TESTIMONY OF EUGENE VICTOR DENNETT, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS COUNSEL, KENNETH A. MacDONALD—Resumed

Mr. Tavenner. It is noted, Mr. Dennett, that your counsel is not with you. Do you prefer to wait until he arrives before proceeding?

Mr. Dennett. It doesn’t make any particular difference. I am sure my counsel intends to be here as soon as he can get here, but there is no need to delay.

Mr. Tavenner. I understand he is in the corridor, so we will wait until he arrives.

(At this point Kenneth A. MacDonald, counsel to the witness, entered the hearing room.)

Mr. Tavenner. When you left the stand yesterday, Mr. Dennett, we were speaking of your experience in the Communist Party at Bellingham. Will you please describe to the committee what additional activities of the Communist Party you engaged in while at Bellingham.

Mr. Dennett. I believe, sir, that I recounted that the Communist Party was active in the unemployed movement, and our membership grew from 7 to approximately 160 in the course of a year’s time, and that we had proceeded to reorient that membership in the party from exclusive work in the unemployment councils to working in an organization known as the People’s Councils, which was organized by non-party people.

The two leaders of that organization at that time were Mr. M. M. London and Mr. George Bradley.

The Communist Party was quite disturbed that there was such an effective organization in existence which was not directly under our leadership.

Mr. Tavenner. What was the name of that organization?

Mr. Dennett. The People’s Councils. Consequently, one of our major objectives was to win that leadership to support the party position one way or another. We had had previous experience with Mr. London and we considered that it was not possible to win Mr. London back to—or to support the party. Therefore, we concentrated our attention on Mr. Bradley, and ultimately won him to support the party and the party position in opposition to Mr. London.

Mr. Tavenner. When you say you won Mr. Bradley to the support of the Communist Party position, do you mean to indicate that he became a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. Dennett. Yes; he did. He became a member of the Communist Party after my constant agitation with him had convinced him that the Communist Party program was a sounder program and a better program than the one that they were pursuing in the People’s Councils.

And Mr. Bradley was unable to convince Mr. London, and they became at some conflict in point of view on that.

Mr. Tavenner. The organization there known as the Unemployed Councils, if I understood your testimony correctly, was a Communist-organized group?

Mr. Dennett. That is true. The Unemployed Council was organized by the Communist Party, and it was our policy throughout that entire period to insist that all unemployed organizations, if they were to truly represent the unemployed, had to affiliate with the Unemployed Councils.

Now in the case of the People’s Councils, we tried to get them to affiliate with the National Unemployed Councils. They never did. Even after we won Bradley to our support the rest of the membership still would not agree to direct affiliation with the National Unemployed Council. Instead, they felt that they had a greater kinship and association with the Unemployed Citizens Leagues, which had been organized in the city of Seattle and in various parts of the State of Washington under the leadership of anti-Communists who had originally come from the labor movement in the city of Seattle.

There were three particular leaders of the Unemployed Citizens League who organized it at the outset.

And I am not sure that I related yesterday how serious the unemployment problem was in the city of Seattle, but I am sure that if anyone would take the trouble to look up the records they would find that at one time there were over 90,000 families in the city of Seattle who were dependent upon public assistance to maintain themselves and their families.

There was no private employment in the city. The only persons who were receiving paychecks were those who were working for either the State, Federal, or city governments. And under those circumstances the problem was very, very acute. The tax rolls were overtaxed. I mean by that that the tax burden was greater than the city was able to bear. The city treasury was soon exhausted trying to maintain the citizens who were unemployed through no fault of their own.

Soon the county budget was exhausted, and they were perplexed. The problem was far more serious and far more acute than the average person today can possibly comprehend unless he looks at the statistics, which are available, I am sure, in some of the research libraries.

I speak of that about the city of Seattle because I have some knowledge of it from personal experience. The same situation existed in nearly every small city in the State of Washington at that time. I cannot testify as to what the condition was in other parts of the country.

But it was that condition which opened the door for widespread organization on the part of workers and unaffiliated and disaffiliated people, and it was when they came into these organizations that it became possible for the Communists to begin to hammer away with the class-struggle line of tactics and the insistence that a relentless fight must be waged against the capitalist system and blame the capitalist system for this condition of unemployment.

It created a problem, too, for those who held public office because they did not know what to do about it. And, frankly, it wasn’t possible for any local people to solve the problem. It had to be dealt with on a national scale, on a national basis.

It was not until after the new administration took office in 1933 that steps were taken which made it possible to start the wheels of industry in motion again. And as those wheels of industry got started in motion it was possible for these workers to find jobs. And when they started finding jobs they left the unemployed organizations. When they left the unemployed organizations they got out from under the immediate influence of the Communists who had entered those organizations, and, in many instances, obtained control.

I am speaking specifically of the Unemployed Citizens League, the People’s Councils, and I think that there were some other organizations around here that I have forgotten the names of.

I think that there was one called the United Producers of Washington that was created over in Pierce County which was affiliated with the Unemployed Citizens League.

There were many different names of these organizations, and they assumed different forms. But essentially they all performed the same function. They provided a center around which people could begin to develop their own ideas and listen to other people’s ideas.

I would certainly like to make certain that everyone understands that that kind of problem has to be dealt with also with ideas.

Mr. Tavenner. You made reference to unemployment citizens’ leagues. Were there such organizations in Bellingham?

Mr. Dennett. No, there were not. The People’s Councils performed all the functions which the Unemployed Citizens Leagues would do, plus the fact that the People’s Councils also developed some political aspirations. I mean they did embark upon an independent political campaign, and they did run candidates for public office. That was largely due to the influence of the Communist Party there. Remember 1932? We were insistent that they not support either the Democratic or Republican Parties because we branded them as capitalist parties, and we insisted that the only way it was possible for the workers to obtain what they wanted was through their own party.

We succeeded in prevailing upon the People’s Councils to run their independent candidates, and some of them came very close to election to office. They didn’t quite make it.

Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Dennett, I think it would be of value to the committee to understand as fully as possible the methods used by the Communist Party in that period in causing the Unemployed Councils to take various courses of action in Bellingham and Seattle, and to understand to what extent the Communist Party was successful in using other organizations which it did not control.

Mr. Dennett. I can think of two very graphic illustrations of that.

One occurred in the city of Seattle at the time the unemployed occupied this building for 3 solid days. The Unemployed Citizens Leagues in the city of Seattle were anti-Communist; their leadership was anti-Communist. But they were confronted with the budget running low, the city funds exhausted, and the county commissioners were confronted with the dilemma of what to do with their funds diminishing.

The county commissioners at that time ordered a cut in the amount of relief which would be allowed. When they did that it placed the anti-Communist leadership in the Unemployed Citizens Leagues in a most embarrassing position because we in the Communist Party and in the Unemployed Councils had been very critical of everything which the Unemployed Citizens Leagues had been doing and which their leaders had been doing.

When this cut occurred we blamed the leaders of the Unemployed Citizens Leagues for permitting it. We didn’t know that these leaders had been opposing the cut. We didn’t know what their actual attitude was. But we very soon found out because these leaders were so desperate that they decided to make a march on the County-City Building where the commissioners were to meet in a room similar to this one. And it was their intention to demand at that time that the cuts not be put into effect.

