Evening star., 1952-01-30
II Led Three Lives
The Party Intensifies Its Preaching of Hate;
Guard Is frightened Against Treason
By Herbert 4. phiIbfiek
Chapter X.
Budenz Detection Shocks Reds.

by neEDSIt y. FuIUtNA
Chapter X.
Budenz Detection Shocks Reds.
1t was a thoroughly case-hard-
ened Communist" who set out
through the hot. sticky night Of
July 81, 1945. as an alternate dele
gate to the crucial convention Of
District l, Communist Political
Association, in downtown Boston
The Charter Room and its foyers
at the swank New England Mutual
Life Insurance Building on Berke-
LEY street were crowded with sew
leral hundred of the party faith
Eful. Across the room ! saw Marc
|Alper's gimlet-eyed gate watchers
at the door.
ran into several old friends
Margot Clark was one of them
the girl who had put me to the
test in my early days in Cam
bridge. Whenever / saw Margoi
now felt little flutter in the pit
of my stomach. To me. her pres
ence echoed the dread sound
INKVD-the secret police. I had
mo definite proof that Margot was
la member of the NKVD or it's
United States counterpart, but
had enough circumstantial evi-
dence to make me apprehensive
and very cautious. For one thing
Margot was not a member of the
State board, nor did she hold any
party office. And yet this slight
grave and almost fragile young
woman had an air of poise and
competence that could not be
missed by the party.
also ran into Don Bollen, now
like me a former officer of the
lAYD; Elba Chase Nelson. the
|Russian-b born New Hampshire cit.
lizen whom I had met at the 1914
convention: Phyllis Helene. one
of the new officers of the nearly
bankrupt AYD, and Arthur Korb
pianist composer. who had played
at our Youth-on-Parade dinner
I found the Maiden delegation
about midway in the auditorium
Alice Mills was the principal dele
gate and the central figure Of the
group. which also included Frank
Collier and a Maiden girl whose
party name was Teddy.
One after another, speakers rose
to denounce the ways Of Browdel
in terms which occasionally went
even beyond the limits predeter-
mined by hierarchical policy. So
far to the left did the pendulum
swing that the meeting began to
get out of hand. One major issue
was the national committees pro-
gram for continued adherence to
the wartime no-strike pledge given
by the Communist Political ASso-
citation. :
=
The United States after all was
still at war with Japan, and the
atom-bomb end Of the war was not
yet in sight. But Russia was not
involved in armed conflict with
Japan and there was a tempersin
the meeting for abrogation of The
pledge, to begin now to stir up. as
much trouble and confusion as
possible on the domestic economic
front. Strike action was the favor
ite Communist weapon for dissep-
sion. -
ROars Of Rage, Hate.
3 Hate! Hate! Hate! reverberated
around the room from wall 10
wall, ceiling to floor. The extreme
left wing of the district organfzaI
ton jumped or the bandwagon.
The -oars of rage and hate were
most vehement IN one corner Of
the room, where I spotted the
squat, flamboyant figure Of Don
Tormey. radical CIO United Elec-
trical Workers organizer. (Tor-
mey's Communist-controlled fac
tion of the UEW has since been
expelled from the CIO). Tormey
was a young, militant scrapper
with. II years Of rough-and-tum-
BILE labor experience behind him.
It was not until the final Sum
day session that Don Tormey
managed to break through the
barriers opposing him and gain
the floor. Once he got it nothing
could stop him. We waved the
red flag of disruption. confusion
and civil strife with the intima-
ton that now was the time. fol-
lowing Marxist principles, to turn
the imperialist war into q civil
war and pave the way for revolu-
ton.
My 20-page typewriter report
to the FBI required several late
evenings Of work. I sent in a list
of names which, I was surprised
to find, included nearly 100 OF
the 300 persons attending the con-
vention. I also sent literature.
pamphlets and voting lists to-
gether with a summary Of the full
convention in an effort to analyze
where the party was heading and
how far it was going to go.
Future Policy Surmised.
I concluded from the convention
proceedings and from the debate
I had heard that if Russia came
into the war against Japan, then
the party would string along with
the Nations war effort. But Il
[::iI''t,