Travis v. United States
| Decision Date | 21 August 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 5879.,5879. |
| Citation | 269 F.2d 928 |
| Parties | Maurice E. TRAVIS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
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Nathan Witt, New York City, for appellant.
Donald E. Kelley, U. S. Atty., Denver, Colo., and Paul C. Vincent, Atty., Dept. of Justice (Philip R. Monahan and Anthony A. Ambrosio, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., were with them on the brief), for appellee.
Before PHILLIPS, MURRAH and LEWIS, Circuit Judges.
This action is here on appeal for the second time. On the first appeal,1 this court set aside a conviction under the false statement statute, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1001,2 and ordered a new trial because of prejudicial error committed when the prosecutor was allowed to improperly cross-examine appellant's character witnesses. The present appeal is from a second conviction after retrial of the case in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Reversal is sought upon a claim of insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict and numerous assertions of prejudicial error committed during the trial. Appellant also challenges the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C.A. § 3500 both as to its provisions and as construed and applied by the trial court.
The appellant, Maurice E. Travis, was convicted by a jury on four counts of an indictment charging him with falsely and fraudulently attesting that he was not an affiliate or member of the Communist Party in two "Affidavits of Non-Communist Union Officers" he executed as a national officer of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers.3 The first affidavit was executed on December 19, 1951, and the other on December 3, 1952, and Mine-Mill filed them with the National Labor Relations Board in compliance with the provisions of Section 9(h) of the National Labor Relations Act as amended by the Labor Management Act of 1947 (29 U.S.C.A. § 159(h).)4
Following conviction, appellant was fined $2,000 and sentenced to serve a four-year term of imprisonment on each of two counts of the indictment. No fine was imposed as to the remaining two counts, but he was sentenced to four-year prison terms on both to run concurrently with the terms imposed on the other counts. Thus, he was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison and fined $4,000.5
Since appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence we shall summarize that evidence urged by the government as ample basis for the jury verdict. This consists primarily of the testimony of three former Communist Party members who associated with Travis in various capacities as officers of Mine-Mill. Their testimony indicates that in 1942 Travis was employed by Mine-Mill as coordinator for the area of Northern California. He was at that time a member of the Communist Party with an assignment to carry on the Communist Party activities among the Mine-Mill workers in his area. Thereafter, he advanced to positions of prominent leadership in the Mine-Mill Union becoming Assistant to the President in 1946, Vice President in 1947 and President later that year. He has been Secretary-Treasurer of the Union from 1948 until the time of trial. There was extensive evidence of Travis' activities as a Communist Party member prior to 1949. No prolonged description of his actions will be undertaken here except to point out that as he progressed to positions of national leadership in Mine-Mill he was able to use those positions to further the interests of the Party. Illustrative of the scope of his activities is the evidence that in 1946 the Communist Party designated a group of its members who were prominent Mine-Mill leaders to coordinate the Communist activities within Mine-Mill with a view to controlling the Union proper. Although not an official organization of Mine-Mill, this group became known as the "Steering Committee." Travis was one of the initial members of the Steering Committee and its frequent meetings for planning Party strategy and organizing activities within the Union were usually presided over by him "or some other ranking Communist official." His influence in these meetings was notable. On one occasion he stated to the other committee members that since the Party had gained a majority of votes on the Executive Board of Mine-Mill they should effect certain changes in Union staff and that previous actions taken by the anti-Communist faction of the Board should be reversed. These proposals were subsequently adopted by the Mine-Mill Executive Board. On another occasion Travis, as a member of the Steering Committee, participated with national officers of the Communist Party in planning strategy for the selection and support of Party-approved candidates for the international offices of Mine-Mill. The resultant strategy was later substantially carried out at a Mine-Mill national convention.
In 1947, Congress amended the National Labor Relations Act so as to restrict enjoyment of the collective bargaining advantages of its provisions to labor organizations whose officers had filed affidavits attesting that they were not members of or affiliated with the Communist Party. 29 U.S.C.A. § 159 (h).
The government introduced into evidence a copy of a public statement made by Travis in the Union paper by which he declared that he had resigned from the Communist Party in order to comply with the new Taft-Hartley amendment. It then undertook to show that the resignation was merely a pretense and that in fact Travis' membership in the Party continued during the period material to this conviction. The evidence in this regard delineated a Communist labor meeting in New York called to decide whether the Party would advocate that its members sign the non-Communist affidavits under the new law. It was decided that Party policy would be against signing. Appellant participated in that meeting. Later, when he reported the decision to Party members of his own Union he asked his fellow Communist Gil Green if the teachings of V. Lenin, to the effect that Communists working inside trade unions must remain there at all costs, including the use of artifice or device to do so, were applicable to their situation. Green replied affirmatively and pointed out that labor leaders could circumvent the law by belonging to a "Thursday afternoon social club" since the law pertained only to present membership and not past or future membership.
Following the passage of the non-Communist affidavit requirement of the Taft-Hartley law, the Mine-Mill Executive Board adopted a policy of non-compliance, thereby exercising its option as provided by the Act. Non-compliance, of course, resulted in inability of the Union to receive the advantages of utilizing N.L.R.B. facilities for filing charges of unfair labor practices and participation in Board elections. When it became apparent that loss of advantages to the Unions was causing difficulty, the Mine-Mill Executive Board by resolution reversed its previous position and adopted a policy of compliance. Travis was a member of the Executive Board when that decision was made. His statements to government witness Mason, set forth infra, at the time he wrote his "resignation statement" indicated that his action was in accordance with Communist Party policy. This resignation statement was published in the Union paper on August 15, 1949.6
The government evidence pertaining to appellant's continued Party membership after the resignation statement showed that in the fall of 1951 Travis used government witness Fred Gardner, who had been recently employed by Mine-Mill, to assist him in crossing the border into Canada. Travis explained to Gardner that he was having difficulty crossing the border because of his membership in the Party and the public resignation statement and that it would be easier to cross in Gardner's car because it would not be recognized by Canadian police. He stated that Gardner had come to him well recommended by the Communist Party of Cleveland, Ohio, and that he was glad of that. Travis expressed regret that his public resignation had been necessary in order for Mine-Mill to conform to the Taft-Hartley filing requirements and in discussing this he said that he "* * * believed it was a mistake because it gave the enemies of the Party an opportunity to use that in pointing out that his wasn't a true resignation from the Party, that actually it was done merely to conform to the Taft-Hartley affidavits. * * *"
Relative to membership after execution of the first affidavit (December 19, 1951), witness Mason testified that in March of 1952 Travis stated to him that the Soviet delegation at the World Federation of Trade Unions in Paris, France, was demanding that the "American left-wing unions" who had been expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations form a "third federation." He said that the Communist Party had left it up to those in the Unions to make the decisions and asked Mason what his view was. Travis expressed agreement with Mason's response that he opposed such a move and said that "the boys in the other unions" concurred and had left it to him, Travis, to communicate the reply to Paris.
The evidence postdating the execution of the second affidavit indicated that in March 1953 a staff conference of Mine-Mill was held in Denver, Colorado, for the discussion of organizational and political action. At this conference Travis handed to witness Mason a copy of the proposed conference agenda. Mason examined the outline of the legislative program contained therein which listed a number of items such as "repeal of the McCarran Act" and "fight against witch-hunting" and called Travis' attention to the fact that nothing was listed pertaining to betterment of workers. Travis agreed and directed that matters suggested by Mason be included. However, later that day, Travis told...
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