economic problems, truth about the leadership necessary in labor and management, and, finally, truth about the manifold lies and distortions utilized by the Communists and the system they espouse. The power of truth in the fight against communism is demonstrated in the bitter struggle engaged in by one union to drive the Reds out of positions of leadership. The president of the union said the Reds were on the point of capturing the union and using it as a wedge for greater gains in labor. He said they fought the Communists by relying on the intelligence and the integrity of the union members. Union members in each factory and each union local were contacted. The falsehoods of the Communist cause were pointed out to them. At the outset, only a few took up the fight against communism. Then, by the thousands. the union members, including many former Communist sympathizers, joined forces against the Communists and now form a determined opposition to them. The strongest counterforce against the attempts by the Communists to seize control of labor is labor itself. Labor must continue to meet this challenge. Constant vigilance by rank and file union members and by labor leaders against Red infiltration is the price that must be paid on the home front for the preservation of our democratic mode of living. FREEDOM'S REWARD Sacrifice it does entail, but the reward is freedom for the individual, his family, his fellow citizens, and all posterity. Just as labor and management can work together to solve economic problems, so too they can work together to render impotent the threat of communism. Both responsibilities should and must be shared. This threat of communism does not concern labor alone. It is a problem to be faced squarely by all Americans. The Federal Government, in the services of the people, continues its relentless fight on the common enemy. The FBI is charged by Congress with the investigative responsibility of preserving the internal security of the United States against subversive movements. FBI investigations are conducted concerning espionage, sabotage, and related subversive activities. The most important single menace today is communism. We of the FBI have also been a target for Communist attack. A favorite allegation is that the FBI investigates labor and labor unions. The truth is the FBI never has and never will concern itself with the employer-employee relationship, nor do we investigate labor unions and their members. The FBI has no intention of interfering with organized labor. Great numbers of our personnel come from the homes of men and women who have long been active members of labor unions. We have, however, investigated instances of Communist infiltration into labor unions. To a non-Communist, there should be and there is a vast difference between the investigation of a union and the investigation of Communist infiltration into a union. In fact, it can now be revealed that able, loyal labor union members and leaders have asked the FBI to investigate Communist infiltration in their ranks. The Communist infiltration into unions, especially unions working in industries essential to our national defense, offers the greatest danger of sabotage and disruption of our defense efforts. The primary emphasis of the Red infiltration program has been on the heavy and strategic industries, since control of these is useful for the accomplishment of their ultimate purpose-the overthrow of this Government by force and violence. Such industries as railroads, shipbuilding, atomic energy, steel, communications, the electrical and automotive industries have long been the targets of Communist infiltration. RED CONTROL A PERIL Communist Communist control of any union is a matter of serious concern. inspired strikes not only injure the interests of labor and management but also hurt the general public welfare. The Communist-controlled union has an opportunity to promote factional disputes, dissatisfaction among union members, and a general feeling of hostility and unrest. A second spurious allegation of the Communist is that the FBI violates civil rights. This, too, is typical of the Communist method of attack. The FBI is essentially an investigative agency. In our responsibilities to the Nation, we strive to get the facts. We do not establish policy, nor do we make decisions as to prosecutions-that is solely the responsibility of the Attorney General, his assistants, and the various United States attorneys. Any honest and fair-minded individual can easily observe that the FBI is constantly working to protect civil rights. During the fiscal year 1952 the num ber of civil rights investigations conducted by the FBI reached an alltime high when 1,841 such investigative matters were handled. During the first 9 months of the fiscal year 1953 there were 1,579 such investigative matters handled by the FBI. The jurisdiction of the FBI is fixed by Congress and by Presidential directives. Our investigators are trained special agents. They entered under an educational requirement that they be graduates of an accredited law school or accounting school with practical accounting experience. Their investigations are objective and impartial; their investigative methods scientific, pointed, and conducted so as to preserve inviolate the civil rights of the individual. Communism recognizes no rights at all. The Communists place their trust in their Soviet masters. American labor has rejected and must continue to reject the ruthless creeds of a Communist state. The strength and hope of America lie therein. HITLER'S BLUEPRINT In 1927, Adolf Hitler completed his two-volume work Mein Kampf, explaining the aims of his movement and portraying its development. He said that "for the uniform and unified propagation of a doctrine, its principles must be laid down for all