However, the demonstration proved to be much larger and had much more support than the leaders of the Unemployed Citizens Leagues anticipated, and the Communists—I remember it very well because I was on the district bureau at that time—and we found ourselves not in the leadership of a militant action, and we were embarrassed and fearful that if we didn’t get into the act that we would be blamed by the national leadership.

And we didn’t have any contacts in the Unemployed Citizens League leadership, and we didn’t know what to do. So we debated the question for about 30 hours in 1 continuous bureau meeting. Following that meeting we decided that it was best for us to join the demonstration regardless, whether we had contact or not, and we issued leaflets and called upon our members to join in the demonstration.

(At this point Representative Harold H. Velde entered the hearing room).

Mr. Dennett. In the process of doing so we received a bigger response than we expected. In other words, the need was more acute than even the most closest observers realized. Consequently, there were about 6,000 people down here in this building. They couldn’t all get into the chambers. They crowded the hallways, they crowded several floors of the building. And some of the commissioners got so scared of the demonstration that they tried to run out. They tried to avoid meeting the leaders.

As a result, the demonstrators decided they would stay until they did meet the leaders, until they met the commissioners. And it took over 3 days before the commissioners finally agreed to meet with the committee of this group.

I happened to be the secretary of that committee at that time, and I am sorry that those records that I kept of that demonstration are records which I do not have today. They would be quite valuable to understand all the things that happened, the chronology of why one thing followed another.

But I am quite convinced and I am quite certain that the account I have just given you can be verified by checking the newspaper files of that period.

Mr. Tavenner. Now is it correct to say that the general objectives of the Unemployed Councils, which was organized by the Communist Party, and the general objectives of the Unemployed Citizens Leagues, which were anti-Communist in character, were the same in that their purpose was to alleviate suffering from unemployment? Is that true?

Mr. Dennett. I think that is generally true with this possible exception, that the Communist Party was never satisfied to resolve the alleviation of immediate suffering. That was a tactic to win wider support and to pursue their further objective of political control.

But, on the other hand, the Unemployed Citizens Leagues were concerned only with the question of getting some relief for the immediate situation and not fundamentally altering the economic system.

The Unemployed Councils did strive to change the economic system.

Mr. Tavenner. That is the point I wanted made clear. This appears to be an excellent example of the Communist Party using a situation in which all people were interested from the humanity standpoint and endeavoring to turn it to its own advantage in developing its general objectives.

Mr. Dennett. I think that is true.

And while we speak of that point I think that all political parties do the same thing. They try to turn things to their own advantage. That is the way the Communists try to do it.

Mr. Tavenner. Was there any other development at that period of time which would demonstrate how the Communist Party by its organizational efforts turned unfortunate situations of this character to its own advantage?

Mr. Dennett. There was another example which seems rather devious when you look at it from this perspective, but at that time we thought it was quite skillful.

In the city of Seattle after this embarrassing financial crisis arose it became quite clear to everyone that to finance the relief load was a problem greater than cities or counties could bear. It required State and Federal assistance. But the State was not helping at that time. The State was not doing anything. And the Communists conceived the idea of hunger marches. I remember there were national hunger marches. There were also State hunger marches. There were county hunger marches. There were hunger marches within cities. Wherever the need was acute there were hunger marches.

And we had more than our share of them here.

In one, in particular, on one occasion, the Communists raised a demand for a march on Olympia to demand that the State finance the relief load for localities. Our request was for a big bond issue.

The unemployed councils in the city of Seattle did not have a very large following, and it was a hopeless task unless some means could be found to prevail upon the unemployed citizens’ leagues to take part in such a march. But the Unemployed Citizens’ League leadership was hostile to the Communist leadership in the unemployed councils. But through the people’s councils we were able to exert some influence because we had a considerable Communist leadership developing in the ranks of the people’s councils in Whatcom County. Strangely enough, that organization was in a position where its top leadership was friendly with and collaborated with the unemployed citizens’ leagues in Seattle while those of us in the Communist Party, in the ranks of the organization, naturally were following the leadership of the national unemployed councils and were friendly with and working with the unemployed councils in the city of Seattle.

Consequently, when the unemployed councils in the city of Seattle issued a call for a march on Olympia, that call was transmitted to Bellingham where we entered into the people’s councils and won a majority vote in support of such a march, and with the further request that they call upon the unemployed citizens’ leagues in Seattle to join the march, which they did. They prevailed upon the unemployed citizens’ leagues to join in the march.

Consequently, we had two somewhat hostile groups participating in the same event, marching on Olympia.

But when they got to Olympia there was a split. There were two demonstrations. And there is a gentleman in this room who suffered as a casualty of one of those demonstrations because at that particular time he was a leader in the unemployed citizens leagues.

The unemployed councils people wanted to chase the leadership of the unemployed citizens leagues and the people’s councils away from the head of that demonstration. And Mr. Jess Fletcher was a casualty on that occasion. He was pulled down off of one of the—I forget what you would call it—one of those approaches to the steps. And he had a badly crushed ankle as a result of that occasion.

I was called upon by the district leadership of the party at that time to make a speech. I was instructed to expose Mr. London and to otherwise denounce the Social-Fascist leaders of those organizations. And, of course, being a thoroughly disciplined Communist, I did precisely what I was instructed.

It had some repercussions because when we returned to Bellingham I had some other unfortunate experiences about it.

I should say that in this demonstration in Olympia the Unemployed Citizens League people did wait out the Governor and did get a committee in to see the Governor, whereas the unemployed councils people left Olympia without seeing the Governor and without accomplishing their objective.

Mr. Tavenner. If I correctly understand these two illustrations which you have described, in one instance the Communist Party occupied this very building, joined in the activity of the unemployed citizens leagues, and attempted to obtain for its own credit whatever credit could be obtained, whereas in the other instance, by devious means, they got the other organizations to cooperate with the unemployed councils in the march on Olympia.

Mr. Dennett. That is true.

Mr. Tavenner. The Communist Party reversed its tactics.

Mr. Dennett. That is true. We were very flexible people. We could do almost anything with our tactics.

Mr. Tavenner. Therefore, the Communist Party’s objectives were accomplished in both instances.

Mr. Dennett. That is right. And what was even more important to the party was to be able to carry a great big newspaper story in the Daily Worker to the effect that the revolution was starting because the workers had seized the County-City Building in King County, State of Washington, and held it for 3 days.

Mr. Tavenner. Was that used as Communist propaganda over the entire United States?

Mr. Dennett. It was.

Mr. Tavenner. Up until the time you made that speech at the direction of the Communist Party it appears to me that this was a cooperative effort between the unemployed councils and the unemployed citizens leagues in the march on Olympia. Am I correct in that?

Mr. Dennett. It was; through the people’s councils.

Mr. Tavenner. But manipulated through the people’s councils where you had influence?

Mr. Dennett. Correct.

Mr. Tavenner. Then after arriving on the scene, you, at the direction of the Communist Party, made this attack on the leadership of the unemployed citizens leagues.

Mr. Dennett. And the people’s councils.

Mr. Tavenner. Was the purpose of this attack to utterly destroy any effectiveness of those organizations in the accomplishment of the general purpose of the march?

Mr. Dennett. Looking back on it from this distance, it certainly appears to me that that was its objective.

Mr. Tavenner. When you returned to Bellingham what reception did you receive from these organizations which had in good faith supported this march on Olympia?

Mr. Dennett. There was a great deal of tension; open threats were made that if I showed my head around anywhere I would have my head knocked off.

