For years, U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had been railing against communist traitors he insisted were everywhere, plotting to undermine the U.S. government.
By June 16, 1954, the Red Scare had reached a fever pitch in Western Washington.
That day, Margaret Jean Schuddakopf, a social worker from Gig Harbor who worked for Tacoma Public Schools, testified in Seattle before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Schuddakopf, 50, was sworn in and, like several others called to testify on that and the previous day, she leaned on her constitutional right not to incriminate herself.
“Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” she was asked.
“I decline to answer, invoking my rights under the Fifth Amendment,” Schuddakopf replied.
“Did you teach a course in the Seattle Labor School?”
“I decline to answer.”
“Do you work with children in your present work?”
“I work in the elementary school system.”
Schuddakopf was more forthcoming about her reasons for not wanting her testimony televised: “There is so much vulgar on TV,” she declared. “I consider it beneath me.”
And perhaps she was overly cautious (or making a statement) when she lingered in the hearing room long after the session was over, trying to ensure that the subpoena she had in her possession was “returned.”
Members of the congressional committee and sheriff’s deputies on duty insisted they had no authority to accept the subpoena.
Finally, state Sen. Albert F. Canwell – a Republican from Spokane who’d spearheaded the creation of the state Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 – informed Schuddakopf that she had sufficiently “returned” the subpoena by showing up to testify.
“I don’t want to do anything wrong,” the social worker insisted.
(After an uproar over Schuddakopf’s testimony, the Tacoma School Board eventually voted not to renew her contract.)
U.S. Rep. Harold Velde, R-Ill., chaired the federal committee that day. His star witness was Barbara Hartle, a 45-year-old waitress who’ renounced communism after she and four others were convicted of conspiring to advocate overthrowing the government.
Hartle named names, including Schuddakopf’s, insisting she’d met other witnesses and the attorney representing them at Communist Party meetings in 1944 and 1948.
Six men and three women stood accused, all hailing from the Puget Sound area. All pleaded the Fifth.
Lenzie Shellman of Seattle refused to answer questions, citing fears he that wouldn’t be treated fairly because he was black.
Richard Nelson, a dentist from Kirkland, accused the committee of being “unconstitutional, immoral, illegal and subversive.”
Seattle painter Edward Friel called Hartle a “chameleon,” and told the committee, “I’m sure if I told the simple truth, I would be charged with a crime.”
But Mary Comozzi Kinney, longtime manager of the Frontier Bookstore in Seattle, was at the center of one of the day’s hottest exchanges.
She challenged a committee member who called witnesses’ Fifth Amendment recourse “a communist line,” lecturing that the tradition dated back to the 12th century.
Then when she was corrected for mistakenly calling the committee counsel “Mr. Congressman,” she retorted, “You all look alike to me; you’re all trying to third-degree me.”
Ernest A. Jasmin: 253-274-7389
This is one of a series of stories appearing during The News Tribune’s 125th year. Every Sunday we take a look at what happened during the same week sometime in the past 125 years. To suggest a week or an event for an upcoming story, e-mail your idea and any details to randy.mccarthy@thenewstribune.com.