time." He wrote that "Whatever Heaven's purpose with us may be, people must know us even by our visor." The tyranny of his movement and the treachery and cruelty seen through their visors by the armored columns of his forces as they carried out the dictates of Mein Kampf were halted only through untold sacrifices by free peoples. But, through all the years of his transgressions, in periods when he pretended peace and made treaties only to break them; when he kidnapped and murdered the opposition; when he cajoled and lilted overtures of friendship and international cooperation, never once did he renounce the doctrines spelled out in Mein Kampf. The Communists, too, have their Mein Kampf-the Communist manifestowritten a hundred years before the flames of World War II. "Communists *** openly declare that their purpose can only be achieved by the forcible overthrow of the whole extant order." Like Hitler, our Red Fascists have an outline of their movement. Like Hitler, they alter tactics from time to time, hiding their true aims behind beguiling promises which merely veil the treachery lurking behind. Only fools would be deceived. Despite tactical measures adopted by them for temporary ends, they, like Hitler, have never repudiated their basic doctrines. The lesson of Hitler is one to give us pause. A foreign inspired movement is among us. Its sinister aims should not be underestimated. Its fervor and burning hatred of our cause should be realized. Its sniping and underhanded tactics should be intelligently exposed. It is a malignant growth which is nurtured in darkness; it cannot survive where there is light. Truth will defeat it. All of us must so conduct ourselves that truth is freed and is allowed to counteract and remove this cancerous growth. LABOR IS VIGILANT The ranks of labor have been and will continue to be an inestimable help. Indeed, vigilant labor can be the main bulwark against which all the frenzied surges and furtive moves of communism strike in vain. It is in the field of labor where the major Communist issues will be fought on a day-to-day basis. American laborers are not dreamy, timid, and confused men. American laborers are practical, courageous and clear-thinking people. They are not easily fooled and victimized. They have, in many instances, met Communist deceit with forthrightness and honesty. Again and again this has meant defeat for the Communists. It must always spell this defeat until communism, like the noxious weed it is, has been torn out of the field of organized labor, root and branch, and consumed by its own poison. Free American laborers will insure the freedom of America. Senator BUTLER. Gentlemen, the subcommittee will suspend until 2 o'clock, when it will resume session again in this room. (Whereupon, at 11:50 a. m., the hearing was recessed, to reconvene at 2 p. m. the same day.) AFTERNOON SESSION Senator EASTLAND (presiding). The committee will come to order. Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give the Judiciary Committee on Internal Security will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. SELLY. I do. TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH P. SELLY, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN Mr. ARENS. Kindly identify yourself by name, residence, and occupation. Mr. SELLY. My name is Joseph P. Selly. I reside at Fort Lee, N. J. I am president of the American Communications Association, an independent union. Mr. ARENS. Would you identify the American Communications Association by the contracts it holds and where it operates? Mr. SELLY. We hold contracts with the Western Union Telegraph Co. for the area generally designated as the New York metropolitan division of that company. That is New York and its environs. We hold a national contract with RCA Communications, with properties in New York, main properties in New York and San Francisco. Mr. ARENS. Do you know whether or not the American Communications Association people service the tie lines and lease lines out of the Pentagon? Mr. SELLY. If they come into these main operating rooms, if there are such tie lines coming into the main operating rooms where our members are employed, then those people whose function it is to service tie lines and lease lines generally would service those lines. Mr. ARENS. Do you know whether or not the American Communications Association people service the overseas North Atlantic cables of Western Union and of other cable companies that transmit messages over the North Atlantic route? Mr. SELLY. The answer is "yes" in connection with Western Union cables. That is where we have a contract. We do not have contracts with the other cable companies. Mr. ARENS. Now, Mr. Selly, in May and June of 1951 the Internal Security Subcommittee released testimony respecting Communist control of the American Communications Association, in which a number of the officials of the American Communications Association were identified by live witnesses, under oath, as Communists. I wonder if you would kindly now tell this Internal Security Subcommittee what the American Communications Association has done to rout the Communists expelled from the association. Senator EASTLAND. Who were the officials that were named? Mr. SELLY. Mr. Chairman, before we go into this, I came here at my request to testify on a series of bills which we considered antilabor legislation, and I was invited by this committee to give testimony on those bills. I have a prepared statement. Senator EASTLAND. Which is correct? You say you requested and then you say the committee invited you. Mr. SELLY. Both, actually. I was requested and I was invited. I have prepared testimony. I sat here this morning and saw the extreme courtesy with which representatives of industry were treated by counsel for this committee and the committee. I