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eee ee o . ere EE IE EE 1 TL epee es "7 IAM pt core Sbs te ERSTE Bt bh FRY FlatING aNB € Prepared end Distributed By The Natit! Ameri: Se el NS ed Subscription sate 63.00 pw reer VOL, #0, ¥, MO. 1 — Jenvery 1, 1956 “CHRISTMAS AMNESTY PETITION" FOR IMPRISONED COMMUNISTS A report of another senesty petition for imprisoned Communist Party leaders convicted under the Sith Act made front-page headlines in the December 21, 1955 issue of the Deily Worker. Conceived by REV. A. J. MUSTE, Secretary-Emeritus of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, this new eo-called "Christmas amnesty petition” wes signed by 45 other Americans and sent to President Eisenhower on December 19, 1955. The petition urged "that the sentences of the sixteen men end women now in prison be computed to time siready served, and thet 160 cases described as now awaiting trial or outcome cf appeels be postponed.” Asserting that the convictions had occurred in a “cold war” period, the petition contended that “there hed been # recent ‘noticeable trend to reaffirm the basic democratic traditions of our country’." According to The Mew York Times of December 21, 1955, page 20. those 16 Communist Party functionaries now serving prison sentences in federal penitentiaries vere identified as follows: ALEXANDER BITTELMAN, ELIZABETH CURLEY FLYNN}, BETTY GANNETT, GCS HALL, VICTOR J. JEROME, ARNOLD S. JOHNSON, ALBERT F, LANNON, JACOB MINDEL, PETTIS PERRY, ROBERT THOMPSON, LOUIS VEINSTOCK, WILLIAM W. WEINSTONE, PHILIP FRANKFELD, GEORCE MEYERS, SID STEIN and CARL ROSS, MUSTE, who is currently involved in criminal proceeding® fcr refusing to teke shelter during « civil defense air raid drill in Rew York City on June 15, 1955, has edmitte! thet he wrote letters on Govember 22, 1955 chat led co the formation of ar "initiating group” which eub- sequently forwarded the petitior to the President. According to Jhe Tablet of December 24, 1955, page 40, the following individuals were listed as signers of thie "Christmas amnesty petiton”: ROWLAND H. BAINTON, Yale Divinity &eho>l. JOUN C, BENNETT, Dean of Union Iheologics} Seminery (petition initiator). GUSTAVE J. BISCHOF, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, City Col! ne. STEPHEN G. CARY, Secretary, American Section, American Priends Service Committee. { -e . wa .- HENRY STEELE COMMACER, Professcr of History, Columbia vaiveredy sf ere ALBERT SPRAGUE COOLIDCE, Lecturer on Chemistry, Herverd Univecsdty, owe COPYRIGHT ;°5° BY THE @ERICAN LESION *-3"¢ ‘ MEPROOUCTION IN WHOLE OA PaRT WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION f6 eROH I ITED.” ed ee we age, , A A ot ee