Evening star., 1952-01-23
By Herbert A. PhiIbriek
Chapter w..
I Become . Counterspy.

by tlGGUctt ~ FUubt@M
Chapter w..
Become a Counterspy.
BY early autumn it became
urgently necessary for the COM
Imunists to reform their lines, and
to re-eStablish their connections
Through front organizations with
1.-THE masses" But it had to be
done now under a new banner
support the war. aid the allies,
more guns and less butter. help
ithe U. s. S. r."
In October Of 1941. therefore. a
call went out to youth leaders of
the Boston area for mass meet
ljng at the Hotel. Touraine in
Boston.
Arthur Solomon, one Of those
who had most readily accomp-
Ilished the big reverse, pressed me
to attend the meeting as a dele
|gate from the Cambridge Youth
Council. I sent a quick report
through the mail to Harold Leary.
telling him that the big youth
rally would be held. and that /
would be on hand to give him a
full report of its conduct.
Party Switch Launched.
The rally was started of by
Sam Abelow, a stocky young man
with crew-cut hair whom I knew
only slightly from previous youth
activities. Abelow was an ac-
lcomplished rabble His
voice rose to a keener pitch and
his tempo gradually stepped up, as
he urged immediate aid to the
Allies and to Russia, increased de-
tense production. a larger army.
adoption of the Atlantic Charter,
and, especially, repeal of the
Neutrality Act to permit fuller
support of the nations arrayed
against Hitler.
I felt an irresistible impulse to
needle the Communist comrades"
in the hall, I clutched Eva's hand.
Hang onto your hat" / whis-
|pered.. I'm going to try something
out"
For three long minutes. raked
up all the old discarded arguments
of Sam Abelow. Art Solomon and
the daily Worker" / blasted the
Wall Street monopoiiSts who are
dragging this country into war"
4 ragged against cooperation of
any kind with the "imperialist"
British, French and Dutch. /
sounded off against themunitions
makers and the industrialistS who
have, everything to gain and
nothing to lose by embroiling the
world in a bloody war;
Near Riot Develops.
The meeting turned into a near
riot. directed primarily at me.
Speaker after speaker ripped my
arguments to Shreds. At last. some
one proposed that the resolution
offered by Sam Abelow be adopted,
and further debate curtailed. This
was the moment.
mfr Chairman" said in dulcet
tones. II wish to second the mo-
ton of the delegate from Dorches-
ter" Then the sun burst forth.
Arthur Solomon jumped up and
shook my hand. Faces that were
turned in my direction broke into
smiles.
My willingness to embrace the
party line was apparently the
stripe which the Communists were
waiting for me to show It brought
a resurgence of interest in me and
my activities all of which I re-
ported to Harold LeaEy.
I had more and more strange
callers at my house III the eve
nings, They showered me with
pamphlets on every conceivable
subject, many of them plainly
Communist Party, U. S.
A." I noticed that many of my
visitors came in pairs. I was in
troduced to countless new young
people, always by their first names
John, Nancy, Ray-and
I wondered If they were. real
names or convenient aliases. Many
of them did not attempt to con-
ceal the fact that they were mem
bers and active workers for the
Young Communist League, the
youth section of the Communist
Party. Arthur Solomon, always
the most frequent caller, asked
me to serve on the forming COM
mittee of new youth group.
Youth Support Sought.
"Herb, this will be right up your
alley. First of all it will function
as a win-the-war group. The
youth of Boston must be per-
suaded to give unstinting support
to speedy victory in the war.
There is no lack of youth organi-
cations in the city as you know.
There are hundreds of them in
Boston. But what we do need is
a co-ordinating committee to
point up the greatest needs Of the
country and to work most eff
GENTLY to fill those needs"
Thus I was brought into the
Boston Youth for Victory Council,
a group whose origins we're OBJ
scure. I wanted to see what hap
pened, and ] felt the FBI would
be interested to know also.
Circumstances combined to make
my job easy. The members of the
Young Communist League who
worked so avidly to worm their
way into control of the Youth for
Victory program were smothered
under an avalanche of response
from young idealistic non-Com-
munists, led by astute and ex-
perienced figures in the youth
field.
recall Miss Emile Everett,
chairman of the Adult Advisory
Committee for Youth Work at
the Boston Council of Social
Agencies; Harry Burroughs, of