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.