◆ SpookStack

Laterin the week roprconnor, managing éditor of Tus Compass, was denounced To tne committee by a Mrs. Auce Bennett as having met with Communists in Los Angeles some time In the late '30s. Mrs. Bennett had been denounced to the Committee by a former husband, Charles Judson, who had been denounced to the Committee by a previous witness, who had been denounced by... and so‘o nad infinitum. Mr. O'Connor testified under oath that he is not a Com-: munist, was not a Communist five years ago, nor ten years ago, nor at any time in between. He declined to testify as to the accuracy of Mrs. Bennett’s accusation concerning the late '30s. When he had concluded his testimony, Congressman Velde (R-Nl.), former FBI agent and American Legion Americanism Committee member, safe in his immunity from suit for slander or libel by virtue of speaking as a member of Congress, took the occasion to charge that in his opinion O’Connor is a Com- munist and an “extreme danger to the country as the manag- ing editor of a large New York newspaper.” ' The Congressman is a liar; but his unwarranted and un- e@pported smear gave a lead ‘and headline to reporters and wspapers which could not have been supported by the tesii- ny. For examples of decent Americanism I give you M Heliman—and Mr. O'Connor. .