Out (Temporarily?)

Six of the top eleven Communists convicted in 1949 of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the Government were released from prison last week after having served 44 months of five-year sentences (16 months off for good behavior). But they were not free men. Benjamin J. Davis Jr., 51, former New York City councilman, was immediately taken to Pittsburgh to serve a 60-day contempt-of-court sentence. The others were rearrested on charges of knowingly being members of a party dedicated to violent overthrow of the Government, a charge first tested by the Government when Claude Lightfoot was convicted in Chicago last month, and released in $5,000 bail. The five were: Eugene Dennis, 50, former general secretary of the U.S. Communist Party; John Gates, 42, former Daily Worker editor; John B. Williamson. 52, former party labor secretary; Jacob A. Stachel, 55, former educational director; Carl Winter, 48, former Michigan state chairman.

Another of the eleven, Irving Potash, 55 (former Communist Party national board member), left for Poland last week without his family rather than stand trial with his comrades. He asked permission to leave the country, and U.S. immigration officials took him up on it.

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