would he speak to anyone asking for an interview.

How Clean Can a House Get?

The attack was effective in the most unexpected quarter. The public, familiar with this columnist's tactics, forgot the whole thing. Not so the "loyal" members of the Mattachine. A mighty rumble came from these followers of Chauvin. At the second annual convention, a bloc insisted on loyalty oaths for all officers and the taking of a political stand. These patriots spoke with passion. The founders, feeling they had perhaps served their purpose in bringing the Mattachine into existence, resigned so that these promising young zealots might march on to greater victories. The new order, a little shocked at the victory, took over and cleaned house from cellar to weather

vane.

That Third Convention

It was short-sighted to think that the new officers had merely wanted to get rid of the old order so that they could. forge ahead. No one ever points the patriotic finger just once. It's habit forming. The new order began to worry about whether they'd gotten all the reds out. They squinted at each other suspiciously. And they became insomniac worrying about the old order sneaking back in. They changed the Mattachine Foundation to the Mattachine Society and made regular announcements that the two had nothing to do with one another. Feeling no better, they insisted that this magazine. publish the fact that the Mattachine Society and ONE had nothing to do with one another either. It was a bit insulting but the editors complied. But the old worry remained.

During the next year the Mattachine was completely re-designed. Literally hundreds of new by-laws were adopted, new offices created and an intricate administrative pattern set up. In the streamlining, discussion groups dropped off, chapters seceded and membership shrank. No other cases were taken up due to rigid new requirements but there was some research done although not for publication. Two dozen pints of plasma were donated to the Red Cross and some magazines taken to a hospital. It is true that a whole year passed with nothing spectacular accomplished under this new regime, however this could be looked upon as a period of adjustment and preparation.

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Then came the shocking third annual convention. It was at this meet that a proposal was passed to remove the words "homosexual," "ethic" and "culture" from the statement of purposes. The reason given was that the words might invite trouble. It was decided to handle no more homosexual cases only heterosexual. The public mustn't think that the Society was selfishly interested only in deviates. The policy was accepted that no organized pressure be put on law-makers because it might antagonize them. A person reportedly close to the state legislature insisted that organized pressure never works anyway. And if the homosexual tried to better his lot, the public wouldn't like it at all. Let's not. It was con-

Homosexuals do not know how to help themselves: is this organization the key?

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