The leaders of the Washington Commonwealth Federation were terribly
disturbed by the nature of the campaign that we were carrying on, that
is, the Communists.
Mr. TAVENNER. I should think it would be a rather confusing campaign
where the Communist Party, in order to defeat it, actually supported it.
Mr. DENNETT. That is true. It was very confusing to everyone, even to
us at times.
Mr. TAVENNER. That is a very interesting thing. The Communist Party,
in order to defeat this measure, went out and conducted a state-wide
campaign in favor of it. But in order to accomplish its defeat, if I
understand you correctly, the Communist Party so represented the issues
that people would be bound to vote against it.
Mr. DENNETT. That is true.
Mr. MOULDER. I understood the situation to be that because of Communist
Party support of the measure, the public sentiment opposed it.
Mr. DENNETT. Not necessarily so, sir, because they didn’t know that we
who were speaking were Communists. They thought we were representatives
of the Washington Commonwealth Federation.
Mr. MOULDER. Proceed.
Mr. DENNETT. There is triple deception in this maneuver, which is
rather hard to follow. I hope I have explained it.
Mr. TAVENNER. I am afraid that the point may not be absolutely clear in
the record, and I want to be sure that it is clear:
If I understand you correctly, it was not the fact that the Communist
Party was supporting this measure that caused its defeat.
Mr. DENNETT. You are correct, sir. That was not the reason. It was the
way we, as disguised Communists, carried on the campaign, ostensibly
for it, but, in fact, against it.
Mr. TAVENNER. In other words, your representations were of such a
character as to make known the weaknesses in the bill; and a person
would actually think you were supporting it.
Mr. DENNETT. True. You understand it quite clearly.
Mr. TAVENNER. I think the bill was properly named when you used the
word “initiative” because that certainly is the use of initiative.
I am glad to know it is Communist Party initiative. It is a very
deceptive type of campaign.
Mr. DENNETT. Mr. Tavenner and Mr. Chairman, I would like to make one
observation about my testimony earlier this afternoon.
I get the feeling, and I have a fear that perhaps people listening to
this presentation might think that because of my testimony I was the
only figure who was active in the Washington Commonwealth Federation
carrying on this activity.
I hope that no one assumes that because I was one of a team. There were
several others.
Mr. TAVENNER. Who composed the team?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, I didn’t mean to bring that up because I don’t like
to have to do that. But I was fearful that people might think I was too
much of a braggart in this thing, and I don’t mean to be because it is
all ancient history and I am simply trying to furnish such information
as I know of my own knowledge about that experience so that other
people may comprehend it in full.
Mr. TAVENNER. I am sure, Mr. Dennett, that the committee, having heard
as many witnesses as it has on the subject of communism, recognizes
that it is teamwork that has enabled the Communist Party to get where
it is, rather than grandstand playing.
Who were the other members of the team?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, that takes me into a description of the district
bureau of the Communist Party in that particular period.
As I look back over it I might call it the golden age of the Communist
Party’s efforts in the Northwest because it did at that time enjoy,
that is, the leaders of the Communist Party did enjoy a relationship
among each other and among themselves, and in the organizations to
which each were members--they did enjoy a very full and rich democratic
experience in procedure.
This, I think, was due largely to the efforts of Mr. Morris Rappaport
who was the district organizer whom I mentioned earlier, who had, by
his adroitness in calling the political moves, established himself in
the eyes of the central committee of the Communist Party of the United
States as a person capable of directing the political activities in the
Northwest without the need of daily supervision on the part of national
headquarters of the Communist Party. In other words, they did accord
him the recognition that comes of confidence that he knew what he was
doing and was capable of carrying it out.
And I am quite certain that the way he coordinated the efforts of each
of us in the district bureau at that time were so gratifying to the
central committee that most of the members of the central committee
didn’t dare to try to interfere with our efforts for fear that they
might be responsible for upsetting the applecart so to speak.
Now in that team were, first of all, Mr. Morris Rappaport, the district
organizer. His right-hand man, who was also the trade-union secretary
of the district, was a man known to me by the name of Henry or Harry
Jackson. I know that that is not his real name, but I do not know what
his real name was. That was his party name. That is the only name I
knew him by in this area.
Mr. TAVENNER. How long was he in this area?
Mr. DENNETT. He came shortly after Morris Rappaport came.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did he come from New York?
Mr. DENNETT. He did. His original home was San Francisco.
