e

_ Matusow entertained
~ by McCarthy’s a:

de

NEW YORK

; Harvey Matusow, former professional informer for the U.S. Justice Department,
asserted last week that Roy M. Cohn wined and dined him in New York while helping
him to prepare false testimony against 13 U.S. Communist leaders.

Matusow also said that Cohn, until recently an aide to. Senator Joseph McCarthy,
assured him he would be paid $25 daily in addition to the regular fee of $4 paid govern:

ment witnesses. Cohn at that
time was an assistant USS. attorney.

Matusow testified at a hearing
in federal court on a motion by
the 13 Communists for a new
trial. The Smith Act defendants
demanded a new trial when Matu-
sow admitted in an affidavit that
he had lied while testifying at
their trial.

In the affidavit Matusow stated
that Cohn had helped him to pre-
pare the testimony against Com-
munist leaders. Cohn said at the
time that he would not “dignify
any statement by this individual”
by commenting on Matusow’s
statements. Told of Matusow’s
testimony, Cohn said he had noth-
ing further to say.

Matusow testified that on March
21, 1952, he’ met Cohn at New
York’s swank Stork Club. With
Cohn, he said, were a girl named
“Rusty” and a former newspaper-
man, Howard Rushmore, and his
wife, Frances. Shortly after mid-
night Matusow said, the group
went to Gigi’s Larue, then to El
Morocco, and finally wound up at
Lindy’s So at 6 a.m. Matu-
SOW sai e did not pay an
the bills. oe

Matusow said he met daily with

Cohn before the trial to work on
his testimony which, he said, was
prepared on a “detailed question
and answer sheet.”
_ Matusow said he had lied dur-
ing the trial. -He added that he
never received the $25 extra daily
promised by Cohn for his testi-
mony.

Matusow asknowledged that
statements he had attributed to
Alexander Trachtenberg, one of
the defendents, were false. He had,
he said, “invented” statements
about a book by Andrei Vishinsky
called “Law of the Soviet State”
supposedly made by Trachtenberg.

The 28-year-old Matusow began
reporting to the FBI early in 1950

VR, a

while still a member of the. Com-,

HARVEY MATUSOW

munist party, which expelled him
in January, 1951. He made his
first public appearance as a wit-
ness before the House un-Ameri-
can Activities Committee early in
1952, and has since appeared
against innumerable organizations
and individuals as a “profession-
al” witness in government pay. He
is the first of such government
witnesses to denounce himself pub-
licly as having given false testi-
mony.

Other developments in the sen-
sational case include the sentenc-
ing of Albert E. Kahn, publisher

_| of Matusow’s forthcoming book,

False Witness, to six months in
jail on a contempt of court charge.

Kahn was sentenced for refus-
ing to give a federal grand jury
the original manuscript of Matu-
sow’s book and records and trans-
cription of meetings he had with
Matusow.

Kahn and his partner, Angus
Cameron, announced in a state-
ment that they were giving the
documents to the Senate Judiciary
Committee and that when this
material became public property
“Gt will also be available to the
federal grand jury now investigat-
ing the case.”

“We declined to give this ma-
terial to the grand jury prior to
this time because we regarded
the demand that we produce it
as an effort by the justice ‘de-
partment to seize the material
at a secret proceeding and thus
to prevent publication of the
book, which contains charges
seriously implicating the justice
department which instigated the
grand jury proceedings,” the pub-

lishers said.

Sequel to roughing up

Endicoit is

‘no further incidents’

assured

Vancouver Police Commission has had an “interview”
with the detctive who manhandled Steve Endicott, head of
the National Federation of Labor Youth, some months ago,
and has written the youth leader, assuring him that “no
further incidents of this nature will take place.”

Last October at Vancouver Air-
port, Endicott heckled Chiang Kai.
shek’s consul-general H. C. Wei
for asserting in his welcome to
five of Chiang’s soldiers arriving
for a North American tour that
“these soldiers are proof that if
the Chinese people had a chance
to decide, they would welcome
Chiang Kai-shek back in authority.”

‘Do you know any more funny
stories?” interjected Endicott:

Ordered to leave the airport by
plainclothes officers, Endicott obey-
ed, but city Detective-Sergeant Mc-
Cullough ‘followed him out to his
car, took the NFLY. leader’s name
and address, and demanded to
look through his briefease.

“When I objected, he grabbed
me by the collar, punched me in
the face and pulled me to the
ground,” Endicott told reporters
later. “Then he went through my
briefcase, despite my. protests.”

Before leaving Vancouver for
his> home in Toronto, Endicott!
wrote to the Vancouver Police
Commission, asking that some ac-
tion be taken.

A. F. Amor, secretary of the
board of police commissioners,
sent this reply:

“Your letter of October 11 last
complaining with respect to treat-
ment received by you from Detec-
tive Sergeant McCullough at the
Vancouver International Airport

has been considered by the board
of police commissioners and reé-
ports have been obtained from all
persons having information with
respect to the incident.

“The board of police commis
sioners will not, of course, coun”
tenance unnecessarily violent at-
tion on the part of the police force
with respect to any person, and
insist that all police officers
exercise no more force than is
reasonably necessary in carrying
out their duties.

