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INVESTIGATION  OF  COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE 
STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA— Part  1 


HEARING 

/}n,  Ay^l^  .  HtHiU  •  BEFORE  THE 

COMMITTEE  ON  UN-AMERICAN  ACTIVITIES 
HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 

EIGHTY-THIRD  CONGRESS 

SECOND  SESSION 


FEBRUARY  24/1954 


I  24/195 


Printed  for  the  use  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities 
INCLUDING  INDEX 


31^' 


UNITED  STATES 
GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
47718  WASHINGTON  :  1954 

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Boston  Public  Li"  vary 
Superintendent  of  Documents 

SEP  8  -  1954 


COMMITTEE  ON  UN-AMERICAN  ACTIVITIES 

United  States  House  of  Representatives 

HAROLD  H.  VELDE,  Illinois,  Chairman 
BERNARD  W.  KEARNEY,  New  York  FRANCIS  E.  WALTER,  Pennsylvania 

DONALD  L.  JACKSON,  California  MORGAN  M.  MOULDER,  Missouri 

KIT  CLARDY,  Micliigan  CLYDE  DOYLE,  California 

GORDON  H.  SCHERER,  Ohio  JAMES  B.  FRAZIER.  JE.,  Tennessee 

ROBEKT  L.  KuNziG,  Couusel 

Frank  S.  Tavenner,  Jr.,  Counsel 

Thomas  W.  Beale,  Sr.,  Chief  Clerk 

Raphael  I.  Nixon,  Director  of  Research 

Courtney  B.  Owens,  Acting  Chief  Investigator 

u 


CONTENTS 


Pat« 

February  24,  1953,  testimony  of  Stanley  B.  Hancock 4517 

Index i 

m 


Public  Law  601,  79th  Congress 

The  legislation  under  which  the  House  Committee  on  Un-American 
Activities  operates  is  Public  Law  601,  79th  Congress  [1946],  chapter 
753,  2d  session,  which  provides : 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  in  Congress  assembled,  *  *  * 

PART  2— RULES  OF  THE  HOUSE  OP  REPRESENTATIVES 

Rule  X 

SEC.    121.    STANDING   COMMITTEES 

*  *  4c  *  *  *  * 

17.  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  to  consist  of  nine  Members. 

Rule  XI 

POWERS  AND  DUTIES  OF  COMMITTEES 


(g)    (1)   Committee  on  Un-American  Activities. 

(A)   Un-American  activities. 

(2)  The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  as  a  vrhole  or  by  subcommit- 
tee, is  auttiorized  to  malie  from  time  to  time  investigations  of  (i)  the  extent, 
character,  and  objects  of  un-American  propaganda  activities  in  the  United  States, 
(ii)  the  diffusion  within  the  United  States  of  subversive  and  un-American  propa- 
ganda that  is  instigated  from  foreign  countries  or  of  a  domestic  origin  and  at- 
tacks the  principle  of  the  form  of  government  as  guaranteed  by  our  Constitution, 
and  (iii)  all  other  questions  in  relation  thereto  that  would  aid  Congress  in  any 
necessary  remedial  legislation. 

The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  shall  report  to  the  House  (or  to  the 
Clerk  of  the  House  if  the  House  is  not  in  session)  the  results  of  any  such  in- 
vestigation, together  with  such  recommendations  as  it  deems  advisable. 

For  the  purpose  of  any  such  investigation,  the  Committee  on  Un-American 
Activities,  or  any  subcommitee  thereof,  is  authorized  to  sit  and  act  at  such 
times  and  places  within  the  United  States,  whether  or  not  the  House  is  sitting, 
has  recessed,  or  has  adjourned,  to  hold  such  hearings,  to  require  the  attendance 
of  such  witnesses  and  the  production  of  such  books,  papers,  and  documents,  and 
to  take  such  testimony,  as  it  deems  necessary.  Subpenas  may  be  issued  under 
the  signature  of  the  chairman  of  the  committee  or  any  subcommittee,  or  by  any 
member  designated  by  any  such  chairman,  and  may  be  served  by  any  person 
designated  by  any  such  chairman  or  member. 


RULES  ADOPTED  BY  THE  83d  CONGRESS 
House  Resolution  5,  January  3,  1953 

Rule  X 

BTANDING  COMMITTEES 

1.  There  shall  be  elected  by  the  House,  at  the  commencement  of  each  Congress, 
the  following  standing  committees : 

(q)  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  to  consist  of  nine  members. 

*  4s  *  *  *  *  * 

RULE  XI 

POWERS  AND  DUTIES  OF  COMMITTEES 

******  m 

17.  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities. 

(a)  Un-American  activities. 

(b)  The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  as  a  whole  or  by  subcommittee, 
is  authorized  to  make  from  time  to  time,  investigations  of  (1)  the  extent,  char- 
acter, and  objects  of  un-American  propaganda  activities  in  the  United  States, 
(2)  the  diffusion  within  the  United  States  of  subversive  and  un-American  propa- 
ganda that  is  instigated  from  foreign  countries  or  of  a  domestic  origin  and 
attacks  the  principle  of  the  form  of  government  as  guaranteed  by  our  Constitu- 
tion, and  (3)  all  other  questions  in  relation  thereto  that  would  aid  Congress 
in  any  necessary  remedial  legislation. 

The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  shall  report  to  the  House  (or  to  the 
Clerk  of  the  House  if  the  House  is  not  in  session)  the  results  of  any  such  investi- 
gation, together  with  such  recommendations  as  it  deems  advisable. 

