gates. Other delegates opposed it, since the Society is non-political, but Brandhove said certain officers in the S.F.P.D. told him it would be for the Society's good. A considerably revised version was then presented and passed by the Convention. The Society then forgot it (it was never released) til it showed up in the PROGRESS. Brandhove had gotten copies from the stenotypist just a few days before.

Brandhove, who'd been arrested at least eight times since 1930, once helped try to wreck the Marine Cooks and Steward's Union. He participated in a state Unamerican Activities Committee smear against ex-Congressman Havener, was indicted by the Committee for contempt when he later repudiated his testimony, and made another smear attempt against former Mayor Robinson. In 1953 he fingered extortionist gossip-magazine publisher Jimmy Tarantino, later sold Tarantino a repudiation of his testimony, again switched back to the police side. Wolden denied hiring him, adding, "I wouldn't know him if I saw him." The NEWS-CALL BULLETIN printed that statement under a chummy looking photo of Brandhove and Wolden.

The EXAMINER, meanwhile dug into some of the more questionable areas of the private and public finances of Assessor Wolden. MATTACHINE POSITION

The Mattachine Society Society had blundered into an enviable position. Unless the officers of the Society behaved foolishly, and they did not, the press, the police, the mayor, and all citizens who valued the reputation of the city, had been forced by Wolden's fanatic and shameless attack into being more or less on the Society's side. Undiplomatic claims, inflamatory or ir-

one

responsible statements, could have hurt the homosexual cause terribly. But the officers and members (with the possible exception of J. D. Mercer, who seized the opportunity for some tasteless advertising of his book, They Walk in Shadow,) behaved in a dignified and sensible manner, and their gains in publicity and in public respect were immeasurable.

Donald Lucas, Secretary General of the Society, Henry Foster, Jr., Legal Affairs Director, and Publications Director Harold Call told the papers they had regarded the resolution as purely a goodwill gesture -they had presented it in good faith. Describing their suit against Wolden, they said the Society objected to Wolden's repeated statements and inferences that the Society was made up of sex deviates. The Society is concerned with the problems of homosexuals and sexual deviates, but members are not necessarily deviates-just as the N.A.A.C.P., concerned with Negro problems, has many white members. They further objected to Wolden's implications that the Society moved to San Francisco "apparently seeking a more hospitable climate in which to engage in its purposes," and that the Society was in some way responsible for conditions of 'mass immorality in San Francisco," so that "our children are not safe..."

When the newspapers caught up briefly with Brandhove, he both denied and bragged about putting over the resolution. No one had paid him, he said he lived entirely on his disability pension, variously reported at from $56 to $106 per week. He denied supplying the Convention with liquor.

"I got into the Mattachine Society just like I got into the Communist Party-to find out what was