A subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met, pursuant
to call, at 9:30 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.
Staff members present: Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., counsel, and William A.
Wheeler, staff investigator.
Mr. MOULDER. The subcommittee will be in order.
Let the record show that the Hon. Francis E. Walter, chairman of the
Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives
of the Congress, pursuant to the provisions of law creating this
committee, appointed Hon. Clyde Doyle of California, Hon. Harold H.
Velde of Illinois, with myself, Morgan M. Moulder of Missouri as
chairman, a subcommittee to conduct hearings in Seattle, Wash.
The membership of the subcommittee, with the exception of Mr. Doyle,
is present. Mr. Doyle has asked that I express his regret that a
legislative assignment by the Speaker of the House makes it impossible
for him to leave Washington at this time.
Following an extensive investigation by the staff, the Committee on
Un-American Activities held hearings here during June 1954, and also
in Portland during that same period. These hearings were productive of
outstanding results in that the committee was furnished by numerous
witnesses with facts reflecting the extent of Communist Party
activities in the great Pacific Northwest, and the infiltration methods
used in this area by the Communist Party.
Mrs. Barbara Hartle will be remembered as a witness whose knowledge of
the Communist movement in the Pacific Northwest was very extensive, and
the careful and intelligent consideration she gave to her testimony has
been excelled by few if any other witnesses which this committee has
heard.
In the time allotted for that hearing the committee could not hear all
the witnesses who had been summoned, and could not hear fully some of
the witnesses who testified. The committee desires at this time to
continue with the hearings begun in June of 1954, last year.
Before calling the first witness I desire to recognize the Hon.
Charles P. Moriarty, United States attorney for the Western District
of Washington, whose office has rendered outstanding service to
the Congress of the United States in matters of importance to this
committee which have been referred by the Congress to him.
I also desire to extend the committee’s thanks to Mayor Pomeroy and the
board of county commissioners who made it possible for us to use this
room as a hearing room, United States Marshal William B. Parsons, also
Sheriff Tim McCullough and Chief of Police H. J. Lawrence, and members
of their respective staffs for their great assistance to this committee.
I also desire to announce at this time--and I trust that it will
not be necessary to repeat it at any time during the course of the
hearing--that a disturbance of any kind or audible comment on the part
of persons other than witnesses during the course of the testimony,
whether favorable or unfavorable to the committee or any witness
appearing before it, will not be tolerated by the committee. For any
infraction of this rule the offender will be ejected from the hearing
room.
I also wish to announce that Congressman Velde and I have conferred
with respect to the use of cameras and the taking of pictures in the
hearing room. Each House of the Congress has its own rules. The rules
of the House prohibit the use of cameras, the taking of pictures and
televising proceedings of the Congress in the House while it is in
session. The Speaker has ruled that that applies to committee hearings
wherever they may be held in any part of the United States. However,
Congressman Velde and I have decided that it would not be in conflict
with the ruling and the interpretation placed upon the rules by the
Speaker of the House to permit photographs to be taken at any time in
the hearing room except when a witness is testifying, and in the course
of his testimony.
Therefore, photographs will be permitted to be taken of the witness
while he is being sworn in and after that. While he is testifying no
additional photographs will be permitted to be taken.
Mr. VELDE. I certainly want to say, Mr. Moulder, that I concur
with you in the statement you have just made about the matter of taking
photographs. However, I do feel that we should also protect the freedom
of the press as much as possible, instead of merely protecting the
so-called rights of some of the witnesses who will appear here.
It is very important in my opinion, and I think the Chair will concur
with me in this, that we do give the public, especially in the great
Northwest area of our country, the benefit of all the information we
are able to obtain. And I do feel that within the rules of the House of
Representatives we should do everything we can to give that information
to the public here in Seattle.
I also want to say that it is great to be back here. I enjoyed very
much being here last June for at least 3 days, as chairman of the full
committee at that time.
Mr. MOULDER. I am in complete agreement with you as to the
committee televising and giving the public all information possible as
to those who have proved to be active in the Communist Party. However,
the rules of the House and the ruling of the Speaker of the House
prohibit the televising of the hearings we are going to hold today.