For  the  purpose  of  any  such  investigation,  the  Committee  on  Un-American 
Activities,  or  any  subcommittee  thereof,  is  authorized  to  sit  and  act  at  such  times 
and  places  within  the  United  States,  whether  or  not  the  House  is  sitting,  has 
recessed,  or  has  adjourned,  to  hold  such  hearings,  to  require  the  attendance 
of  such  witnesses  and  the  production  of  such  books,  papers,  and  documents,  and 
to  take  such  testimony,  as  it  deems  necessary.  Subpenas  may  be  issued  under 
the  signature  of  the  chairman  of  the  committee  or  any  subcommittee,  or  by  any 
member  designated  by  such  chairman,  and  may  be  served  by  any  person  desig- 
nated by  any  such  chairman  or  member. 

VT 


INYESTIGATION  OF  COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE 
STATE  OF  CALIFOBNIA— Part  1 


WEDNESDAY,   FEBRUABY   24,    1954 

United  States  House  of  Representatives, 
Subcommittee  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities, 

Washington,  D.  G. 

executive  session  ^ 

The  Subcommittee  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities 
met,  pursuant  to  call,  at  10 :  48  a.  m.,  in  room  225,  Old  House  Office 
Building,  Hon,  Donald  L.  Jackson,  presiding. 

Committee  members  present:  Representatives  Donald  L.  Jackson 
(presiding),  Clyde  Doyle,  and  James  B.  Frazier,  Jr. 

Staff  members  present :  Frank  S.  Tavenner,  Jr.,  counsel ;  George  E. 
Cooper,  investigator;  and  Thomas  W.  Beale,  Sr.,  chief  clerk. 

Mr.  Jackson.  The  committee  will  be  in  order. 

For  the  purpose  of  taking  the  testimony  this  morning,  the  chairman 
has  appointed  a  subcommittee  consisting  of  Messrs.  Doyle,  Frazier, 
and  Jackson  as  acting  chairman. 

Will  you  stand  and  be  sworn. 

Do  you  solemnly  swear  in  the  testimony  that  you  are  about  to  give 
before  this  subcommittee  that  you  will  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth,  so  help  you  God  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  will. 

Mr.  Jackson.  You  may  sit  down. 

Are  you  ready  to  proceed,  Mr.  Counsel  ? 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Yes,  sir. 

TESTIMONY  OF  STANLEY  B.  HANCOCK 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Wliat  is  your  full  name,  please,  sir? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Stanley  B.  Hancock. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  It  is  noted  that  you  are  not  accompanied  by  coun- 
sel. You  are  advised  that  you  are  permitted  to  have  counsel  if  you 
want  counsel. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  don't  consider  it  necessary. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  When  and  where  were  you  born,  Mr.  Hancock  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  Heber,  Calif.,  in  1908. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  give  the  committee,  please,  a  resume  of 
your  formal  educational  training? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Entirely  informal.  I  went  to  a  year  and  a  half  of 
high  school  in  San  Diego,  Calif.,  and  about  8  months  of  business  col- 
lege in  San  Diego. 

'  Beleased  by  the  committee. 

4517 


4518       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Tavenner.  "Wliat  is  your  present  occupation  or  profession? 

Mr.  Hancock.  My  profession  is  that  of  circulation  manager  of  the 
Long  Island  Daily  Press  in  Jamaica,  Long  Island. 

lilr.  Tavenner.  How  long  have  you  been  so  employed  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Since  December  1951 ;  December  1951. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Have  you  had  other  newspaper  experience  besides 
that? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  I  have.  I  worked  for  the  San  Diego  Sun,  now 
defunct,  beginning  in  about  1926,  until,  I  think,  1932.  I  worked  for 
the  San  Francisco 

If  it  has  any  significance,  I  worked  for  2  or  3  months  for  the  Western 
Worker  in,  I  think,  1933,  as  circulation  manager. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Let  us  start  out  by  taking  your  record  of  employ- 
ment beginning  in  1926,  regardless  of  whether  it  was  with  a  paper 
or  what. 

Mr.  Hancock.  All  right.  About  3  months  with  the  Western 
Worker  in  San  Francisco,  as  circulation  manager.  My  first  position, 
as  I  have  just  mentioned,  was  that  of  district  manager  for  the  San 
Diego  Sun.     In  1928  to  1929 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Just  a  minute.  What  was  the  second  paper  you 
worked  for? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  have  to  recover  now. 

I  worked  for  the  San  Diego  Sun  from  somewhere  around  1925  or 
1926  to  about  1928. 

I  went  to  work  for  the  Pasadena  Star-News,  as  district  circulation 
manager,  for  something  over  a  year,  into  1929 ;  back  to  the  San  Diego 
Sun  until  about  1932,  possibly  1933. 

Some  time  in  1933  I  was  for  perhaps  2  or  3  months  circulation  man- 
ager of  the  Western  Worker. 

]Mr.  Tavenner.  Where  were  you  engaged  in  that  work  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  San  Francisco. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  On  the  record. 

At  that  point  did  you  leave  San  Diego  and  go  immediately  for  em- 
ployment with  the  AVestern  Worker  in  San  Francisco  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  I  did. 

Under  the  term  of  employment,  it  is  kind  of  hard  to  state.  I  was 
not  formally  emploj^ed — somewhere  around  1935  or  1936  I  was  on 
some  of  these  WPA  projects,  but  it  is  very  vague  in  my  mind. 

In  September  1937  I  became  organizer  for  the  CIO,  UCAPAWA — 
UCAPAWA  are  the  initials.  United  Cannery,  Agriculture — -I  forget 
the  full  title. 

Mr.  Beale.  Allied  Workers  of  America. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Thank  you,  sir. 

That  lasted  3  months. 

INIr.  Tavenner.  Where  were  you  engaged  in  that  work  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  For  a  while  in  Bakersfield,  Calif. ;  I  think  maybe  a 
month  and  a  half,  perhaps  2  months  there;  the  last  month  in  Saji 
Francisco,  and  that  work  ceased.  The  allotment  was  Avithdrawn  for 
that  activity. 

