be the basis for further
discussion.
But let me ask you this, Mr. North.
On page 8 of your pamphlet you say this, and I am reading,
Batista is not sitting on his quarter billion dollars of loot ; his untold millions
are secretly buying up assassins and newspapers, buying influence in Washington
and elsewhere to raise a confusing hue and cry against anything progressive
and f orwardlooking that could happen in Cuba.
Now this is an internal security subcommittee. It is our belief that
any foreign power coming in here and buying influence any place with
or without an ulterior motive affects our security and threatens our
continued existence.
Will you please tell this committee where this influence is being
bought in Washington, by whom, and for how much ?
Mr. North. These were declarations made in the Cuban press,
generally.
Senator Hruska. This is a statement by Joseph North.
Mr. North. Yes, well, I will continue. Senator.
When that was written, there were no bombers that took off from
Miami and flew across the channel there and machinegunned and
dropped leaflets on Cuban people.
Senator Hruska. This was written in February, Mr. North. I
know of no such incident. Maybe you do.
Mr. North. That was before. Pardon me. It was known and said
in the Cuban press that Batista when he fled with something like $400
million in the treasury, with that coat around him. As a matter of
fact, one of the killers, Machado, he fled in a yacht, impounded off the
coast of Florida, with $18 million in cash. I think in American
dollars.
Senator Hruska. Will you answer the question? "Wliere is this
influence being bought in Washington, by whom, and for how much ?
Mr. North. Here is my opinion. I don't think that those planes
which are taking off' down there in Miami, which you are aware of,
I mean you have read about them, Ave have all read about tliem, are
enhancing the feeling toward us or to the American people as a whole
or to our Government when they are doing what they are doing.
Senator Hruska. Did it enhance
Mr. North (interposing). Pardon me. Can they do that without
tne concurrence of the authorities ?
230 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Senator Hruska. Did it enhance the feeling of the Cuban people
when Castro and his forces ran guns from the Florida coast over to
Cuba and used those guns in their revolution?
Did that enhance the feeling of the Cubans toward America ?
Mr. North. You talk of two different instances.
Senator Hruska. Same variety, but for two different people.
Mr. North. One was for democracy and sovereignty. These are
killers.
Senator Hrusk:a. What did Castro use his guns for, for fun ?
Mr. North. Our Coast Guard stopped Castro and impounded.
There were many stories before January 1, but why doesn't our Coast
Guard or whatever the authorities are down in Florida prevent these
planes ?
There are only so many places to take off and if all the authorities
were truly dedicated to the idea of preventing such things from
happening
Senator Hruska. How many planes went over and bombed Havana
with pamphlets ?
Mr. North. I don't know. I have read of three different — not just
Havana but went into the interior and bombed or machinegunned and
then the other day there was this case where the guy took off from
Miami, flew over to Avila City looking for Venezuela this time, not
Cuba, and got lost over the city of — well, the capital of Dutch Guiana
there, and dropped his pamphlets there and came down there.
Well, the origin of that was Miami. How do you think the Latin
American people feel toward us if such things continue to happen ?
Senator Hruska. Very well. I would oe derelict in my duty as
chairman of this committee if I didn't totally repudiate and reject the
idea that any machineguns were fired or even were on the airplanes
that went over there — and they went without the consent of American
authorities, incidentally.
Mr. North. They don't believe it.
Senator Hruska. And the American authorities have prevented any
further depredations by pamphlet-flying planes.
We are trying very, very hard to be neutral as a nation and this
reference to machineguns and dropping bombs by planes coming over
from America, in my judgment and the judgment of those who have
had a chance to go into it, is totally false and is utterly without
foundation.
You have repeated it, and it is an irresponsible statement, Mr.
North.
Mr, North. I am sorry if you feel that way, I talked to the Cuban
people.
I saw photographs. I wasn't there when it happened. I saw the
photographs of those whose bodies were torn up by the machineguns.
Senator Hruska. Well, Mr. North, we won't get into that. They
were machineguns all right, but not ours.
Mr. North. The Government has passed out an official pamphlet
on it.
Senator Hruska, They were not machineguns in a plane that had
no machineguns.
Now, getting into this question again, will you please tell the com-
mittee where Batista with his quarter billion dollars worth of loot is
buying influence in Washington, of whom, and how much ?
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 231
Mr. North. All I can tell you is that the charges were made. It is
my opinion, and I believe a man like Senator Ellender who are for
cutting the sugar quota are being influenced by pressures by Batista
and others like him are making, like Trujillo, and from the Do-
minican
Senator Hruska. You believe that Senator Ellender and anyone
else of the Congress
Mr. North. I am not saying all. I am not charging you with that.
Senator Hruska. You believe that Senator Ellender when he sug-
gested
Mr. North. Maybe — maybe the fact is this
Senator Hruska. Will you let me finish my question ?
Mr. North. I am sorr3\
Senator Hruska. You stated a little while ago that it is your belief
that Senator Ellender when he suggests a revision of the sugar policy
with Cuba is influenced by Batista, Trujillo, and men of that type.
Is that what you want to remain in tlie record ?
Mr. North. May I clarify that further ?
Senator Hruska. First of all, answer me whether or not you said
that.
Mr. North. I don't — you read to me something from a moment ago.
Now here is what has been happening since Januai-y 1.
Senator Hruska. Mr. Witness, I would suggest that you be respon-
sive for a while. Wliat are these influences which are being brought
to bear on Senator Ellender when he suggested a revision of the sugar
policy ?
Mr. North. Look at the attitude that has changed toward Cuba
since January and the answer is right there.
It seems clear to me, sir, when in January it was a friendly attitude
on the part of many people in the administration and Government, we
submit was taken out and so forth when the press so favorably spoke
at that time about Cuba and look at the press today — 10 and 11
months later it's like day from night.