Are you ready to proceed, Mr. Counsel?
Mr. TAVENNER. Yes.
Mr. MOULDER. Call your first witness.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Eugene V. Dennett, please come forward.
Mr. MOULDER. Hold up your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony which you are about to give
before this committee shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you, God?
Mr. DENNETT. I do.
TESTIMONY OF EUGENE VICTOR DENNETT, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS COUNSEL, KENNETH
A. MacDONALD
Mr. TAVENNER. What is your name, please, sir?
Mr. DENNETT. Eugene Victor Dennett.
Mr. TAVENNER. Are you accompanied by counsel, Mr. Dennett?
Mr. DENNETT. I am, sir.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will counsel please identify himself for the
record.
Mr. MACDONALD. Kenneth A. MacDonald, attorney at law, of
Seattle, Wash.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Dennett, you were subpenaed as a witness
before this committee in June of 1954, and you were called on the first
day of that hearing, which was June 14.
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, sir.
Mr. TAVENNER. At that time you stated some special
considerations you had in mind under which you felt that you desired
not to testify and, as a result, you refused to testify on the ground
of the fifth amendment.
Mr. DENNETT. Correct.
Mr. TAVENNER. Later on during the hearings, in fact on the
next to the last day of the hearings, you and your counsel came to me
and stated that after further considering the matter, you desired to
appear as a witness.
Is that correct?
Mr. DENNETT. That is correct.
Mr. TAVENNER. As a result of that you were again called before
the committee.
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, sir.
Mr. TAVENNER. The record of the hearing at that time reflects
that neither you nor your counsel was approached by any member of the
committee or the staff, or any representative of either the committee
or the staff in an effort to get you to change your testimony.
Mr. DENNETT. That is absolutely correct.
Mr. TAVENNER. That is true, is it not?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, sir.
Mr. TAVENNER. As a result of that the committee proceeded to
ask you a few questions. However, the record also shows that counsel
was of the opinion that your knowledge of Communist Party activities
in the Northwest was so extensive that at that late point in the
hearing it would be impractical to try to take your testimony unless
the committee would cancel the rest of its hearings, and there were
a number of witnesses waiting to be heard at that time. Consequently
the committee decided that it would have to interrogate you at another
time. So you are here this morning for that purpose.
Mr. DENNETT. That is correct, sir. As a result of that
decision I conferred with the then subcommittee chairman--who was at
that time Mr. Jackson--following that session, and Mr. Jackson was
unable to advise me when I might be called again. He referred me to Mr.
Wheeler. I asked Mr. Wheeler at that time when I might be called again.
I anticipated some problem of preparation. I wanted to look at some of
my old material and refresh my knowledge. But Mr. Wheeler was unable to
give me any information at that time.
Later, on January 28, I wrote to the new chairman of the committee
asking him what I might expect from the committee by way of further
interrogation. He did not reply directly. Instead, later I received
a letter from Mr. Wheeler advising that they expected to hold the
hearings in June.
The day after that I received another letter advising that they were
going to hold the hearings at this date. So I still was unable to do
the preparation that I wanted to do.
Mr. TAVENNER. You have a great wealth of Communist Party
literature and documents in your possession, do you not?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, I saved them over a period of 20 years. I
have quite a few.
Mr. TAVENNER. In the limited time that we have here this week,
have you made some of that material available to the staff?
Mr. DENNETT. That is correct.
When Mr. Wheeler came to town he left word in his letter to me that he
wanted to reach me at a certain time. I called the hotel and saw him,
asked him what he wanted to know. He wasn’t too certain what he wanted
specifically, but he wanted to know what I knew.
So I said, “Well, the simplest way to find that out is to come up to my
house, and you can look at everything I have got.” So Mr. Wheeler came
out to my house and he looked at everything I had.
Mr. TAVENNER. During the course of the hearing in June 1954
you were asked a number of questions regarding your background. But the
present chairman of the subcommittee was not present with the committee
on that occasion, and I think it would be well to begin as if we had
taken no testimony whatever.
Will you tell the committee, please, when and where you were born?
Mr. DENNETT. I was born in Revere, Mass., April 26, 1908.