I  became  east  bay  manager  for  the  People's  World,  which  was  an 
extension  of  the  Western  Worker,  which  had  become  at  that  time,  or 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4519 

about  that  time,  a  daily  paper.     This  was  the  2d  of  January  1938. 
I  held  that  position  for  6  months. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  that  position  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  East  bay  manager  for  the  Daily  People's  World. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Would  that  be,  substantially,  Oakland? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  it  was  the  Oakland  territory.  The  office  was 
in  Oakland. 

Six  months  later,  or  about  July  1938,  I  became  general  circulation 
manager  for  the  Daily  People's  World.  I  held  that  position  until 
about  April  or  May  1940,  at  which  time  I  resigned,  and  had  no 
employment,  but  about  3  weeks  later  I  became  circulation  manager 
of  the  Santa  Cruz  Sentinel  News,  Santa  Cruz,  Calif. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  About  what  was  the  date  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Some  time  around  May  1940.  I  held  that  position 
until  October  1942. 

Around  that  time  I  was  negotiating  to  try  to  get  into  the  Air  Corps ; 
I  passed  some  tests,  failed  in  some  others. 

I  left  the  Sentinel  News  preparatory  to  going  into  the  merchant 
marine.  I  actually  went  into  the  merchant  marine  in  January  1943, 
but  for  2  or  3  months  I  worked;  I  had  2  jobs.  One  was — I  can't 
remember  the  name  of  that ;  I  was  a  machinist's  helper.  I  don't  know 
the  name,  some  kind  of  a  belt  company. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Link  Belt  Macnine  Co.  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Link  Belt  Machine  Co.,  yes,  for  a  month  or  two — 
a  month,  I  guess;  then  for  another  month  or  two  I  worked  in  ship 
maintenance  and  repair  crews  in  San  Francisco  harbor,  and  in  Jan- 
uary 1943,  went  into  the  merchant  marine. 

In  January  1946  I  came  out  of  the  merchant  marine. 

In  April  or  May  1946  I  became  circulation  manager  for  the  Lock- 
port  Union  Sun  and  Journal. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  In  what  State  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  is  Lockport,  N.  Y. 

Sometime  around  February  1948  I  became  public-relations  director 
of  the  Erie  Dispatch  in  Erie,  Pa. 

I  lost  that  position  in  December  1949,  as  a  direct  result  of  my 
testimony  before  the  Harry  Bridges  trial  in  San  Francisco. 

Mr.  Doyle.  For  whom  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  last  Harry  Bridges  trial  in  December  of  1949. 

Mr.  Jackson.  You  mean  you  were  discharged  because  you  testified 
in  that  trial  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  sir ;  under  very  sympathetic  circumstances. 
•  Mr.  Jackson.  You  mean  you  were  fired  sympathetically  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Sympathetically. 

Mr.  Jackson.  That  doesn't  take  much  of  the  sting  out  of  it. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  there  was  no  other  choice  in  the  way  the 
thing  happened. 

In  Januar}^  of  1950  I  went  to  work  for  an  old  friend  of  mine, 
Harry  Pollack,  of  San  Francisco,  who  conducts  a  business  of  creating 
and  carrying  out  special  circulation  campaigns  around  the  country. 

I  never  worked  in  San  Francisco.  My  territory  was  the  East,  Mid- 
west, and  South. 

I  traveled  for  1950,  1951,  and  until  December  1951,  when  I  became 
circulation  manager  of  the  Long  Island  Daily  Press,  my  present 
position. 

47718— 54— pt.  1 2 


4520    COMMUNIST    ACTIVITIES    IN    THE    STATE    OF    CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Jackson,  Is  the  management  of  the  Long  Island  Daily  Press 
aware  of  your  appearance  here  today  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Your  employment  with  the  San  Diego  Sun  began  in 
1925  or  1926.  How  long  did  you  remain  in  San  Diego  from  the  time 
of  the  beginning  of  that  employment  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  was  in  Imperial  Valley,  which  was  my  home, 
where  I  was  born,  for  6  months,  and  I  remained  in  San  Diego  until 
some  time  in  1928 ;  as  previously  stated,  I  went  to  work  for  the  Pasa- 
dena News  in  the  same  capacity,  circulation  manager,  and  a  year  later 
was  persuaded  to  return  to  the  San  Diego  Sun,  so  I  remained  there  un- 
til some  time  in  1933,  when  I  think  there  would  be  some  question  as  to 
whether  I  lost  my  job  or  I  quit.  It  was  a  combination  of  not  being 
too  eager  to  keep  the  position  and  quitting  my  employer,  and  I  had 
the  rather  difficult  position  of  someone  not  too  interested  in  their 
work. 

By  that  time  I  was  quite  involved  in  Communist  activity,  so  I  re- 
mained in  San  Diego ;  in  1933  I  went  to  San  Francisco  for  this  2-  or  3- 
month  period,  and  came  back  to  San  Diego — are  you  interested  in  de- 
^^eloping  party  activity  ? 

Mr.  Tavenner.  As  soon  as  I  get  clearly  in  mind  the  period  of  time 
that  you  were  in  San  Diego  I  want  to  ask  you  about  your  knowledge  of 
Communist  affairs  in  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Around  1934  I  was  in  and  out  of  San  Diego.  I  was 
in  Imperial  Valley  for  a  good  part  of  that  time.  I  was  in  San  Diego 
most  of  1935, 1936,  and  into  September  of  1937.  I  haven't  lived  in  San 
Diego  since. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  stated  that  you  had  knowledge  of  Communist 
Party  activities  while  at  San  Diego.  Were  you  a  member  of  the  party 
during  any  part  of  the  time  you  were  in  San  Diego  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  sir.  From  sometime  in  1931 — I  can't  be  ab- 
solutely sure  of  these  dates ;  it  is  a  long  time  ago,  but  I  believe  it  was 
sometime  in  1931.  It  might  even  have  been  the  latter  part  of  1930,  I 
am  not  absolutely  sure,  until  I  left,  and  after  I  left. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Are  you  now  a  member  of  the  Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  sir. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  When  did  you  withdraw  from  the  Communist 
Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Wlien  I  left  the  Daily  People's  World  in  1940.  That 
was  the  final  break.  My  party  activity,  as  we  understood  party 
activity,  practically  ceased  in  1937  when  I  went  into  the  People's 
World  activity,  or  rather  in  January  of  1938. 

