The Time Machine (book)

Its very title, The Time Machine (1895) suggests that H.G. Wells’ tale of time travel is the first such book to suggest a literal journey in time, through the use of a scientific machine specifically built for that purpose.

In fact, Wells did coin the term "time machine" though there were a few stories which played with the concept of traveling backward in time written prior to this piece, which was serialized before its being revised into a book.

In my play, On the Dark Side of Twilight, I trace the history of vampires in literature, and how the definition of their existence had changed from era to era. Some rules, like their need to drink blood, definitively defines what it means to be a vampire, and so has remained constant. That they cannot walk in daylight was not true at first, and has recently been dismissed.

Some fun might be had writing a similar story on the history of time travel, and what ideas our imaginations can accept, and which they cannot. Wells did not trouble himself with the idea of paradoxes, never questions whether his protagonist - who has no name, only The Time Traveler - or whether or not to kill Hitler, who would only have been six at the time, anyway.

In fact, Wells does not even venture into the past, only the future, and in doing so he sets in this one story several paradigms for our idea of time travel, many of which have never changed, and has inspired countless imitators.

Unlike Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in which she doesn’t actually describe how man reanimates man, just that it happens, Welles describes a few precious materials which compose the machine and make it work. We now refer to this as Techno Babble, a term devised to describe every word anyone says on Star Trek.

The Future, as defined by Wells, is originally assumed by the Time Traveler to have one set of realities, and as his veil of ignorance is lifted, he discovers to his horror is something entirely else. This “Discoverer’s Error” is a mainstay of plots for Star Trek and Dr. Who - these programs often presenting the opposite discovery, that that which appeared monstrous was merely misunderstood.

Mary Doria Russell’s award-winning novel The Sparrow even lifts the central conceit of Wells’ mystery, the concept of two sentient in a symbiotic relationship where one exists as food for the other.

I found the final passages of The Time Machine extremely affecting, especially or due to their brevity, in the which the Traveler leaps millions of years into the future, twice, the witness the Earth in its final days. As the globe ceases to spin on its axis, and either the Sun expands or the Earth comes nearer to it, the seas crust with salt, all appears reddish or pink to the eye … and giant creatures described as similar in appearance to crabs roam the shore.

The Traveler is nearly attacked by one and manages to escape with alacrity. I couldn’t help but be reminded by Stephen King’s Gunslinger, who had no means of escape when set upon by mutant crustaceans on a foreign beach and was terribly maimed.

Wells’ uses his time machine to ask what if, and to play out a fantasy of a future time where the worst fantasy of man’s inhumanity comes to pass. There are several allusions to the downfall of humanity through Communism, but it is Capitalism which is the true culprit, how a permanent underclass will eventually turn on its master. The image of workers underground while idle classes play above (a literal image from the Victorian period) is reflected in films like Metropolis, and many others.

Time travel has always been a tool for writers to reflect their own time back to their readers in metaphors which are exciting and easy to digest, with or without Jessica Paré.

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story (book)

WHAT IF ... The Original Marvel Bullpen Had Been A Socialist Collective ..?

The origins of the most indelible characters in DC Comics were created by artists and writers whose ideas were kept by the corporation, the enrich those who owned the company. These artists were paid for the work - the artwork, the pages - they produced. But the ideas remained the possession of the corporation, in perpetuity.

As long as you were an employee, you were paid a wage. Once you left, your characters - which in other industries we may compare to inventions, patented or copyrighted - remained behind. No residuals, no royalties, even the artwork itself was owned by the corporation for which it had been created. (See: Superman.)

So it was also with Marvel Comics. Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Steve Gerber - they did not own The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Howard the Duck.

Only Stan Lee benefited from his initial contributions to the early works of Marvel, because he never left. As the years went by, his self-made legend grew and he was able to capitalize on this and make a fortune. I will not debate whether he was anything more than an editor (to his dying day Kirby insisted Lee never wrote a word) but he certainly made himself the Ronald McDonald of Marvel Comics.

By the 1980s, management at DC and Marvel had learned that by providing incentives (let us not call them royalties) for popular work, they could encourage artists to create comics that would have the broadest appeal. In the case of Marvel, this also translated into cross-title storylines which increased their bottom line exponentially.

That's Capitalism.

For a brief period of time, the lasting effects of the so-called Silver Age of 1970s comics (for which people of my generation were so emotionally connected to) coincided with the glut of multiples titles for one character or team and "event" comics, so that everyone on board at that time lived in security and in a couple of cases, great wealth.

That lasted one or two years. And by that time (some would argue long before) the comics were awful to read and look at, and the emperor was revealed to have no clothes.

Hey, wait a minute! These are comics!

We've been reading comics!

