The Subversive Organization Section which handles the Communist Control Act of 1954 and the Internal Security Act of 1950, and our designation program numbers 25 attorneys at this time. They operate through 3 units, 1 dealing with infiltrated organizations, defined under the 1954 act, 1 concerned with front organizations under the 1950 act, and the third with the designation program. Now, within the month, we are to begin hearings under the designation program, involving three organizations who have requested hearings. Several other organizations, I might add, have filed notice of contest, and they will be afforded hearings within the next 12 months. The Subversive Organizations Section represents as well as anything I can tell you the drain which recent legislation has made upon the manpower of the Division. When the 1954 act was passed last August, I diverted a number of attorneys engaged in the preparation of front cases to an examination of departmental files regarding infiltrated organizations, since it was necessary immediately to give guidelines for investigation to the FBI, which, in many instances, had never conducted open investigations of infiltrated organizations, as such. PROGRAM AGAINST FRONT ORGANIZATIONS As a result our program against front organizations has been unhappily delayed because of this diversion of manpower and I am now trying to build up both the infiltrated organization unit and the front organization unit to a posture which will enable us to pursue both types of cases actively before the Subversive Activities Control Board during the coming fiscal year. I might say that without the manpower both programs will be very seriously impaired. That, I would say, very frankly, is our greatest need because to keep a flow of cases to the Subversive Activities Control Board, we have to have personnel to examine these files so that we can file petitions and get these cases started. Now, as far as the front cases go, I am down to 1 or 2 men examining new cases, and each of these cases has a mass of documents. To give you an example, in 1 of these cases there about 40 pounds of documents, and I will say that before the petition can be filed, the attorneys will have examined 10,000 documents, manuscripts and papers. The prosecutive summary furnished is 500 pages. That is only the summary. The supplemental prosecutive summary is much larger. ABOLISHING OF FRONT ORGANIZATIONS LIST Senator DIRKSEN. Mr. Tompkins, I have noted recently some suggestions about abolishing the Attorney General's list of front organi zations. Mr. TOMPKINS. Yes, sir. Senator DIRKSEN. You have seen them? Mr. TOMPKINS. I have seen them, sir. Senator DIRKSEN. What would happen if that were done? Mr. TOMPKINS. I would say it would seriously impair the employee security program, Senator. Senator KILGORE. Would you not also say that there is a possibility of innocent people becoming involved innocently in particular front organizations? Mr. TOMPKINS. That is always a possibility, Mr. Chairman, of people innocently becoming members of a front organization, but I think as far as the employee goes, when you evaluate the file, that innocent membership can be ascertained. Senator KILGORE. If there is no such list to which an employee can go and find out, definitely, there is that danger. Mr. TOMPKINS. You are absolutely right. I think a person is then on notice, and there is something tangible for him to go to. Senator KILGORE. I know that when I am invited to speak, unless I know from past experience who it is, I always refer to the Attorney General's Office to see the type of organization it is. Mr. TOMPKINS. That is correct. We receive many requests from Members of Congress, sir, in that regard. Senator KILGORE. You have many requests to allow your name to be used as one of the directors. I think it might be bad and might get innocent people in trouble if they did not have a list to which to look. Mr. TOMPKINS. I quite agree with you, sir. ALLOCATION OF FUNDS Senator KILGORE. I am going to ask at this time, Mr. Andretta, if you would file for the record a breakdown of this $343,000, how much goes to personnel, how much to other expenses, and would you break that down on personnel as to lawyers and clerical staff, and so on? Mr. ANDRETTA. I would be glad to. (The information referred to follows:) It is planned that $317,300 will be expended for personnel and $25,700 for other expenses, principally travel and communications which are increased in proportion to number of attorneys conducting trials throughout the country. The restoration of $343,000 will allow retention of the present staff of 90 attorneys and 58 nonprofessionals and employment of 28 more attorneys and 13 additional nonprofessionals on a full-year basis with a maximum of 126 attorneys and 75 nonprofessionals at any one time during the year. APPEALS AND RESEARCH SECTION Mr. TOMPKINS. I would like to talk about our Appeals and Research Section, which numbers six attorneys at the present time. In view of that small number, it has been necessary for us to divert manpower from the activities and organization sections to assist in the unusually heavy number of appeals with which we are faced in the next few months, and with which we will certainly be faced in the coming fiscal year. Not having a large enough Appeals and Research Section, we have been taking one of the trial attorneys to follow and help the case on appeal. The appeal of the Communist Party from the decision of the circuit court of appeals, affirming the findings of the Subversive Activities Control Board against the party, which will test the constitutionality of the entire Internal Security Act of 1950, will tie up several attorneys for several months. Assuming a favorable decision in that case, we will have circuit court and Supreme Court appeals from the front organizations already found by the Subversive Activities Control Board to be such. Now, in addition, eight Smith Act cases are in various stages of appeal. Here again, the personnel in this Division must in each instance prepare and argue the appeal. There is not a single Smith Act case, or for that matter any case, involving the Communists, which does not give rise to some new legal problems requiring research. I might say that there is not a single step available to the Communists in any case of which they do not avail themselves and there are steps that they conjure up and attempt to use so that you find in any of these cases that it is long and protracted and tedious and every step is hard fought. In addition to our operating sections, there have been assigned to my office a number of functions heretofore performed in other parts of the Department than the Internal Security Section. LIAISON AND POLICY PLANNING FUNCTION For convenience, we have grouped these under the title of "Liaison, and policy planning." They involve, for instance, supervision of the Security Office of the Department of Justice. That was never in the Internal Security Section, to the personnel of which, commencing July 1, will also be assigned the personnel of the Security Office; the function of legal advice required by section 13 of Executive Order 10450; the furnishing of departmental representation on the Planning Board of the National Security Council and on subcommittees of the Council; the planning for and