Mr. TAVENNER. Where do you now reside?
Mr. DENNETT. 7324 34th Avenue SW., Seattle 6, Wash.
Mr. TAVENNER. When did you move to the general area of
Seattle, or may I say to the State of Washington?
Mr. DENNETT. In 1932.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you give the committee, please, a brief
outline of your formal educational training?
Mr. DENNETT. I graduated from high school in Rickreall, Oreg.
I was out of school a year, unable to raise the finances to go on to
college. The second year I made arrangements to finance going to normal
school by carrying a paper route.
I graduated from the Oregon Normal School in 1928, and started teaching
school. That was a 2-year college at that time, or 2-year normal
school. It has since been changed to a college of education, and it is
a 4-year school now. That was at Monmouth, Oreg.
After receiving my teaching certificate and starting to teach, I
carried on extension work with the University of Oregon, and later,
at a later year, I took a couple more quarters of advanced work at
the University of Oregon in the School of Education, Sociology, and
Philosophy. I did not graduate.
Mr. TAVENNER. When did you complete your work at the
university?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, the work that I took, which was not
sufficient for a degree or graduation, ended in 1931.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, briefly,
what your employment record has been since that time.
Mr. DENNETT. Well, after I left teaching I was unemployed for
quite a long period of time. The great depression had started, and I
became active in the unemployed work.
Later on when the CCC’s were organized, that is, the Civilian
Conservation Corps, since I was in a soup line here in Seattle and saw
an announcement that it was possible for us to leave the soup line and
go out in the woods in the CCC’s, I chose to do so, and spent a year
there, about 15 months, in fact.
When I came out of the CCC’s one of the fellows whom I had worked
with in the CCC shanghaied me onto a boat here in the sound. And,
unbelievable as it may sound, I actually was shanghaied to work on
the waterfront, working on one of the Puget Sound freight boats. I
didn’t know a thing about it. And that is how I got started, a fellow
just shoved me on and fed me, and the boat pulled away from the dock
without my knowing what was going on. Then I got started working in the
waterfront work and continued.
Mr. TAVENNER. What year was that?
Mr. DENNETT. 1935. I continued at that work off and on
practically until the beginning of the Second World War, doing various
kinds of work, deckhand and freight handling, and some longshore work.
I also worked on some of the tugboats and some of the barges.
Mr. TAVENNER. You say that type of employment continued until
the war. Were you a member of our Armed Forces?
Mr. DENNETT. I was. There was an intervening period there,
however. I was screened off the waterfront in 1942. After being
screened off the waterfront in 1942 I was searching for work again, and
I saw a big advertisement in the paper that Bethlehem Steel Co. was
hiring everybody and anybody. So I went out there to work.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee what you mean by
screened off the waterfront? Briefly, not in detail.
Mr. DENNETT. There was an intelligence unit of the Army which
seemed to have information which convinced them that I was some sort
of a dangerous person, and they were convinced that I should not be
permitted to work on the waterfront. So my passes were lifted and I was
denied opportunity to do any further work longshoring or work anywhere
on the waterfront. By the way, according to my information, I am the
only one who never did get his pass back that was lifted at that time.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did the lifting of your pass have anything to do
with Communist Party activities on your part?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, I was asked to go down to the security
office at that time. It was in charge of a Mr. John J. Sullivan, I
believe. And he put it to me rather bluntly. He said, “We think that
you are still a Communist. And so we just don’t think we should have
Communists on the waterfront. That is why we are lifting your pass.”
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you continue with your narrative of
employment?
Mr. DENNETT. I went to work at Bethlehem Steel Co.
Mr. TAVENNER. What year was that?
Mr. DENNETT. In 1942, October 19.
And after being employed there for some little time I was classified
I-A in the draft. I didn’t know until after it was all over, but
the company evidently thought enough of my work to get at least two
deferments for me unbeknownst to myself. You remember there was
something of a manpower shortage at that time.
I was finally inducted into service on the 27th of August 1943, took my
3-week furlough which was permitted to married men at that time, and
reported to the service. I think it was the 17th of September of 1943,
reported for active duty.
