Chapter VI: Part 6

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment.

Mr. WHEELER. Have they instituted charges against you to remove you from membership in the union?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment.

Mr. WHEELER. What has been your educational background, Mr. Kroener?

Mr. KROENER. First half year of the eighth grade of grammar school.

Mr. WHEELER. In Seattle?

Mr. KROENER. Yes.

Mr. WHEELER. How have you been employed?

Mr. KROENER. When I was younger I worked in logging camps and did odd jobs in the steel mills, and as a welder. And, oh, since about 1941 and 1942 I have worked in the machine trade.

Mr. WHEELER. In the machine trade?

Mr. KROENER. Yes.

Mr. WHEELER. For what companies have you worked as a machinist?

Mr. KROENER. I don’t remember all of them exactly, and I couldn’t say the times I have worked for a number of the uptown shops and marine yards in Seattle. Some of them have gone out of business. Gibson’s has gone out of business. And I worked at Washington Iron Works and marine yards around Seattle.

Mr. WHEELER. Do you know who just preceded you on the witness stand?

(The witness confers with his counsel.)

Mr. KROENER. I wish to again invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds of self-incrimination.

Mr. WHEELER. Were you present in the hearing room when Mr. Eugene Robel testified?

Mr. KROENER. I was present.

Mr. WHEELER. Are you acquainted with him?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment.

Mr. WHEELER. Were you present in the hearing room when Mr. Harold Johnston testified?

Mr. KROENER. I was present.

Mr. WHEELER. Are you acquainted with Mr. Harold Johnston?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment.

Mr. WHEELER. Is it a fact that the three individuals I just mentioned, along with you and other people, were members of a cell within the machinists union?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds of self-incrimination.

Mr. MOULDER. Do you have any knowledge as to the action taken by a machinists union referred to by Mr. Wheeler in expelling members from that union where there is evidence of their Communist affiliations?

Mr. KROENER. I believe there may be some such program going on, but I am not too well acquainted with it. So I couldn’t answer it too clearly.

Mr. MOULDER. Is the reason why you refuse to answer because of the fear you might be expelled from the union?

(The witness confers with his counsel.)

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment on the ground that the answer may tend to incriminate me.

Mr. MOULDER. Do you have knowledge and information that the union referred to is exercising its efforts to rid its ranks of persons who are Communists?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment.

Mr. MOULDER. I hope the witness has contributed to the union’s effort.

Mr. WHEELER. When and where you were born, Mr. Kroener?

Mr. KROENER. Seattle, Wash., April 8, 1920.

Mr. WHEELER. Are you acquainted with Mrs. Barbara Hartle?

Mr. KROENER. Again I invoke the fifth amendment.

Mr. WHEELER. Did you know that Mrs. Hartle, in her testimony as a witness before this committee in June 1954, identified you as a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. KROENER. Again I invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds of self-incrimination.

Mr. WHEELER. Have no comment other than that concerning her testimony?

Mr. KROENER. No.

Mr. VELDE. Mr. Wheeler, do you have the testimony of Mrs. Hartle there?

Mr. WHEELER. I do, sir.

Mr. VELDE. Will you read it for the record, please?

Mr. WHEELER. Mrs. Hartle, during a portion of the testimony discussing the industrial branch of the Communist Party, was questioned by Mr. Tavenner:

Will you tell the committee, please, whether or not there was any
important function that Elmer Thrasher performed in the industrial
section of the party?

Mrs. HARTLE. He was chairman of a branch in the
industrial section, in the building trades. He was a member of one
of the building-trades unions--the carpenters union.

Another one whom I recall is Ed Kroener. He lived in the Duwamish
Bend area, in the Duwamish Bend housing project, with his wife,
Donna Kroener, who was a member of the south King region and the
Duwamish Bend Club, but he was a member of the industrial section
inasmuch as he was a member of the Machinists Union, Local No. 79.

Do you wish to comment on that testimony, Mr. Kroener?

Mr. KROENER. No.

Mr. VELDE. To what period of time was Mrs. Hartle referring?

Mr. WHEELER. To what period of time, Mr. Kroener, was she referring?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds of self-incrimination.

Mr. WHEELER. Mr. Kroener, did you at any time participate as an individual within the Progressive Party in 1948 in the State of Washington?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds of self-incrimination.

Mr. WHEELER. Are you a member of the Communist Party today?

Mr. KROENER. Again I wish to invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds of self-incrimination.

Mr. WHEELER. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MOULDER. Mr. Velde?

Mr. VELDE. I have just one brief question. How could your acquaintanceship with Mrs. Hartle or Mr. Johnston or the other witnesses whom you were asked about tend to incriminate you?

(The witness confers with his counsel.)

Mr. KROENER. The answer to that question may open up a whole field of other questions, and, therefore, I wish to invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds of self-incrimination.

Mr. MOULDER. Do you have anything else you wish to say in explanation of your presence or your appearance here?

Are you married?

Mr. KROENER. Yes.

Mr. MOULDER. Do you have a family?

Mr. KROENER. Yes.

Mr. MOULDER. Did you serve in the Armed Forces of the United States?

Mr. KROENER. Yes.

Mr. MOULDER. In what capacity and what branch?

Mr. KROENER. I was in the Marine Corps, 1944, 1945, and 1946, South Pacific and China.

Mr. MOULDER. Is there anything further you wish to say?

Mr. KROENER. That is all.

Mr. MOULDER. The witness is excused.

(Whereupon the witness was excused.)

The committee will stand recessed until tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock.

(Whereupon, at 4:57 p. m., the committee was recessed, to be reconvened at 9 a. m., Friday, March 18, 1955.) [Blank Page]

INVESTIGATION OF COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES IN THE SEATTLE, WASH., AREA

FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1955

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES,

_Seattle, Wash._

PUBLIC HEARING

A subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met, pursuant to recess, at 9 a. m., in Room 402, County-City Building, Seattle, Wash., Hon. Morgan M. Moulder (chairman) presiding.

Committee members present: Representatives Morgan M. Moulder (chairman) and Harold H. Velde (appearance as noted).

Staff members present: Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., counsel; William A. Wheeler, staff investigator.

Mr. MOULDER. The subcommittee will be in order.

Mr. Counsel, call the witness you wish to examine.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, I would like to recall Mr. Dennett at this time.

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.

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.

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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“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.”

_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.