Communists: Sign Up or Pay Up

It was time for the Communist Party. U.S.A., to sign up or pay up. Under a court-set deadline to register as a “Communist-action group,” the party refused—and last week a federal grand jury returned a twelve-count indictment that could cost Communism Inc. a tidy total of $120,000 in fines, with more to come in case of continued defiance of the law. Still in the offing: charges against party officers for failure to register as Communist agents. In an obvious attempt to minimize the legal damage, the party last week dropped—at least for the record—all but three of its titular officials. Left with the possibility of five-year prison sentences were Party Chairman Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, General Secretary Gus Hall and National Secretary Benjamin Davis.