However, I was not so easily scared as that. So I showed my head. The people’s councils had a practice of, which I considered to be most democratic, reporting to their membership.

Following the hunger march they called a mass meeting for the purpose of reporting what had been happening, what their success was. And these very leaders of the people’s councils whom I had denounced in Olympia presented themselves and reported to their membership. In the process of reporting naturally they reported my part in the affair, and their report aroused a great deal of bitterness among the members of the organization.

When I appeared in attendance at the meeting those who were present near me moved about 6 or 8 feet away, leaving me a conspicuous figure out in the open spaces. And some of the remarks were directed toward me in that meeting.

I felt at the time that something was wrong with the situation, of what I had done. But I wasn’t sure what. I knew, however, that if I didn’t face it all would be lost. So I chose to face it and take whatever consequences might happen.

The consequences came very soon. When the meeting adjourned, as I attempted to leave the building four members of the organization surrounded me and marched me around behind the building where they proceeded to give me a physical beating.

I never have been much of a fighter as such. Physically I am not equipped to do so. So I merely rolled up into a ball and let them do as best they could.

In the meantime some of my friends came to my assistance, and the police intervened to stop anything from proceeding too far.

However, I did surprise everyone by appearing and I did unnerve them because they didn’t believe that I had the nerve to show up after what I had done in Olympia. And as a total consequence of it all, I finally recruited most of the people who beat me up into the Communist Party.

I felt they were good, militant people, and they were the kind of people we wanted.

Mr. Tavenner. How long was that before you left Bellingham?

Mr. Dennett. Right now I can’t fix a real date on that. I would have to look at the newspaper files to be certain of the date. It wasn’t too long, however, because our influence had grown, and it wasn’t very long after that.

Mr. Tavenner. Was there any other activity of the Communist Party while you were at Bellingham which would be of value to this committee as far as you know in making the committee aware of the tactics and methods used by the Communist Party to advance its objectives?

Mr. Dennett. Offhand, right now I think of nothing further with respect to Bellingham.

Mr. Tavenner. I see before me several pamphlets which apparently relate to the various hunger marches which are among the documents which you made available to the staff. Will you examine these, please, and state whether or not they were used in any connection with the matters you have been describing?

(Documents handed to the witness.)

Mr. Dennett. Yes. These were what we called popular pamphlets, to popularize the hunger marches. They were brief penny pamphlets which we tried to sell in mass lots. In other words, if we could find someone who would contribute a dollar we would make a hundred of these things available and try to hand them out in large numbers. They were given to nearly all persons who participated in hunger marches, and they were an elementary introduction to the orientation which the Communist Party had to the whole economic situation.

Mr. Tavenner. The purpose is not clear of the use of those documents by the Communist Party.

Here were those members who had agreed to take part in the hunger marches. Why was it necessary for them to have such material?

Mr. Dennett. Because in many instances people would participate in these events because they were in need of relief themselves, but they had no conception of what the economic problems were, and they had no conception of the political objectives that we had.

And we were quite anxious to take that occasion, when they were rubbing elbows with us, to make certain that they took some elementary steps of understanding in our direction.

Dennett Exhibit No. 5

THE MARCH
AGAINST
HUNGER
By I. AMTER

Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce in evidence three pamphlets entitled “The March Against Hunger,” by I. Amter, “The Highway of Hunger,” by Dave Doran, and “Our Children Cry for Bread,” by Sadie Van Veen, and ask that they be marked “Dennett Exhibits 5, 6, and 7” respectively, with the understanding that only the front cover and the back cover of each be incorporated in the transcript of the record.

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Mr. Moulder. They will be so marked and admitted.

Mr. Tavenner. In other words, you were going beyond the real immediate purposes of the hunger march, and were trying to sell the participants a bill of goods through these pamphlets.

Mr. Dennett. That is true.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you hurriedly look through these documents, please, and call the committee’s attention to a few items which would substantiate your testimony on that point?

Mr. Dennett. Well, here is this one on the March Against Hunger, by Israel Amter, in which some of the subheadings tell the story.

There is one, “Struggles Force Relief.” The implication is very plain that the only way they can get the relief is to engage in mass struggles. And in too many instances that was true from their own experience.

Dennett Exhibit No. 6

THE
HIGHWAY OF HUNGER
STORY OF
AMERICA’S
HOMELESS
YOUTH
BY DAVE DORAN
1¢

“Large Bodies of Workers Represented”: There was always a tendency to exaggerate the number who actually participated.

“Marchers Enter Washington”: the inference that the workers could get to Washington and be represented by marching on Washington; not by trying to be elected.

“Marchers Hold Conference Surrounded by Police”: referring to the attempt to thwart the efforts of the workers.

“Workers’ Congress v. Bankers’ Congress”: the meeting of the unemployed representatives in Washington, trying to hold a comparison between their efforts and that of the Congress itself.

“Mass Action, Basis of Struggle”: a repeat of an earlier point.

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“Workers’ Demands Can Be Realized.”

“Crisis Deepens.”

“Broadest United Front Must Be Set Up.”

“No Unemployment in the Soviet Union.”

“Our Next Step.”

“Expose Starvation Conditions.”

“Unemployment Insurance Will Be Won.”

Those are some of the subheads in this pamphlet.

There is another pamphlet here, The Highway of Hunger, Story of America’s Homeless Youth, by Dave Doran. There is a subhead, “Why the Boss Class ‘Worries’ About the Starving Youth”: their point being that the only interest the Government had in the youth was to make soldiers of them, not to feed them or educate them.

Another subhead: “Unemployment Cannot Be Abolished Under Capitalism.”

Dennett Exhibit No. 7

OUR CHILDREN
CRY FOR
BREAD
by
SADIE VAN VEEN Price 1c

“The Young Communist League Leads the Fight.”

“The Only Way Out for the Unemployed Youth.”

“For Cash Relief! Not Military Camps!” They branded the CCC’s as military camps at the outset. Unfortunately, later on some people tried to make military camps of them, and that did not succeed either.

Here is another pamphlet: Our Children Cry for Bread. And it was certainly true. Children did cry for bread when their families didn’t have it to give them. And they have a subhead on “The Homeless Youth.”

MISSOURI
1243 Garrison St.
St. Louis, Mo.
910 W. 21st St.
Kansas City, Mo.
MONTANA
P. O. Box 33
Butte, Mont.
NEBRASKA
1410 W. 20th St.
Omaha, Neb.
NEW JERSEY
385 Springfield Ave.
Newark, N. J.
NEW MEXICO
P. O. Box 143
Rosswell, N. M.
NEW YORK
10 East 17th St.
New York City
476 William St.
Buffalo, N. Y.
NORTH CAROLINA
P. O. Box 654
Charlotte, N. C.
OHIO
1426 W. 3rd St.
Cleveland, O.
OKLAHOMA
7 Broadway
Oklahoma City, Okla.
OREGON
245½ Alder St.
Portland, Ore.
PENNSYLVANIA
919 Locust St.
Philadelphia, Pa.
2203 Center St.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
RHODE ISLAND
15 Snow St.
Providence, R. I.
SOUTH DAKOTA
P. O. Box 13
Frederick, S. D.
TENNESSEE
P. O. Box 219
Chattanooga, Tenn.
TEXAS
1310 Walker St.
Houston, Tex.
UTAH
225 Ness Bldg.
Salt Lake City, Utah
VIRGINIA
200 E. Main St.
Richmond, Va.
WASHINGTON
617 University
Seattle, Wash.
WISCONSIN
1207 N. 6th St.
Milwaukee, Wis.
WYOMING
P. O. Box 354
Torrington, Wyo.