was here last week when a labor union was testifying. It seems to me that if this committee is to carry out its proper legal function it ought to give me an opportunity to put my statement into the record and to comment on it and not to engage in a▬▬ Senator EASTLAND. Any congressional committee has its own rules of procedure. Mr. SELLY. But do they vary as between industry and labor? Senator EASTLAND. Wait just a minute. I am going to get to that. Any committee has a right to ask questions by which we would be helped in evaluating testimony. Where there is information in any case that men or officials of a union or of industry are members of the Communist conspiracy against the Government of the United States, that question is asked, and it is our duty to ask, because Mr. SELLY. I didn't hear it asked of any representatives of industry. Senator EASTLAND. Well, we had no information that they were Communists. There was a union that was asked that question, and it was asked the official. I asked the question, because we did have information that the union was Communist-controlled and that he was a Communist. Mr. SELLY. May I ask, am I going to be permitted as every Senator EASTLAND. I will not argue with you. I want to be courteous. But I want you to courteously answer the questions. You will be permitted to put your statement into the record, of course. You will be permitted to comment on that statement. But you are not going to foreclose the committee from asking you questions that we think aid us in evaluating the veracity of your testimony. Mr. SELLY. Senator, I assure you that I will be as courteous to you as you are to me. Senator EASTLAND. I am going to be courteous to you. But I want you to answer his question. Mr. SELLY. Well, first, will my statement be entered in the record? Senator EASTLAND. I am going to let you enter it or read it or testify or whatever you want to do. When the counsel asks you a question or I ask you a question, then I am going to expect you to answer that question. If you desire the privilege of the fifth amendment, you can take that privilege. Mr. SELLY. Thank you. I ask, again, that I be permitted Senator EASTLAND. I want you to answer his question and then you can go on with your statement. Mr. SELLY. You will have to read back the question. Mr. ARENS. I can give you the essence of the question, if it would be helpful to you, Mr. Selly. In 1951, the Internal Security Subcommittee released testimony in which a number of the officials of the American Communications Association were identified by live witnesses under oath as members of the Communist Party, the Communist conspiracy. You are here before this committee which is dealing with that problem, and wants to consider legislation to drive Communists out of labor organizations. I wish you would kindly tell us now what the American Communica tions Association in the light of this testimony has done to drive the Communists out of the American Communications Association. Mr. SELLY. The testimony that you are referring to was made available to the membership of my union in several forms. Voluminous excerpts were printed by the union along with an analysis of it. A rival union, which was seeking to raid our jurisdiction, distributed wholesale copies of that testimony. The membership gave their answer subsequently in a collective-bargaining election whereby a larger majority than had prevailed a previous time, they reasserted their desire to be represented for collective bargaining by this union. Mr. ARENS. Will you tell us what you have done to drive the Communists out? Senator EASTLAND. I want to ask a question. That is a loaded question. Do you have the same officers that you had before the charges were made? Mr. SELLY. Yes. Substantially, yes. There has been one change, but the leading officers of the union are the same as at the time. Senator EASTLAND. And do I understand now that no action has been taken to rid the union of those officials. Mr. SELLY. On the contrary. We are currently in the period designated by our constitution for elections, unionwide elections, and we have what has been characterized by Prof. Sumner Slichter, among others, he is at Harvard University, one of the most democratic constitutions of any union in the United States. An example of it is that it requires only 100 signatures on a petition to be nominated for the highest position in the union. That is the office I now hold, the office of president. The nominating period concluded at the end of February. A preliminary check from the locals indicated that I received as candidate for the office of president approximately 3,000 signatures supporting my nomination. The same is roughly true of all the other officers. Senator EASTLAND. You have brought yourself into this discussion. Were you one of those who were named as a Communist? Mr. SELLY. I am not certain. The record will speak for itself. Senator EASTLAND. You said, I understand that you said that a rival union distributed voluminous excerpts from the hearings. Mr. SELLY. That is right. Senator EASTLAND. Were you one of those who were named as a Communist? Mr. SELLY. I say I am not certain. The record will speak for itself. Senator EASTLAND. Did you read those releases? Mr. SELLY. I read it a long time ago; yes. Senator EASTLAND. You do not know whether you were named or not? Mr. SELLY. I am not certain that I was. Senator EASTLAND. Mr. Counsel, was this witness one of those that were named ? Mr. ARENS. So that the record is clear, I will read an excerpt from the report of the committee. Senator EASTLAND. I do not want the committee report. I will let you put that into the record. Was he one of those named? Mr. ARENS. Yes. Senator EASTLAND. I am going to ask you this question: Are you now a member of the Communist Party? |