There is a hammer that pours out against Cuba and people are not —
I wish that you would go down there and take a look at it. It is serene
on the streets. The people are going to work. They are going to
church. They had the big Catholic convocations last week end, but
when you read our papers you would think there is a civil war going
on.
Why is that ? I want to ask you that. Why is that ?
You are a man of the world. Do you think that it has just happened
automatically or do you think a man right away with $400 million
isn't going to use that to buy up influences.
Senator Hruska. When you wrote that Batista is buying influence
in Washington, you had in mind instances which you alleged had to
do with Senator Ellender when he proposed a revision of the sugar
policy of this country and you say that came about through Batista
and Trujillo.
Mr. North. I believe so.
Senator Hruska. Wliat facts have you to back that up ?
Mr. North. I believe the following, sir. I don't believe that you
proclaim that 100 percent of all Senatoi-s and legislatoi-s in Washing-
ton are 100 percent Simon pures and Galahads.
232 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
I believe that you would agree that there are some that are not as
perhaps as virtuous as you would like them to be.
Senator Hruska. What facts. I ask you again, Mr. Witness, what
facts have you to back up your belief that you expressed here
Mr. North. I didn't charge. I did not charge any individual.
Senator Hruska. That Senator Ellender has been influenced by
Batista, Trujillo, and other men of that kind ?
Mr. North. What the Cuban press has been carrying, with the
United States has been carrying on the opposite side of the picture
Senator Hruska. We are not speaking of attitudes. We are speak-
ing of influence exerted by Batista, Trujillo, and which accounts for
this proposed revision of the Sugar Act.
Mr. North. I didn't say Senator Ellender. I said people might.
Senator Hruska. I beg your pardon. The record shows you stated
a belief that Senator Ellender was influenced by Batista and Trujillo
and men of that type and you reiterated that you believe that to be
the facts.
What basis do you have to entertain that belief ?
Mr. North. By what I see happening aromid us every day in the
past couple of months. That is what makes me feel that.
Senator Hruska. And, therefore, Senator Ellender has been in-
fluenced by Batista. Is that your process of reasoning ?
Mr. North. I believe this, that Senator Ellender has interests of
his own. He has certain flsh to^ fry about sugar down there in
Louisiana himself that are — and I also think but would not give you
names and so on because I would like not to commit libel unless I had
the actual proof, but I certainly know that men like Batista and Tru-
jillo are not sitting on money they have got for instance and take what
Trujillo did with Galindez who wrote a book about his life, but it is
impossible to get the book in the States.
Senator Hruska. Where and by whom ?
Mr. North. Money passed somewhere. I don't know what indi-
vidual. I didn't name any individual, did I, in what I wrote?
Senator Hruska. You said that Batista is buying influence in
Washington. We are very concerned about that and we want to
find out.
Now you made a statement as a fact. You also uttered a belief here
and we are entitled to know it, it seems to me, in order that we may
deal with the actual facts by proper legislation, if necessary, as they
may spell out a direct threat to the internal security of this country.
Mr. North. Then I think, sir, that some inquiry should be made into
that.
Senator Hruska. And we are inquiring of you. You have that
belief and you have made that statement.
What facts have you on that subject ?
Mr. North. Wliat have I stated so far ?
Senator Hruska. You have stated no facts, sir.
Mr. North. I told you that the attitude liad changed toward Cuba.
Senator Hruska. We are not talking about attitudes. We are talk-
ing about the purchase of influence in Washington. We are not
dealing with what was printed in Cuba.
Mr. North. You see, Senator, attitudes don't change by themselves
like spring, sunmaer, and autumn. Somebody changes that.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 233
Senator Hruska. Where was the influence bought and by whom
and for how much ?
Mr. North. Unless I could prove it, I wouldn't name anybody
specifically.
Senator Hruska. Unless you could prove it why then did you put it
in your pamphlet that they are buying influence in Washington?
Mr. North. Because I think any logic would produce that fact.
Senator Hruska. Have you any concrete facts, Mr. Witness, as to
the buying of influence in Washington by Batista ?
Mr. North. By just what I say, the results are concrete.
Senator Hruska. What results?
Mr. North. The results of the change in the United States toward
Cuba in January tlirough December are enormous.
You pick up any paper or any magazine, you get the feeling that
there is civil war in Cuba, that Castro is worse even than Batista.
Senator Hruska. Mr. North, let me suggest some people might be
thinking that by the writing of this pamphlet maybe some influence
was exerted. Maybe some influence was brought into effect, don't
you see ?
Mr. North. If I had specific concrete information on it to give in
person, I would state the case and I would turn over the information
to whatever authorities that could
Senator Hruska. That is wonderful. Now we are getting some-
where and that shows some degree of responsibility and I think some
concern for the Nation's well-being. But in the absence of any such
proof that you can give, you have here charged that there is buying of
influence in Washington by Batista.
I come back to the same question.
Mr. North. I have the "feeling that both of us— what I regard as
proof and you regard as proof are two different things.
I am a writer and you are lawyer. I feel that if something happens
in the public prints, if something happens down in Miami where planes
are able to get over there and do damage with machineguns or not,
when threats are made against the economy of that country, when they
charged Castro with being Communist, being dictated to by Moscow,
all the different things insinuated there by counsel, I feel there is a
cause to it.
It doesn't happen spontaneously. There is a reason.
You go down and see the degree of democracy that obtains in Cuba.
They have four or five newspapers lambasting the Government day in
and day out. They have the trade unions, are on a new basis. They
have differences of opinion, or expressed freely.
Senator Hruska. Would we say also, Mr. North, that the ownership
of property is also on a different basis and that there has been confis-
cation of a lot of property, not only from Cuban citizens but Ameri-
can citizens ?
Mr. North. Under international law and with due respect to pay-
ments.
Senator Hruska. Payments in cash?
Mr. North. Over a period of time.