I remained in the service until, I think it was about October 10 of
1945, at which time I received an honorable discharge. But I was in
somewhat broken health. So upon my return to Seattle I had to take
some little time to recuperate, and spent a little time at the naval
hospital which was conducted by the Navy at that time. It is now known
as Firlands.
By the time I got out of the hospital the steelworkers were in their
famous 1946 strike. So I couldn’t return to work until the strike was
over. I did, however, return to work shortly after the strike was over.
I think it was in April of 1946. And I have been working continuously
there ever since.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee whether or not you
were a member of the Communist Party at the time that your pass was
lifted?
Mr. DENNETT. I was.
Mr. TAVENNER. How long had you been a member?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, originally I joined the Communist Party in
1931.
Mr. TAVENNER. 1931?
Mr. DENNETT. I was in active membership in the Communist Party
until the time I went into the Civilian Conservation Corps. During
the year I was in the CCC I was not an active member of the Communist
Party. As a matter of fact, I was under some cloud. The leadership of
the party at that time disapproved of some of my activities and some of
my policies, and I certainly disapproved of some of theirs. It was sort
of a mutual disagreement. And they were satisfied to leave me alone
while I was in the CCC, and I was satisfied that they did.
However, upon my return from the CCC, as soon as I went to work on
the waterfront, the conditions under which we were working at that
time were so repulsive that it was no wonder that the workers there
were seriously contemplating strike action. With my prior knowledge
about trade unions and some knowledge of political activity, it was
only natural that I should assume a position of leadership among those
workers. And when the strike was called I was elected to leadership in
that strike committee. It was at that moment that the Communist Party
found it very convenient to make new approaches to me and to try to
enlist my efforts in their behalf. I was willing and I did cooperate
and I became a member again in good standing.
Mr. TAVENNER. What date was that?
Mr. DENNETT. 1935.
Mr. TAVENNER. I think it may be well at this point, before I
ask you any detail about your knowledge of Communist Party activities,
as a matter of general background for the committee, you should state
briefly the various positions you have held in the Communist Party, and
the opportunity you have had to know of Communist Party activities.
Mr. DENNETT. I have held nearly all the organizational
positions in the lower ranks of the party. That is, I have been a
branch organizer, sometimes called branch, sometimes called unit. I
have been an educational director in a branch, I have been a section
organizer, I have been a fraction secretary, I have been a district
agitprop director. That is a combination of two words--agitation and
propaganda. I doubt that the term is used very much any more. It would
be comparable to educational work now.
I have been a member of the district bureau of the Communist Party. I
was a member of the secretariat of the Communist Party in district 12
on 2 different occasions. The secretariat is a group of perhaps 2 or 3
persons who are responsible for the daily activities of the Communist
Party and the way in which the various branches and sections are
carrying out the Communist Party policy program. I think that covers it.
Mr. TAVENNER. What was the last position you held in the
Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. I think the last position was that of an
educational director in a branch.
Mr. TAVENNER. What was the date?
Mr. DENNETT. I think that would be in 1946 or 1947.
Mr. TAVENNER. Are you a member of the Communist Party now?
Mr. DENNETT. I am not.
Mr. TAVENNER. Over what period of time were you an active
member in the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. With the 2 exceptions of the CCC and the term of
service in the Army, from 1931 to 1947.
Mr. TAVENNER. I believe in 1947 you were expelled from the
Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. That is correct.
Mr. TAVENNER. With that general background I would like to go
back, Mr. Dennett, to the inception of your membership in the Communist
Party.
You have said that that was in 1931. And the committee would be
interested to learn what the circumstances were under which you
became a member of the Communist Party. By that I mean why you joined
the Communist Party as well as the mechanics that were used in your
becoming a member.
Mr. DENNETT. Well, I would remind the committee and those who
have read the record of a statement I made at the other hearing. I
was named after Eugene V. Debs. I am very proud of that. It should be
remembered that Eugene V. Debs was the leading Socialist in the United
States of America for a great many years.
I was virtually born into the Socialist movement. My parents admired
Debs very much, and my father was an active leading Socialist.
