Mr. TAVENNER. I desire to introduce the paper in evidence, and
ask that it be marked “Dennett Exhibit No. 9.”
Mr. MOULDER. The above statement will be identified as
“Dennett Exhibit No. 9” in the record.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, what the
organization setup was of the Communist Party in Seattle during the 2
periods when you served here as agitprop?
Mr. DENNETT. Well, the first period the party consisted
almost exclusively of what we called a skidroad branch. Almost all
the membership of the party was transient workers who lived on or
about the skidroad. And when Rappaport came in--speaking now of the
second period--Rappaport raised cain over the fact that the membership
was all transient, insisting that the party must root itself in the
neighborhoods. It must become acquainted with the permanent citizens,
not those who were called the boomers or the floaters, those who used
Seattle as a mail headquarters and holed up during the winter or off
season but left the city during their construction work, which most of
them followed.
And he used the technique of developing neighborhood branches out of
those who were members of the unemployed citizens leagues or unemployed
councils, and from those, as people went to work in industry, he tried
to develop shop or factory, what we call nuclei.
Most of the success in that field occurred among the lumber workers
because they were among the first to get out and get back to work out
in the woods, the loggers.
So we had still the problem of maintaining contact with them. It was
very difficult to do.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, who were
the functionaries of the Communist Party in Seattle during those two
periods.
Mr. DENNETT. The first one I think we have covered, when we
mention Mr. Alex Noral, Fred Walker, Jim Bourne, B-o-u-r-n-e, Mr. John
Lawrie. I think that is L-a-w-r-i-e. John Lawrie, Sr.
There was a Mr. Ed Leavitt, L-e-a-v-i-t-t.
They were the leading functionaries with whom I worked at that time.
Mr. TAVENNER. After you were removed as agitprop what was your
next activity in the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. I had to become a good rank-and-file member
and work in the unemployed-citizens leagues. Yes; by that time
the Communists had taken over a number of the locals of the
unemployed-citizens leagues in the city of Seattle, and were making a
strong bid to take over the top leadership, the central UCL. And I was
working in the skid-road local of the unemployed-citizens leagues, and
was living in the soup line.
Mr. TAVENNER. How long did that continue?
Mr. DENNETT. That continued until I went into the CCC’s.
Mr. TAVENNER. Can you give us the approximate date?
Mr. DENNETT. I think it was in April 1934.
Mr. MOULDER. In what capacity did you go into the CCC?
Mr. DENNETT. As an enlisted man.
Mr. MOULDER. Wasn’t that a program where there was a chairman
in each community or county? Or section of a city?
Mr. DENNETT. No. This is the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Mr. MOULDER. Yes; I know. And they were given so much
employment in each county or each section of the city, and someone had
to pass upon those. Is that the program where you were paid so much and
the parents would receive so much?
Mr. DENNETT. That is true. That is the program. I think you
are correct, sir, in saying there was a quota allotment for each
community. I think you are right.
But in this particular case that was not involved in mine because
the camps that we were recruited to were known as LEM’s or local
experience man camps. We were making new camps. We were doing the heavy
construction work and making camps that would later be taken over by
the young people that you are thinking of that were assigned by quota.
You are quite correct. That is the program. I had forgotten that part
of it.
And that evidently is what happened, an allotment had been made as to
the number that could come out of the Seattle soup line, and I was one
of those that was able to volunteer and got into it.
Mr. TAVENNER. How long did you remain a member of the Civilian
Conservation Corps?
Mr. DENNETT. Until July of 1935.
Mr. TAVENNER. Did you engage in any Communist Party activities
during that period?
Mr. DENNETT. That is a question that is open to dispute. I
didn’t think that I did. But the company commander thought that I did.
So he proceeded to have me expelled from the CCC.
Mr. TAVENNER. What was the nature of the activity in which you
did engage and which resulted in your expulsion?
Mr. DENNETT. When I became a member of the CCC there was
provision for the Army to administer the camps, the Forest Service
to administer the work, and for an educational director to supervise
the training. And there was provision for an educational director to
have an assistant who could be selected from among those enlistees who
were a part of the company. I was chosen as the assistant educational
director.
Mr. TAVENNER. Were you advised by the Communist Party to get
into the CCC camps for any propaganda purpose?
Mr. DENNETT. No; I was not. On the contrary, in my instance,
they said, “You had better stay away from that Fascist outfit because
it is just a place where they are going to give military training and
get ready for the next imperialist war, and we don’t want you to be in
it.”
Mr. MOULDER. Wasn’t it in the nature of a relief program?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes.