Unemployment Series No. 2

Issued by National Committee Unemployed Councils, Room 436, 80 East 11th Street, New York City. Published by Workers Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148. Sta. D (50 East 13th St.), New York City, March, 1933.

Remember, if you please, there were more than a million young people in their ‘teens who were wandering around this Nation of ours, just hoboes. They had no homes; they had no food; they had no jobs. So such a heading has great appeal to them because it holds for the hope that some other form of existence would provide a better life for them, and the inference always being the Soviet Union was doing that. The Soviet Union had solved that problem. Little did the people know how they solved it. And now, of course, there is a great deal of evidence coming into public attention which indicates that many of those young people in the Soviet Union, while some of them certainly did receive education as a way out, others also wound up in prison camps, vast prison camps, enormous prison camps. And we must not forget that that did actually happen.

Here these pamphlets try to present the idea that the children in the Soviet Union live in a paradise. And at that time there was no contravening or contradicting evidence to change anyone’s knowledge about it. Today I think there is.

Mr. Tavenner. Apparently the Communist Party did not lose any opportunities it had to promote its own objectives.

Mr. Dennett. That certainly is true.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell the committee, please, the circumstances under which you were transferred away from Bellingham.

Mr. Dennett. Yes.

I referred to Mr. Alex Noral as the district organizer at the time I came into the district. He was fresh from the Soviet Union, and it was presumed that he would give the most astute leadership because he had spent considerable time in the Lenin School in Moscow between 1928 and 1931. However, Mr. Noral’s attitude and methods of work were so arbitrary that the average person could not stand them, not even the most devoted Communists here. And he ran into political difficulties with them.

Reports of these difficulties reached the central committee in New York City, and they decided that Mr. Noral had to have some help. So they sent some more people out here to help him.

Mr. Tavenner. Do you mean Communist Party functionaries were sent from New York to this area?

Mr. Dennett. Communist Party functionaries, people who fall into the category of professional revolutionists, people who devote their lives and dedicate themselves to the Communist cause and do as they are told without question.

At that particular time 2 outstanding people came to the Northwest. In fact, 3 came at one time. One of them was another person who had just returned from the Soviet Union having spent 2 years’ study at the Lenin Institute. His name was Hutchin R. Hutchins, a Negro who had done some outstanding work here before going to the Soviet Union. But when he returned here he ran into difficulty.

Then there was Mr. Lowell Wakefield, who had achieved national prominence for having discovered the Scottsboro case in the South, and had carried a large part of the responsibility of conducting the organization of the defense of the Scottsboro boys.

It was Lowell Wakefield who got hold of the mothers of these boys and prevailed upon them to go on national speaking tours in behalf of their boys under the auspices of the Communist Party.

Mr. Lowell Wakefield was an especially able man because he could raise finances and organize mass meetings and do almost impossible tasks, at least tasks which the rest of us seemed to be very inept at. He was very skillful.

Another person who came at that time was Mr. Alan Max. I noticed from the masthead of the Daily Worker a couple of years ago that Mr. Alan Max was the editor of the Daily Worker. Mr. Alan Max spent considerable time here then.

I became very well acquainted with each of the men. However, they were unable to solve the problems that were rising here in this district, and the central committee was not satisfied with even their efforts.

Following a national hunger march some time in 1933 a Mr. Morris Rappaport,[1] better known to us as Rapp or Rapport.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you spell his last name, please.

Mr. Dennett. Our use of it was R-a-p-p-o-r-t, and I believe the full spelling is R-a-p-p-a-p-o-r-t or something like that.

Mr. Rappaport came into the district with a great deal of suspicion and alarm on the part of us local people because we thought he was an easterner who didn’t understand the ways of the West. We were quite surprised to find that he had originally come from the West. He came from California. And he, like Mr. Noral, had been a part of the Foster delegation or a part of the Foster faction. Although he had not been a delegate to the Sixth World Congress in Moscow, he learned a great deal more about it than Mr. Noral did because when he came here he had an unlimited reserve of energy and tremendous flexibility in application of the party line and party policy. He was not the least bit afraid of anything. When a veterans’ organization here in town tried to raid a school and destroy it here, Mr. Rappaport had the courage to be among those present when it was attacked, and he caused a great deal of publicity.

That publicity attracted the attention of people who didn’t like invasion of civil rights. Mr. Rappaport capitalized on that quite beautifully.

Mr. Tavenner. What was it about the functioning of the Communist Party in the Northwest which presented unusual problems to the national organization in New York, causing it to send these top functionaries of the party to aid in the solution of its problems in this area?

Mr. Dennett. I think it was because our party had already reached masses of people that were larger proportionately than they found in other places.

Mr. Tavenner. Do you mean that the organizational effort had been so successful in this area that it presented immediate problems to the Communist Party?

Mr. Dennett. It certainly did. As a matter of fact, you see, there is a period, following the national elections in 1932, when the new administration began to take those steps which caused industry to resume functioning, in which there was a change taking place in the composition of our organizations. People were not all unemployed; some were leaving the unemployed organizations. Our problem was: How can we continue to exercise influence on them when they cease to be unemployed. And we were confronted with the necessity of entering the trade unions. We had to get into the trade unions one way or another or we were going to lose completely our influence among these people.

So the problem was, and the national office or central committee was continually asking: What progress are you making entering these unions?

Mr. Foster, of course, was naturally very much concerned because of his prior experience in trade-union work. And our reports were quite unsatisfactory. We were not able to make the progress that they demanded. They thought it was a matter of inadequate leadership here, and when they sent Mr. Rappaport they certainly picked a good one because he did lead us in that direction. He did know what to do.

Mr. Tavenner. How did the arrival of these Communist Party functionaries influence or affect your activities at Bellingham?

Mr. Dennett. As soon as Mr. Rappaport got here he used a very simple technique of determining what had to be done by way of shake-up. He started changing section organizers in every section in the area, jarring people loose from their established positions, making them get a new orientation, making them begin to do new things. He was quite pleased with the successes I had in Bellingham, and, feeling that he was in need of a district agitprop director and knowing that I had once been a district agitprop director, knowing also that there was beginning to be a little ground swell of opposition to me in the Bellingham area, he thought it wiser to take me out of there. So he ordered me back to Seattle as district agitprop director, and I was replaced by some of the newer elements which I had recruited in Bellingham.

Mr. Tavenner. I have found among the documents which you have made available to the staff a “Statement Issued by the Communist Party of Bellingham Section on the Immediate Questions Facing the Working Class.” It is signed by V. Haines, section organizer.

Was that your party name?

Mr. Dennett. That is true.

Mr. Tavenner. Examine this document, please, and state whether or not there is anything in it which has a bearing on the organizational setup from the standpoint we are now discussing.

(Document handed to the witness.)

Mr. Dennett. Yes. I have my original copy of that here.

This was an effort on my part to provide orientation to the members, to take the official party line and apply it to the local conditions. It was an effort to give the Communists in the Bellingham area something by way of interpretation so that they would know how to apply the party line and have confidence that they were following the Communist Party line.

I don’t know how much detail you want to go into on that. But that was the general purpose of the statement.