Imagine an alternate Marvel Universe, where the original Marvel Bullpen (if there ever was such a thing) was a profit-sharing collective, where success for one was success for all. Where funding went to training the best artists and writers and editors. Where there was a strong, paid internship program, vacations and great health care for emphysemic illustrators?

Well. We know Steve Ditko would have no part of it. And no doubt a model like that would never produce an artist-entrepreneur like Todd McFarlane, or any of the Marvel-inspired blockbusters of the last ten years. They'd just continue producing low-grade pulp superhero comics strictly for the people who like to read them.

But unlike the What If titles of the late 1970s and early 80s - which always ended in disaster, as if to prove the correctness of the canonical storyline - perhaps this alternate universe would have had a happier ending, at least for the artists instead of the publishers.

'Nuff said.

Source: Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe

Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

Dr. Alfred Kinsey's 1948 blockbuster Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was followed on September 14, 1953 by (duh) Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. It cost $8. Everyone claims they read it for the articles.

More than 5,500 women were interviewed, and they spoke liberally about sex, with partners and without, how many, where and at what time, if keeping your feet on the floor counts, and there was even the rumor of female orgasm.

We can now say with absolute certainty that these things are true:

7% of single women aged 20–35 and 4% of previously married females aged 20–35 are totally bi.

2 - 6% of females, aged 20–35, are pretty gay.

1 to 3% of unmarried females aged 20–35 are complete lesbians.

Married women do it 2.8 times a week in the late teens, 2.2 times a week by age 30, and once a week by age 50. Women over 50 were apparently not asked.

26% of all married women reported having had at least one extra-marital affair before the age of 40. Women over 40 were apparently not asked.

12% of all women like the rough stuff.

Or so it was true in the 1950s.

The fact is, this information came at a point in American history we generally think of repressed and conservative and that we are so much more open-minded about sexuality, and homosexuality in particular, than sixty years ago.

The logic went something like this: Because Communism is the opposite of America, and homosexuality is the opposite of America (because God hates ... well, you've been told who God hates) therefore homosexuality is Communism.

Like that joke about God being Ray Charles. But seriously.

So let's say there is someone in the State Department who has a secret homosexual life. Either a) they are a Communist spy or b) even if they aren't they are susceptible to blackmail in a way a straight person isn't so they may as well be a Communist spy, they will betray us eventually.

In other words, the bigotry inherent in an intolerant society can be used against you before the fact because straight-hate makes you untrustworthy.

Shorter answer; Being gay doesn't make a gay person a bad person. Being straight makes a gay person a bad person.


Sources:
Wikipedia
Indiana University

Communist Activities in the Cleveland, Ohio, Area (con't.)

TUESDAY AFTERNOON—JUNE 5, 1962

United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C.

PUBLIC hearings

The subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities reconvened at 2 p.m., Hon. Francis E. Walter (chairman) presiding.

Subcommittee members present: Representatives Walter, Doyle, Scherer, Johansen, Bruce; also present Representative Schadeberg.

The Chairman. Call your next witness.

Mr. Nittle. Would Julia Brown please resume the stand?

TESTIMONY OF JULIA C. BROWN— Resumed

Mr. Nittle. Mrs. Brown, the committee would like to turn briefly to the organization of the Communist Party structure in Cleveland, Ohio. This committee last November received a great deal of testimony with respect to the Comnuuiist Party organization nationally and with respect to its international ties. Your long experience in the Communist Party would indicate that you miglit well add some details, at least, to our store of knowledge, or miglit confirm certain conclusions that can be reached based upon such testimony. The evidence indicates that the party today persists as it was originally conceived by Lenin, and slavishly operates upon the principles laid down by him. Lenin pointed out that the party was not a party of reform. He confirmed that it was not a democratic party, but a revolutionary organization, organized for rebellion and agitation and must therefore be, and I now quote Lenin :

* * A small, compact core, cousistiug: of reliable, experienced and hardened workers, with responsible agents in the principal districts and connected by all the rixles of strict secrecy * * *

He further stated that it must consist of people who "will devote to the revolution not only their spare evenings but the whole of lives," and must consist chiefly of persons engaged in revolutionary activities as a profession. This kind of party, he declared, must be organized "from the top," a "strictly centralized," chain-of-command type of organization, and disciplined like an army. We should like to record your experience, and in order to establish your further competency to testify, at least with respect to certain echelons of the Communist Party hierarchy, I ask you the question : Did you obtain an official position of leadership of any kind in the Cleveland area organization of the Communist Party?

Mrs. Brown. I was treasurer of five clubs in the Northeast Section, and also treasurer of the Sojourners for Truth and Justice.

Mr. Nittle. As treasurer of five clubs, you may well be described as section treasurer ; is that correct?

Mrs. Brown. Yes. That is right.