Therefore, I had a great deal of knowledge of the Socialist movement
as a child. In fact, I had the honor of appearing on the same platform
with Eugene V. Debs in Old Peoples Hall in Boston. He was making a
political speech. I had a great admiration for the man and I felt
greatly honored to be named after him.
In the period following the First World War after my mother’s death,
my father and I moved to the farm in the West. That was in 1919.
Those who may have some knowledge of the history of that period will
remember that following the First World War there was a depression in
agriculture. Those who farmed suffered a continuing crisis, and we were
trying to farm.
So we were confronted daily with the problem of how in the world do you
get out of a depression. And, frankly, we did not find any solution to
it.
I went on to school being firmly convinced, as a result of what I
had seen as a child, having seen workers defeated time after time in
strikes and in disputes, I became thoroughly convinced that the most
priceless thing that anyone could obtain would be a full and complete
education. And I hoped to receive one. I don’t think I ever received as
much as I wanted.
Finally, after obtaining my teaching certificate and beginning to
teach--you remember the year was 1928. And in 1929 the stock market
crashed. And it wasn’t very long before the effects of that economic
interruption began to be felt throughout the land. And among the first
to feel it were the teachers, at least in the State of Oregon with
which I was then familiar.
The teachers were required to accept great discounts in order to cash
their warrants--15, 20, and in some cases 25 percent discounts were
taken by the banks to cash the teachers’ warrants. And teachers were
generally receiving at that time about $100 per month.
I was fortunate. I was teaching in a district which was a rather
wealthy district, and they were not on a warrant basis.
But I began to have great apprehension because most of the teachers I
knew were suffering this way. And this was in 1931.
Of course, I had been concerned about economic problems over most of my
life. And when I was a high school boy I read Marx’s Das Kapital, and I
was somewhat acquainted with his theory of economics. And I was quite
disturbed at this economic crash which began with the stock market
crash of 1929.
So I was looking for some organization which might give some kind of
an answer. In fact, I think that I told some of my friends that I was
actually looking for the Communist Party for 2 years before I found it.
In 1931 my father sent me a notice of a Civil Rights Conference to be
held in Portland, Oreg. This conference was being called to organize a
defense for some people in Portland who had been accused of violating
the criminal syndicalism law in the State of Oregon. They were
alleged to be Communists. Some of them I later learned actually were
Communists. My father was unable to attend the conference. So he asked
me to go. I went. There I met the first Communists. The first one that
I met was Mr. Fred Walker, and a person by the name of Paul Munter.
Mr. MOULDER. May I interrupt? Is that the Civil Rights
Congress?
Mr. DENNETT. It wasn’t a congress, it was a conference.
Mr. MOULDER. Civil Rights Conference?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, sir.
Mr. MOULDER. Was it an organization?
Mr. DENNETT. No. It was certainly a temporary organization for
that particular case.
Mr. MOULDER. Who was the leadership of that?
Mr. DENNETT. It was organized under the auspices of the
International Labor Defense, better known as the ILD.
And they had their attorney at this conference who gave an explanation
of the case, an explanation of the law, and outlined the program of the
International Labor Defense for the purpose of trying to win that case.
I was very much impressed by his presentation. Later on, years later,
I was still more impressed when I learned that he actually had met
with success, because after the persons who were charged then had been
convicted he appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court, and
the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case
of Dirk De Jonge which held that the criminal syndicalism statute in
the State of Oregon was invalid. And the decision was reversed. Those
convictions were reversed that way.
So you see that my interest and introduction was of a twofold
character: One, I was impressed with the economic problems that were
not being solved. I was also impressed with what appeared to me to be
an invasion of the civil rights of individuals to think and act as they
pleased in political matters.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you state the first person you knew as a
Communist was a man by the name of Walker?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes, Fred Walker.
Mr. TAVENNER. Do you know whether Mr. Fred Walker held any
position in the Communist Party at that time?
Mr. DENNETT. At that time he was the section organizer of the
Communist Party in Portland, Oreg.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee whether or not, as a
result of your attendance at that conference and your discussions with
Mr. Fred Walker, you became a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. It was not immediate, but it was soon after that
that I became a member of the Communist Party. Actually I wanted to
become a member of the Communist Party, and they were a little bit
fearful that since I was a teacher that maybe there was some kind of
bourgeois corruption there that they were afraid of. And they insisted
that if I wanted to join the ranks of the Communist Party it would be
necessary for me to take a little schooling.
