At first, I believe, Costigan was not an officer of it. As a matter of fact, he felt that he had more than he could carry handling the work of the Washington Commonwealth Federation. So he asked the party people to find him some help to see if he could carry on this extra work that needed to be done. And, through the efforts of Mr. Lowell Wakefield, they found a person by the name of William J. Pennock who was a very able man. And Bill Pennock assisted Costigan in all of his work when he was in the Washington Commonwealth Federation. Later when the time came to organize the Old-Age Pension Union, Pennock assisted Costigan in finding people to head up that organization. (At this point Representative Morgan M. Moulder entered the hearing room and assumed the chair.) Mr. DENNETT. In the very beginning the original leaders who held the original titles of president and vice president of the Old-Age Pension Union were not members of the Communist Party. They were chosen by these old-age pension people, knowing them to be public-spirited persons, and I don’t know whether it is proper to identify those persons or not at this point. Mr. TAVENNER. No. The committee would not be interested in going into that phase of the matter. You mentioned a person by the name of Lowell Wakefield. Will you tell the committee what you know of his activities? Mr. DENNETT. Lowell Wakefield was a member of the Communist Party. He did come from the East on his assignment by the central committee to work in this district. However, after he had worked here a comparatively short time he came into dispute with the succeeding leader who came, Mr. Morris Rappaport, and ultimately Mr. Wakefield left the Communist Party and I believe that he has had no connection with the Communist Party for a great many years. Mr. TAVENNER. The point you are making is that in its inception this union, the Old-Age Pension Union, was not of a Communist origin or of a Communist character. Mr. DENNETT. No; it was not. But the Communist Party recognized that the terrific response that Costigan received meant that here was a potential group of people capable of doing enormous amounts of political work. Remember, please, their situation: They were retired; they had ceased working daily on a job. Therefore, they had the leisure time to do what they wanted to do in most instances or at least in many instances. The result was that some of these people could go out and peddle leaflets and knock on doors. They constituted an enormous political strength. And the Communist Party conceived the idea that these people certainly would be the most able people to carry on political programs if they could be won to support such a program. So the Communist Party set about to do exactly that in the pension union. Among those who were urged to go into the pension union to work vigorously was a person by the name of Thomas C. Rabbitt.