Mr. Nittle. Who was the chairman of the section during the time you were section treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. Jean Krchmarek.

Mr. Nittle. When did you become section treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. In the middle l950's.

Mr. Nittle. And remained as section treasurer until when?

Mrs. Brown. Until 1960.

Mr. Nittle. And did Jean Krchmarek, who is the wife of Anthony Krchmarek, the Ohio party chairman, remain also as section leader during the period you were acting as section treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, she did.

Mr. Nittle. Was she acting in that capacity at the time you left Cleveland and went to the West Coast?

Mrs. Brown. She was.

Mr. Scherer. Is that the witness who just testified here a few moments ago?

Mrs. Brown. This afternoon she testified.

Mr. Nittle. What was the location of this section? What area did it cover in Cleveland?

Mrs. Brown. Well, the central area was included in the Northeast Section, and it was in the Glenville area of Cleveland.

Mr. Nittle. May we refer to the section of which you were treasurer then, hereafter, as the Northeast Section of the Communist Party organization in Cleveland?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle.. Did you have what was known as a Section Committee?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. What did that consist of?

Mrs. Brown. It consisted of the heads of the five clubs and officers of the section.

Mr. Nittle.. The Section Committee, did I understand you to say, consisted of the heads or leaders of each of the five clubs and the section officers?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. When the leadei-s of tlie five clubs would meet together with you and Jean Krchmarek, that was known as a Section Committee meeting?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. These meetings you are talking about — can you distinguish them from the social gatherings that you talked about?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, sir. Yes, indeed.

Mr. Scherer. Were they entirely different?

Mrs. Brown. Entirely different. The section and club meetings are secret meetings that no one else can attend.

Mr. Scherer. But the social gatherings, you said this morning, are attended by Communists and non-Communists?

Mrs. Brown. Well, mostly Communists; a few non-Communists.

Mr. Scherer. That is where you said they raised money?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. I was wondering how they raised money at these social gatherings.

Mrs. Brown. Well, they sold liquor and food.

Mr. Scherer. Sold liquor?

Mrs. Brown. And food ; drinks and food. They sold them by the drinks.

Mr. Scherer. Did they raise their money any other way?

Mrs. Brown. Well, they did have a donation at the door, too.

Mr. Scherer. Is that all?

Mrs. Brown. Well, that is all I can think of at this time.

Mr. Nittle. The club leaders who met with you and Jean Krclimarek at a meeting, which would be called a Section Committee meeting — would that group have any privileges with respect to laying down club policy?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. What matters would you discuss in section meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Well, just how to operate the clubs, and the distributing of leaflets, and the different social affairs that were to be given to raise money for the clubs and the Communist Party, and what places to infiltrate, and directions for infiltration.

Mr. Nittle. Who told the club leaders in the section meetings what was to be done?

Mrs. Brown. Jean Krchmarek was the head of the section, and the orders came from Jean Krchmarek.

Mr. Nittle. Do you mean to say that the final decision rested with Jean Krchmarek, when you say that orders came from her?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, for the section ; yes, indeed ; and then they were handed down to the leaders of the clubs.

Mr. Nittle. So that the section meeting was simply a means of bringing the club leaders into conference with Jean Krchmarek, so that she could direct them as to the activities they would undertake?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Now, where did Jean Krchmarek get her orders?

Mrs. Brown. Well, I didn't see anyone give Jean Krchmarek her orders, but I am sure she got them from the next top, which was the state, or the district.

Mr. Nittle. Was that her husband, Anthony Krchmarek, chairman of the Communist Party of the State of Ohio, that you are referring to?

Mrs. Brown. Anthony Krclimarek is the husband of Jean Krchmarek, yes.

Mr. Nittle. Where would her husband, Anthony Krchmarek, get his orders?

Mrs. Brown. Anthony Krchmarek would get his orders from the national office, in New York.

Mr. Nittle. So that the orders originated at the national headquarters of the Communist Party, were then transmitted down to the Ohio District of the Communist Party, the chairman of which was Anthony Krchmarek. He would pass that order down to the section leader, who was Jean Krchmarek, and she would pass this order down, then, to the club leaders, who wouki inform finally the people who constituted the clubs, the rank and file.

Mrs. Brown. That is correct. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. I might note for the record, Mr. Chairman, that the committee hearings last November showed where the National Committee of the Communist Party got its orders. I think the hearings conclusively established that the orders to the headquarters of the National Committee of the Communist Party in the United States came directly from Moscow.

Mr. Doyle. As a matter of fact, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the registration and disclosure provisions of the Internal Security Act of 1950, in its recent decision in the case of the Communist Party of the United States, Petitioner v. Subversive Activities Control Board (367 U.S. 1), decided June 5, 1961. At page 111 f ., the Supreme Court pointed out that the Congress in 1954 enacted the Communist Control Act (68 Stat. 775), which declares in its second section : The Congress hereby finds and declares that the Communist Party of the United States, although purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States.