Senator Hruska. Over 25 years, 5-percent Cuban bonds.
Mr. North. That is the effort they are making.
Senator Hruska. Would it be your idea, we'd like to get this because
this may come up, suppose they propose — suppose a proposal was made
234 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
and adopted by Congress in which the sugar imports from Cuba were
taxed a little somethmg in order to create a fund to pay those people
whose property had been confiscated in Cuba. Do you think that
that would show that influence has been bought in Washington by
Batista?
Mr. North. Well, I think taxing would be to the detriment of the
sugar industry.
Senator Hruska. Not to the detriment, but to their welfare so they
could continue to sell sugar to this country.
Mr. North. They would get less.
Senator Hruska. Suppose the proposal were made, it is a highly
hypothetical proposition, would you consider that, Mr. North, as the
buying of influence of this country by Batista?
Mr. North. Much more important, I consider is that you should
find out what the Cuban people consider.
They would regard that as a further assault on their welfare.
Senator Hruska. And they do not consider it an assault on their
own laws when property is confiscated and no steps are taken to reim-
burse the people for that property ?
Mr. North. I'm not aware of that latter part. I believe that steps
are being taken.
Senator Hjjuska. People who have had their ranches or their
sugar plantations, their hotels confiscated in Cuba, how much land or
hotels could they buy coming over Jto America with a 20-year bond of
the Cuban Government to buy a hotel ? How many purchases do you
suppose they would make ?
Mr. North. Well, I don't suppose very many.
Senator Hruska. Not very many, so isn't that confiscation, Mr.
North? They can dress it up, they can give it form, but isn't it
confiscation ?
Mr. North. Well, I can tell you, and I sympathize with the point
of view of the peasant who used to own land and it was taken away
from him in the last 50 years.
Senator Hruska. That peasant never had land, did he, or the
country as a whole ? And he didn't have a job before, did he ?
Mr. North. But put yourself in the l>oots of a nation where an-
other nation comes in and takes over 80 percent of the economy. That
is the way they feel about it.
Senator Hruska. I give you a suggestion and you don't want it.
We buy 3,200,000 tons of Cuban sugar. Now let's reduce that a little
bit so they do not depend upon America so much for their sugar.
They are eliminating this monoculture which you complain about,
and you reject that suggestion.
You don't want to help Cuba. You don't care to help the Cuban
people.
Mr. North. What my feeling is, I am just giving you one man's
opinion here.
Senator Hruska. Exactly.
Mr. North. What you discuss is with the Cuban people and from
what I observe, they would not like their sugar sales reduced.
Senator Hruska. Why not? Monoculture is bad. So let's give
them an opportunity and some incentive,
Mr. North. Why do it that way? I have a suggestion. Don't
do that. Don't cut down on your purchase of sugar. Help them with
COMMUNIST THREAT TELROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 235
seed and other things to build. There is ample untilled land there
to make fertile that untilled land with the needs of life.
Senator Hruska. Anything to stop them from cultivating it now?
Mr. North. Poverty. They don't have the seeds. They don't have
the machinery. Take the machinery and plow that land, not to have
them go with an ancient hoe and wooden plow. Help them with the
latest machinery we have such an abundance of and tnen I think you
would find much warmth toward you.
Don't cut down their sugar, but help them build up the other things
so it is not a monoculture and it would be beneficial to us as well as to
them.
Senator Hruska. In what way, Mr. North ?
Mr. North. Take, for example
Senator Hruska. So they could buy more from us and increase the
dependence upon the United States?
Mr. North. I tell you what is happening. They are getting, not
investments, money is being offered them, loaned them by big corpora-
tions abroad for tractors, et cetera.
Senator Hruska. Like the Eussian Government, for example ?
Mr. North. No, no ; I think it was the British Government. Why
can't we do the same thing?
Senator Hruska. Have we made any loans to Cuba ?
Mr. North. Pardon?
Senator Hruska. Have we made any loans to Cuba ?
Mr. North. I am talking about
Senator Hruska. Have we given them any grants or credits ?
Mr. North. Why are they buying from the British today ? Why ?
Senator Hruska. Are they buying from the British?
Mr. North. There were stories in the Cuban press about having
bought — day before yesterday they spoke of $100 million — not grants,
what you call that when a company gives you a certain amount of
money ?
Mr. FoRER. Subsidies?
Mr. North. Anyway, $100 million credits — credits, that is the word
I want.
It seems to me if we could give them proper credits on any number
of agricultural implements because mainly it is an agrarian country,
over a long-range time it would be beneficial to our concerns making
tractors, as well as to the British.
Why are they doin^ it? They are not doing it for charity. Tlie
corporations in Britain are not better in Britain than the United
States. Wliy can't we do it over here? Thereby we would win the
esteem of the Cuban people. ^
Senator Hruska. I will just read this into the i-ecord. [Beading :]
We have made grants and extendi credit to the Latin American people to the
extent of $1% billion in 12 years. If revolution and confiscation of property and
the abuse of the United States are the results, why should we do It?
Mr. FoRER. It shows there must be something wrong with the way
you are giving it away.
Senator Hruska. I would suggest before we conclude this, and the
counsel here has one more question, the name of Senator Ellender has
come up ; some serious charges have been made.
236 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. North. Oh, no.
Senator Hruska. And more will probably be heard in that regard.
Mr. North. There are no charges. Let me make myself clear.
First of all I made no charges about Senator Ellender.
Senator Hruska. The record will speak for itself, sir. You cannot
speak fast and loose in this committee and get away with it. The
record will speak for itself and that testimony was given under oath.
Mr. North. What did I say ?
Senator Hruska. I want to say, Senator Ellender is a man of high
standing not only as a citizen but as a highly respected legislator of
the U.S. Congress.
His record for integrity as well as industry and honesty is without
peer any place.
Mr. North. May I hear what I said about him ?
