Mr. O’CONNELL. I knew that at those hearings those people whom you have named had said that he was a member of the Communist Party. Mr. TAVENNER. When I asked you that question, you told us that you had never heard that Thomas Rabbitt was a member of the Communist Party? Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I don’t think I said I ever heard. You asked if I knew that he was a member of the Communist Party, and I said no, I didn’t know. Now, I could go through, and I don’t want to take the time of the committee, I could tell you like, for instance, Armstrong, Sullivan, and all of the others, not all of the others, many of those, Kathryn Fogg, were all members of the State legislature, and they had various fights and conflicts and so on, and some of them were eliminated from the legislature, and some weren’t, and so on. I could go through, Jess Fletcher was in the building-service union of which Rabbitt also was a member. There was fighting and division and dissension there. Now, I think in view of all this, I think it ought to be remembered I came out in the State of Washington in August of 1944 and many of these things that have gone on, and so on, I know nothing of, or knew anything about it. As a matter of fact, one of the principal jobs I had in the Democratic Party was to try to smooth out a lot of the fighting and dissension that had gone on between the so-called conservative and progressive wings of the Democratic Party out there. It was a job that I was apparently quite successful in. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you attend a number of meetings, the purpose of which was to oppose the holding of the Canwell hearings? Mr. O’CONNELL. No; I mean the Progressive Party had meetings and, of course, to oppose the Canwell committee. Mr. TAVENNER. Were you bitterly opposed to the conduct of those hearings? Mr. O’CONNELL. Decidedly so. Mr. TAVENNER. Was the hearing picketed? Mr. O’CONNELL. The hearing was picketed; yes. Mr. TAVENNER. Were you in the picket line? Mr. O’CONNELL. I wasn’t actually in the picket line. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you take part in the picketing? Mr. O’CONNELL. I was there and I was encouraging the picket line to be orderly and to make sure that its conduct was correct and so on. Mr. TAVENNER. Were you arrested in connection with a disturbance calculated to break up those hearings? Mr. O’CONNELL. I was arrested for disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct, but I was acquitted on that charge. Mr. TAVENNER. So you were keenly interested in the Canwell hearings? Mr. O’CONNELL. I was decidedly opposed to the Canwell committee. As a matter of fact, of the 7 members of the committee, I think we eliminated 6 of them in the following elections. Mr. TAVENNER. You knew very well that Tom Rabbitt had been identified over and over again in the course of those hearings as a member of the Communist Party? Mr. O’CONNELL. I, of course, was not inside the meetings. I mean, I didn’t hear a lot of the testimony.