Mr. Tavenner. That had nothing to do with reporting to any agency of Communist Party activities as such?
Mr. Dennett. No; it did not.
Mr. Tavenner. But it was just a matter of reporting things which interfered with the war effort in industry?
Mr. Dennett. That is true.
Among the things that she found, some of the outstanding things, was one occasion pertaining to the Tacoma shipyards. She learned by various sources—friends that she knew in the labor movement—that the shipyard had been in operation for a period of around 10 months or more and still didn’t have a ship on the ways. She made a number of inquiries as to how they could account for such a thing, and at one point she ran across a name that rang a bell with her.
She started to do a little probing, and found out that this name was the same as that of a person who had been removed from the navy yard some time before, either 2 or 3 years before, maybe. It might have been longer than that. But the person had been removed as a Fascist. He was known to be a member of a Silver Shirt organization.
Lo and behold, this person turns up as the production supervisor or superintendent in this particular shipyard.
Anyway, she submitted a report of all the information she had gathered on the subject. Within a couple of weeks’ time this person was removed from his position, and within a short time afterward ships were on the ways in that shipyard and production started booming. We could only draw a conclusion that her information had, certainly, some value.
Mr. Tavenner. We will be very much interested to hear of other occasions, but, because of the shortness of time, we will have to move on.
The point is, that before undertaking that type of work your wife conferred with the leadership of the Communist Party and obtained approval.