United States v. Matles

• Decision Date: 26 March 1957
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 13121.
• Citation: 150 F. Supp. 85
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. James J. MATLES, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

150 F. Supp. 85

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. James J. MATLES, Defendant.

Civ. No. 13121.

United States District Court E. D. New York.

March 26, 1957.

Leonard P. Moore, U. S. Atty., E. D. New York, Brooklyn, N. Y., for the United States, Howard B. Gliedman, Elliott S. Greenspan, Asst. U. S. Attys., Brooklyn, N. Y., of counsel.

Eugene F. Bannigan, Donner, Kinoy & Perlin, New York City, Samuel Gruber, Stamford, Conn., for defendant. Frank J. Donner, Marshall Perlin, New York City, of counsel.

BRUCHHAUSEN, District Judge.

The Government instituted this proceeding to cancel the Certificate of Naturalization, issued to the defendant, upon the grounds that it was fraudulently and illegally procured by him. The statute involved, and then in force, is Section 338(a) of the Nationality Act of 1940.¹

The charges against the defendant, in substance, are as follows:

1. That the defendant falsely answered "No" to Question No. 28 on his Preliminary Form for Petition for Citizenship, to wit: "Do you belong to or are you associated with any organization which teaches or advocates anarchy or the overthrow of existing Government in the United States?" The answer is in the defendant's handwriting.

2. That the defendant falsely answered "No" to the same Question No. 28 when interrogated, under oath, by the Naturalization Examiner, Jacob Meyer.

3. That the defendant falsely answered "No" to the question: "Are you a Communist?" at the hearing conducted by the Examiner.

4. That the defendant falsely stated in Item No. 7 of his verified Petition for Citizenship, that "I (the defendant) am attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States."

5. That the defendant gave false answers as to his belief in the form of government of the United States and as to renouncing allegiance to foreign governments.

6. That the defendant was not a man of good moral character at the time of his naturalization.

It appears that the defendant, then known as Eichiel Matles Friedman, and a native of Rumania, legally entered this country in January 1929; that in the same year he filed a declaration of intention for citizenship; that the aforesaid Preliminary Form for Petition for Citizenship was executed by him on April 17, 1934; that the hearing before the Examiner was held on August 2, 1934 and that the Certificate of Naturalization was issued to him on November 27, 1934.

The proof shows that shortly after Matles stepped upon the soil of this country in 1929, he plunged into Communist activities and became a Party member and officer; that he followed the Party Line, the Communist Party Line, of practicing fraud and deceit in his application for citizenship so as to facilitate exit from the country, should the Party require his services outside of the country and that he relied upon the secrecy of the Party activities to conceal his real mission and that it has taken years of Congressional investigations and painstaking and laborious inquiry to bring the situation to light.

The evidence also disclosed that Matles, a mechanic by trade, dedicated his time and energies to advance the Communist labor movement; that the Communists were sufficiently astute to refrain from informing non-Communist workers, whether or not organized, that the ultimate aim was to further the cause of International Communism, with headquarters in Russia. This is emphasized in one of the Communist's secret writings, limited to Party members, entitled "Left Wing Communism," Exhibit

6, published in 1919, to wit:

"We must if need be resort to all sorts of stratagems, artifices, illegal methods, to evasions and subterfuges, only so as to get into the trade unions, to remain in them, and to carry on communist work within them at all costs."

Secrecy is also mentioned in the booklet, entitled "Manual on Organization," Exhibit 12, cautioning Party members to refrain from discussing their plans outside of their closed meetings, to avoid keeping membership lists and to destroy all documents after reading them.

It further appears that the Party, including Matles, made full use of its opportunities during the period of the depression from 1929 to 1934; that the Red International Labor Union was an arm of the Communist International; that prior to 1929, the Communists had no effective machinery for infiltration into the labor movement; that their affiliate, The Trade Union Educational League prior to 1929 placed its emphasis on propaganda, inducing workers to join independent unions; that in or about 1929, pursuant to dictates from Moscow, the Party created The Trade Union Unity League, an affiliate of the Red International Labor Union, for the purpose of organizing new Communist controlled unions; that thereafter it intensified its efforts by organizing various industrial unions, one of which was The Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union, in which Matles was a leader and a dominant factor during the period immediately preceding his application for naturalization and thereafter.

