I have previously mentioned Ernie Fox, who was in the Sailors Union of the Pacific.
Mr. Tavenner. Let me suggest that we not lose time by repeating any of those that you have already named.
Mr. Dennett. I knew his wife very well. She went by the name of Elsie Gilland, G-i-l-l-a-n-d. One day a very peculiar thing occurred to me. Mr. Harry Jackson came to me with a request. He said that he had received an application card from a Mr. Roy Atkinson, and asked me whether I felt Mr. Atkinson could possibly really mean to join the Communist Party.
I expressed my belief that I didn’t think he could because I had never seen anything on his behavior which would indicate any sympathy toward the Communist Party. He said, “Well, we have received an application from him. We have received dues. Instead of doing anything about it we will not issue a card to him, and we will not let him be assigned to any branch. We are suspicious of that application. So we will not honor it.” Mr. Atkinson was an active official in the CIO, and I thought that it was quite a ridiculous thing myself.
Mr. Tavenner. In other words, you thought that he desired to join the Communist Party in order to obtain information of its activities.
Mr. Dennett. That was my opinion.
Mr. Tavenner. Rather than to become genuinely a member of the Communist Party.
Mr. Dennett. Yes.
Two persons who came to this area from the national office were known very well to me, Mr. Andrew Remes—and I know that that is not his proper name—but I don’t know what his proper name was. That was a party name. And it was always spelled R-e-m-e-s, as far as I remember.
One of his associates, who also came from the East, was Mr. Lou Sass—S-a-s-s.