Aim of Reds in Baltimore Was Steel, Says Witness

By Murrey Marder

Post Reporter

Infiltration of Baltimore's steel industry was the primary target of Maryland Communists, a House investigating committee was told yesterday by Mary Stalcup Markward, a Virginia housewife who became an FBI undercover agent.

When she left the Communist party in late 1949, after serving for more than six years as a Federal Bureau of Investigation operative, the party was "very pleased with the progress it was making" in that field, Mrs. Markward said.

"A flat request was made for every Communist member who thought he could, to go to work in the steel industry," she told the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In her first public testimony, the 29 year old Chesterbrook, Va., mother said active Maryland Communists numbered about 400 during her association with the party.

40 Names Given

She gave the committee the names of over 40 persons who, she said, comprised the leadership and some lesser lights of the Maryland Communist organization.

Mrs. Markward posed as a loyal, fervent Communist and became treasurer of the District of Columbia party and a member of the governing board of District Four--the Maryland-Washington party organization. She previously named more than 200 local Communists in closed testimony. . . .

Mrs. Markward, whose appearance belies her lengthy undercover role, appeared slightly nervous as she faced a battery of photographers in the small hearing room, which was jammed with spectators and reporters. . . .

      Her testimony brought from Committee Chairman John S. Wood (D., Ga.) and other members unusual praise for "courage," "fortitude," and "patriotic service." Spectators applauded. . . .

      Mrs. Markward did not explain how the FBI happened to select her for the undercover role in 1943, when she worked in a beauty shop at 4807 Massachusetts Ave., NW. She left the party in 1949 when she was stricken with multiple sclerosis.