. . . [T]he policies and programs of the Communist Party are secretly prescribed for it by the foreign leaders of the world Communist movement. . . . [I]ts role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear present and continuing danger to the security of the United States. . . .

At page 112, the Supreme Court declared : First: We have held, supra, that the congressional findings that there exists a world Communist movement, that it is directed by the Communist dictatorship of a foreign country, and that it has certain designated objectives, inter alia, the establishment of a Communist totalitarian dictatorship throughout the world through the medium of a world-wide Communist organization, §2(1), (4), are not open to re-examination by the Board. We find that nothing in this violates due process.

Mr. Nittle. As section treasurer, did you actually have anything to do with party policy?

Mrs. Brown. No, indeed, I did not.

Mr. Nittle. Did you get your orders also from Jean Krchmarek?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, I did.

Mr. Nittle. What were your duties as treasurer of the section?

Mrs. Brown. Well, when we would have the section meetings, the heads of the clubs would pay dues, give me the dues from the club members, with 10 percent taken out; and then I would take out 20 percent and give it to the state treasurer.

Mr. Nittle. Who was the state treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. Betty Chaka.

Mr. Nittle. C-h-a-k-a?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Doyle. Who got the 10 percent?

Mrs. Brown. The chibs kept the 10 percent and the section kept 20 percent ; and we used that for parties and

Mr. Doyle. Did you handle that money, or was it someone else?

Mrs. Brown. I handled the money that I received. I always kept the 20 percent, and the other was given, whenever I felt like taking it to her, Betty Chaka, the state treasurer.

Mr. Nittle. Who was the husband of Betty Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. Ed Chaka.

>Mr. Nittle. Also known as Edward Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. Edward Chaka.

Mr. Nittle. Mr. Chairman, I think the record should show that Edward Chaka was a member of the National Conunittee of the Commmiist Party, and that he was in attendance at the 17th National Convention of the Communist Party in December 1959, which was held in New York City. He attended that convention as a delegate from the Ohio District of the Commmiist Party. Did you know Edward Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, I did.

Mr. Nittle. How long have you known Edward Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. I have known Edward Chaka since 1948.

Mr. Nittle. Did you deliver this money personally to Betty Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. I certainly did.

Mr. Nittle. And she was the state treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. She was.

Mr. Nittle. Could you tell us the names of the leaders of the five clubs in that section? I just want the names of the leaders.

Mrs. Brown. Ruth Lend was one.

Mr. Nittle. You have already identified her, yes.

Mrs. Brown. Harry Spencer.

Mr. Nittle. Of course, you have stated he was a Communist club leader.

Mrs. Brown. That is right. Sally Clark was a chairman.

Mr. Nittle. Sally Clark, C-1-a-r-k?

Mrs. Brown. Yes. And of course Bert Washington, who is deceased.

Mr. Nittle. Bert Washington was at one time a club leader? When did he die?

Mrs. Brown. Well, sometime in 1960. And there were Laura and Fred O'Neal.

Mr. Nittle. Was Jean Krchmarek a club leader, as well as acting in her capacity as section chairman?

Mrs. Brown. Well, you hardly knew what leadership Jean Krchmarek was in, because she led everything and everyone, as far as the clubs were concerned.

Mr. Nittle. Was a gentlemen named Hugh Statten in your area?

Mrs. Brown. At one time Hugh Statten was in the club, in a club office. But he moved back to Chicago.

Mr. Nittle. Wlio succeeded him, if anyone?

Mrs. Brown. Well, it was the central area that Hugh Statten had charge of. He was sent from Chicago by the Communist Party to Cleveland, to reorganize the Negroes in the central area and in Cleveland proper.

Mr. Nittle. I believe you have also spoken of a Harry A. Spencer, did you?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. What position did he occupy?

(At this point Mr. Walter left the hearing room.)

Mrs. Brown. He was one of the leaders of his club. I think it was the 124 Club.

Mr. Nittle. In what section was that located?

Mrs. Brown. In the Northeast Section.

Mr. Nittle. That was in your section as well?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, it was.

Mr. Nittle. You mentioned an Edith and Lloyd Gaines as being active in the party.

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. Were they in your section?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Would you regard them as club leaders in that area?

Mrs. Brown. Oh, yes.

Mr. Nittle. Now, did you have occasion to attend any state conventions of the Communist Party?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. The state convention was the next highest level above the section?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. This is where leaders obtained their information as to party policy to carry down to the section level?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. So that as treasurer and a section leader, you were selected as a delegate to the state convention?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Was it at the state convention that the delegates had an opportunity to learn what orders the state party chairman was instructed to give you?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Then at the state convention, the only matter you would debate was how to carry out the orders received from higher headquarters, which was the national grouping?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Doyle (presiding). And you were elected to attend the state party convention in Ohio while you were an FBI informant?

