A Visit to Communist Party Headquarters, Chicago — Oct. 14, 1919

About this record

A U.S. Bureau of Investigation surveillance report by Special Agent A.H. Loula describing his October 14, 1919 visit to the national headquarters of the Communist Party of America, then newly founded, at the Smolny Institute, 1221 Blue Island Avenue, Chicago. Loula names the party's leaders — Louis Fraina, Alexander Stoklitsky, Isaac Hourwich, Isaac Ferguson, J. Stilson, C.E. Ruthenberg, Joseph Kowalski, and Friedman — and recounts confiscating copies of a pamphlet and trading threats with the organizers, several of whom (including Stoklitsky) already faced deportation or indictment. An early documentary record of the federal surveillance and Red Scare prosecution of the CPA. Excerpted from Loula's weekly report for the week ending Oct. 18, 1919; the original is held in the Department of Justice / Bureau of Investigation Investigative Files, NARA microfilm M-1085, reel 922, file 202600-14. Republished by 1000 Flowers Publishing (Corvallis, OR, 2007), edited by Tim Davenport, via the Marxists Internet Archive.