While  we  held  nominal  party  membership  and  attended  meetings  of 
the  party,  well,  let's  say,  99  percent  of  our  activity  was  professional 
newspaper. 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  I  will  ask  you  questions  a  little  later  about  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  you  left  the  party;  but  at  this  point,  let  us 
confine  our  questions  to  matters  relating  to  your  entrance  into  the 
party  and  your  experience  in  the  party. 

Will  you  tell  the  committee  the  circumstances  under  which  you 
became  a  member  of  the  party,  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  will  do  the  best  I  can. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4521 

Mr.  Tavenner.  By  that  I  mean  what  were  the  influences  that 
brought  you  into  the  Communist  Party  and  who,  specifically,  was  re- 
sponsible for  your  recruitment  into  the  party  ? 

Mr.  Doyle.  How  old  were  you  in  1930  or  1931  when  you  joined? 

Mr.  Hancock.  My  early  twenties,  21  or  22 ;  somewhere  around  there. 

I  will  do  the  best  I  can. 

The  family  environment,  family  economic  circumstance,  without 
question,  played  a  part.  My  father,  for  whom  I  have  the  greatest 
respect,  now  dead,  was  a  Socialist.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  h© 
was  never  a  Communist,  but  he  loved  to  talk  and  vote  Socialist. 

His  brother  was  very  much  the  same.  They  were  Socialists.  They 
went  through  stages  where,  at  one  time,  the  greatest  man  on  earth  to 
my  father  was  Henry  Ford,  because  he  brought  in  the  $5-a-day  pay 
scale  for  the  first  time  in  history. 

They  were  great  La  Follette  supporters,  but  they  were,  as  far  back 
as  my  memory  goes,  left  of  center  and  loved  to  consider  themselves 
Socialists. 

We,  in  my  family,  did  not  have  a  particularly  religious  background, 
but  we  were  not  antireligious ;  we  were  passive  on  the  subject. 

In  this  home  environment  as  a  child,  I  thought  along  the  lines  of 
underprivileged  people.  We,  ourselves,  were  somewhat  underprivi- 
leged. My  father  died  penniless;  my  mother  worked  in  laundries, 
and  places  like  that. 

My  getting  into  the  newspaper  business  resulted  from  never  being 
able  financially  to  stop  carrying  newspapers.  I  delivered  newspapers 
as  a  kid;  went  to  high  school  for  a  vear  and  a  half  while  I  still  de- 
livered newspapers,  and  then  couldn't  go  back  to  high  school  because 
we  needed  the  income. 

In  California,  in  the  early  thirties,  I  truly  believe  the  economic 
circumstances  were  much  worse  than  they  were  throughout  the  coun- 
try. All  this  impressed  itself  on  my  mmd  and  made  me  subject  to 
radical  influences,  which  were  plentiful  at  that  time  in  the  persons  of 
my  father  and  my  uncle. 

The  actual  way  I  got  interested  in  the  Communist  Party  was :  I  was 
working  at  the  San  Diego  Sun  as  a  district  manager  when  my  uncle 
brought  around  a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Meyer — Meyers — Levin,  it 
sounds  like,  but  not  quite  right — Meyer — he  is  a  real  old-timer ;  in  fact, 
he  disappeared  from  the  California  scene  and  located  around  New 
York  somewhere,  but  he  was  a  representative  of  the  California  Com- 
mittee to  Repeal  the  California  Syndicalism  Act.  The  Scripps- 
Howard  newspapers,  for  whom  I  worked,  were  opposed  to  the  Cali- 
fornia Syndicalism  Act. 

_My  uncle  brought  this  person  around  and  asked  if  I  could  introduce 
him  to  the  editor,  and  maybe  get  a  little  publicity  for  him.  I  not  only 
did  that,  but  went  to  a  couple  of  meetings  as  a  raw,  green  kid,  and 
was  looked  upon,  I  learned  later,  as  a  likely  recruit  for  this  chain  belt 
into  the  Communist  Party,  which  is  exactly  what  the  anti-CS  com- 
mittee was. 

This  Meyer  Levin,  if  that  is  his  correct  name — I  will  get  it  in  a 
moment 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Could  it  have  been  Frank  S.  Meyers? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  ;  it  couldn't.    His  first  name  "is  Meyer,  M-e-y-e-r. 

So  I  was  cultivated,  and  in  the  atmosphere  where  my  paper  sup- 
ported the  appearance  of  this  group  activity  in  town,  I  came  in  con- 


4522       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

tact  with  this  person,  and  my  uncle  and  this  Meyer  persuaded  me 
that  it  was — without  any  particular  difficulty — that  it  was  a  fine  thing 
to  do,  and  I  accepted  some  position,  I  think  publicity  representative 
for  this  committee,  and,  in  the  course  of  contact  with  this  Meyer 
person  I,  without  any  particular  difficulty,  was  readily  convinced 
that  the  Communist  Party  was  the  solution  for  all  evils. 

My  father  never  agreed  with  me.  He  was  a  Socialist,  but  no  more. 
But  my  uncle  agreed  with  me  and  later  also  become  a  party  member. 

Those  are  really  the  circumstances.  I  suppose  I  should  say  that 
this  is  a  skeleton  outline  of  the  circumstances. 