Mrs. Brown. Oh, sure. That was the only time I did my work, when I was with the FBI.

Mr. Doyle. Did not any of your brother or sister Communists suspect you were an informant for the FBI?

Mrs. Brown. Well, I am very sure they didn't know it. One or two had accused me of writing names down at one of the state conventions, and claimed that I was under suspicion, but they never let up on me. They still kept using me.

Mr. Nittle. You have indicated that the Communists in party meetings usually met secretly. How did they maintain their secrecy when they would have to meet in larger numbers at a state convention?

Mrs. Brown. Well, you had to be known us a Communist. You had to be a Communist, and somewhat of a dedicated Communist, to be elected to the state convention; state meetings, if you want to say. And there would always be someone at the door to let you in, and they would know always whether you were a Communist or not.

Mr. Nittle. Were you delegates, who attended the state convention, ever explicitly informed or clearly informed of the place where the meeting was to convene?

Mrs. Brown. Not often. Maybe once I was informed. But I have stood on the sidewalk in the cold and snow for hours, waiting for someone to pick me up to take me to the meeting. They don't tell you where the meetings are. They have them at secret places, and the members are picked up and carried to this place.

Mr. Nittle. I noted you indicated that the club meetings usually took place in private homes.

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. I believe some of the evidence here has indicated that these meetings lasted into the late hours of the evening and the early morning of the next day.

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. Which ones went on that long? The social, or the business meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Well, they had social affairs and business meetings, mixed. They would have a business meeting early in the evening in the party, and then after the party was over, they would have another meeting, sometimes in the early mornings, 6 and 7 o'clock, where some would go from the meeting to their jobs to prepare for meetings the next evening.

Mr. Scherer. What would you do all that time?

Mrs. Brown. Well, they are just like termites. They are working all the time.

Mr. Nittle. What kind of place would be selected for the state conventions?

Mrs. Brown. Some hall, secret hall, where they thouglit no one would know they were there, very often some hall — that is what I learned — on Kinsman Avenue. And then they began to stop them from having it there, and they began to have it at some other secret place where I have been at least three or four times. But as a rule, I never went directly there on my own.

Mr. Doyle. What do you mean by that answer?

Mrs. Brown. Well, I mean that most of the times I was picked up by a Communist and driven there in their car.

Mr. Scherer. You mean you didn't know in advance where the meeting was to be held?

Mrs. Brown. No, I did not.

Mr. Johansen. Well, how many persons out of a group that were meeting — how many of those individuals would know where the meeting was? Just one person?

Mrs. Brown. Well, maybe a few of the heads, the state heads, would naturally know ; and maybe Jean Krchmarek would know.

Mr. Johansen. It would be one of your superiors in the hierarchy?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct, yes. That is right.

Mr. Doyle. But there would not be a large attendance at these meetings? Perhaps 25 or 50 people?

Mrs. Brown. Well, 50 would be a large attendance. Maybe 20; and never over 30, I don't think they can trust 50 of them.

Mr. Nittle. This is the assemblage of what Lenin has described as the hard-core workers, the hardened workers, who were bound to rules of secrecy?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Persons you have described as dedicated Communists ; termites was another expression you used to describe them.

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. Were there more women than men, usually, at these meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Just about 50-50.

Mr. Nittle. Can you recollect some of the persons who were in attendance from the Ohio area at the state convention meetings with you?

Mrs. Brown. Well, Frieda Katz, Dave Katz, Jean Krchmarek and Anthony Krchmarek, and Martin and Sally Chancey, the Winters girl, Sally Winters, Pearl Levin, Regina Sokol, and others.

Mr. Nittle. Did Ethel Goodman attend any of the state convention meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, Ethel had attended.

Mr. Nittle. Counsel, the reporter is asking for a 3-minute recess, so the committee will stand in recess. That will also give the witness a short rest.

(Short recess.)

Communist Activities in the Cleveland, Ohio, Area

TUESDAY AFTERNOON—JUNE 5, 1962
United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C.

PUBLIC hearings

The subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities reconvened at 2 p.m., Hon. Francis E. Walter (chairman) presiding.

Subcommittee members present: Representatives Walter, Doyle, Scherer, Johansen, Bruce; also present Representative Schadeberg.

TESTIMONY OF FRIEDA KATZ, ACCOMPANIED BY COUNSEL, JOSEPH FORER

Mr. Nittle. Would you state your name, please?

Mrs. Katz. My name is Frieda Katz.

Mr. Nittle. You are represented by counsel ?

Mrs. Katz. Yes, I am.