Mr. Tavenner. I desire to introduce the document in evidence, Mr. Chairman, and ask that it be marked “Dennett Exhibit No. 8.”

Dennett Exhibit No. 8
Statement Issued by the Communist Party of Bellingham Section on the Immediate Questions Facing the Working Class

The present epoch through which the class struggle is now passing is a “Transition period.” It is a period in which the International Proletariat must prepare to embark upon the second round of wars and revolutions. A period in which the working class will definitely settle the conflict between the exploiting class and those who are exploited, in a number of nations, and it is necessary that the workers of all nations unite their efforts in this period so as to conserve the strength of the working people.

The End of Capitalist Stabilization has been reached. There is nothing left for the Capitalist Class except to wage a more vicious attack on the living standards of the Working People. Profits can only be obtained by wringing them from the lifeblood of the toiling masses. The living standards of the workers has reached such a low level that huge masses would suffer extinction should this level be reduced. And yet such is the program of World Imperialism. That is all it has to offer. But the class consciousness of millions and millions of toilers has been awakened to such a degree that they will openly resist any further attack on their living standards. They will burst forth in open rebellion.

To meet this condition of World Revolt, the Ruling Classes throughout the world are turning more and more to Fascism—a system of open dictatorship of the present group of exploiters—a system more brutal, more ruthless, and exceedingly more destructive of the materials needed for the sustenance of human life. Fascism is therefore the main enemy of the Workers of the World.

A system of Fascism will not bring about a stabilization of Capitalism, but will instead bring a whole train of persecutions, and inflict the most abject misery upon the toiling masses. It will mean the continuous lowering of the living standards of the working people, and with them large sections of the petty bourgeoisie. The inexorable laws of Capitalist Development will continue to bring new crises in spite of the repressive measures of Fascism. During the Present Economic Crisis the Fascist nations have suffered along with the other Capitalist Nations, and they are now staggering under the strain, thereby intensifying the present World Crisis of Capitalism. Only in the Soviet Union where there is the open dictatorship of the Workers and Farmers, where Socialism is being definitely planned and organized and put into operation is there any escape from Economic Crises. The experiences of the Soviet Union during the World Crisis of Capitalism stands out as a Beacon Light to the toiling masses throughout the world as a living example of the Working Class way out of the Crisis.

In contrast to the Soviet Union, the Capitalist nations are attempting to introduce Fascism in various forms of FORCED LABOR CAMPS and Peonage systems. A notable example of which is proposed for the United States by the Roosevelt Government in the name of Unemployment Reserves, which in reality are Forced Labor Camps designed as ARMY RESERVES in preparation for a new Bloody Conflict among the Imperialist nations for a re-division of world markets and for a war of intervention against the Workers and Farmers Government, the Soviet Union.

This program is that of Fascism the world over, and it reached such a degree of misery to millions and millions of workers in Germany that the Social-Democratic Parties there appealed to the Communist International to cease its attacks on the Social Democrats and join in a struggle against Fascism.

The Executive Committee of the Communist International answered this appeal by making a statement that, during this period of struggle against Fascism, it will be the policy of the Communist Parties to refrain from attacking the Social Democratic Parties and other Political groups which join the United Front, so long as they actively struggle against Fascism.

In issuing this answer the Communist International called attention to the fact that it has consistently urged a United Front of all working class groups so as to carry on a more powerful resistance to the spread of Fascism. The answer contained an appeal to all sections of the Communist International to take steps to build the United Front of the International Proletariat in their respective nations. Accordingly the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. has further appealed to all districts of the Communist Party to carry out this new policy of the Communist International.

Therefore the Communist Party of the Bellingham Section of District 12, issues this call and appeal to the Socialist Party, and all organizations desiring to enter the Class struggle on the side of the working class in a solid United Front and actively struggle against the forces of Fascism.

To do this the Communist Party proposes that joint meetings be held between the various groups and the Communist Party, from which meetings or conferences, programs of struggle can be adopted which will be designed for the betterment of the conditions of the Working Class.

This appeal is made by the Communist Party with the purpose of arresting the spread of Fascism and pushing forward the cause of the International Proletariat.

Issued by the Section Buro of the Bellingham Section of the Communist Party U. S. A., District 12.

V. Haines,
Section Organizer.

For the Reorganization of the Section

1. The method for reorganizing the Party in the Sections of the Communist Party has been tersely put by stating “turn the face of the Party to mass work.”

In the mass work are to be found the political problems which are facing the workers. There will be found the material which will make possible the “all-sided political exposures” which are a necessary prerequisite to good Party-Mass work.

2. In order to accomplish a reorientation of the party in Whatcom County, it is necessary that Party Units be organized in the most natural manner possible at the present time.

This can be done by neighborhood groupings, consequently it will be the policy here to organize the Party on the basis of geographical position. But this will not do away with the orientation to other forms of organization, that is the shop unit, and fractions.

3. The Unit meetings should be at regular times at regular places for the present until the units are closer knit together. But for this policy to be a success, the meetings must be kept secret. Loose talk about unit meetings in the presence of other persons must stop.

4. Each week the Section Committee will discuss the most important political problem before the Section and will issue material which will serve to bring written discussion before the membership and point out the Party line on each question.

5. At each Unit meeting some leading comrade should lead the discussion—that is, bring the report from the Section, open up the subject similar to what was done in the Section Buro.

6. The discussion in the Unit should be organized in such manner that each member of the Unit will participate, raising such problems as suggest themselves to him.

7. The Unit organizer should sum up the discussion at the close. (This is not ironclad. It may sometimes be better for the comrade from the Section Buro or Section Committee to make the summary. The main thing is that a summary is made in which the Party Line is again made clear. This will fix the Party line in each comrade’s mind so as to last.

“The Communist’s ideal should be a tribune of the people, able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it takes place, no matter what stratum of class of the people it affects. He must explain the historical role of the Proletariat” (Lenin).

INSTRUCTIONS FOR UNITS

Hold Meeting on Friday, April 14, to consider the following:

1. The Reorganization Program for the Section—(Special Outline enclosed).

2. Elect Buro—Three most politically and theoretically developed comrades in Unit.

3. Political discussion on the meaning of the New Policy of the Communist Parties in regards to the Socialist Party and other Social-Democratic groups.

NOTE OF EXPLANATION

The Party organization is flexible. Forces can be shifted from place to place, etc. But the Party line is quite well defined and there are sharp differences between that which is approved by the Party Line and that which is disapproved by the Party Line. The Party line does not change except under rare and unusual occasions.

The Sharp change in the International Situation has brought forth a change in the attitude of the Communist Parties to the Social-Democratic Groups, this includes the Socialist Party of America.

The whole membership of the section should have read the statement of the ECCI in the Daily Worker some two to three weeks ago where the change of policy was explained.

The Communist Party will maintain vigilance against those who attempt to break the United Front and thereby betray the position of the working class by complete and ruthless exposure. But there is a truce existing at the present time between the Communist Parties and the Social Democrats. The Bellamy Club should be included with the Social-Democrats.

ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BURO

Departmentalize the work into the following categories which are indispensable now.

1. Unit Organizer—The most dependable person.—Come to Liberal Club Sat. at 2 P.M.

2. Dues Secretary—Know list of membership—Come to Liberal Club Sat. at 1 P. M.

3. Fraction Secretary—Get list of all organizations to which the membership belongs. Come to Liberal Club Sat. at 3 P. M.

Comradely yours,

Sec. Org.