Senator Hruska. The chairman wants to say he very much regrets
and is very sorry to hear the charges made as they were made by this
witness and I have an idea that in due time there will be further
proceedings in this regard.
Mr. North. Could I, while we are on this subject
Senator Hruska. Sir?
Mr. North. For the record, since this question has come up, I want
to make clear what I felt and if I said something at the moment wliich
I don't agree with now on reflection
Senator Hruska. Make your statement if you wish. You made
definite charges in the record. You stated a belief that was concrete
and without equivocation.
Mr. North. Here is what I said about Senator Ellender — would
you mind reading it to me ?
Mr. FoRER. Say what you mean.
Mr. North. I mean, and it came up in the following context, that
certain Senators, certain threats had been made against Cuba by cer-
tain Senators and I mentioned one that I recalled, that Ellender said
he had threatened to cut the sugar quota. I said I saw that in the
New York Times and he made certain other statements about Castro.
Then the question came up about influence, of Batista influence,
Batista's money, et cetera.
Now influence does not necessarily mean that money crosses the
table. It means that you put propaganda in a press and it can in-
fluence your thinking.
Senator Hruska. Now, Mr. Witness — —
Mr. North. Now just a minute. That is precisely what I meant by
influences on Ellender or others. That is exactly what I mean.
Senator Hruska. Your answer was in response to a question which
had to do with the buying of influence in Washington and it is in that
context that the record will show it and it will be analyzed and
held for what it was actually given for, as sworn testimony, Mr.
Witness, and if you want to make some further explanation at some
future time, that is your privilege in due time. But in the meantime,
the record stands as recorded.
Mr. Sourwine, you have another question ?
Mr. Sourwine. I have one question, Mr. Chairman, so the record
may be quite clear with regard to the background of tlie witness who
has given us this testimony.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 237
Mr. North. I am sorry I can't-
Mr. SouRWiNE. So the record may be clear as to your background,
Mr. North, I put it to you that the following facts respecting you are
true. I ask that you listen carefully and interrupt to correct any
statement which you believe to be untrue or inaccurate.
You have a record of Communist activity and Communist affilia-
tions which goes back for 30 years.
In 1930 you were a member of the John Reed Club. You were
business manager of Labor Unity, organ of the Trade Union Unity
League.
In 1 931, you were editor of the Labor Defender.
In 19S3 you were a member of the National Committee for Defense
of Political Prisoners.
In 1935 you were a member of the Advisory Council of the Book
Union.
In 1936 you were a member of the League of Mutual Aid.
In 1937 you were a writer for the Daily and Sunday Worker.
In 1939 you were a member of the Board of Editors of New Masses.
You were an editor of the New Masses in 1939 under the name of
North, and an editor of New Masses in 1940 under the name of
Soifer.
You were a speaker at the Workers School in New York City as
reported in the Daily Worker of November 8, 1940, at page 8.
You were a signer of a call of the fourth congress. League of Ameri-
can Writers, as reported in the Daily Worker of April 5, 1941.
You were a speaker at the New Masses anniversary celebration as
reported in the Daily Worker of February 8, 1941, at page 8.
You were on the editorial board of New Masses as reported in the
October 9, 1945, issue of that publication.
You were a contributor to New Masses in 1946.
You congratulated the Daily Worker on its 20th anniversary as re-
ported in the January 9, 1944, issue of the Daily Worker at page 9.
You were a sponsor of a rally honoring Mike Gold as reported in
the Daily Worker of April 18, 1950, at page 2.
You were identified as being a columnist for the Peoples World, and
on the program to speak at a rally in the East Bay circulation drive,
as reported by the Peoples World of January 7, 1955, at page 2.
You were a speaker at the funeral of William Weiner, a former
top Communist, as reported in the Daily Worker of February 24, 1954,
at page 6.
You sent greetings to the Continental Congress of Culture, Santiago,
Chile, as reported in the Peoples World of April 29, 1953, at page 7
and the Daily Worker of April 24, 1953, at page 2.
You were author of an article on the life of Andy Onda, as re-
ported in the Daily Worker of February 15, 1953, at page 9.
You were a contributor to Masses and Main Stream, October issue,
1953, as reported in the Daily Worker of October 16, 1953, at page 7.
In 1953 you paid tribute to the late Frederich Wolf, as reported m
the Daily Worker of October 14, 1953, at page 7.
You were secretary of the Committee To Defend V. J. Jerome as
reported in the Daily Worker of May 27, 1952, at page 7.
You were a contributor to Masses and Main Stream, September
1951.
238 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THIi; CARIBBEAN
You were a contributor to Political Affaii-s, June 1952.
You were a speaker at the artists fight back rally, as i"eported by the
Daily Worker of June 11, 1947, page 2.
You spoke at a Communist Party meeting in New York, as reported
in the Daily Worker, September 10, 1944, page 7.
You were an instructor at the Worker's school in New York, as
reported by the Daily^ Worker of September 27, 1942, at page 5.
You were a contributor to various issues of Masses ana Main
Stream, including the April 1949, February 1949, October 1951, March
1951, January 1952, February 1952, and Januai-y 1953 issues.
You were author
Mr, North. Pardon — you mean writing?
Mr. SouRwiNE. I beg your pardon ?
Mr. North. I didn't hear what you said then. I was a writer for
them ?
Mr. SouRwiNE. Yes, you contributed to the magazine various arti-
cles published on those dates.
Mr. North. That is what I mean.
Mr. Sourwine. You were author of a pamphlet entitled "For Valor
in Battle" written for the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brig-
ade, as reported in the Peoples World of April 20, 1952, page 7.
You participated in a freedom of the press rally under auspices of
the National Committee of Freedom of the Press, as reported by the
Daily Worker of January 15, 1952; page 6, January 16, 1952, page 8.