administration of the Department's relocation program; the planning of matters relating to a possible war emergency, including problems of detention of subversives as contemplated by legislation and regulation and the furnishing of departmental representation and the executive secretary for the Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security created in 1949 and charged by Presidential order with the coordination of internal security matters in the executive branch of the Government. That involves very sensitive work, very important work, and much of it is work that was not originally in the Internal Security Section of the Criminal Division. It has taken manpower and a tremendous amount of time. ATTORNEYS TRANSFERRED Senator KILGORE. Approximately how many attorneys now in your Division were transferred from other divisions into your Division and approximately how many are new personnel? Mr. ANDRETTA. They started with 58 lawyers which came from the Criminal Division. Mr. TOMPKINS. They comprised Mr. Chairman, the Internal Security Section of the Criminal Division. Mr. ANDRETTA. They now have 90. Mr. TOMPKINS. Just to give you one small example of this liaison and policy planning section as to the type of work they do, one of the tangible accomplishments resulting from these activities was the Justice participation and that Section's participation in the committee which prepared the regulation issued by the Secretary of State relating to the travel and photographing of installations by Soviet and satellite agents in this country. These regulations, incidentally, have resulted in increased activities in our Subversive Activities Section and in recommendations to the State Department for persona non grata action in several instances. WORK IN FIELD OF NATIONAL SECURITY In the field of national security there is hardly a week that goes by that does not give rise to some new problem requiring a diversion of manpower on an emergency basis and resulting in extensive overtime by the employees of the Division. Many of these matters may often not be disclosed for a long period of time, such as activities geared to a possible emergency situation. Others result from the activities of the Communists, such as the recent activities of the witness Matusow, whose affidavits in two cases, the second New York Smith Act case, tried in 1952 and 1953, and the Jencks case, tried in January 1954 in El Paso, required extensive hearings, recently completed. Now, these hearings and the work in grand juries, which is still continuing as a result of Matusow's activities, have required that I divert skilled attorneys from other high-priority assignments. For example, between January 1 and May 1 I have had to assign 3 attorneys full time to matters arising out of the Matusow deception and at least 6 other attorneys have devoted a substantial portion of their time to handling various other aspects of this matter. In addition, other attorneys here in Washington have been required to spend a lesser portion of their time assisting either in the preparation of legal memoranda, in file searches, and like matters. Now, such a diversion of men in an already tight situation results, in effect, in a situation where we are on a day-to-day basis, robbing Peter to pay Paul. Every one of our cases has a high priority attaching to it because of its effect upon the Communist conspiracy. As you are well aware, Mr. Chairman, these cases against the Communists cannot be treated as ordinary criminal cases in any sense of the word and least of all from the standpoint of timing. The normal criminal case we will always have with us, but we hope by hard work and concentrated effort to conquer by legal means the Communist threat to our internal security. EVALUATION AND PROCESSING OF FBI REPORTS I would like to point out that Mr. J. Edgar Hoover told the House Committee on Appropriations that the FBI is intensifying and accelerating its internal-security program. He said that additional funds are therefore requested for the FBI for fiscal year 1956 in order to expand and implement the security investigative operations designed to combat and control various aspects of subversion and thus to obtain more efficient coverage of the internal subversion prevailing in this country. We must always remember that the FBI is an investigative agency and that the processing and evaluation of the results of the security investigations are the responsibility of the Internal Security Division. Therefore, any increase in the activities of the FBI in this are inevitably means added burdens for the internal Security Division. I think I have already indicated that, where we were processing some 8,000 FBI reports and memoranda in July 1954, when this Division was started, we are now processing 12,000 a month. POSITION STRENGTH SINCE 1954 Senator KILGORE. Looking at the comparative summaries here, to start out in 1954, you actually had 102 positions of all types. Mr. TOMPKINS. That is right. Senator KILGORE. That was increased to 175 in the current budget. Senator KILGORE. Yes. Mr. ABELL. At the present time we have 148 people on our rolls. That is the highest number that we have had at any time. Mr. TOMPKINS. I would like to point out, Mr. Chairman, that I was certainly no authority on the budget when I came to Washington, and I learned what a lapse figure was, and in our budget we had a 48percent lapse figure when I started here, which did not enable me to hire too many new lawyers. I think Mr. Andretta can explain some of the background of that and of the impact it has had on our work. Mr. ANDRETTA. When we created this Division, we went in for a supplemental appropriation, and it was based on recruitment of attorneys for a certain number of months after we got the appropriation. The House cut the estimate but said nothing about our reducing jobs and personnel. We went ahead on the assumption that they had cut the lapse figure; that, in other words, they figured we would save the $100,000 because of delays in recruitment and putting persons on the roll. When we went back for our hearing on the regular estimate this year, we were chastised by the House committee because they said that we had not reduced the number of positions and personnel according to the cut by the House. We took the position that, they being silent on it, they had just cut the estimate by increasing the lapse figure, and we would go ahead on the basis of what we thought we should recruit but making the money up by delays and, of course, carrying that over on a basis starting July 1, we assumed that we had all those positions. RESULTS OF HOUSE ACTION They challenged that and said we got $100,000 extra on the deal. That was Mr. Tompkins' problem. He went ahead on the assumption that he had a certain number of positions; and, when we got to filling them, he could not do it, because now the House, on the basis of next year's appropriation, has cut them back. Senator KILGORE. In other words, next year they will cut to what you have now. Mr. TOMPKINS. Actually, Mr. Chairman, on the basis of the House figures, I would have to dismiss 11 of my lawyers, which would just about cause the program to grind to a halt, very frankly. Mr. Hoover, also, as I have said, stated that subversive activities today overshadow those which were experienced at the peak of World |