Mr. Nittle. Would counsel please identify himself for the record ?

Mr. Forer. Joseph Forer.

Mrs. Katz. Will the committee give me permission to read a statement?

The Chairman. No. You can leave the statement, and if we think that it is relevant, we will make it a part of the record.

Mrs. Katz. Thank you.

Mr. Nittle. Does the statement contain any references as to whether or not you are a member of the Communist Party as of this moment?

Mr. Forer. Well, all you have to do is look at the statement.

Mr. Nittle. Are you a member of the Communist Party, Mrs. Katz, as of this moment ?

Mrs. Katz. I should like to use my privilege under the fifth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and my privileges and rights under the first amendment to the Constitution, of freedom of speech, redress to the Congress, and so on.

The Chairman. You said, "I should like to." Do you?

Mrs. Katz. I do. I refuse to answer the question on those grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Do you know Julia Brown ?

Mrs. Katz. I refuse to answer the question on the previously mentioned grounds.

Mr. Scherer. Witness, were you in the hearing room during the time that Julia Brown testified ?

(Witness conferred with counsel.)

Mrs. Katz. Yes ; I was present.

Mr. Scherer. You heard her testimony ?

Mr. Forer. During part of the time, I think.

Mrs. Katz. Part of the time. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. Did you hear testimony with reference to you ?

(Counsel conferred with witness.)

Mrs. Katz. I did not hear all of the testimony.

Mr. Scherer. You heard part of it ?

Mrs. Katz. I heard part of it.

The Chairman. Whose testimony are you talking about?

Mr. Forer. He is talking about Julia Brown's testimony.

The Chairman. Let the witness answer the question.

Mrs. Katz. I must refuse to answer the question, on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Scherer. Now, is there anything that Julia Brown said about you that is untrue ?

Mrs. Katz. I refuse to answer the question on the previously stated grounds, under the first amendment and the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

Mr. Scherer. Was Julia Brown telling the truth when she identified you as one of the leading Communists in the State of Ohio ?

Mrs. Katz, I must refuse to answer this question on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Scherer. I have no further questions at this time.

The Chairman. Go ahead, Mr. Nittle.

Mr. Nittle. Do you also refuse to answer the question on the ground that the statements made by Julia Brown are true?

Mrs. Katz. I have already stated the grounds on which I have refused to answer the questions. These are my constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, and the right not to incriminate myself, and these are the grounds on which I have refused and will decline to answer questions.

Mr. Nittle. I state as a fact, Mrs. Katz, that you were also a member of the Communist Party prior to your marriage to Dave Katz, and that you were a member of the Communist Party under the name of Frieda Zucker. Will you affirm or deny that assertion ?

Mrs. Katz. I shall refuse to answer, under the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Is it not a fact that under the name Frieda Zucker you were the secretary of the Tom Paine branch of the Communist Party in Cleveland, Ohio, and you were so listed in the Ohio 1939 yearbook of the Communist Party ?

Mrs. Katz. I again refuse to answer the question under the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Do you know Abe Strauss ?

Mrs. Katz. I refuse to answer the question on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Were you the executive secretary of the Civil Rights Congress in Cleveland, Ohio ?

Mrs. Katz. I decline to answer the question, again on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Mr. Chairman, I would like to read into the record a reference to the Civil Rights Congress as it appears in the committee's Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications.

There is a footnote on page 44, as follows:

In response to a petition from the Attorney General for an SACB order requiring the Civil Rights Congress to register as a Communist-front organization, the SACB held hearings between November 1954 and June 1955 * * *. Thereafter, the Civil Rights Congress moved to dismiss the Attorney General's petition on the ground that the organization had dissolved on January 6, 195G. The SACB denied the request to dismiss the petition, stating that the Civil Rights Congress had "failed factually to establish its dissolution, and in any event, that under the proper application of the [Internal Security] Act dissolution of the respondent would not divest the Board of jurisdiction."

Now, I ask you, Mrs. Katz, as its executive secretary, was the Civil Rights Congress in Cleveland dissolved by the Communist Party ?

Mrs. Katz. I must decline to answer this question on the previous grounds stated.

Mr. Nittle. Are you not presently the secretary of the Ohio Bill of Rights Conference?

Mrs. Katz. I must decline to answer that question, on previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. And was not that local organization a counterpart of the national organization titled "Civil Rights Congress" ?

Mrs. Katz. I again decline on previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. I state to you as a fact that your name appears in the City Directory of Cleveland as secretary of the Ohio Bill of Rights Conference, 2014 East 105th Street, Room 202.

Mrs. Katz. I must again decline to answer the question on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Now, Mrs. Brown testified that about the mid-1950's, the Communist Party headquarters, which was then operating under the disguise of its front names, had moved its quarters from Euclid Avenue to 2014 East 105th Street, Room 202. Do you affirm or deny that testimony ?