Your picture appeared in the Daily Worker of May 4, 1937, page
8.
You were a member of the New Masses lecture bureau as reported in
the New Masses of September 8, 1952, at page 30.
You were the author of an article "A Job For Eisenhower, the
Artist" appearing in the Daily Worker of May 10, 1953, at page 6.
You were a member of the speaker's bureau of the New York
Masses, as reported in the New Masses of March 25, 1941, on page 31.
You participated in the New Masses' 30th anniversary celebration,
as reported in the Daily Worker of February 2, 1941, page 7.
You were a signer of an open letter offering support to the Soviet
Qnion in denouncing then current U.S. leadership in policies, appear-
ing in the New Times of May 3, 1948.
I will not repeat the matters which have been gone into in more
detail here.
Do you have anything to say about any of those ?
Mr. Forer. May the record show that the witness' silence does not
indicate consent. And furthermore, there isn't a single sentence in
all of that stuff he read which indicated any threat to the internal se-
curity.
Senator Hruska-. Has the witness refused to answer ?
Mr. North. On the basis
Senator Hruska. And if so, on the grounds ?
Mr. North. On the basis of freedom of press, association, freedom
of speech, which is the first amendment to our Constitution and on the
basis of the due process clause of the fifth amendment and the other
aspects of the fifth amendment.
Senator Hruska. Very well, the same ruling will be made, namely,
overruling of the objection and a refusal on the grounds of the first
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 239
amendment, but a sustaining of the refusal on the groimds of the fifth
amendment.
Mr. SouKwiNE. I have no more questions.
Senator Hruska. Very well, the witness is excused.
The committee will adjourn, subject to the call of the chairman.
(Whereupon, at 1 :10 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned, subject to
call of the Chair.)
(Immediately preceding its examination of Joseph North, as re-
corded above, the subcommittee, which had convened in open session
at 10:10 a.m., held the following proceedings, with Eugene Dennis,
of New York City, a national official of the Communist Party of the
United States, as its witness :)
Senator Hruska. The subcommittee will come to order.
Mr. Dennis, will you step forward, please ?
Off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)
Senator Hruska. Mr. Dennis, will you be sworn.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony which you are about to
give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so
help you God ?
Mr. Dennis. I do.
TESTMONY OF EUGENE DENNIS, ACCOMPANIED BY DAVID REIN,
COUNSEL
senator Hruska. Mr. Sourwine, you may proceed.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. Dennis, you have been heard before in executive
session and in open session, is that correct ?
Mr. Dennis. Yes.
Mr, Sourwine. We will not go over any of the old ground.
I informed your counsel of that fact.
The national convention of the Communist Party opens in New
York on the 10th of this month, is that correct ?
Mr. Dennis. Mr. Sourwine, I believe you are familiar with the fact
that the Congress has prohibited any inquiring into or investigating
conventions of Republicans or Democrats or Communists or Social-
ists, and I decline to answer the question, and assert my privileges
under the first and fifth amendments.
Senator Hruska. The objection will be sustained as to the fifth
amendment.
It will be overruled, however, as to the first amendment.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. Dennis, is it true that Benjamin Davis, the
chairman of the New York district of the Communist Party, will
attempt at the party's national convention, which opens in New York
on the lOth of this month, to remove you from your present position
of leadershsip in the Communist Party ?
Mr. Dennis. I decline to answer and assert my privileges under the
first and fifth amendments.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourw^ine. Is it not true, Mr. Dennis, that Davis considers you
to be incompetent, unreliable, a fence straddler, and pei-sonally re-
sponsible for the friction and the strife that has wracked the Com-
munist Party in recent years ?
240 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
Mr. Dennis. Mr. Sourwine, such questions surely could serve no
legitimate legislative purpose, and I repeat that this committee, and
in fact other committees of the Congress, are expressly prohibited
under the first amendment from abridging freedom of speech, of press
or assembly, and therefore the committee is precluded from inquiring
into such matters, and I decline to answer for the same objection.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouitwiNE, Isn't it true, Mr. Dennis, that Gus Hall, the national
secretary for midwestern affairs of the Communist Party, has been
traveling extensively throughout the country for the purpose of gath-
ering support for his efforts to oust you from your position of leader-
ship ?
Mr. Dennis. My answer will be the same as given to the previous
question.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Are you not aware that Gus Hall has, on many
occasions recently, described you as completely incompetent, lacking
in leadership qualities, and a man who at all costs must be removed
from any policy position in the Communist movement?
Mr. Dennis. Same answer as to the previous questions.
Mr. Sourwine. Are you not aware of the fact that the majority of
the leaders of the Communist Party are planning to dump you at the
convention that comes up next week ?
Mr. Dennis. I would like to reemphasize that the committee has
no congressional authority in pursuing this line of questions.
The counsel, the chairman are quite aware of the answers which I
have given, and this can serve no useful purpose and, in fact, these
questions are higlily provocative.
Senator Hruska. Do you choose to answer or not to answer?
Mr. Dennis. I decline to answer, same objections as previously
stated.
Senator Hruska. And the same ruling will be entered.
Mr. Sourwine. I put it to you as a fact, Mr. Dennis, and ask you
to deny it or correct it if it is inaccurate, that you are aware of this
plan to dump you, and that, to combat this threat, you are attempting
to have the Communist Party constitution, article 5, section 5, amended
to preclude the election of national committee members by the various
State and committee groups and delegate this authority to the na-
tional convention itself ?
Mr. Dennis. I decline to answer ; same objections.
Mr. Sourwine. Is it not true, Mr. Dennis, that your purpose in
seeking to amend the constitution of the Communist Party is your
belief that you will be able to control the small group of delegates and
thus retain your leadei'ship position ?
Mr. Dennis. Same answer.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. Dennis. Same objections.
Mr, Sourwine. Is it true, Mr. Dennis, that you take at least a 1-
month vacation each year ?