Mr. Tavenner. Is there any further comment you desire to make concerning that document?

Mr. Dennett. Evidently I only have part of that document in my own copy.

Mr. Tavenner. I believe there is a resolution appearing at the end of the document which you apparently do not have.

Mr. Dennett. There is one note of explanation at the bottom, which reads as follows, and I think it speaks for itself:

The party organization is flexible. Forces can be shifted from place to place, etc. But the party line is quite well defined and there are sharp differences between that which is approved by the party line and that which is disapproved by the party line. The party line does not change except under rare and unusual occasions.

The sharp change in the international situation has brought forth a change in the attitude of the Communist Parties to the social-democratic groups. This includes the Socialist Party of America.

The whole membership of the section should have read the statement of the ECCI in the Daily Worker some 2 or 3 weeks ago——

Mr. Tavenner. What is ECCI?

Mr. Dennett. Executive Committee of the Communist International—

where the change of policy was explained.

The Communist Party will maintain vigilance against those who attempt to break the united front and thereby betray the position of the working class by complete and ruthless exposure. But there is a truce existing at the present time between the Communist Parties and the Social-Democrats. The Bellamy Club should be included with the Social-Democrats.

That was a local organization in the Bellingham area which I had not mentioned before. It was a group who had studied Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward and his other Socialist books and pamphlets.

I believe that statement sufficiently illustrates what we were undertaking to do, and it is consistent with what was going on all over the country. The only thing is we met with more success than others did.

Mr. Tavenner. You described the activities of the unemployed councils in Bellingham, and you have told us that they were Communist-organized groups. Will you tell the committee, please, who the Communist Party members were who took the lead in that work, in addition to yourself, of course?

Mr. Dennett. Well, I think I mentioned earlier—if I didn’t, I should at this time—that there was a young woman by the name of Helen Quist who represented the Young Communist League, who went to Bellingham at approximately the same time I did, and who gave invaluable help in the organization of both the Young Communist League and the Communist Party. She was a member of both, and she was my closest and ablest assistant for quite a period of time in Bellingham.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you spell the name, please?

Mr. Dennett. Q-u-i-s-t, Helen Quist.

When I arrived, the local leadership of the Communist Party consisted of a person by the name of Martin Olson. And I hope that if there are any Martin Olsons who hear of that that they will not worry too much because there are so many Martin Olsons in this area.

But this particular Martin Olson was an unemployed logger at that time.

Mr. Tavenner. In light of your statement then, can you give further identifying information in regard to Mr. Olson so that there will be no confusion as to the “Olson” referred to?

Mr. Dennett. All I can say is that he was a man of small stature, was an unemployed logger at that time. That is about all I can use for description.

There was a person by the name of George Smith in Bellingham. He at that time operated a little hotel which he owned.

Mr. Tavenner. What was his activity?

Mr. Dennett. He was just a member of the sectarian group that just sat around and were satisfied that as long as they had a pure line everything was rosy. The fact that they didn’t do anything about it didn’t seem to disturb them too much. They were satisfied that they were following the straight and narrow path.

Mr. Tavenner. What do you mean by straight and narrow path?

Mr. Dennett. They sat around and agreed among themselves that the Communist Party line was absolutely right.

Mr. Tavenner. I wanted to be sure that the path you mentioned was the Communist Party path.

Mr. Dennett. True. There was another person by the name of Arthur Sinclair. I have heard since that he subsequently was deported to Canada.

There was an older fellow by the name of Engstrom, but I do not recall his first name.

Mr. Tavenner. Let me suggest this to you: If any of the persons whose names you are giving withdrew from the Communist Party, or if you have any facts indicating a change of affiliation, I think you should give those facts to us.

Mr. Dennett. Well, I have no knowledge of any of these people whom I have mentioned having done so.

There were a couple of women who were certainly the most reliable people for us in the sense that—remember we were in difficult times, and eating was a difficult problem. And both of these women did work outside, and they had a loyalty to their neighbors and friends. Bellingham, you have to understand, is a comparatively small town. People in it live much closer together than they do in a larger city. Neighbors are a little better acquainted with each other. Consequently, any suffering in the neighborhood arouses a deeper response among people who are better acquainted than it does among total strangers.

And these women extended themselves greatly to aid those of us who didn’t have any adequate income or any adequate subsistence. I understand that both of these women have since left the Communist Party. Do you want me to name them now?

Mr. Tavenner. Was that in 1932?

Mr. Dennett. Yes; it was.

Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, I suggest we take that testimony an executive session, if he is convinced that they have left the party.

Mr. Moulder. I suggest that you withhold the names and not announce them; this information will be given to the committee in executive session.

Mr. Dennett. That answers all about the persons who were there at the time of my arrival.

Before I left the following persons were developed into leadership——

Mr. Tavenner. Before telling us about that, have you given us the names of all others in the Communist Party group who were there when you arrived?

Mr. Dennett. Yes; all of those whom I have named were officers. They held functioning positions.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you proceed, then, with a description of the identity of those who were developed into leadership after you arrived.

Mr. Dennett. I should preface that by remarking that upon my arrival in Bellingham the Ku Klux Klan was very active in Whatcom County. It was a practice for them at that time to burn the fiery cross frequently in various places of the county. And I was informed that they had a very considerable membership in the county.

I learned that some of those Klansmen were quite disillusioned with the activities of the Klan. I made a practice of trying to contact various persons whom I learned had been disillusioned by their activities in the Klan. And I have been trying my level best to think of the name of a particular man who was an officer in the Klan whom I did succeed in recruiting into the Communist Party. But I have been unable to remember that man’s name. I can only give this description, that he was in the Sumas area and that he was a sheet-metal worker. And that is the best that I can recall about him. It is quite possible that if some of the other persons I mention, if they were asked, they probably would remember him because he was a neighbor of theirs.

In this connection 2 very fine young men, one John Brockway and another one, Harold Brockway, were working out on their father’s farm. Nothing to do. And they were quite intrigued by the prospect which we held forth as the new life which would come under a Soviet rule.

There was a young man at that time by the name of Mel Luddington.

There was a very old man by the name of A. A. Johnson. I would expect that because of his advanced age at that time he may not still be alive.

Mr. Tavenner. May I suggest that if you have information as to any of the persons being deceased that you not give us their names, unless they performed some outstanding service for the Communist Party which we should know about.

Mr. Dennett. I do not know.

Then, of course, I have mentioned George Bradley.

Mr. Tavenner. I should have asked you to spell some of these names, the spelling of which may be uncertain. Will you go back, please?

Mr. Dennett. Yes.

Mr. Tavenner. What is the spelling of Brockway?

Mr. Dennett. B-r-o-c-k-w-a-y.

Mr. Tavenner. Luddington?

Mr. Dennett. Luddington, L-u-d-d-i-n-g-t-o-n.

Mr. Tavenner. Johnson?

Mr. Dennett. J-o-h-n-s-o-n.

Mr. Tavenner. Bradley? B-r-a-d-l-e-y?

Mr. Dennett. Yes.

Mr. Dennett. There was one other person I see that I have omitted, a fellow by the name of Ed Hanke. I think he had a brother, too, that was in. But I do not recall the brother’s name.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you spell the name, please.

Mr. Dennett. H-a-n-k-e.

Mr. Tavenner. You mentioned a little earlier that several people from this area were trained in Moscow and attended the Lenin Institute. I believe you named 2 of them from this area. Who were the 2?