Mrs. Katz. I shall again decline to answer the question on the previous grounds stated.

Mr. Nittle. Are not the Civil Rights Congress and the Ohio Bill of Rights Conference one and the same organization?

Mrs. Katz. I must again decline to answer the question on the grounds stated.

Mr. Nittle. Was not this a case of the same Communist group in Cleveland operating under different disguises and names to confuse the public ?

Mrs. Katz. I repeat my declination on the grounds previously stated.

Mr. Nittle. And did not the Communist Party succeed in duping many Negro people in that area ?

Mrs. Katz. I have already indicated my reasons for declining to answer. I do not see the point in the continued making of such statements. I am declining to answer under my rights under the first amendment to the Constitution, and the fifth amendment, not to incriminate myself.

Mr. Nittle. The staff has no further questions, Mr. Chairman.

The Chairman. Are there any questions ? The witness is excused.

Source: Communist activities in the Cleveland, Ohio, area : hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-seventh Congress, second session. June 4 and 5, 1962 (1962)

Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Act

The Ohio Criminal Syndicalism statute made it a crime to advocate "the duty, necessity, or propriety of crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform" and to "voluntarily assemble with any society, group, or assemblage of persons formed to teach or advocate the doctrines of criminal syndicalism."

(syndicalism: n. A radical political movement that advocates bringing industry and government under the control of federations of labor unions by the use of direct action, such as general strikes and sabotage.)

The Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Statute was enacted in 1919. In 1927, this Court sustained the constitutionality of California's Criminal Syndicalism Act, the text of which is quite similar to that of the laws of Ohio. Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927). The Court upheld the statute on the ground that, without more, "advocating" violent means to effect political and economic change involves such danger to the security of the State that the State may outlaw it. - UMCK website, Brandenburg v. Ohio

Following the Great War, an anti-communist movement called the First Red Scare began to spread across America. As a result of the 1917 Soviet Revolution, Russia pulled out of WWI which many allies saw as a betrayal. Also, as the Russian Revolution was a violent overthrow of a government, and the ideology of communism called for expansion, it was feared by the establishment that the working underclass may be inspired to revolt anywhere.

These fears were also fueled by the thousands of immigrants coming to America every day, especially from the Southern and Eastern European states.

The Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Act sought to penalize that which is merely advocacy - which is to say, free speech.

Between 1951 and 1954, the Ohio Un-American Activities Committee, headed by House member Samuel Devine, questioned forty Ohioans, asking each person, "Right now, are you an active member of the Communist Party?" Every person refused to answer, citing the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which protects Americans against self-incrimination. Most of the accused were college students or people during the 1930s who advocated socialist or communist programs to end the Great Depression. Various grand juries eventually indicted the forty people, with fifteen of these accused being convicted for supporting communism.

In 1952, the Ohio Un-American Activities Committee contended that 1,300 Ohioans were members of the Communist Party. Approximately seven hundred of these people supposedly resided near Cleveland and worked in various industrial occupations, while four hundred more resided in other northern Ohio cities. Only two hundred communists supposedly resided in central and southern parts of the state. - Ohio History Central

It should come as no surprise to the more cynical among us that the Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Act was not struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court until 1969 - in the defense of a Clarence Brandenburg, the leader of a Hamilton County-based chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

Sources:
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
Ohio History Central
Wikipedia

Philip Johnson

Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) is the famous bald architect with the big, round glasses.

Born in Cleveland, Johnson's ancestry is Dutch. He is descended from Jacques Cortelyou who mapped out the town plan for New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvestant. Studying philosophy and history at Harvard, he took several long breaks to tour Europe where he developed his passion for architecture and fascism.

With fellow travelers he championed the modern style of architecture, creating the earthshaking show The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 at the Museum of Modern Art. However, he resigned his post at MOMA in the 1930s to dabble in journalism and criticize the "failure" of the fledgling welfare state. He became a foreign correspondent for Father Coughlin's magazine, Social Justice.

He was "enthralled" by Hitler, and became a disciple of Lawrence Dennis, who predicted that Capitalism was doomed, and that fascism was America's only bulwark against Communism. In 1934 he and some friends formed the National party, though it attracted little interest. He went to Louisiana to work for Huey Long, and after that man was assassinated, found his way to Coughlin's headquarters in Royal Oak, Michigan. In addition to the writing gig, the radio priest tapped Johnson for political organizing for his National Union party.

For ten years, Philip Johnson espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric until he followed the Nazi army into the invasion of Poland as a correspondent. He returned to the United States and enlisted in the Army.

In 1983 he designed the big, ugly extension of the Cleveland Play House and the big, dumb Bolton Theatre.