Mr. Dennis. I must object to this line of totally irrelevant and
immaterial questions.
It surely can serve no legitimate congressional purpose.
I decline to answer; same objections.
COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN 241
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRWiNE. Isn't it true, Mr. Dennis, that when you take this
1 month or longer vacation, you customarily travel to expensive resort
areas ?
Mr. Dennis. In addition to the same objection, I would like to state
most emphatically that tlie questions themselves are utterly irrespon-
sible and are surely not supported by any facts.
Mr. SouRwiNE. You are stating that these questions are not sup-
ported by any facts. Does that mean
Mr. Dennis. I decline to answer; same objections.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. What, Mr. Dennis, is your salary as national secre-
tary. Communist Party, U.S.A.?
Mr. Dennis. Decline to answer; same objections.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Who finances your annual vacations, Mr. Dennis ?
Mr. Dennis. Decline to answer ; same objections.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Isn't it true that your vacations are financed by the
dues paid by the individual Communist Party members ?
Mr. Dennis. Decline to answer; same objections.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Mr. Dennis, you refer to yourself frequently as a
working-class leader. Isn't it true that during the past 30 years you
have not been gainfully employed outside the Communist Party ?
Mr. Dennis. Decline to answer; same objections.
Senator Hruska. Same ruling.
Mr. SouRwiNE. Will you tell us, Mr. Dennis, what is the official
position of the Communist Party in regard to the atrocities committed
by the Russian troops against the Hungarian freedom fighters ?
Mr. Dennis, I will have to decline to answer the question. Same
objection. The way the question is phrased
Senator Hruska.. Same ruling.
Mr. Sourwine. Will you tell uSj Mr. Dennis, what is the official
position of the Communist Party with regard to Khrushchev's denun-
ciation of Stalin ?
Mr. Rein. May I request, Mr. Chairman ? I understood that no old
material was going to be rehashed here, but this sounds exactly like
the kind of thing that was asked in Philadelphia. I don't see any-
thing new about it.
Mr. Dennis. I wish to state further, in addition to declining to
answer and asserting my constitutional privileges, that these questions
are highly provocative and they are only calculated to keep alive the
embers of the cold war.
Mr. Sourwine. Mr. Chairman, we had perhaps some slight reason
to hope that Mr. Dennis might, on this occasion, be more cooperative
than he has in the past. He has been wholly recalcitrant on many oc-
casions, and on other occasions testified.
Mr. Rein. All I am saying is that you have informed me, and the
chairman has just informed me that tnis was not going over the same
thing as in Philadelphia.
Mr. Sourwine. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.
242 COMMUNIST THREAT THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN
The court has stated that on many occasions the witness may be re-
calcitrant, but can be recalled.
Senator Hruska, There is not any old material rehashed.
Mr, Dennis. Mr. Chairman, I would like to state that I object to
being called again before this committee. I was called on October 29.
It is a waste of the taxpayers' money. It is a waste of my time, and
the questions are clearly calculated to create a mood and atmosphere
to further sinister objectives, and, I repeat, an effort to try to inflame
cold war tensions.
Surely this conmiittee is taking a position which is not new, and
one of opposition to that which our President took in the understand-
ings reached at Camp David.
Senator Hruska. Well, Mr. Dennis, the committee will consider
itself a much better judge on the wisdom of spending the taxpayers'
money, rather than substitute for their judgment your judgment or
any judgment of those organizations of which you are a member.
As to the cold war and as to Camp David, we likewise suggest
that maybe the record as to Camp David will show that these things
which you are doing are not at variance with anything that was
discussed there, and furthermore, as to any legislative purpose which
is served by these hearings or your being recalled to this committee,
without going into the grounds for believing that we are serving a
legislative purpose, I want to say the record in these proceedings is
quite clear and the committee is convinced that it is on the right track.
Therefore, whatever questions we ask here, and the purpose of the
hearing here, is in full accord with policy of the committee ; not only
that of Mr. Sourwine and the present acting chairman.
Are there any further questions, Mr. Sourwine ?
Mr. Sourwine. No, sir,
Mr. Dennis, I think, Mr, Chairman, that a majority of the Ameri-
can people hold a contrary point of view.
Senator Hruska. I did not get that last remark.
Mr. Dennis. I just wish to state it is my belief that a majority of
the American people hold quite a contrary point of view to that which
the chairman has just stated.
Senator Hruska, Well, it just happens in our system of Govern-
ment, members of this committee appear before the people for ap-
proval every 6 years, and sometimes much more often.
They are in a much better position to judge the sentiment of the
people than one who has never done so and who has been active in
some areas that would like to do away with the system of consulting
with the majority of the .people.
The subcommittee hearing, as to this witness, Mr. Dennis, is con-
cluded.
(Whereupon, at 10 : 20 a.m., the subcommittee retired into executive
session, returning at 10 :30 to hear Mr. North, as recorded at pp. 181-
239.)
INDEX
Note. — The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee attaches no significance
to the mere fact of the appearance of the name of an individual or an organi-
zation in this index.