Mr. MOULDER. And naturally the Communist Party was opposed
to the relief program, and wanted people generally to stay in the
depression. Wasn’t that the policy or wishes of the Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. That would be one way of putting it, and probably
the way that many people viewed it. I didn’t look at it that way
myself at that time. But I can’t dispute that point of view. The point
that I started to speak of was that I was selected as the assistant
educational director, and, frankly, I took quite seriously the
literature which was sent from the United States Office of Education to
the camps.
And among the points which were emphasized in this literature was the
necessity of teaching the democratic process of government. But it has
always been my experience that when you try to carry out the teaching
of the democratic process of government and you come in contact with
the military, sometimes they don’t quite agree with you. And in this
particular instance my efforts to carry out the literature and carry
out the educational program which came from John W. Studebaker’s
office, the United States Office of Education, met with considerable
resistance on the part of the company commander. He just didn’t like
the idea. It sounded to him as though it was communistic for people
to be talking about democracy and talking about having some way of
resolving grievances and difficulties and that sort of thing through
the democratic legislative method. And we came into sharp conflict over
that.
Of course, I finally gave him the excuse which he was looking for. Some
of these workers in the camp were from the soup line with me--most of
them were. They knew me around Seattle and they knew that I had been
an agitator on the waterfront and on the skidroad. I had held many
meetings on the skidroad. So I was well known to these men. And they
asked me to conduct a course in sociology. I had some knowledge on the
subject, and I had some textbooks of my own which I had used, which I
had studied when I was going to the university. One of those was a book
entitled “Contemporary Social Movements” by Jerome Davis. I had that
book. And, of course, that book attempts to survey all the then current
social, political, and economic philosophies that were occupying
the attention of various people throughout the world, including the
Communists and the Fascists, the Soviet Union and what was going on in
Italy, and that sort of thing, and also in Germany. So I proceeded to
answer the request of these workers to have a class in contemporary
social movements.
The company commander attended two sessions of the class. And he
attended those two sessions where I was using this text to describe the
Communist system in the Soviet Union and the Fascist system in Italy.
And he decided that that was subversive propaganda and should not be
conducted, and he accused me of spreading subversive propaganda in the
camp.
Mr. MOULDER. Then were you expelled?
Mr. DENNETT. Yes.
Mr. TAVENNER. Wasn’t his accusation correct?
Mr. DENNETT. I think that his accusation was misplaced. I
was making as honest an effort as I knew how to make an objective
study. And there seems to be a great deal of difficulty in these days,
as there was then, to determine the difference between an objective
presentation of a factual situation with respect to a controversial
subject without being accused of propagandizing for it. It is a
difficult point.
Mr. TAVENNER. In what work after your removal from the
Civilian Conservation Corps did you engage?
Mr. DENNETT. That is when I was shanghaied on to a boat here
on the waterfront in Seattle.
Mr. TAVENNER. Now I think, Mr. Chairman, that is a subject
that we will reserve discussion for until later. But I would like to
ask at this time, if the chairman will issue a subpena duces tecum
requiring the witness to present to the staff all of the documents
which he now has in his possession. By that I do not mean the committee
is going to remove them in such a way that the witness will not have
access to them, but in order that we may keep those documents intact
until the committee staff has been able to fully examine them.
Mr. MOULDER. The subpena will be issued.
Mr. TAVENNER. Is there any objection to that on your part?
(The witness confers with his counsel.)
Mr. DENNETT. I have just conferred with my counsel, and we
wondered whether or not you included books.
Mr. TAVENNER. There may be some books which the committee
would like to have included. However, the committee would not be
interested in those books which it already has in its possession.
Mr. MOULDER. Whatever counsel will require will be set forth
in the subpena.
Mr. TAVENNER. I wanted to be certain that the witness is
agreeable to it. We could do it without his agreement, but I prefer to
find out if he is agreeable.
(The witness confers with his counsel.)
Mr. DENNETT. I have conferred with my counsel, and he has
raised the question with me: Can I provide adequate protection for the
documents which seem to have such importance. And, frankly, I have some
misgivings as to whether I can furnish as good protection for them as
perhaps the committee can. So I am agreeable to whatever the committee
wishes to do.
Mr. TAVENNER. Thank you, sir.
Mr. MOULDER. The committee will stand in recess. However, I
wish to announce that immediately after the recess Mr. Johnston and Mr.
Carlson should make themselves available for recall appearances before
the committee.
The committee will stand in recess for a period of 10 minutes.
(Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)
Mr. MOULDER. The committee will be in order.
The committee is informed that the witness Jerry O’Connell has counsel
appearing for him.
Mr. HATTEN. Yes.
Mr. MOULDER. Please come forward.