Sources: Wikipedia
Journal of Architectural Education
The Washington Post
Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, The Father of Hate Radio

Meeting of the minds

"Demagoguery and stupidity are the natural enemies of democracy."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"Democracy is doomed. This is our last election. What will happen? It is Fascism or Communism. We are at a crossroads. I take the road to Fascism."
- Father Charles Coughlin

Lemko Hall

Built in 1911, this recognizable Cleveland landmark is an unusually shaped building, resting as it does at the intersection of West 11th, Kenilworth and the diagonal cross-street of Literary in the Tremont. It once featured a saloon, gambling salon and a spacious ballroom. In 1936 it was owned by the Lemko Assn. Home Branch No. 6, a social club for Slavic people of Lemkovina (I kid you not) located in the Carpathian Mountains.

The Lemko Association of the USA and Canada was the largest social and cultural organization among Lemko immigrants in North America.

Really!

During 1936 it was officially a pro-Communist, supporting a plan to relocate the Lemko peoples from their Carpathian homeland to the Soviet Union to resolve socioeconomic and nationalist difficulties. They adopted an anti-fascist platform, and advocated a Carpatho-Rusyn Section within the International Workers' Order.

In 1939 the headquarters moved to Yonkers.

During my heyday in Tremont, the main corner space was a floral boutique named Wildflower, and the lower-level was the home of exotic art-and-water installations and impromptu "happenings." This video from 1993 features neighborhood legend Robert Richie and his penis.


UPDATE: And oh look - there's Daniel Thompson!

Sources:
Tremont History Project
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Encyclopedia of Rusyn history and culture (Paul R. Magocsi, Ivan Ivanovich Pop)

The Black Legion

The Black Legion was a KKK splinter group operating in the 1930s. Centered in Michigan the Legion was also active in Ohio.

AP described the organization on May 31, 1936, "as a group of loosely federated night-riding bands operating in several States without central discipline or common purpose beyond the enforcement by lash and pistol of individual leaders' notions of 'Americanism.'"

They were allegedly responsible for numerous murders of alleged communists and socialists.

Date unknown, paper unknown
Police Reopen Probe of Two Weird Killings
Anonymous phone call: “Look into the muders of those two men in the gully at E. 49th Street and you’ll find the Black Legion was responsible.”

Sources: Wikipedia
Eliot Ness personal scrapbook, property of Western Reserve Historical Society

Power (play)

POWER
A Living Newspaper
by Arthur Arent

ag·it·prop /ˈædʒɪtˌprɒp/ –noun
1. agitation and propaganda, esp. for the cause of communism.

I am leftist, I will admit it. Not a Leftist, I do not define myself that way, that is not me as a person. But my belief system veers to the left of center. I believe in tolerance and compassion, I accept alternate points of view, and often champion them. And I believe in the obligation of our society, our civilization, our government, to see to the needs and assistance of those who need assistance.

I am not a Communist. Neither am I a Capitalist, in its purest sense. I am against slavery. I am against slave-like conditions. I oppose starvation and want. I oppose fear, fear of oppression, of domination, either through direct threatening means, or by the endorsement and reinforcement of the dominant paradigm, of the necessity of an underclass, or workers doing all they can for little while the few live lives of unspeakable luxury and waste. And yes, that might make me sound like a Socialist. Today, over 55% of Americans believe the President is a Socialist, which means they don't really know what the fuck that word even means, but if they think Barack Obama is one, then paint me red and call me Uncle Joe.

Having said that, upon reading another "Living Newspaper" by Arthur Arent, I am not so sure I feel as strongly as I once did about the House Committee on Un-American Activities efforts at pulling down the Federal Theater Project.

The majority of work created by the FTP was non-political. There were many children's plays, and when conservatives called those productions out for indoctrinating the young against the Man, well that is probably because most good, strong children's stories do have moral lessons pertaining to fairness, honesty, being kind, and all kinds of messages that leave, I dunno, British Petroleum, for example, withering under scrutiny.

But these Living Newspapers are inarguably agitprop - they are propaganda which agitates. They are not well-told stories which inspire the mind or the heart. They are also not dispassionate portrayals of fact. In the case of POWER they are quotes taken out of context (Arent himself admitted this was a technique of The Living Newspaper, though he did not use that turn of phrase) and bent in such a way as to turn the viewer in a certain direction, and keep them pointed that way until a direct appeal is made; the audience is instructed, to-wit, to rise up, take a stand, to take action against the forces which oppress them. To stand with strong government and against big business.

Are these good ideas? If you can't find work and your children are dying before your eyes, well, sure, they are the only ideas. I didn't say it was wrong, or even proper to create this work. But reading it, I can understand why there are those who would believe that plays which champion the efforts of the current administration should not be paid for with public funds.