The  influences  of  the  period  were  great  poverty  and  I  had  become 
sensitive  to  such  conditions  and  very  sincerely  wanted  to  do  some- 
thing about  it,  although  it  was  a  complex  period.  I  felt  that  I  sin- 
cerely wanted  to  do  something  about  the  appalling  economic  condi- 
tions. So,  I  would  be  willing  to  concede  that  it  could  be  a  small  boy 
trying  to  be  a  big  shot,  I  don't  know. 

Mr.  TA\T3]srNER.  "When  you  became  a  member  of  the  Communist 
Party,  did  you  immediately  sign  a  card  or  an  application  for  mem- 
bership ? 

Mr,  Hancock.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  yes,  that  would  have 
been  the  procedure. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  recall  at  this  time  the  circumstances  under 
which  you  signed  the  application,  that  is,  to  whom  you  made  your 
application  ? 

Mr,  Hancock,  I  am  almost  certain  that  I  made  it  to  this  Meyer 
Levin,  L-e-v-i-n,  and  I  will  correct  that  if  I  can  think  of  it.  It  doesn't 
sound  quite  right,  but  very  nearly  right. 

At  that  time  there  was  no  Communist  Party  in  San  Diego;  there 
had  been,  I  was  later  informed,  at  an  earlier  period.  Some  years 
before  the  party,  such  as  it  was,  had  been  broken  up  by  the  Trotsky ite- 
Lovestone  conflict.  It  was  nonexistent;  but  there  were  a  few  party 
sympathizers  or  former  party  members  around.  It  was  broken  up 
prior  to  my  entrance  into  the  organization  by  the  process  of  some- 
body coming  around  and  picking  up  all  the  books  and  never  coming 
back  with  them. 

So,  there  were  a  few  people — a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Sol  Bern- 
hart,  who  was  a  local  tailor ;  a  local  produce  wholesaler,  who  was  not 
a  party  member  but  very  sympathetic,  by  the  name  of  Saul  Hill- 
kowitz.    Those  were  the  earliest  contacts. 

Now,  I  can  see  2  or  3  other  people,  but  their  names  just  aren't  in 
my  mind  right  now. 

It  was  then  a  part  of  my  earliest  activity  to  pull  these  people  to- 
gether to  try  to  form  some  kind  of  a  unit,  which  we  did, 

Mr,  Tavenner,  Did  that  unit  have  a  name  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  doubt  it,  unless  it  was  called  the  San  Diego  unit. 

Mr,  Ta-stsnner.  How  many  persons  composed  that  unit  after  you 
perfected  its  organization  or  after  its  organization  was  perfected? 

Mr.  Hancock.  As  I  recall,  the  creation  of  a  unit  wouki  involve  any- 
where from  4  to  12  to  15  people;  above  12  you  would  then  split  and 
form  another  unit. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  give  us  the  names  of  any  additional  persons 
who  were  members  of  this  original  unit? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  it  is  very  hard  for  me  to  do  that.  I  can't 
even  say  with  certainty  that  Bernhart  was  a  member  of  the  original 
unit. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4523 

I  have  in  mind  this  Meyer  Levin  introducing  me  to  this  group  of 
people,  and  that  is  1931,  a  long  time  ago.  The  best  I  could  do  would 
be  to  recall  names  in  that  general  early  period,  but  it  would  be  unfair 
for  me  to  say  they  were  definitely  attached  to  that. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Before  attempting  to  do  that,  let's  trace  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Communist  Party  a  little  more  definitely  in  San  Diego. 

Did  this  original  unit  grow  to  the  point  where  it  was  divided  into 
additional  units  ^ 

Mr.  Hancock,  Yes ;  it  did. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  recall  how  many  units  there  were  in  the 
Communist  Party  in  San  Diego  by  the  time  you  left  there,  which  I 
believe  w-as  in  1937  or  1938  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  1937.  Not  exactly,  but  it  is  in  my  mind  that  the 
greatest  growth  we  achieved  would  have  been  somewhere  around  12 
units,  not  necessarily  at  the  time  I  left,  but  somewhere  around  1934  or 
1935  would  have  been  the  largest  membership,  which  would  have, 
given  us  around  150  party  members. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  at  any  time  occupy  any  position  within 
the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  I  did. 

The  terminology  changed;  the  activity  was  called  one  thing  at 
one  time  and  another  thing  at  a  later  time. 

In  the  early  period  we  dealt  with  such  expressions  as  "org.  secre- 
taries," "agit.  props," — the  term  "agit.  prop."  later  became  educa- 
tional director.  This  was  no  doubt  the  Russian  influence  of  abbreviat- 
ing American  words  and  combining  them. 

My  first  activity  was  that  of  organizer  in  the  Communist  Party. 
The  position  in  those  days  of  the  leading  person  was  called  organizer. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Called  what  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Organizer;  organizer. 

Mr.  Tavtenner.  Can  you  fix  the  approximate  period  when  you  were 
the  organizer  for  the  Communist  Party  in  San  Diego  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  believe  it  is  truthful  to  say  that  I  was  the 
leader  of  the  Communist  Party  from  the  first  date  I  have  given  you 
here  until  some  time  in  1936 — the  early  part  of  1937.  The  title 
changed,  but  I  was  in  nominal  leadership  of  the  organization. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  AVliat  other  positions  did  you  hold  besides  that  of 
being  the  leader  of  the  Communist  Party?  Did  you  have  any  official 
position  in  any  particular  group  or  cell  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  was,  as  the  organizer  of  the  party,  in  charge 
of  the  executive  committee.  It  wasn't  called  the  executive  committee 
at  that  early  period.  The  language  escapes  me,  but  it  is  a  pyramid 
structure  organization  where  you  have  units,  and  2  or  3  members 
of  each  unit  are  drawn  together  in  a  central  committee.  We  would 
at  one  time  have  called  it  a  county  central  committee.  I  was  chairman 
of  the  county  central  committee. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Over  what  period  of  time  did  you  occupy  that 
position  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  was  in  charge  of  the  Communist  Party  until  early 
1937.  I  cannot  honestly  say  what  title  existed.  I  perhaps  could  re- 
construct right  now. 

