Mr. Tavenner. How long did you attend this course of training?
Mr. Dennett. I think it was about 3 months.
Mr. Tavenner. Was it an intensive training course?
Mr. Dennett. Yes; it was. I believe the classes were at least twice a week, and there was a great deal of reading and study to be done with it. And they found that I was a ready and willing subject. So they assigned reports to me very frequently. And I made many of them.
Mr. Tavenner. How soon after the completion of that work, or was it during the period of that course of training that you became a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. Dennett. It was during that time. I think within 6 weeks after I started they satisfied themselves that I was sincerely trying to be a good Communist.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell the committee, please, what mechanics were used for bringing you into the party?
Mr. Dennett. Well, at that time the party was what is generally referred to as underground. They were very much afraid of their own existence and their own identity. And they were particularly fearful of agents of the police entering their ranks. And they viewed all persons with great suspicion, especially these foreign-born workers. And they used to spend a great deal of time talking with me, inquiring into every phase of my life and my background and my existence, giving me in their own way the third degree to determine whether or not I was trustworthy and whether or not I was worth being a member of the ranks.
Mr. Tavenner. Now as you look back upon it, do you think that that careful study of your past and your capabilities was rather in the way of choosing you for future leadership in the party as distinguished from membership in the Communist Party?
Mr. Dennett. No. I think that so far as they were concerned, they looked upon all persons entering the party as equals. That is, they did not predetermine who was going to be a leader and who wasn’t going to be a leader. But they were determined to work each new member to the utmost until they got the most out of each one that they could. And in my case I responded by studying very intensely, and they had great hopes that I would develop into the kind of leader which they needed.