Part 12

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.

I also knew his father whose name was Robin Adair.

Mr. TAVENNER. Do you mean by that you are identifying his father as a member of the Communist Party?

Mr. DENNETT. Yes; both of them were members of the Communist Party at that time. Mr. Dan Adair, the last I heard of him, was bitterly anti-Communist and has left the State.

Mr. TAVENNER. I would like to remind you, wherever it is known to you that a person being identified has left the Communist Party, that it is only the fair thing to say so.

Mr. DENNETT. True.

I believe, sir, that covers all the names that I have not covered before.

Mr. MOULDER. We will stand in recess for 5 minutes.

(Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)

Mr. MOULDER. The committee will please come to order.

Proceed with the witness, please, Mr. Tavenner.

Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Dennett, at the time you were a member of the CIO Council what union was it that you were representing?

Mr. DENNETT. I was from the Inlandboatmen’s Union at that time.

Mr. TAVENNER. I believe you have given us the names of those in that union who were known to you to be members of the Communist Party?

Mr. DENNETT. The only ones that I know----

Mr. TAVENNER. I don’t want you to repeat them. I want to make certain.

Mr. DENNETT. The only ones I knew in the Inlandboatmen’s Union--two are deceased.

Mr. TAVENNER. We are not interested in that.

Mr. DENNETT. I think that is of no value.

There was a person known to me in the Inlandboatmen’s Union by the name of Gene Robel, who was a member of the Communist Party in the Inlandboatmen’s Union. I think that he was one of the witnesses subpenaed before this hearing.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did he testify several days ago?

Mr. DENNETT. I believe so.

Mr. TAVENNER. Did you at a later time become a member of the Steel Workers’ Union?

Mr. DENNETT. That is true.

Mr. TAVENNER. What date did you become a member?

Mr. DENNETT. Some time in 1942, I think it was. Yes, it was in 1942.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, if any members of that union were known to you to be members of the Communist Party.

Mr. DENNETT. I have this recollection about that:

Remember now all of that transpired more than 7 years ago. I have been expelled from the party for the past 7 years, going on 8.

My recollection is positive about 2 persons. There are others about whom I have a very indistinct recollection, and I would be afraid to be positive about. But the two that I can be positive about--one’s name was Andrew Marshall. He was referred to in Barbara Hartle’s testimony as Andy. She did not finish the name. He was well known to me.

Another person was Alex Harding. H-a-r-d-i-n-g.

I know that there were around 6 or 7 active members of the Communist Party in the steelworkers at that time, but I am so uncertain about the other names that I would hesitate to mention them for fear I might be wrong and might speak of the wrong person.

Mr. TAVENNER. There are other matters that I wanted to obtain information about, but there is apparently not time to do it.

I wanted particularly to inquire into examples of discipline exercised by the Communist Party over its members. We shall not have time to cover that even in a general way, but I know from what you have said during the course of your testimony that on a number of occasions the Communist Party disciplined you. You have told us of two occasions so far. I wish you would tell the committee of other examples of discipline.

Mr. DENNETT. Well, the most important one was my expulsion and that of my former wife.

This occurred after my return from the service. You will recall that I have previously indicated that by the time I was inducted into service I was beginning to fall into some disrepute in the party, and the reason for that was that I had been actively engaged in trying to develop a struggle for equal rights for Negroes.

I was very much impressed by cases of police brutality against Negroes in the city of Seattle way back in 1940 and 1941. And some special cases had been brought to my personal attention, and I had developed a rather broad struggle on behalf of those people through my connections with the Washington Commonwealth Federation.

Of course, I was trying to build a considerable corps of Negro people in the Communist Party.

Without going into the detail of that, I simply want to say that my activities at first met with the approval of the Communist Party, but, with the outbreak of the war and the changed policy of the Communist Party, my activities met with the sharp disapproval of the party.

In other words, the party adopted the policy during the war of subordinating all other things in supporting the war. They had a slogan of “Subordinate the sectional or local interests to the national interest.” This was quite a sharp change in policy.

Mr. TAVENNER. Do you construe that as a sharp interest in the policy of the United States or of some other country?

Mr. DENNETT. It was not with respect to the policy of the United States. It was intended to guarantee that the full strength of the United States would be brought to bear on the side of the Soviet Union in the war which was then raging with Nazi Germany; and to guarantee that it would be complete, the Communist Party ordered that the fight for equal rights for Negroes should be subordinated and that Negroes would have to wait for their equal rights, they would have to cease being troublemakers over this question. And they used that term. They used that term against me, that I was simply a troublemaker organizing diversionary interests.

Well, I felt that if the war that was being fought was worth anything it certainly was worth applying the principle of equal rights throughout the length and breadth of this Nation of the United States, especially when I knew of the heavy burden which the Negroes were carrying in parts of this country. And I knew that there were some attitudes around here which were extremely offensive to the Negro people. They certainly do object to segregation, and they certainly have a right to object to it.

It is my feeling, and always has been, that it is the duty of the white people to see to it that they are not treated as inferiors.

So I was pressing that point, and I defied the leadership of the district in the party to show me anything anywhere which justified their change of attitude.

For my militant determination on it I was falling into bad graces so rapidly that they removed me from the district bureau.

Before I went into the service I also quarreled with them over some of the literature published under the name of Earl Browder, under the title of “Victory and After,” in which I challenged some of the contentions of Browder that it was possible to get along with some of the big capitalists of the United States in the interest of the war effort and forget the interest of the workers who were employed by those capitalists, because in too many instances the capitalists were making enormous profits in the war but the workers were not increasing their wages.

This was an issue which was of extreme importance to me. I was working in a steel mill and I felt that the steelworkers’ wages at that time were altogether too inadequate. I think that history since has borne out the justification of my attitude in it, and I think the Communist Party policy which flip-flopped all over the place at that time has proven how unstable it was, and has proven that it was not genuinely trying to improve the condition of the workers.

Mr. VELDE. When were you removed from the district bureau of the Communist Party?

Mr. DENNETT. Some time in 1941 or 1942, I believe it was. Then, of course, I went into the service.