So they offered me an opportunity to attend some classes which they had
organized, classes in labor history, classes in analyzing the role and
functions of the Communist Party? And they had other classes. I do not
recall exactly what they were. But these 2 were the 2 main groups.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was this a recognized school of the Communist
Party or what was it?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, it was a school that was organized by the
section in Portland under Fred Walker’s leadership. It had the approval
of the district leadership.
Mr. TAVENNER. Of the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. And they were following the outlines which were
sent out by the Workers School of New York, which was the center of the
Communist Party.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was it unquestionably a Communist Party function
that was being performed?
Mr. DENNETT. Very distinctly so. We used 2 important
textbooks, 1 by Bimba, and 1 by Forner, in those schools. Both of them
on labor history.
Mr. TAVENNER. Who were the teachers in that school?
Mr. DENNETT. Fred Walker taught some of them. Munter taught
some of them.
Mr. TAVENNER. Do you know his first name?
Mr. DENNETT. Paul Munter, I believe.
And then there was another fellow by the name of Rodney. His last name
was Rodney, R-o-d-n-e-y.
My recollection of him is due to the fact that at that time he was some
kind of under secretary or employed by the YMCA in Portland. I did not
then know him as a member of the Communist Party either. I heard later
that he did join the Communist Party. But at the moment or at the time
that he was teaching this class in labor history I did not understand
him to be a member of the Communist Party.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was your attendance at this school prior to your
becoming a member or after you had become a member?
Mr. DENNETT. It was prior; it was before joining.
Mr. TAVENNER. Were there others in this school besides
yourself?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes.
Mr. TAVENNER. How many?
Mr. DENNETT. My recollection is between 15 and 20.
Mr. TAVENNER. Due to the fact that you have told us that you,
yourself were not a member at that time, is it possible that others in
attendance likewise were in a similar category and not actual members
of the Communist Party at that time?
Mr. DENNETT. I am quite sure that was true, that most of them
who attended that class were not members of the Communist Party, but
they were curious, and their curiosity had been aroused because of what
appeared to all of us was an attempt at oppression by the use of the
criminal syndicalism statute against unemployed veterans and unemployed
workers and other people, and particularly some foreign-born people.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, to what
extent did this training that you had in this particular school prepare
you for the role you later played in the Communist Party? Did it amount
to anything? Was the instruction effective? Did it serve to instill the
spirit of the Communist Party in you?
Mr. DENNETT. I certainly felt that it did. As a matter of
fact, I was one of those teachers who considered that most of our
teaching methods were quite inappropriate for the best benefit to the
child. I felt that what is characterized as the lock-step system of
education is inadequate to our modern needs. And I finally despaired of
ever hoping to be able to do what I felt should be done as a teacher.
Mr. MOULDER. Just what do you refer to there? I mean in what
respect?
Mr. DENNETT. The rigidity with which big school systems are
straitjacketed. Courses of study are laid out in an ironclad fashion,
and there is no opportunity for teachers to attempt to satisfy the
needs or the growing needs of the child.
Now remember this was in 1932. There have been a great many changes
in most of the school systems since then. And while I was personally
not under that kind of restraint, I knew many teachers in the city of
Portland who felt that they were at that time. And I was an active
member of the Classroom Teachers Association in Portland--or not in
Portland, but in the State of Oregon.
We were always concerned with this problem, and we felt that it was
very difficult, almost hopeless to expect to make the improvement which
needed to be made.
The Communists introduced me to some of the writings of Frederick
Engels and Nicolai Lenin, and I found these writings to be very
illuminating. I found them to throw a great deal of light on the
development of economic and political crises. And they intrigued me
by showing me a set of what is known as the Lenin library. I believe
there were about 8 or 10 volumes of it published at that time. And
I purchased the whole business. I think it cost me about $15. And I
proceeded to read voraciously. I read everything there was in it, and
I was very much impressed by the analysis, the penetrating analysis
which Lenin made of all of the various political movements that existed
way back at the turn of the century in 1900. All these things caused
me to feel that there was more here than the average person realized,
and I hoped that I was finding the solution to the problems which beset
mankind.