Mr. Dennett. One was Alex Noral. The other was Hutchin R. Hutchins.

Mr. Tavenner. Were there any others?

Mr. Dennett. Yes.

James Bourne, B-o-u-r-n-e.

I think there were more than that, but I cannot at this moment place them.

I remember that in 1932 there was an organization known as the Friends of the Soviet Union, which was inspired by and under the leadership of the Communist Party, and its purpose was to take delegations to the Soviet Union to win their support and approval of the Soviet Union and what it was doing. And I recall one experience with a longshoreman from Tacoma. I cannot for the life of me think of his name. But he went to the Soviet Union on one of these Friends-of-the-Soviet-Union tours, came back, made the prepared speeches which the Friends of the Soviet Union asked him to make, and proceeded afterward to go around and make speeches contradicting his original speeches, stating that he did not realize how much harm he was doing by presenting the Soviet Union as the land of paradise, that he was quite disappointed with what he found when he found all the women doing the heavy work. And that seemed to be the chief thing that he objected to.

Mr. Tavenner. What was the date of your transfer back to Seattle?

Mr. Dennett. It was some time late in 1933.

Mr. Tavenner. How long did you remain as agitprop, agitation propagandist in Seattle?

Mr. Dennett. Not very long. It seems to be an office in which there are many casualties because one, to fill that position, has to have a broad knowledge of the theoretical works of the party. And I can assure this committee that there is a great deal of written material on the subject which it takes a lifetime to study. I did the best I knew how at mastering a knowledge of it, but I then found out that the things which I had learned in the theoretical sense were not always respected by those who were in the administrative positions of the party, and frequently they would disregard my knowledge of the theoretical work and try to make it appear as though I was far off the line.

And there was constant conflict. Rappaport, when he came into the district, found many practical problems that didn’t lend themselves to the theoretical solutions which I found, and he, being a man of a great deal more experience and much more authority, made short work of me.

Mr. Tavenner. Can you tell us the approximate period of time that you remained in that position? You said not long. But give us a more adequate idea.

Mr. Dennett. It was only a couple of months, I believe. I do not recall the exact circumstances which arose. But there was some conflict, some specific conflict in which Rappaport convinced me that I was completely wrong, and required that I submit a statement to the party in which I admit that I was completely wrong.

I believe that you have a copy of that. I cannot put my finger on a copy now.

I did precisely what I was requested to do as a sign of my obedience.

I have found my own statement. I think I could put it in.

Mr. Tavenner. May I see it, please.

(Document handed to Mr. Tavenner.)

Mr. Tavenner. Will you state to the committee, please, what the error was which you were induced to confess?

Mr. Dennett. I have been trying to think what it is. I can’t even recall now what it was. In fact, I had completely forgotten the incident until Mr. Wheeler ran across it and asked me what it was.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you read it in evidence, please.

Mr. Dennett. (reading):

Statement of V. Haines * * * Eugene Dennett

To the District Buro, District 12, CPUSA:

I have made a political error, in consequence of which I have been removed from the functions of district agitprop director.

I agree with the decision.

It is my responsibility to the party to prove myself by correct rank-and-file activity.

Comradely submitted,

V. Haines * * * Eugene Dennett.

Mr. Tavenner. I desire to introduce the paper in evidence, and ask that it be marked “Dennett Exhibit No. 9.”

Mr. Moulder. The above statement will be identified as “Dennett Exhibit No. 9” in the record.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell the committee, please, what the organization setup was of the Communist Party in Seattle during the 2 periods when you served here as agitprop?

Mr. Dennett. Well, the first period the party consisted almost exclusively of what we called a skidroad branch. Almost all the membership of the party was transient workers who lived on or about the skidroad. And when Rappaport came in—speaking now of the second period—Rappaport raised cain over the fact that the membership was all transient, insisting that the party must root itself in the neighborhoods. It must become acquainted with the permanent citizens, not those who were called the boomers or the floaters, those who used Seattle as a mail headquarters and holed up during the winter or off season but left the city during their construction work, which most of them followed.

And he used the technique of developing neighborhood branches out of those who were members of the unemployed citizens leagues or unemployed councils, and from those, as people went to work in industry, he tried to develop shop or factory, what we call nuclei.

Most of the success in that field occurred among the lumber workers because they were among the first to get out and get back to work out in the woods, the loggers.

So we had still the problem of maintaining contact with them. It was very difficult to do.

Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell the committee, please, who were the functionaries of the Communist Party in Seattle during those two periods.

Mr. Dennett. The first one I think we have covered, when we mention Mr. Alex Noral, Fred Walker, Jim Bourne, B-o-u-r-n-e, Mr. John Lawrie. I think that is L-a-w-r-i-e. John Lawrie, Sr.

There was a Mr. Ed Leavitt, L-e-a-v-i-t-t.

They were the leading functionaries with whom I worked at that time.

Mr. Tavenner. After you were removed as agitprop what was your next activity in the Communist Party?

Mr. Dennett. I had to become a good rank-and-file member and work in the unemployed-citizens leagues. Yes; by that time the Communists had taken over a number of the locals of the unemployed-citizens leagues in the city of Seattle, and were making a strong bid to take over the top leadership, the central UCL. And I was working in the skid-road local of the unemployed-citizens leagues, and was living in the soup line.

Mr. Tavenner. How long did that continue?

Mr. Dennett. That continued until I went into the CCC’s.

Mr. Tavenner. Can you give us the approximate date?

Mr. Dennett. I think it was in April 1934.

Mr. Moulder. In what capacity did you go into the CCC?

Mr. Dennett. As an enlisted man.

Mr. Moulder. Wasn’t that a program where there was a chairman in each community or county? Or section of a city?

Mr. Dennett. No. This is the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Mr. Moulder. Yes; I know. And they were given so much employment in each county or each section of the city, and someone had to pass upon those. Is that the program where you were paid so much and the parents would receive so much?

Mr. Dennett. That is true. That is the program. I think you are correct, sir, in saying there was a quota allotment for each community. I think you are right.

But in this particular case that was not involved in mine because the camps that we were recruited to were known as LEM’s or local experience man camps. We were making new camps. We were doing the heavy construction work and making camps that would later be taken over by the young people that you are thinking of that were assigned by quota. You are quite correct. That is the program. I had forgotten that part of it.

And that evidently is what happened, an allotment had been made as to the number that could come out of the Seattle soup line, and I was one of those that was able to volunteer and got into it.

Mr. Tavenner. How long did you remain a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps?

Mr. Dennett. Until July of 1935.

Mr. Tavenner. Did you engage in any Communist Party activities during that period?

Mr. Dennett. That is a question that is open to dispute. I didn’t think that I did. But the company commander thought that I did. So he proceeded to have me expelled from the CCC.

Mr. Tavenner. What was the nature of the activity in which you did engage and which resulted in your expulsion?

Mr. Dennett. When I became a member of the CCC there was provision for the Army to administer the camps, the Forest Service to administer the work, and for an educational director to supervise the training. And there was provision for an educational director to have an assistant who could be selected from among those enlistees who were a part of the company. I was chosen as the assistant educational director.

Mr. Tavenner. Were you advised by the Communist Party to get into the CCC camps for any propaganda purpose?

Mr. Dennett. No; I was not. On the contrary, in my instance, they said, “You had better stay away from that Fascist outfit because it is just a place where they are going to give military training and get ready for the next imperialist war, and we don’t want you to be in it.”

