Evening star., 1952-02-07
! Led Three Lives
Testimony Ends counter-Agents Activity;
All Comrades Con Do Is Shun Him
By Herbert A. PhiIbriek
Chapter XVII.

Chapter XVII.
! The End of the Tightrope.
! I was the first FBI informan
Ito testify. not a party malcontenl
either, but an FBI contact whit
Twas opposed to communism and
Communists from the beginning
lit was the first time that the Gov
lernment ever had publicly &C
lknowledged that 1t had under
'|cover agents actually working In.
side the Communist Party.
My testimony. as we worked i
|out in long pretfial conferences
Ihad two main purposes. First
II was to contribute all that !.
could from my experience to th'
conspiracy" aspect Of the indsct.
lment, to show that the party op.
Ierated in secret. met behind cioset
doors in private apartments, or
lganized itself on an underground
pattern. and spread its doctrines
not openly but by planned subter'
fuge.
Secondly, but Of no less impor.
ltance, was to contribute my
testimony to the weight OF eyi'
dence regarding what the Com
munist Party taught and advo'
Gated in the meetings which I at
tended. We were to Introduce a
exhibits numerous books and
pamphlets used by me in secret
training schools with Communist
lcomrades-materials which, over
the years, I had bundled up and
passed along to the Federal Bu-
Ireau of Investigation.
Assigned to Explain.
I was to discuss the teachings
lin those Communist textbooks, y
and tell how the most pertinent
and most revolutionary ideas ex-
pressed in them were defined, ex.
Ipanded and explained by party
instructors.
After my testimony. linked with
that of other witnesses, had helped
to nail down the charge that The
Eleven had deliberately re-estab-
tlished the Communist Party fol
revolutionary purposes, Mr.. Cor
don led me into the full details
of the teachings within the secret
sessions Of the party. He intro
drced the complete outline for the
teacher training course at 3 Han
cock street. It was at this point
lin the trial, from the four-year-
Iold report to the bureau that
had written out with shaking
fingers, that the Government drew
up for the jury the definition OF
revolution" as the term was un-
derstood by Communists. Antici.
Ipating a defense argument that
revolution" meant peaceable re-
form, Mr.. Gordon took me back
Ito the Hancock street schoo
where, under the glare of q naked
light bulb, Fanny Hartman posed
lthe question. What do we mean
Iby revolution?" He asked me
what the class. teacher said. and
II testified: III. '1s:s.IIt:
"The teacher defined revolution
las q violent revolution to. be car
|ried out by bands Of armed work
ers against the existing state gov
Iernment." "'oid g d saoa
Back in Custody. 2
At the end of my first day on
the witness stand. I was taken in
close custody again by my FBl
bodyguards, bundled out Of the
building the same way I came in
to avoid newspaper reporters, and
kept under guard through the
night.
The party, meanwhile, scurried
around Boston, trying desperately
to find out just who I was. Some
of the pro-group members were SO
shocked to find they had been
'infiltrated by the FBI that they
could not believe their "Comrade
Herb" and the Witness Philbrick
were the same man. Still others
had worked closely with me In
front groups for many years with
out ever knowing me as q Com
|munist. When the district leader
ship recovered from the shock a
few days later, they started q de-
termined campaign Of vilification
in an effort to discredit me as q
witness.
Thursday morning in the court
room, the testimony went deeper
into the teachings Of the Com
|munist Party, and in particular
those of the Hancock street
school where I was trained as an
instructor in Marxism.
Book i'm Evidence.
Although the f1rst-hand per-
Isonal-experience testimony OF the
Icounterspies played the larger par,
lin convicting the defendants. thell
own textbooks" were a vital fac
tor. One of the most condemnine
books offered in evidence was my
original classroom copy OF His
tory of the Communist Party Of
the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). :
Passages stressed in classes ! at
tended were marked in the book
and Mr.. Gordon excepted them
for the jury.
Finally, on Friday morning
after four sessions on the stand
the State finished my direct ex.
animation. Climaxing 1t was the
account Of Martha Fletcher.
TRADE on civil .disobedience, ano
Ihammering home for the jury the
fact that Martha and her COM
Irades, when they spoke Of foment-
ling civil strife, were unmistakablJ
talking about civil disobedience In