Mr. TAVENNER. Inasmuch as all persons in attendance were not
members of the Communist Party, I am not going to ask you to give me
the names of all who participated in that school. But I will ask you to
give us the names of any of those who participated in that school who
later became functionaries in the Communist Party during the period of
time that you were a member.
Mr. DENNETT. That is an awfully long time ago, and I did not
keep any record of those persons.
Frankly, outside of Fred Walker and Paul Munter and this fellow Rodney,
I do not recall distinctly enough to be certain in my own mind. I think
that a couple of persons attended there whose names would come up at
a later period. But I couldn’t be certain of identifying them in that
period.
Mr. TAVENNER. How long did you attend this course of training?
Mr. DENNETT. I think it was about 3 months.
Mr. TAVENNER. Was it an intensive training course?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes; it was. I believe the classes were at least
twice a week, and there was a great deal of reading and study to be
done with it. And they found that I was a ready and willing subject. So
they assigned reports to me very frequently. And I made many of them.
Mr. TAVENNER. How soon after the completion of that work, or
was it during the period of that course of training that you became a
member of the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. It was during that time. I think within 6 weeks
after I started they satisfied themselves that I was sincerely trying
to be a good Communist.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, what
mechanics were used for bringing you into the party?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, at that time the party was what is
generally referred to as underground. They were very much afraid of
their own existence and their own identity. And they were particularly
fearful of agents of the police entering their ranks. And they viewed
all persons with great suspicion, especially these foreign-born
workers. And they used to spend a great deal of time talking with
me, inquiring into every phase of my life and my background and my
existence, giving me in their own way the third degree to determine
whether or not I was trustworthy and whether or not I was worth being a
member of the ranks.
Mr. TAVENNER. Now as you look back upon it, do you think that
that careful study of your past and your capabilities was rather in the
way of choosing you for future leadership in the party as distinguished
from membership in the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. No. I think that so far as they were concerned,
they looked upon all persons entering the party as equals. That is,
they did not predetermine who was going to be a leader and who wasn’t
going to be a leader. But they were determined to work each new member
to the utmost until they got the most out of each one that they could.
And in my case I responded by studying very intensely, and they had
great hopes that I would develop into the kind of leader which they
needed.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you proceed, please, to tell us about your
induction into the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. Some of that is rather indistinct at this period.
There are only snatches of it that are vivid.
One thing that is quite vivid is one of the foreign-born workers
warning me that they had to deal rather vigorously with traitors. That
seemed to be their chief obsession.
Mr. TAVENNER. Do you mean traitors to the cause of communism?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes. That seemed to be their chief concern.
Mr. MOULDER. In what period of time are we now?
Mr. DENNETT. That is still in 1931.
Finally they told me that my name had been submitted to the party as
a candidate for membership. And after--I think it was about a month
delay--they informed me that the membership had passed upon my name,
and that I had been accepted. And they invited me to party meetings.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you become a member under your own name or
were you given a pseudonym?
Mr. DENNETT. I was given what is known as a party name. All
the party records and documents were kept in that name. However, it
always seemed rather ridiculous to me because alongside of the party
name there was always my real name anyway.
Mr. TAVENNER. What was your party name?
Mr. DENNETT. Victor Haines, H-a-i-n-e-s.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you have anything to do with the selection
of it, or was it selected for you?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes; I had something to do with selecting it.
When they told me that I had to choose a party name I asked for help
on it, and the only help they could offer was to use the name of J. P.
Morgan or John D. Rockefeller or Henry Ford or something like that.
They were always suggesting the most prominent capitalists as the party
pseudonym.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, what your
first activity was in the Communist Party after becoming a member?
Mr. DENNETT. I believe that I was first assigned to carry on
this classwork in Portland, to keep this school going that was started.
But that didn’t last very long because at that time the district
organizer of the party was a man by the name of Alex Noral, who was
here in Seattle.
