Mr. TAVENNER. Do you recall whether the first name was Kate or Kay?
Mr. DENNETT. I knew her by the name of Kate, K-a-t-e.
Now the other day Mr. Wheeler asked me to think of the names of persons
whom I knew, and I wrote down those which came to my mind in an offhand
sort of way. Now in speaking of these names I want to again reiterate
my personal moral objection to being called upon to bring to public
notice the names of people whom I did know in the Communist Party
for the reason that I think it is much better for them to speak for
themselves.
Mr. TAVENNER. Just a moment. If you can devise some plan for Communists
speaking for themselves without the committee ascertaining their names
we would be glad to have the suggestion.
Mr. DENNETT. Maybe when I get through they might want to.
Mr. TAVENNER. I might say the committee has to take the responsibility
for asking you these questions, and realizes that it is not being
generously given.
(At this point Representative Harold H. Velde left the hearing room.)
Mr. DENNETT. Well, I make the point of my objection for the reason that
among nearly all of my friends are people who believe in bending over
backwards the other way to protect the good name of any person. And I
fear the consequences to the individuals.
I mean I just hate to be a party to doing anything which will in
anywise injure any of them. I trust that the way in which this is done
it will not injure them. However, I know that they are going to suffer
some embarrassment as a consequence of it. However, the names that I am
going to submit to you are persons who were known to me to be members
of the Communist Party, and I am sure they knew what they were doing
when they were members of the Communist Party.
These names are somewhat scattered. In order to expedite the business,
I think I should go down through those that I have not previously
mentioned to you, and make their identification so that we can get on
to other matters which I know counsel wishes to cover.
Mr. TAVENNER. Please proceed.
(The witness confers with his counsel.)
Mr. DENNETT. Long ago, I knew a man by the name of Revels Cayton, who
was the head of the International Labor Defense.
C-a-y-t-o-n is the last name, Revels--R-e-v-e-l-s, the first name.
Later, I knew Mr. Cayton as an official in the Marine Cooks and
Stewards of the Pacific union.[8]
Way back in the unemployed days I knew a man by the name of Iver Moe,
I-v-e-r M-o-e.
Iver Moe’s importance and significance is that he led an unemployed
demonstration in Anacortes to a privately owned store which had
foodstuffs in its stock, and the populace of Anacortes helped
themselves. Mr. Moe was one of the leaders of that group, and was
prosecuted for it. He was a member of the Communist Party at the
time he did this. He thought he was doing the right thing. And, as a
consequence, he was put on trial and was convicted and sentenced, and I
know that he was turned against the Communist Party as a consequence of
that experience.
(At this point Representative Harold H. Velde returned to the hearing
room.)
Mr. DENNETT. Another person known to me in the unemployed days was a
lady by the name of Mrs. Harter, H-a-r-t-e-r. Her significance to me is
that she later became the wife of Alex Noral, before he left here. He
took her with him as his wife to California.
She was a very active person in the unemployed movement, in the
unemployed councils.
Later on, I knew Mr. Terry Pettus, who was the editor of the New World,
and now the northwest edition of the People’s World.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you spell the name, please.
Mr. DENNETT. P-e-t-t-u-s, Pettus.
Mr. MOULDER. Are all the names you are referring to individuals who
once were, or who now are, members of the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. They were known to me at the time I was in the Communist
Party as members of the Communist Party, and I had Communist business
with them.
Another person’s name was Jim Cour, C-o-u-r or C-o-u-e-r. I am not too
sure of that spelling.
But Jim Cour was in an editorial capacity on the old Voice of Action,
which was the predecessor of the present paper, the northwest
edition of the People’s World. In between the name changed many
times. At one time they had the New World, and, another time, it had
several different names. But it was the same organization, the same
subscribers, the same leadership. The change of name was intended to
more adequately satisfy the attitude of the public toward political
questions at that particular moment.
There was another one by the name of Bill Corr, but his was spelled
differently, and it was C-o-r-r. Bill Corr was in the business
management end of the paper, the Voice of Action.
Later I knew a person by the name of Huber, L. R. It seems to me
that his first name was Louis, L-o-u-i-s. He served as editor of the
Lumberworkers’ paper for a long period of time, that is, the paper
issued by the International Woodworkers of America, at the time that
Harold Pritchett was the president of the organization.
Another person whom I knew was Charles Daggett. Charles Daggett I knew
in several different capacities. At one time he was the city editor of
the Seattle Star, a paper which went out of business in Seattle a great
number of years ago.
Mr. Daggett later was known to me as an official in the inlandboatmen’s
union,[9] having become elected business agent in the San Francisco
branch of the organization, and got into financial difficulties there;
later went to Los Angeles. That is the last I heard of him.
