OR CONTROL THE COMMUNIST PARTY HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION OF THE EIGHTIETH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H. R. 4422 and H. R. 4581 71315 PUBLIC LAW 601 (Section 121, Subsection Q (2) ) FEBRUARY 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 19, AND 20, 1948 Printed for the use of the Committee on Un-American Activities CONTENTS Page Hon. Tom C. Clark, Attorney General of the United States.. Hon. Gordon L. McDonough, Member of Congress from the Fif- teenth Congressional District of California_ Edgar C. Corry, national commander, AMVETS. Arthur Garfield Hays, attorney, American Civil Liberties Union___ Selma Borchardt, attorney, Women's Bar Association of the District George M. Dimitrov, former secretary, Bulgarian Agrarian Union --- Charles S. Sullivan, chairman, committee on un-American activities, Dr. Robert A. Maurer, professor, Georgetown University Law School.. Dr. William Y. Elliott, professor of government, Harvard Univeristy__ Benjamin J. Davis, member, national committee and national execu- tive board, the Communist Party of the United States--- Robert B. Gaston, investigator, Committee on Un-American Activ- HEARINGS ON PROPOSED LEGISLATION TO CURB OR CONTROL THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1948 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION OF THE Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10: 15 a. m., in room 225, Old House Office Building, Hon. Richard M. Nixon (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Subcommittee members present: Representatives Nixon, Vail, Peterson, and Hébert. Also present: Representatives Rankin and McDowell. Staff members present: Robert E. Stripling, chief investigator, and Robert B. Gaston, investigator, of the Committee on Un-American Activities. Mr. NIXON. The committee will come to order. The record will show the following members are present: Mr. Vail, Mr. Peterson, Mr. Hébert, and Mr. Nixon. This is a subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities. At the present time we have under consideration several bills which have been introduced which would curb or outlaw the Communist Party in the United States. It is the function of our subcommittee to study these proposals carefully, to conduct hearings, and to determine what, if any, legislative action should be referred by the full membership committee to the House. We have before us at the present time two bills, particularly H. R. 4422, introduced by our colleague, Mr. Mundt, from South Dakota, and H. R. 4581, introduced by Mr. McDonough. (H. R. 4422 and H. R. 4581 are as follows:) [H. R. 4581, 80th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To define communism and to make the practice of communism a treasonable act in the United States Whereas communism as a political policy, or as a way of life, is inimical to the people of the United States; and Whereas communism advocates deceit, conspiracy, confusion, subversion, revolution, and the subordination of man to the state, and, because of its practice of deceit and confusion, its real purposes and intentions are clouded and misunderstood to the extent that many persons in the United States have been influenced to believe in and sympathize with communism; and Whereas there is a pressing need for a clear and easily understandable definition of communism in order to protect the people of the United States from its insidious influence: Therefore Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That communism be defined and declared to 1 |