And Noral was troubled because they were unable to get someone to fill
the function of a district agitprop director here in Seattle. So he
was asking Fred Walker to come to Seattle to be the agitprop director
because Fred Walker had organized such a successful school in Portland
and had done such splendid work which met with the district approval.
Walker, however, had personal reasons for not wanting to leave
Portland. So he requested me to accept the assignment to Seattle. And
I was perplexed as to what to do. I was in the middle of a school
teaching year, but I was becoming more convinced all the time that
there was no future in teaching--at least the way I wanted to do it.
So I accepted, under a great deal of pressure, the assignment to come
to Seattle. And that was, I say, under a great deal of pressure, too,
because the way I was approached on it was that “Well, now you are a
member of the party. You do what the party tells you to do, and you go
where the party wants you to “go.”
Mr. MOULDER. May I interrupt at that point before you start on
your Seattle testimony?
I am curious to know, during that period of time when there were no
laws prohibiting membership in the Communist Party, why there was
direction that you operate underground or under false names?
Mr. DENNETT. You remember I spoke about the criminal
syndicalism prosecutions in Oregon. The members of the party were being
accused of violating the criminal syndicalism statute.
Mr. MOULDER. A statute?
Mr. DENNETT. In Oregon, yes. And they considered that they
were under attack for illegality.
Mr. VELDE. May I ask a question?
Mr. VELDE. I would like to know at the time you joined the
Communist Party, I believe it was in 1931, if you had any idea at that
time that the policy of the Communist Party of the United States of
America was being dictated by Soviet Russia?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, there is a sort of mixed answer to that.
I had been reading the Daily Worker. I had been reading the Butte Daily
Bulletin. I was somewhat familiar with the international politics
in which there was conflicting interest between the United States
and the Soviet Union. But it was reconciled in my thinking with the
firm conviction that the Communist Party was attempting to serve the
interests of the working class all over the world and that in doing so
there would be no conflict so far as we were concerned. Now that was
the way it was resolved in my mind at that time.
Mr. VELDE. I think that is true of many early Communist Party
members.
Mr. TAVENNER. Without going into detail, did your views
continue to be the same or were they altered as time went on in the
course of your Communist Party work?
Mr. DENNETT. It didn’t take very long after I reached Seattle
before I had my first rude awakening. I was naive enough to believe
that it was proper for anyone to ask any question at any time in a
party meeting. But after coming to Seattle and being assigned as the
district agitprop director, believing that my duty required that I
should supervise the production of leaflets and propaganda which was
being issued, I was naive enough to ask what were my various duties.
And the answer I got from Mr. Noral was to the effect that anybody
knows what that is, which left me completely in the dark.
So I turned to the nearest associate who, at that time was Mr. John
Lawrie, Sr., who more or less agreed with me that it was time to get
some clear definition as to what the function was. Later on when I
insisted upon criticizing a leaflet which Noral had issued he accused
me of being some kind of a deviationist. I had only been in the party
about 3 months. I didn’t know what the term meant.
Later on he accused me of being a Trotskyite. I think he used the
term “Trotskyite,” which was a term of derision. And that conflict
led ultimately to my being removed as district agitprop director. As
a matter of fact, if Noral had carried out his wishes at that time I
would have been liquidated.
I didn’t know what he meant by liquidation then, and I think the term
was used rather loosely. But he did declare that liquidation was the
proper thing to do with deviators such as I at that time.
However, there was another leader in the district by the name of Ed
Leavitt, L-e-a-v-i-t-t, who was the organizational secretary, and
Leavitt felt that it was improper to deal with me in that fashion,
and he felt that since I was a young man at that time that I should
be given an opportunity to prove my worth and prove myself. And he
prevailed upon the district secretariat, namely, himself, Noral, and
Lawrie, to assign me to section organizer in Bellingham. It wasn’t very
long before I was banished from the district headquarters and sent to
Bellingham to prove myself, which I think I did.
Mr. MOULDER. Were you then being compensated?
Mr. DENNETT. No, sir.
Mr. MOULDER. Or reimbursed for your travels?
Mr. DENNETT. I was not. We just bummed our way around.
Mr. MOULDER. Were you employed then?
Mr. DENNETT. I was unemployed. But we were just living as best
we could, from hand to mouth.