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in Indianapolis. "In order to evaluate," Pennington says, "we have to get all the facts, we have to be very careful. Unless there is a general pattern of continued affiliations with the Party, we won't use it." But — "Usually, when someone is called to testify there is a long record." And where there is a question of a letterhead? "Mostly, I'll take the letterhead. If the man was not sympathetic or did not have a long string of affiliations, he would not have been asked to join in the first place." The official litany is everywhere the same. "We don't clear any- one; it is not up to us to be the judges. We only get the information out to alert people." Moreover, Pennington "cordially dislikes" vigi- lantism. "We tell people to report their information to the nearest office of the FBI and make no attempt at evaluating it themselves. They may have run across something valuable to a security case." The American Legion posts are autonomous of course; if they decide to picket, that's their business. But the national office dis- courages public demonstrations. "I had a movie executive call me up," Pennington told a reporter who was interested in his views, "and the guy wanted me to come to New York to clear somebody. I told him, 'I don't clear anybody; have him clear himself.' " But the fact remains that Pennington, as keeper of the Firing Line file, would have to know if the man actually had "cleared himself" — and to whose satisfaction. The reporter reeled off the familiar names, beginning with George Sokolsky. "They are all pretty level-headed fellows," Pennington said. "I would take their word for it." It may safely be said that he does rely on their word as much as they rely on his — "clearances" seldom begin with Lee Pennington but somewhere along the line he has to come into the picture. Still Pennington prides himself on making his own judgments and insists firmly that he doesn't "clear" anyone. It is largely a question of semantics. James Francis O'Neil, director of Legion publications, has had a 112