Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., area. Hearings, Part 3United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities
History
Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., area. Hearings, Part 3
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities
Communism -- Washington (State) -- Seattle
Mr. O’CONNELL. Well, let me, in order to keep it in
chronological order, I would like to say that after that election there
was of course a considerable division in the Democratic Party over the
results of the election which were quite disastrous for the Democratic
Party in 1946, and there was a considerable cleavage among what was
considered to be the conservative forces in the party and the liberal
forces in the party and at the convention at Ellensburg in December of
1946 the conservative element or conservative forces in the Democratic
Party were in control by a very slight margin.
The liberal forces in the Democratic Party then organized within the
Democratic Party a group known as Roosevelt Democrats, and I was
I think also called the executive secretary, or given the title,
elected as executive secretary of the Roosevelt Democrats and I
served in that position until April of 1948 when I resigned from the
Democratic Party and actually began to work for the organization of
the Progressive Party in the State of Washington. We had set up what
we called a provisional committee for a new party. I had supported
Henry Wallace for Vice President in the 1944 Democratic convention. I
was a considerable admirer of his, and I joined with the people who
were forming the Progressive Party, and I think then--I would say in
probably May or June of 1948--the Progressive Party of the State of
Washington was organized at a State convention in Seattle, Wash., and
I was elected executive secretary of the Progressive Party at that
convention, and I served in that capacity until October 1949, when I
left the State of Washington and went back to the State of Montana and
began studying law and preparing for the taking of the bar examinations
which I eventually took.
Mr. TAVENNER. After your return to the State of Montana in
1949 did you hold any other organizational positions?
Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I did not. On many occasions--in October
of 1949 I had made up my mind that I had given the best years of my
life to political activity. In July of 1949 Mrs. O’Connell and I had
a young son after having been married about 13 years. Mrs. O’Connell
had a very, very difficult time in giving birth to our son, and for 5
days her life was in danger. Her folks live at Great Falls, Mont. She
is a native of Great Falls. She wanted to go back there to be with
her folks. Up to that time I had always studied law with the idea of
being an attorney and I wanted to be one and so we went back to the
State of Montana and I have not been engaged in any partisan political
organization or affairs of any kind since my return to the State of
Montana.
Mr. TAVENNER. The committee has information that after that
time you became chairman of the National Committee to Defeat the Mundt
Bill.
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