Mr. Moulder. Wasn’t it in the nature of a relief program?

Mr. Dennett. Yes.

Mr. Moulder. And naturally the Communist Party was opposed to the relief program, and wanted people generally to stay in the depression. Wasn’t that the policy or wishes of the Communist Party?

Mr. Dennett. That would be one way of putting it, and probably the way that many people viewed it. I didn’t look at it that way myself at that time. But I can’t dispute that point of view. The point that I started to speak of was that I was selected as the assistant educational director, and, frankly, I took quite seriously the literature which was sent from the United States Office of Education to the camps.

And among the points which were emphasized in this literature was the necessity of teaching the democratic process of government. But it has always been my experience that when you try to carry out the teaching of the democratic process of government and you come in contact with the military, sometimes they don’t quite agree with you. And in this particular instance my efforts to carry out the literature and carry out the educational program which came from John W. Studebaker’s office, the United States Office of Education, met with considerable resistance on the part of the company commander. He just didn’t like the idea. It sounded to him as though it was communistic for people to be talking about democracy and talking about having some way of resolving grievances and difficulties and that sort of thing through the democratic legislative method. And we came into sharp conflict over that.

Of course, I finally gave him the excuse which he was looking for. Some of these workers in the camp were from the soup line with me—most of them were. They knew me around Seattle and they knew that I had been an agitator on the waterfront and on the skidroad. I had held many meetings on the skidroad. So I was well known to these men. And they asked me to conduct a course in sociology. I had some knowledge on the subject, and I had some textbooks of my own which I had used, which I had studied when I was going to the university. One of those was a book entitled “Contemporary Social Movements” by Jerome Davis. I had that book. And, of course, that book attempts to survey all the then current social, political, and economic philosophies that were occupying the attention of various people throughout the world, including the Communists and the Fascists, the Soviet Union and what was going on in Italy, and that sort of thing, and also in Germany. So I proceeded to answer the request of these workers to have a class in contemporary social movements.

The company commander attended two sessions of the class. And he attended those two sessions where I was using this text to describe the Communist system in the Soviet Union and the Fascist system in Italy. And he decided that that was subversive propaganda and should not be conducted, and he accused me of spreading subversive propaganda in the camp.

Mr. Moulder. Then were you expelled?

Mr. Dennett. Yes.

Mr. Tavenner. Wasn’t his accusation correct?

Mr. Dennett. I think that his accusation was misplaced. I was making as honest an effort as I knew how to make an objective study. And there seems to be a great deal of difficulty in these days, as there was then, to determine the difference between an objective presentation of a factual situation with respect to a controversial subject without being accused of propagandizing for it. It is a difficult point.

Mr. Tavenner. In what work after your removal from the Civilian Conservation Corps did you engage?

Mr. Dennett. That is when I was shanghaied on to a boat here on the waterfront in Seattle.

Mr. Tavenner. Now I think, Mr. Chairman, that is a subject that we will reserve discussion for until later. But I would like to ask at this time, if the chairman will issue a subpena duces tecum requiring the witness to present to the staff all of the documents which he now has in his possession. By that I do not mean the committee is going to remove them in such a way that the witness will not have access to them, but in order that we may keep those documents intact until the committee staff has been able to fully examine them.

Mr. Moulder. The subpena will be issued.

Mr. Tavenner. Is there any objection to that on your part?

(The witness confers with his counsel.)

Mr. Dennett. I have just conferred with my counsel, and we wondered whether or not you included books.

Mr. Tavenner. There may be some books which the committee would like to have included. However, the committee would not be interested in those books which it already has in its possession.

Mr. Moulder. Whatever counsel will require will be set forth in the subpena.

Mr. Tavenner. I wanted to be certain that the witness is agreeable to it. We could do it without his agreement, but I prefer to find out if he is agreeable.

(The witness confers with his counsel.)

Mr. Dennett. I have conferred with my counsel, and he has raised the question with me: Can I provide adequate protection for the documents which seem to have such importance. And, frankly, I have some misgivings as to whether I can furnish as good protection for them as perhaps the committee can. So I am agreeable to whatever the committee wishes to do.

Mr. Tavenner. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Moulder. The committee will stand in recess. However, I wish to announce that immediately after the recess Mr. Johnston and Mr. Carlson should make themselves available for recall appearances before the committee.

The committee will stand in recess for a period of 10 minutes.

(Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)

Mr. Moulder. The committee will be in order.

The committee is informed that the witness Jerry O’Connell has counsel appearing for him.

Mr. Hatten. Yes.

Mr. Moulder. Please come forward.

STATEMENT OF C. T. HATTEN, ATTORNEY AT LAW, SEATTLE, WASH.

Mr. Hatten. I was in attendance all day yesterday. However, I was not authorized to speak for Mr. O’Connell. I understood that he had wired and otherwise contacted the chairman of this committee, Representative Walter, and had expected to receive word from him.

The reason for Mr. O’Connell’s not appearing here is the fact that he has had an acute heart attack, and has had a heart condition for a considerable period of time.

I have with me a letter from Dr. Harry McGregor, Great Falls, Mont., which gives the results of an examination made on March 15, and which concludes that——

Mr. Moulder. Will you read the letter into the record?

Mr. Hatten. I can hand the letter over and make it a part of the record if the chairman wishes. I merely wanted to state that it concludes that he is advised not to attend, or to withhold from the duties set forth in the subpena.

Of course, I appreciate that the committee may want to have him examined by an independent physician, and I am sure that whatever the committee’s desires are in that regard will be agreeable with Mr. O’Connell, or in the event that the committee should desire to examine him in Great Falls, Mont., at some later continued hearing. One of the problems is the distance that he would have to travel under his condition. He would either have to come by plane, or, in the absence of that, travel over the mountain passes, which would seriously affect his health.

Mr. Velde. I do not want to violate any of your rights as to attorney-client relationship, but have you talked to Mr. O’Connell personally?

Mr. Hatten. No, I did not.

Mr. Velde. You mentioned that he had previously requested Mr. Walter, the chairman of the full committee——

Mr. Hatten. I understand that he has communicated with Representative Walter, yes.

Mr. Velde. Do you know the date of that?

Mr. Hatten. I do not.

Mr. Velde. Mr. Chairman, I think it should be made a matter of record that Mr. O’Connell was duly subpenaed on—what was the date?

Mr. Moulder. The eighth of March.

Mr. Velde. The 8th day of March and up until this moment we have not received any type of communication from Mr. O’Connell.

While, of course, we always have been very lenient as far as the witnesses who have medical ailments are concerned, however, it has always been the custom—and I think probably Mr. O’Connell knows about this, too—for a medical affidavit to be filed promptly. In this case it certainly hasn’t been prompt.

Mr. Hatten. That depends upon the period of time when he had the attack. He certainly couldn’t advise the committee on the date of the subpena of his inability to attend if the reason why he couldn’t attend was an attack which occurred later.

Mr. Tavenner. Is that the situation?

Mr. Hatten. I couldn’t advise the committee. The committee will undoubtedly go into this further, and the exact dates and situations will be discovered.

I have not been in Great Falls, Mont., and I don’t want to make any representations.

Mr. Moulder. You aren’t making an appearance? You are simply presenting this letter?

Mr. Hatten. That is correct.

Mr. Moulder. Very well.

Will you call Mr. Johnston as a witness?