There  came  a  great  change  in  1934,  1935,  the  united-front  approach, 
and  all  the  party  terminology  changed  at  that  time.    The  activity  re- 


4524       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

mained  the  same;  the  terminology  changed — well,  some  activity 
changed,  too,  but  my  activity  as  leader  of  the  party  remained  constant 
until  early  1937,  some  6  months  before  I  left. 

This  is  another  story,  but  I  was  negotiating  at  that  point  to  relieve 
myself  of  party  leadership,  not  activity — leadership. 

A  fellow  by  the  name  of  Esco  Richardson,  E.  L.  Richardson,  who, 
when  I  met  him,  lived  in  National  City,  a  suburb,  I  suppose  you  could 
say,  of  San  Diego,  was  appointed  or  elected  chairman  of  the  San  Diego 
Communist  Party.  I  perhaps  held  some  executive  committee  posi- 
tion while  I  was  there,  but  I  had  surrendered  leadership  of  the  party 
about  6  months  before  I  left  in  September  1937. 

Mr,  Tavenner.  Well,  now,  while  you  were  active  in  the  party  in 
San  Diego,  did  you  hold  any  State  position  with  the  Communist 
Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  so. 

I  must  say  that  I  have  been  asked  these  questions  many  times  by 
the  Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Naturalization  when  they  were  at- 
tempting to  understand  the  entire  picture. 

I  do  believe  that  I  was  a  member  of  the  State  committee,  but  I 
couldn't  swear  to  it. 

It  is  absolutely  true  that  I  attended  meetings  of  the  State  committee, 
but  being  something  of  a  dissident,  I  have  in  my  memory — we  remem- 
ber the  things  that  are  most  disappointing  or  most  pleasing  to  us,  and 
I  remember  when  I  was  barred  from  membership  in  the  State  com- 
mittee, considered  a  little  to  eccentric,  from  their  point  of  view,  when 
I  was  nominated  but  not  passed  by  the  party  leadership. 

It  is  very  possible  that  there  comes  a  later  lull  when  I  came  into 
membership  in  the  State  committee.  Certainly  I  attended  the  State 
committee  meetings  as  county  representative  from  San  Diego. 

Now,  I  do  have  to  point  out  one  thing  that  seems  to  be  confusing  to 
investigators. 

As  a  result  of  a  law  in  California,  I  presume  in  all  States,  there  must 
be  a  legal  State  committee  of  a  political  party.  That  requires  that 
names  be  filed  in  Sacramento,  Calif.  That  was  by  no  means  the  State 
committee.  We  selected  nonentities  from  San  Diego  who  could  afford 
to  have  their  names  known  as  State  committee  members.  They  actu- 
ally had  to  go  to  Sacramento  to  hold  a  convention,  and  this  was  the 
Communist  Party.  It  was  not  the  leadership.  And  there  seems  to 
be  some  confusion  in  the  services  about,  "How  is  it  that  this  was  an 
official  State  committee?"  It  wasn't  the  State  committee.  It  was 
the  legal  answer  to  the  requirement  that  we  have  a  legal  State  com- 
mittee. 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  It  was  a  mere  conformance  with  the  law  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Whereas  the  leadership  of  the  party  was  consti- 
tuted of  other  people. 

Mr.  Hancock.  An  entirely  different  group. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  the  security  feature  to  that  the  reason  for  that 
action? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  no  doubt  it  was,  although  we  didn't  speak 
about  it  in  those  terms.  It  was  quite  obvious  why  the  Communist 
Party  would  not  announce  the  names  of  its  real  leaders  or  gather 
them  together  in  any  single  place. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4525 

As  I  think  about  it,  surely  it  was  security;  it  had  to  be  security. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Would  it  be  possible  to  be  appointed  a  member  of 
the  State  committee  of  the  Communist  Party  and  have  no  personal 
knowledge  of  that  fact,  in  your  opinion? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No. 

Mr.  Jackson.  I  have  reference  to  the  testimony  of  Miss  Lucille 
Ball  in  that  connection,  who  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  State 
committee,  and  who  in  her  affidavit  stated  that  she  had  no  knowledge 
or  recollection  of  having  been  so  appointed. 

Mr.  IL\ncock.  Well,  I  can  only  speak  from  my  relation  to  the 
people  that  I 

You  are  talking  about  this  official  State  committee? 

Mr.  Jackson.  Yes;  the  one  that  held  conventions,  as  all  parties  do. 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  could  conceivably  happen,  but  it  would  not  have 
been  a  part  of  the  strategy  for  it  to  happen. 

The  only  way  it  could  conceivably  happen  is  if  the  party  sub- 
mitted the  name  of  so-and-so,  and  failed  to  notify  that  party  and 
didn't  want  that  party  at  the  State  convention.  Now,  there  is  some 
legal  requirement  that  if  you  nominate  some  person  to  the  State 
convention  you  are  supposed  to  be  there,  although  I  suppose  sick- 
ness and  what-not  could  explain  why  everybody  doesn't  get  there — 
but  we  nominated  people  whose  economic  circumstances  were  such 
that  they  could  have  their  name  publicized,  who  could  make  a  2-  or 
3-day  trip  to  Sacramento,  and  that  is  all,  no  further  requirements. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Physical  presence  is  not  actually  required.  You 
can  vote  by  proxy  under  the  California  State  law. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Then  it  is  theoretically  possible  for  a  person  to  be 
nominated  without  knowing  that. 