Mr. TAVENNER. I am sure we know him.
Mr. DENNETT. Mr. Jackson had his early training in the Marine Workers
Industrial Union organizing maritime workers. He came here originally
for that purpose, and then his assignment was switched to that of
trade-union secretary for the district in the Northwest.
I was one of his closest associates because I was footloose and free
and available to carry the Jimmy Higgins load that had to be carried at
that time. We were working daily and devoting all of our time to that
effort.
We had a few people who were prominent in the University of Washington
at that time who were active members of our district bureau. One was
Mr. Harold Ebey, E-b-e-y.
And another was Mr. Hugh DeLacy.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was he at one time a Member of Congress?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, he is the same person who was called as a
witness before this committee at Dayton, Ohio, in September 1954, and
who refused to answer material questions on the ground that to do so
might tend to incriminate him.
Mr. DENNETT. I mentioned Mr. DeLacy’s name with a great deal of regret
because I was a very close associate of Mr. DeLacy and I had a great
deal of respect for him, and he for me. It is only under the compulsion
of the subpena and the fact that I am testifying and I have to testify
when I mention his name. I do so with regret. I wish the rules
were such that it wasn’t necessary because it is a source of great
embarrassment to me. But I feel that I owe a big obligation to the men
that I work for, and, under the rules as constituted by this committee
and the way it is operating, I have no choice in the matter.
I make my apologies to Mr. DeLacy for having to do this. I regret it.
But at the same time, in the long run, I don’t think it is going to
hurt him, and I think it may do him some good. I hope so.
Others who were prominent in the district bureau were, of course, Mr.
Howard Costigan, Mr. Jess Fletcher, Mr. William K. Dobbins, Mr. Karley
Larsen.
Mr. TAVENNER. Let me make this suggestion to you.
If you know whether any of these persons whose names you have
mentioned, testified publicly before this or other committees and
acknowledged their Communist Party membership and a withdrawal from the
Communist Party, I think you should state it.
Mr. DENNETT. I can state that about three persons whom I know. I know
that Mr. Jess Fletcher separated from the Communist Party, and he has
testified in a number of instances. He began testifying before the
Canwell committee when he was separated from the Communist Party and
from his union as a consequence of that fight. He later testified
before a number of Government agencies in a number of court cases.
Mr. Howard Costigan testified before this committee. I read his
testimony in the proceedings which have been published by the committee.
Mr. Harold Ebey also appeared before the Canwell committee and
testified there. He is out of the Communist Party and has been for
quite a considerable period of time. At least, I believe, since this
period 1936, 1937, and 1938.
Costigan is out of the Communist Party. He left shortly after later
political difficulties arose, which I will soon get into.
There may have been a few others who were in and out of the district
bureau. This district bureau was the leading body, the leading organ
in the district. It was the top body which had the top authority to
determine party policy in this area.
At one time I believe there were about 12 or 14 members of this bureau.
It may have been confined to nine. I have some recollection that there
were nine members officially on the bureau, but there were a few who
were candidates. That is, they were the next alternates to become
members in the event of any vacancy on the bureau so that we could
always have a reserve to fill any vacancies which might occur.
That district bureau covered the Northwest area which were the States
of, at that time, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska.
Mr. TAVENNER. Do I understand you to mean that it was that group of
individuals who took the leadership in the work within the Washington
Commonwealth Federation?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes; they did.
Mr. Rappaport could not directly participate in the work of the
Washington Commonwealth Federation because he was what was generally
called the face of the party. He was the official representative of the
party. And the Washington Commonwealth Federation, even though there
were Communist leaders in it, it at no time accepted an affiliation
from the Communist Party, and it at no time would acknowledge a
Communist as a Communist in the organization unless it be someone like
Rappaport who had the authority to represent the party as such.
By that I mean that if I presented myself to the Washington
Commonwealth Federation to speak on any matter or to urge anything
before its body, I could not speak in the name of the Communist Party
even though other members of that executive board may know that I was
a member of the Communist Party. I could not speak as a Communist. I
could only speak as a member of that executive board, and it was the
presumption that I was representing the affiliate from which I had been
sent as a delegate.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, which of these
Communist Party bureau members became officials in the Washington
Commonwealth Federation.
Mr. DENNETT. Mr. Costigan already was an official. He was the executive
secretary.
Mr. DeLacy became the president of the Washington Commonwealth
Federation.