The role these individuals can play for the communists is clearly illustrated in front organizations, where they serve as sponsors or officials. Behind the scenes is a communist manipulator. Consider, for example, one such organization. In October, 1951, the _Daily Worker_ announced the formation of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee with one hundred fifty founders (from thirty-nine states), including fifty who were educators, clergymen, and professionals. One of the Committee’s first official moves was to petition the New York State Commissioner of Education to “forbid the New York City Board of Education from enforcing its newly-enacted ban on suspected communist teachers....” Gradually, as the old Civil Rights Congress, a well-known front, became discredited, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee took over its work. In 1956 the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, after identifying the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, stated, “When the Communist Party itself is under fire these fronts offer a bulwark of protection.” The names of the group’s one hundred fifty founders have been exploited by the Party to fight its battles. To make a known Party member president of a front would immediately label it as “communist.” But if a sympathizer can be installed, especially a man of prominence, such as an educator, minister, or scientist, the group can operate as an “independent” organization. This trick has worked time after time and is still working today. By allowing themselves to be used as tools, fellow travelers and sympathizers have immeasurably advanced the communist cause. In Chapter 17 we shall discuss communist fronts in greater detail. Of particular interest to the communists is the influence of fellow travelers and sympathizers in the “thought-molding” field: teachers, script writers, newspapermen, news analysts. If these individuals can be subjected to the slightest bit of communist thought control, the Party will have won a major victory. One individual in New York City, for example, once occupied an important role as a news commentator and author. His views were consistently procommunist. He represented himself as an authority on international affairs. He claimed to have talked personally to many of the world’s leaders. Just as the communists would want, everywhere he went he built himself up as an individual who could give the American people guidance in their thinking.