Mr.  DoTLE.  Normally,  though,  if  they  were  active  in  the  party 
after  that  convention  would  they  discover  they  had  been  named  with- 
out their  knowledge,  as  a  member  of  the  State  committee? 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  would  depend  on  the  degree  of  their  contact  with 
the  party. 

Mr.  Doyle.  I  realize  that,  but  I  say,  if  they  were  active. 

Mr.  Hancock.  "Wlien  you  use  the  word  "active,"  I  would  say  an 
active  person  would  know  that  they  were  nominated  to  the  State 
committee. 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  Now,  Mr.  Hancock,  will  you  explain  as  fully  as 
you  can  the  activity  of  the  Communist  Party  during  the  period  you 
were  its  leader  in  San  Diego  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  I  will  have  to  ask  you  how  extensive  an 
answer  you  want. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Well,  not  knowing  what  you  will  testify  to,  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  say — 

Mr.  Hancock.  You  stop  me,  then 

Mr.  Tavenner  (continuing).  And  we  will  stop  you  in  the  course 
of  your  statement  and  ask  you  questions  about  things  that  we  are 
particularly  interested  in.  Things  we  are  not  interested  in,  we  will 
give  some  indication  to  you. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr,  Jackson.  On  the  record. 


4526       COADvIUNIST  ACTR'ITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

It  would  seem  to  me  that  that  would  center  largely  about  its  prin- 
cipal projects;  I  would  like  to  know  about  them,  what  they  were 
working  on. 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  the  earliest  days  the  principal  projects  were 
something  that  happened  before  I  came  in,  but  I  came  in  at  the  tail- 
end  of  the  campaign,  what  they  called  the  Red  Flag  Case. 

Yetta  Stromberg  had  run  up  a  red  flag  and  had  been  arrested  in,  1 
think,  San  Bernardino,  Calif.,  and  there  was  some  "hoop-cle-doo"  in 
the  courts  about  it,  and  there  was  a  decision  finding  a  flaw,  stating  that 
she  couldn't  be  punished  for  it.     That  was  a  public  campaign. 

I  would  like  to  interpose  right  here  the  explanation  that  it  is  the 
nature,  or  was  at  that  time  the  nature  of  the  Communist  Party  to 
utilize  all  issues  in  or  bordering  on  the  civil  liberties  field  to  further 
the  movement  of  liberals  over  to  the  radical  side.  As  previously 
stated,  the  first  group  activity  I  came  in  contact  with  was  an  activity 
to  repeal  the  California  Syndicalism  Act,  which  had  brought  about 
the  incarceration  of  a  number  of  people  whose  names  escape  me,  but 
there  were  cases  in  court  at  that  time,  and  there  was  quite  a  liberal 
field  of  thought  that  this  was  a  little  too  stringent,  that  here  were 
ample  other  laws  to  cover  situations  that  the  CS  law  was  being  applied 
to. 

So,  we  have  a  Scripps-Howard  newspaper,  for  example,  opposing 
the  California  syndicalism  law,  and  yet  the  only  organized  activity 
was  conducted  by  the  hard  core  of  the  Communist  Party. 

On  a  local  scale,  the  principal  activity  was  in  the  relief  organiza- 
tions, in  the  creation  of — for  example,  the  first  outside  organization 
I  remember  working  on  was  what  we  called  the  Unemployed  Coun- 
cil— not  even  good  grammar,  but  that  is  what  it  was  called,  the  Un- 
employed Council. 

Here  we  set  up  many  groups,  organizations,  throughout  the  city 
of  San  Diego — one  in  downtown  San  Diego,  one  in  East  San  Diego, 
one  in  National  City — and  here  our  purpose  was  to  try  to  be  experts 
in  the  field  of  how  to  tell  people  how  to  get  relief.  At  that  time  there 
were  people  in  rather  desperate  circumstances. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Those  were  what  years  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  This  was  1931, 1932,  along  in  there. 

An  important  early  activity  of  the  Communist  Party  was  the  Com- 
mittee to  Free  Tom  Mooney  and  Warren  K.  Billings. 

As  unemployment,  as  the  depression  worsened  our  activity  among 
the  unemployed  became  quite  extensive.  There  were  State  conven- 
tions. We  organized,  or  participated  in  the  organization,  of  one  and 
possibly  two  of  what  we  called  hunger  marc^ies.  This  is  not  the 
bonus  march.  That  is  a  little  vague  in  my  mind.  These  were  un- 
employed people  getting  in  jalopies  and  driving  up  here  to  Wash- 
ington. 

I  remember  well  a  campaign  to  buy  an  old  Willys-Knight  and  load 
it  full  of  8  or  10  people  and  start  them  out  to  collect  money,  and  we 
sent  wires,  and  sent  tliom  on,  and  so  forth. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Sent  them  to  Wasliington? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Sent  them  to  AVashington ;  yes. 

The  main  drive  at  that  time  was  for  some  kind  of  an  unemployment 
insurance  bill.  It  had  a  name,  and  some  Congressman  from  Minne- 
sota was  identified  with  it.     He  had  introduced  it  in  Congress,  and 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4527, 

the  Communist  Party,  with  all  its  affiliates,  was  rallying  support 
behind  it,  and  the  hunger  march  was  to  try  to  create  pressure  along 
that  line. 

Somewhere  around,  I  think  it  is  1934,  there  was  an  international 
gathering  in  Moscow  of  the  Comintern.  Georgi  Dimitroff  had  just 
been  released  by  Hitler — or  Hitler  wasn't  in  power  then,  but  he  had 
just  had  Cliis — this  would  have  been  later,  then;  the  Reichstag  trial 
was  in  1936  or  1937. 

Anyway,  somewhere  around  1934  or  1935  there  was  a  vast  change 
in  the  procedures  of  the  Communist  Party.  It  could  be  termed  and 
was  termed  as  the  united-front  approach.  It  was  the  immediate  re- 
duction of  the  use  of  revolutionary  terminology,  and  the  attempt  to 
invade  existing  organizations,  including  the  trade  unions. 