The defendant did not take the stand. Most of his witnesses were officers of Locals of The United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, of which Matles has been director of organization since 1937. Many of them did not meet Matles until long after the time of his naturalization.

Aside from testimony of Government witnesses, later referred to, one of the exhibits in evidence, definitely links Matles to the Communist Party, as well as to the illegal objectives it pursued. It was issued by him within a month prior to the date when he executed the aforesaid Preliminary Petition for Citizenship, wherein he unequivocally certified that he was not associated with an organization advocating the overthrow of our Government. The exhibit, referred to, is the issue of The Daily Worker, the official Communist Party organ, dated March 21, 1934. In that issue appears an article under the by-line of J. Matles, wherein he urges his associates to follow the principles outlined in a document termed "The Open Letter." The latter is described in the minutes (299) as "An Open Letter To All Members Of The Communist Party, July 7-10, 1933." It further appears that the "Open Letter" was published by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the U.S.A. and was adopted by the Extraordinary National Conference of the Party held in New York City on the said dates.

The said "Open Letter" which Matles called upon his followers to adopt, contains the following expressions:

"The organization of * * * the revolutionary trade union movement,

"The transformation of The Daily Worker into a really revolutionary mass paper,

"Establish a solid base amongst decisive elements of the American Proletariat,

"The revolutionizing of the working class by the Party,

"Struggle against a new imperialist war and intervention against the Soviet Union,

"Comrades: The Party has approved the estimation of the international situation, given by the XII Plenum of the Comintern,

"The members of the Party have shown in countless activities, in strikes, in hunger marches, demonstrations and in painstaking day-to-day work that they are loyal and self-sacrificing revolutionists,

"Every Party fraction must link this discussion up with concrete tasks."

The defendant, in his aforesaid article in The Daily Worker, dated March 21, 1934, elaborated upon the Party doctrine espoused in the said "Open Letter," by stating therein, "We want to devote this article (referring to the said Daily Worker article) to the problems that confront us in attempting to carry out the open letter in the metal industry — one of four industries that the New York District decided to conquer for the revolutionary movement." Matles also stated in that article, as follows:

"* * * the first and most important part of concentration, is the securing and assigning of capable comrades to tackle the basic industries. * * * We have 5000 Communists in the district, and therefore there are plenty of forces to master these basic industries. The experience of our Russian party, can help us to understand this question much better. The tens of thousands of Communists in the Soviet villages did not succeed in solving the question of collectivization of agriculture. It took a Bolshevik Central Committee to place at the head of these large numbers of Communists in the villages, about 2000 trained and experienced Bolsheviks, and a sharp turn was made, in a very short time. Here in New York our party has great difficulties in finding one dozen capable comrades who can handle these basic industries, and provide leadership to the large number of Communists."

The Government's witnesses, Maurice Malkin, and Joseph Zack Kornfeder, ex-Communists, testified at some length concerning the many Communist meetings and activities involving the defendant. The defense assailed them as professional witnesses and sought to discredit them, although unsuccessfully, in exhaustive cross-examinations, occupying almost 900 pages of the trial record. Their testimony will be commented upon later. At this point it is appropriate to allude to the testimony of the Government's witness Orazio Carlucci, who was not assailable upon that ground.

The witness Carlucci testified as to personal contacts with the defendant in 1933 and 1934, crucial years as far as this proceeding is concerned. It appears that he was then a detective by profession, engaged by a law firm to investigate and report on Communist influences in strikes against bakery companies, clients of the law firm; that he joined the Young Communist League and later the Communist Party, not in loyalty but to carry out his investigatory mission; that he had meetings with Rose Wortis, Charles Rivers and Lou Cooper, officials or functionaries of the Communist Party; that the latter two individuals arranged for him to distribute Communist leaflets among the workers;...