“Detective-Sergeant McCullough
has been interviewed and I am
directed to inform you that the
board is of the opinion that, as 2
result of that interview, no fur-
ther incidents of this nature will
take place.”

- The statement in the letter
that “reports have been obtain-
ed from all persons having in-
formation with respect to the
incident” is false, because one
eye-witness, sitting next to En-_—
dicott in the car he was driving,
was never called upon to appear.

“The letter does prove that
police who exceed their authority
can be called upon to account for
‘their actions, whenever people who
‘are manhandled have the courage
}to demand/an inquiry,” Glyn Thom-
‘as, NFLY leader in this province,
‘commented this week.

Will school mill rate continue to climb?

By KEITH RALSTON
VICTORIA, B.C.
New formula for dividing
school costs between local school

boards and the provincial govern-
ment is.a “leap in the dark” and
its effects may not be fully known
until taxpayers have got one or
even two years’ tax bills.

In the two weeks since the new

system of grants was announced
to the legislature all sides have
had a chance to study and com-
ment on it — Education Minister
Ray Williston has made a full-dress
defense of the changes and opposi-
tion spokesmen have probed at its
weaknesses. 5

In the first place, Williston ad-
mits that he and his department
have no yardstick to measure the
most important section of the
grants—ordinary operating costs of
schools. And he says that it will
take up to three years for such
a guide to be developed.

To “approve” this year’s school
budgets, the education department
will simply okay them if they seem
to show what Williston called a
“normal” increase over 1954. In
other words, ‘anything goes within
reason. ;

At the same time, Williston said
that approval would be “a warn-
ing to school boards to critically
look at their operations to see if
they are getting the best dollar
value for their money.”

By the end of the three-year
trial period, education department

E| Officials hope to have worked out

what it actually should require to
provide a minimum standard of

| teaching.

Peace leaders sign appeal

Here Dr. James G. Endicott,

chairman, and Mrs. Eva Sander-

son, vice-chairman of the Canadian Peace Congress are seen
signing the World Appeal against the Preparations for Atomic
War at a ceremony in Toronto’s Walker House hotel last week.
The ceremony marked the launching of a national campaign to
secure signatures to the petition.

As to capital costs for school
buildings, the minister didn’t an-
ticipate any difficulty in deciding
what would be approved and what
would not. A manual of standards
for school construction has been
prepared and he indicated that
this would guide the department
in paying its share.

One thing seems certain, what-
ever the mill rate for school
this year, it is bound to go up
in 1956 if costs continue to rise
as they have done in recent
years. :

Next year school districts will
have to pay 25 percent of the in-

crease in costs over this year, and
the provincial grants will make up
the other 75 percent. In addition,
local taxpayers will foot any “ex-
tras’ to the basic school program,
such as salaries for teachers above
the set standard.

Therefore, the school mill rate
will begin again its inexorable rise.

This 75-25 split has drawn a
good deal of the fire from the op-
position in the House.
_ Why, say critics, is it all right
for the province to pay everything
over 10 mills in the municipalities
and 7 mills in rural areas this
year, and then next year turn
around and nibble away at this
principle by asking the local groups
to pay 25 percent of the increase.

The government answer is that
to pay everything over the fixed
mill rate would encourage “ex-
travagance” on the part of school
trustees, and they point to the case
of rural areas that have been get-

Education formula still uncertain

ting all costs over 8 mills paid by
the government.

This charge of extravagance is
indignantly rejected by school
boards.

Another result of the new sys-
tem is likely to be that teachers
in 30 of the 80 school districts
will get pay boosts that wont cost .
the local school districts anything: -

Under the new grants, the gov-
ernment will pay to the school
boards a sum amounting to $2950
a year for each of its elementary
teachers of five years’ experiencé
and $3550 for each high school
teacher of five years’ experience.

- But if the board doesn’t pay
that much then the grant will be

less, so boards are expected to

raise salaries in line with the
new provincial minimum.

These new grants for salaries
are an upward revision of the
grants set in 1947 following the
recommendations of Dr. Cameron.

Government called
‘meanest employer’

VICTORIA, B.C.

The government was termed
“smaller and meaner than the
most reactionary employer in the
province” in its treatment of civil
servants by Frank Howard (CCF,
iSkeena). :

Howard attacked Provincial Sec-
retary Wesley Black for his stand
in the House that arbitration was
not necessary for provincial em-
ployees.

“You treat them as second-class
citizens,” he charged. _

Many of the provisions, of laws
that were enforced by the prov-
ince for other employees were not
observed ,by the government itself

PACIFIC TRIBUNE

in dealings with its own workers.
said Howard. He cited the sem)-
monthly payment of wages and
holiday pay as two examples.

Howard also crossed swords
with George Tomlinson (SC, North
Vancouver), who claimed that gov-
ernment failure to bring fisherme”
under the Workmen’s Compensa-
tion Act was due to the fishermen’s
union not providing a definitioD —
of a fisherman.

Howard read out amendments
to the act, based on definitions

ward last session by his group: :
bluntly accusing Socreds of voting
against their incorporation in the
act. ‘

— FEBRUARY 18, 1955 — PAGE 2

made by the union, brought for — ,