A Page
Abraham Lincoln Brigade 194
Veterans of__^ 238
Advisory Council of the Book Union 237
Africa, North 216
Agental of Antwerp 216
Almacete 202
Almajeiros, Commandante Ifgenio (Castro's chief of police) 209,213
Anti-Comintern Axis 215
"Anti-Communist" Foreign Legion 215
Anti-U.S. riots (in Panama) 222
Arbenz government 227
Argentine/a 210,218
Arbenz c 217
"Assignment U.S.A." 187
Associated Press 219
Avila City 230
Azorovr, Mr 216
B
Balliol College, Oxford 202
Baltimore 182
Batista 205, 207-210, 214, 216, 219, 225, 229, 231-234, 236
Bentley, Elizabeth 188, 189, 192
"Black Eagle" (address of Colonel Julian) 216
Blue Legion Spaniards 215, 216
Bocianski, Jan 216
Bowler, Kitty 201
(Katherine Wise) 202
British Government 235
British Isles 200
Browder, Earl 198, 196
Budenz, Louis 189
Buenos Aires 208
Burdett, Winston 195
C
Cameron, Angus 206
Camp David 242
Cantillo, Gen. Eulogio 209
Cardona, Jose Miro ,,., ,_, 221
Caribbean governments , 216
Castro, Fidel 204, 209, 211, 230, 233, 236
Castro, Raul ^-,, 209, 211, 215
Castro revolution 212, 215
Castro regime ,_ ,- 215
Castro's chief of police 213
Chedebau, Antonio Torres 221
Chile 222
"Chivato" 219
Coast Guard , , 230
n INDEX
Pag*
Colombia 209
Committee for Provisional Administration 221
Committee To Defend V. J. Jerome 1 237
Communist Party 182, 213, 214
British 202
Constitution, article 5, section 5 240
Cuba 211,212
Fortieth anniversary of 185
Meeting in New York, 1944 238
National Convention of 239
New York District 239
Spanish 201
U.S.A 184, 217, 218, 220, 241
Confederation of Labor of Cuba 220, 221
Congress, U.S 231, 236
Constitution 182,194
Continental Congress of Culture, Santiago, Chile 287
Copic, Vladimir 196
Country Sign 226
CPUSA 201
Croton 191
Cuban Bond & Electric 226
Cuban Confederation of Labor (CTC) 218-220
Cuba's revolution 218
"Cuba's Revolution" (pamphlet) 205, 210, 223
D
Dachau (concentration camp) 187
Davis, Benjamin 239
Delaware County, Media, Pa 1 182
Democrats 239
Dennis, Eugene 239
Testimony of 239-242
Devine, Pat 200
Diaz, Conrado Becquer 221
Diaz, Jesus Soto 221
Dominican Republic 216
Dutch Guiana 230
E
Ebro 187
Einhorn, Nat 195
Electric Bond & Share 228
EUender, Senator 231, 232, 235, 236
Essex Hotel 185
Europe 187, 216
Exhibits Nos. 19, 25 — Testimony of William Remington and others before
House Un-American Activities Committee May 4, 1950, re Joseph
North 189-192, 203
Exhibit No. 20— Excerpts from book "Out of Bondage" re North 193
Exhibit No. 21 — "When Browder Visited Spain" (photograph). Daily
Worker, New York, July 18, 1940 197
Exhibit No. 22 — Articles by Joseph North appearing in "New Masses"
magazine 198
Exhibit No. 23— Letter to Joseph North from T. H. Wintringham 201
Exhibit No. 24— New York Times, August 19, 1949, T. H. Wintringham,
Military Writer, dies 202
Exhibit No. 25-A— From the Worker, July 12, 1959. "Trujillo Hires Nazi
Legion to Invade Cuba" (by Joseph North) 215
Exhibit No. 26— Worker, November 15, 1959. "The Pittmans To Send
us News From Moscow" 217, 218
Exhibit No. 27 — From the Worker, November 29, 1959. "Cuban Labor
Parley Ousts Main Disrupters" 218
Exhibit No. 28— (Translation) Law No. 22 220
INDEX m
F Page
Fascists 215, 217
FBI 192
Fernandez, Jose Maria de la Aguilera 221
Finnish war 195
First amendment 182-184,
195, 198, 200, 203, 212, 215, 218, 23S-241
Fifth amendment 182,
184, 194, 195, 201, 203, 205, 212, 215, 217, 218, 238, 239-241
Florida 230
Foreign Literature Publishing House 199
Forer, Joseph (counsel for Joseph North) 181, 186
"For Valor in Battle" (pamphlet) 238
France 200
Friends of Freedom of the Press 215
G
Galindez 232
Gallo, Luigi 196
Gambadello, Leopoldo 216
Garcia, Enrique, Jr 216
Garcia, Manuel Fernandez 221
German Democratic Republic 219, 221
Germany, Nazi 207, 215
Gold, Michael 206, 237
Golos, Jacob 191, 192 195, 204
Gonzalez, Reinol Gonzalez 221
Great Britain , 206
Grim Co. of Tunisia 216
Guatemala 218, 217, 227
Guevara, Ernest "Che" 209, 210, 214, 216
Guillen, Nicholas 206
H
Hall, Gus 240
Hathaway, C. A 200
Havana 213, 219
University of 212
Henle, Ray 222
Herndon, Angelo 185
Hitler 215
Hollywood 185, 192
Hoy (newspaper) 219
Hruska, Senator Roman L 181, 239-242
Hungarian freedom fighters 241
I
Ibbaruri, D 206
Imperialismo Yanqui 217
Inter-American Regional Organization of Labor (ORIT) 208, 209, 219, 220
Internal Security Subcommittee 228
International Bond & Share .' 1 226
International Brigades 187, 196, 202
International Labor Defense 185
International Telephone & Telegraph 226
Ireland 200, 210
J
Jaen, Jose Pello 221
Jerome, V. J 192, 237
Jimenez of Venezuela 216
"Job for Eisenhower, the Artist, A" (article in Worker) 238
John Reed Club 237
Johnson, Manning 191
Julian, Colonel 216
17 INDEX
K Page
Kazakevich 1^
Khrushchev, Premier 218, 241
Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin 241
Korean war 199
Krivitsky, Gen. Walter 196
L
Labor Defender in Cuba 185, 187, 220, 237
La Cabana 209
Latin American Confederation of Labor (CTAL) 219
Lawson, John Howard 206
League Against War and Fascism 202
League of American Writers 237
Lleo, Dr. Manuel Urrutia 220
"The Lincoln Battalion" (book) 196
Lockwood, Briten & Co 216
London 187, 216
M
McCarthyism 188
McManus, Robert C 181
Machado 229
Manchester Guardian 202
Mandel, Benjamin 181
Manso, David Salvador 221
Manzanilla 214
Margrit (wife of John Pittman) 217,218
Marinello, Dr. Juan 209,212
Marzani, Carl 206
Masses and Main Stream :
February, April 1949 : March-October 1951 ; January, February 1952 ;
January 1953 238
October 1953 237
Matthews, Herbert 214
JVIexico 187, 222
Mexico City 200
Miami 230, 233
Middle East 216
Ministry of Labor 221
Minor, Robert 196
Moos, Elizabeth 192, 204
Moscow 218,233
Mujal 208, 219, 220
"Mujalism" 218
Mussolini 215
N
Nasser 222
National Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners 237
New Century Publishers 205, 206
New Deal 217
New Masses 185, 187, 190, 192, 193, 196, 203, 204, 237
March 25, 1941, page 31 238
October 9, 1945 237
September 8, 1952, page 30 238
New Times, May 3, 1948 238
"New Ways of War" 202
New York City 182, 192, 193, 200
New York (Buffalo) 215
New York Masses 238
New York Police Department 213
New York strike 185
New York Times 215,216,236
Nicaragua 216, 217
Nikolayev 181
INDEX T
Page
NKVD 193
"No Men Are Strangers" (book) 198
North American 223
North, Joseph, testimony of 181-239
Residence: 281 East Broadway, New York.
