Davis couldn't be a Communist if he tried." Rabbi Wise said, based on more than 30 years of acquaintance, that Davis had "never, never" been sympathetic to communism. Defense Stolberg testified that the late Dr. Henry R. Linville, who left the AFT to form the Teachers Guild, considered Davis a communist or fellow traveler. The defense introduced evidence from former CPUSA head Earl Browder, AFL president William Green, and others to document how Stolberg developed the allegedly libelous article. Waldman read from a book by Browder that showed that religiosity does not preclude adherence to communism. The AFL letter called on the expulsion of communists from the AFT, implying that Davis had failed to do so. In 1935 there was a split between the AFT and Teachers Guild. The defense argued that Davis had a standing reputation as a communist or sympathizer. Former Saturday Evening Post editor William W. Stout testified to that effect; AFT vice president John D. Connors said that Davis followed the Communist party line. AFL vice president Matthew Woll said that even some communists considered Davis a communist, while Stolberg testified that he still considered Davis a communist. American Mercury editor Eugene Lyons, also a former Moscow correspondent, testified that passages from Davis's book The New Russia (1933) showed a "type of Soviet propaganda" which he called a "whitewash of terror." He also said that in 1939, Davis had the reputation of "a fellow-traveling Communist." Georgetown University president Dr. Edmund A. Walsh testified that Davis "accepts the ultimate objective of communism and belongs psychologically and morally to the group that advocates it," though he falls short of 100% advocacy because he is "not prepared to go the last ten per cent". After hearing Curtis Publishing attorney Bruce Bromley read from several books by Davis, Dr. Walsh upped his estimate to "95 per cent" and then "96 per cent." Rebuttal and verdict Former AFT secretary-treasurer Florence Curtis Hanson stated that Davis was not a communist but instead "motivated by humanitarianism." Rev. Dr. Halford E. Luccock, a professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School, testified that Davis had criticized the USSR for "disregard of the human values of free speech and its intolerance of religion." He affirmed that Davis was "against the use of violence and terrorism" and no "Stalinist, Communist or labor wrecker." Davis shared letters of advocacy from the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church for