He talked to them personally. They poured out their inner feelings. The young woman and her “lover” requested Party approval for a divorce. A few days later the wife, with fire in her eyes, told the state chairman she wanted three months’ leave of absence from the Party to regain the love of her husband. A regular free-for-all was brewing. The Party, however, exerted pressure and the situation was settled. No divorce was approved. The organizer must be ready at any hour to settle everything, from a hair-pulling contest to the distribution of an estate. For most members the Party is their whole life. If any problems arise, changing jobs, adopting a child, lawsuits, etc., they solve them with the Party’s advice. If a member has a case of ulcers, the organizer will recommend a “Party doctor”; if somebody is threatening suit, he will suggest a “Party lawyer”; if one has lost his job, he might know somebody in the Party, perhaps the owner of a store, a union-shop steward, or an industrial executive, who will help out. The Party, in many respects, is a vast paternalistic system. Not that it is humanitarian, full of mercy, or interested in the members’ welfare. Nothing like that. The Party’s interests come first. If a member is sick, tied up with a lawsuit, or unemployed, his Party work will suffer. Each member should be in top working shape at all times. The Party functionary’s job is to seek out and solve these problems. He is an administrator, expediter, and nursemaid. Also, any activity that might injure the Party must be prevented. The discipline of the Party, exercised through the functionary, extends to the most intimate details of personal life. Here are a few actual cases: A member in Ohio desired to adopt a child whose parents were members of the Catholic Church, and the member had taken steps to join the Church. The state chairman was furious and said no. Finally the member asserted his independence and left the Party. * * * * * Another member, in the Party’s eyes, manifested “bourgeois” tendencies. He spent too much time working on his house! He was removed from his Party position. * * * * * One member in the state of Washington went to Alaska, without permission, to secure a job. He was suspended on the ground that he would attract the FBI’s attention in Alaska. * * * * * A member in New York City, age thirty-five, was dropped from the rolls. Why? In the Party’s eyes he was too much dominated by his mother. Sometimes the functionary will order the member to take an affirmative step: A strawberry farmer was visited in Everett, Washington, by a Party fund-raiser who demanded one hundred dollars, which the farmer did not have. The farmer was ordered to mortgage his house. He refused and was expelled for failure to abide by Communist Party discipline.