Mr. TAVENNER. We have seen him since then, and he has testified before
this committee and admitted his Communist Party membership.
Did you know him in this area in any activity within the newspaper
guild?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, I knew him in the newspaper guild, but I was not
certain of his Communist Party activity at the time that I knew him
then. I knew him as a Communist just as he left here.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was he active in that field in Los Angeles?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, he was. He was very active as a newspaperman. He had
a great deal to do with three other newspaper people whom I became
closely acquainted with because of the official position that they held
in the organization.
The first was a person by the name of Ellen McGrath. I have heard since
that she is deceased. But Ellen McGrath was a sort of business agent
for the newspaper guild when it was first organized here, and I knew
her both in the official capacity as a representative of the newspaper
guild and as a Communist actively operating in that field.
I knew her successor in that field, a man by the name of Claude Smith.
Claude Smith was also known to me at that time as a Communist.
(The witness confers with his counsel.)
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, he is the one who was expelled from the Party at the
same time that I was subsequently.
I knew another person by the name of Robert Camozzi, C-a-m-o-z-z-i.
Robert Camozzi was the president of the Seattle CIO council at the time
I was its secretary, and we had official business representing the
council, and also we had official business as Communists.
In the building service union,[10] in addition to Mr. Jess Fletcher,
whom I knew quite well because of his work on the district bureau of
the Communist Party, I also knew a man by the name of Merwin Cole,
C-o-l-e. Merwin Cole was one of the business agents of that union, and
was quite well known to me because I had tried very hard to recruit
him during some of the peace demonstrations that the youth from the
university had organized downtown some time in the summer of 1936, I
believe. Or perhaps it was 1935. It may have been a year one way or the
other.
I also knew one of his associates, Mr. Ward Coley, who was a business
agent in that union, C-o-l-e-y.
I knew another man by the name of Daggett. His name is Herbert Daggett.
He is a brother of Charles Daggett. Herbert Daggett was known to me as
a Communist in the National Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association.
Herbert Daggett was some official there. I do not recall exactly what
it was at that time. I do not know as to his political position as of
the present time either. I do understand that he is now the president
of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association with headquarters
in Washington, D. C. I repeat that I do not know what his political
attitude is now.
He had an associate in the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association by
the name of Ted Rasmussen. Rasmussen, I am not sure of the spelling.
There are several different ways of spelling that name, and I am not
positive of it. You will have to take the best guess you can make. But
Ted was a member of the marine engineers organization, and I knew him
as a Communist. I am not sure whether I am the person who recruited
him, but I think I am because at the time I first started to work
in the Inlandboatmen’s Union Ted Rasmussen was the organizer of a
dissident group of engineers who wanted to separate themselves from
the existing organization. And I worked very hard to persuade him not
to split the organization, and finally did prevail upon him, with
the assistance of Harry Jackson, who was the Communist leader in the
trade-union field here at that time, and either Mr. Jackson or myself
recruited Mr. Rasmussen.
In the lumber organization I recall the name of Ted Dokter,
D-o-k-t-e-r. Ted Dokter was a very able man in the lumber industry, and
we thought he was very efficient, and we liked his work at the time I
knew him. Later, after I ceased to know him personally and directly, I
heard criticism of him to the effect that he did not follow the party
line. So I don’t know what has happened to him.
Of course, I knew Dick and Laura Law. Both are now deceased.
I have previously mentioned Helen Sobeleski and Gladys Field who were
in the woodworkers’ office.[11]
One of my successors in the Seattle CIO Council was a man by the name
of Arthur Harding. He was known to me. I understand he is deceased.
I have not known of him for several years. But he was a loyal party
member and so was his wife, a Jean Harding, J-e-a-n.
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.
The committee will probably remember testimony from Mr. Leonard Wildman
to the effect that he knew me in the Communist Party, which is correct.
I did know him in the Communist Party.
I also knew his wife, Muriel. I also knew Elizabeth Boggs, who gave
testimony to the effect that she knew me in the Communist Party.
I knew Mr. Harold Johnston, who was on this stand here this morning.
Mr. Johnston was known to me as an active Communist and a close
associate of Mr. Morris Rappaport.
Mr. VELDE. Was he a Communist at the time you left the Communist Party,
to your best knowledge?
Mr. DENNETT. I had no direct knowledge as to what Mr. Johnston’s
position was after I went in the service. I did not know him after
1942-43. But I understand he was quite amused over my remark that Mr.
Rappaport made short work of me. He was in a position to know.
I knew Mr. Glenn Kinney--K-i-n-n-e-y. I knew him over a period of a
great many years. As a matter of fact, he was one of the first persons
with whom I attempted to build a shop unit out in the steel mill. I
wasn’t employed there at the time. I believe he was. I was an official
working here in town, doing full-time work for the party. Later on Mr.
