Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-11
US. Red Chief Reported
Ready to Quit in Dispute
BY MARTIN ARUNDEL


North American Newspaper Alliance
NEW YORK. April 11.-United
States Communist Party Chair
man William z. Foster repeatedly
soon will resign to avert q threat
ened open split in the party's top
command over the Kremlin's
campaign to desanctify Joseph
Stain.
For the same reason, Eugene
Dennis. American Communist
Party general secretary, is said
to be willing to accept a demo-
ton"
Foster and Dennis are under
stood to have "strenuously de-
Tended Stalin's reputation" in
recent heated sessions of the
American Party's National Board
tPolitburo).
Several other currently high
ranking Communist Party func-
tlonaries. who are believed to
have sided with Foster and Den
mis- in the Politburo wrangles,
also will be downgraded, it is
reported.
New Temporary Bosses
For the immediate future, it is
said, the American Communist
Party will be bossed by Daily
Worker Editor John Gates. ex-
New York City Councilman Ben
Jamln Davis. Party National
Educational Director Max Weiss
and Carl Winter. Michigan Com
munist bigwig.
Gates and his allies are re-
ported to have insisted on full
exposure" Of Stains crimes
and mistakes the official inter-
national Communist line" now
coming out of Moscow.
A Gates lieutenant said they
won over Foster adherentS be-
cause I'VE had the support of
majority Of the party-par-
ticularly the intellectuals and
younger members
A source close to Foster said
the Gates faction has the key
to the party'S till and runs the
party's Control Commission
dntra- Communist Party Ges-
tapo)."
Top Job for Gates Seen
Just who will get which Jobs
In the Communists new bu-
reaucracy probably will not be
made known until the partys
national convention late this
spring. But party insiders think
Gates will likely be named gen.
eral secretary. the partys top
administrative job.
The Gates coalition denies the
"shakeup" is purge They
say 1t is merely a reshuffle of
functionaries to remedy glazing
weaknesses in party work"
But in non-Communist radi-
cal circles the "shakeup" is de-
scribed as the most drastic" in
the American Communist Party
ollgarchy since Earl Browder
was ousted as party boss in l945.
The Daily Worker editor and
friends are reported to be re
Vising the party line" They
are expected to stress, like those
now in the Kremlin. collective
party leadership" elimination
OF the cult Of personality" and
self-criticism."
Native of New York
Now in his mid-40s Gates is
snort and stocky He is a native
New Yorker and BEGAN his
Communist career in the early
'30s IN the Young Communist
League while a student at New
York City College.
The party soon sent him to
Youngstown. Ohio, where he
helped organize and lead dem
onstrations of the UNEMPLOYED
during the depression. He
claims to have taken part in the
little steel strike" of 1897. but
there is no record of him having
been prominent in it.
Gates next went to Spain as
4 political commissar" in the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
contingent Of American Reds
who fought against Generals
simo Franco, SPANS present
dictator He later served as a
United States Army sergeant in
the Pacific theater during World