Business address : 23 West 26th Street,
Phone : Oregon 9-9450.
Occupation : Newspaperman and author.
Born : Ukraine, 1904, near Nikolayev.
Born Jacob Soifer.
O
O'Ca.sey, Sean 20(5
Odessa 181
Oerlikon (Swiss-German dam) 216
Office on Labor Organizations 221
Official Gazette 221
Onda, Andy 237
Organization of American States (OAS) 217
Oriente Province 219
ORIT (Inter- American Regional Organization of Labor) 220
"Out of Bondage" (book by Elizabeth Bentley) 193
P
Panama Canal Zone 222, 228
Pennsylvania, University of 187
Peoples World 218, 237, 238
Peoples World, April 29, 1953, page 7 237
Peron of Argentina 216
Philadelphia 185
Pittman, John 217, 218
Polish radio 199
Political Affairs (magazine) 238
PoUitt, Harry 206
Popular Socialist Party of Cuba 211-213
Prensa Libre 219
Proletarian Literature 187
R
Rein, David, counsel for Eugene Dennis 230
Remington. Ann 204
Remington, William 1S9. 193. 195. 203
Republicans 239
"Robert Minor" (book) 186
Rodriguez, Carlos Rafael (Cuba's Interior Minister) 209, 213
Rolfe, Edwin 196
Rossen, Robert 192
Rovere, Richard H 196
Roosevelt, President 226
Russian Government 23.i
Russian intelligence 192
Russian troops 241
S
San Francisco 218
Santamarino, Sergio Rojas 216
Santiago, Chile 237
Santo Domingo 215-217
Schroeder, Frank W 181
Scottsboro bovs ca.«e 183, IST,, 187, 188
"Smelka Ginsberg" 196
Smith, Earl E. T., U.S. Ambas.sador 207, 2(«)
Enyder, Matthew, 227 Harrison Avenue, Norw<MMl, Pa 184, l.s."
Soifer, Jacob (birth name of Joseph North) 182, 200, 237
Soifer, Jesse (father of Joseph North) 182
VI INDEX
Page
Sourwine, J. G 181, 239-242
Soviet espionage 189
Soviet Union :. 199, 219, 222, 238
Spain _' 185, 195, 200, 201, 210, 216
Spanisli Civil War 194, 196
State Department, U.S 191, 207, 208, 215, 217, 227
Suez Canal . 222
Sugar Act 232
Szule, Tad 215, 216
T
Terre Haute strike 185
"Three Star Extra" (radio program) 222
Tierra del Fuego 222
Tojo 215
Toledano, Lombardo 219
Tomlinson, Edward 222
Trade Union Congress 219
Trade Union Unity League 237
Trujillo, Ciudad 215, 216, 231, 232
U
Ukraine 181
Un-American Activities, House Committee on 203
Union of Soviet Writers 206
United Fruit 216, 217, 220-228
United Press International 219
United States 235
U.S.S.R 215
V
V-E Day 187
Venezuela 217
Venzan, Octavio Louit 221
W
Wall Street imperialism '. 219
War Production Board 190, 191, 203
AVarsaw 199
Washington, D.C 181, 193, 229, 231-234
Weiner. William 237
AVinter, Ella 185
AVintringham, T. H 200, 201
"When Browder Visited Spain" (photograph) 196,197
AVolf, Frederick 237
AVorker 184, 187, 199, 212, 213
Sunday 185,202
Daily 185, 187, 193, 196, 200, 202, 211
February 8, 1959 214
February 18, 1959 214
February 1, 1959 215
May 17, 1959 215
July 12, 1959 215
November 15, 1959 217
November 29, 1959 218
February 24, 1954, page 6 237
October 14, 1953, page 7 237
May 10, 1953, page 6 238
February 15, 1953, page 9 237
May 27, 1952, page 7 237
January 16, 1952, page 8 238
January 15, 1952, page 6 238
April 18, 1950 237
June 11, 1947, page 2 238
rNDEx vn
Worker — Continued Page
September 10, 1944, page 7 238
January 9, 1944 237
September 27, 1942, page 5 238
April 5, 1941 237
February 8, 1941, page 8 237
February 2, 1941, page 7 238
November 8, 1940, page 8 237
May 4, 1937, page 8 238
Workers School in New York City 237
World Tourists 191
Y
yasha 193, 195
Yucatan Trading Co. (of Amsterdam) 216
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