(Testimony of George William Fehrenbach)
Mr. Fehrenbach.
he says, "I have given them definite orders not to say anything to you," and he said, "I don't think Lawson will ever talk to you."
Mr. Griffin.
Now, you don't have any knowledge, though, do you, as to whether these people were what one would call card-carrying members of the party?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
No; this I couldn't say, at least I had never seen any of them with a card or none of them had ever shown me a card.
Mr. Griffin.
Do you have any information that these men were doing anything other than discussing Marxist philosophy?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
No; I don't think they was--I think that is all they talked about. I know, one of the main things they used to get into the biggest argument about was who was doing the most during the war Russia or the United States, and Russia, of course, they said was doing everything.
Mr. Griffin.
Is it fair to say from your observations that you don't know whether there was anything more than a philosophical discussion or general discussion of political ideas taking place?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
Well, that would be the only way I could put it because I never knew of anything else that they--
Mr. Griffin.
You don't have any information that there was any sort of espionage or anything like that going on?
Mr. Feheenbach.
No.
Mr. Griffin.
So when you make the statement that, for example, Max Pritcher was a Communist, what you are saying is that he discussed with these other men the Communist philosophy.
Mr. Fehrenbach.
Right. How so much better if they could get the United States to see their way, and I don't know, they just didn't agree with anything the U.S. Government done in any way, shape or form. This is, I suppose, one reason that turned me more or less against all of them, I mean, because that and the fact that Lawson Jaffe and everyone of them at one time or another ridiculed the United States.
Mr. Griffin.
Did you tell any of your friends or family about these people?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
My mother knew about it, and, of course, I suppose I said something to my father, although I was my father and I didn't talk too much. He was never home, and I never saw him too much. And then, of course, after I was married why my wife knew about it.
Mr. Griffin.
Did you tell any friends about it?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
No; I didn't.
Mr. Griffin.
I take it that You have never reported to any government agency the fact that you thought these particular men were Communists?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
How could I prove it? The only time but I did report at one time, and this was after I came back from the service, and I went up there one morning, I knew they was having a meeting upstairs the night before because so many different ones had come in and apparently this must have been a real rally meeting because they were coming in from Chicago and several different places and this is one of the times, this was to my opinion, to the best of my knowledge, this was the last time that I met the man that they called Jack Rubenstein, and he came in with Seymour Jasson, and one or two other men from Chicago. And the next morning when I went back to work they had taken one of the chairs out of the shop and I had to go upstairs to the hall and get the chair.
The door wasn't locked and I went in and I picked the chair up and there was a table in there. Well, there were tables down both sides of the hallway and then one across the front of the room, and there was a sheaf of papers on the table up in front where our chair was, and I didn't really pay any attention to it then until I happened to glance at it and there was a list of names and to my recollection there were two or three sheets full of names on there, and I glanced at the first few of them.
Mr. Griffin.
Can you describe these sheets of paper?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
Well, all it was was, I would say, typewritten paper, typewriter paper, similar to typewriter paper. It might have been a little longer.
Mr. Griffin.
Were the names handwritten or typewritten?
Mr. Fehrenbach.
The names were all typewritten. There were no addresses, if I remember correctly there were no addresses, and the first few names I looked
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