Sign Up or Pay Up

It was time for the Communist Party. U.S.A., to sign up or pay up. Under a court-set deadline to register as a "Communist-action group," the party refused--and last week a federal grand jury returned a twelve-count indictment that could cost Communism Inc. a tidy total of $120,000 in fines, with more to come in case of continued defiance of the law. Still in the offing: charges against party officers for failure to register as Communist agents. In an obvious attempt to minimize the legal damage, the party last week dropped--at least for the record--all but three of its titular officials. Left with the possibility of five-year prison sentences were Party Chairman Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, General Secretary Gus Hall and National Secretary Benjamin Davis.

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