Kinney became a machinist, or I think he was a machinist actually at
that time, but he became a machinist and rose to the heights in the
machinists’ union,[12] at least to the extent of being a business agent
there several times.
In the old days there was an old man known to me by the name of F. S.
U. Smith. And the reason we called him F. S. U. Smith was because he
made one speech wherever he went, and that was to ask for people to be
Friends of the Soviet Union, which was the name of an organization that
he was very ardently supporting. He was a very loyal man to the party
and did the best he knew how and the best he could.
These that I am scratching off are names that I have previously
mentioned.
Mr. MOULDER. Mr. Dennett, I wish to apologize and thank you for your
patience in being called and recalled, but we previously set the recess
at 3:30. Do you mind at this time if we have a 5-minute recess and
resume the hearings after it?
Mr. DENNETT. I would like to finish the names before we recess so we
can take up the other business.
Mr. MOULDER. All right; let’s proceed if you wish to do so.
Mr. DENNETT. A very old friend of mine with whom I went to school--I
have no knowledge as to what has become of him now--but at the time I
knew him in the Communist Party he was the section organizer in King
County. His name is Al Bristol. Al was a very fine friend of mine, a
very patient fellow. I knew his wife Frances quite well.
Another official that held the position of section organizer here was
Clayton Van Lydegraf--V-a-n L-y-d-e-g-r-a-f. Clayton Van Lydegraf was
one of the officials who took part in my expulsion from the party,
signing the expulsion notice.
Another person whom I knew as a Communist was Mr. Earl
Payne--P-a-y-n-e. The last I heard of him he had been assigned section
organizer in the Portland, Oreg., area. When I knew him he had just
returned from serving in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain.
Mr. Philip Frankfeld was sent here by the Central Committee to take
over when Mr. Morris Rappaport was removed, or when it was known----
Mr. VELDE. When was Mr. Rappaport removed?
Mr. DENNETT. It was about the time of the outbreak of the war, shortly
after the party had to make modifications in its practices because of
the passage of the Voorhis Act. And Mr. Rappaport had been born in old
Russia at the time of the Czar and was one of those continuing problems
to the Immigration Department because no country would accept him as
a deportee. And the Immigration Department could not dispose of him
except to hold him in their jail. He was one of their problems. And the
party, in preparation for its super-patriotic efforts during the Second
World War changed its constitution to provide that only citizens of the
United States, or persons who were eligible to become citizens of the
United States could be members of the Communist Party. When that was
adopted, Mr. Rappaport could not qualify, and was removed from office
in the Communist Party.
Mr. VELDE. In 1941 or 1942?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, it was about in that period. I can’t be too certain
of it because I was beginning to fall into some disrepute myself, and
was being left out of many activities and much information.
Another person well known to me in this period was Mr. John
D-a-s-c-h-b-a-c-h. Daschbach was known to me as a comparatively young
man who worked--I’ll be blessed if I know where he worked, but I know
he was always active in the Communist Party activities.
A longshoreman known to me that I failed to mention this morning was a
rather heavy-set fellow who was known to me in a rather incidental sort
of way. I know he was in the Communist Party, but I know little of any
activity that he took part in, a man by the name of Wayne Mosio. I am
not sure of the spelling. I think it is M-o-s-i-o. It may be z, but I
am not certain.
Another longshoreman who was well known to me as a member of the
Communist Party is a person who broke with the Communist Party and
later changed his occupation from longshoreman to that of lawyer. He
went to school while he was longshoring and qualified to be admitted to
the bar.
I know that he was bitterly anti-Communist long before he became an
attorney. I don’t know whether you wish his name mentioned or not, but
he was known to me and he certainly was known to the longshoremen. His
name was Philip Poth, P-o-t-h.
A national leader of the party whom I failed to mention before was Mr.
John Williamson, one of the Smith Act defendants who suffered penalty
of conviction and incarceration. He served as the trade-union section
or secretary, replacing Mr. Roy Hudson.
A person who was well known to me in my work of attempting to organize
steel workers into the Communist Party was a section organizer, a man
by the name of Charles Legg, L-e-g-g.
Another person known to me as a member of the Communist Party who later
turned up as an informer for the Government and served as a witness for
the FBI was known to me under the name of Doc Dafoe. He was employed
at that time in the steel mill at Northwest Rolling Mills.
Another person well known to me in the Communist Party many years ago
who was rather mild in his Communist Party efforts when I knew him and
who later turned against the Communist Party was Dan Adair, A-d-a-i-r.
He was in Olympia, his home was Olympia.