On  the  basis  of  achieving  minor  social  or  economic  gains,  I  perhaps 
should  say  that  this  represented  a  very  substantial  change  because  up 
to  that  time  the  party  would  run  people  for  office,  but  while  they 
were  running  for  office  they  were  talking  about  "Defend  the  Chinese 
Soviets,"  even  back  in  1933,  and  all,  "Support  to  Revolutionary  Rus- 
sia," and  such  nonsense  as  that. 

So  that  that  was  subjugated,  put  in  the  background,  and  the  main 
drive  became  the  united-front  appeal,  which  was  to  infiltrate  organi- 
zations and  bring  them  not  into  revolutionary  status,  but  a  more  re- 
ceptive atmosphere  for  a  later  revolutionary  appeal,  so  that  in  some- 
where around  1934,  1935,  there  was  a  greatly  heightened  penetration 
of  the  trade  unions  carried  down  to  the  lowest  level,  including  our 
San  Diego  level. 

We  were  more  successful  in  San  Diego  than  most  places,  but  we 
only  followed  the  policy  that  had  been  set  up  internationally,  and  we 
strove  for  leadership,  tried  to  take  charge  of  the  activity,  gain  elected 
positions,  that  sort  of  thing. 

The  party,  with  a  much  watered-down  public  appeal,  went  exten- 
sively into  electioneering.  Under  the  united-front  approach  they 
endeavored  to  combine  with,  first  of  all,  the  Socialist  Party ;  secondly, 
with  the  left  or  radical  wing  of  labor ;  and  would  set  up  united-front 
committees  that  would  in  themselves  project  candidates  for  election. 

This  atmosphere  prevailed  until,  as  far  as  I  can  remember — it  had 
its  heyday  of  success,  such  as  it  was — that  is,  it  reached  its  peak  of 
success,  which  wasn't  too  much,  around  1936. 

In  1939,  I  think  I  am  correct  on  these  dates,  Septembar  1939,  when 
Russia  invaded  Poland,  there  came  another  abrupt  change,  and  I  sup- 
pose due  to  necessity,  since  the  united  front  was  no  longer  possible, 
then  the  party  drew  into  itself,  maintaining  its  trade-union  and  other 
organizational  contacts,  and  did  everything  possible  to  win  support  for 
its  program  at  that  time,  which  was  "a  plague  on  both  your  houses," 
the  effect  of  which  was  to  weaken  support  for  England  and  France. 

It  was  never  presented  tliat  way,  but  when  you  say  "You  are  both 
a  bunch  of  rotters,"  the  only  possible  support  America  would  give 
would  have  been  to  the  allied  side,  so  when  we  saj^  "They  are  both 
stinkers,"  the  net  effect  is  to  reduce  support  for  the  allied  side.  That 
is  the  official  position  of  the  party  at  that  time. 

I  have  lost  contact;  I  don't  know  how  they  have  changed  since. 

Mr.  Doyle.  When  you  said  "A  plague  on  both  your  houses,"  that 
was 

47718—54 — pt.  1 3 


4528       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Hancock.  1939  was  the  Russian  invasion  of  Poland — maybe 
no;  maybe  1940.  Hitler  went  in  in  1939;  I  think  Russia  went  in  in 
1940. 

There  was  a  time  lag  in  there,  but  the  fact  that  there  are  a  large 
percentage,  or  were  a  large  percentage  of  Jewish  people  in  the  Com- 
munist Party  made  them  violently  anti-Hitler,  and  it  was  a  real  revo- 
lution when  they  had  to,  in  effect,  become  friendly  with  Hitler,  and  it 
was  somewhere,  perhaps  6  months  of  so — history  books  will  show, 
anjrway. 

Mr.  Jackson.  To  what  extent  were  you  successful  in  bringing  in  to 
the  support  of  these  various  movements,  either  through  front  organ- 
izations or  otherwise,  well-meaning  citizens  of  the  community  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  We  thought  we  were  highly  successful. 

Mr.  Jackson.  In  what  particular  areas  did  you 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  of  course,  I  am  only  aware  of  what  happened 
in  San  Diego. 

We  did  some  work  in  Imperial  Valley,  but  we  had  no  such  accom- 
plishments in  Imperial  Valley. 

I  might  say  that  I  heard,  aside  from  what  I  have  been  saying  in  San 
Diego,  there  was  an  atmosphere  at  that  time  where  we  heard  more  than 
just  rumors;  we  heard  that  various  prominent  people  were  either 
identified  with  or  were  close  to  the  Communist  Party  outside  of  San 
Diego.  None  of  it  is  to  my  personal  knowledge,  but  in  San  Diego  we 
worked  very  closely  with  several  people  who  might  be  termed  com- 
munity leaders,  including  the  leaders  of  the  San  Diego  Labor  Council, 
including  a  couple  of  teachers,  and  there  is  a  third  one  but  I  can't 
think  of  his  name,  a  fellow  who  was  an  engineer — what  might  be 
termed  at  least  a  small  segment  of  an  intelligent  group  in  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Jackson.  To  what  extent  were  you  successful  at  all  in  obtain- 
ing the  use  of  ministers,  the  use  of  their  names  for  the  various  activi- 
ties? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  not  at  all.    I  don't  recall  any  ministers. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Not  at  all  in  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  it  the  purpose  of  the  Communist  Party  in  se- 
curing the  cooperation  and  assistance  of  these  various  groups  that 
you  have  spoken  of  to  ultimately  recruit  into  the  Communist  Party 
those  who  became  close  to  the  movement  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  it  was,  with  the  qualification  that  we  would 
not  want  to  recruit  everybody.  The  purpose  was  to  draw  the  entire 
group  closer  to  us  so  that  we  could  select  the  people  that  we  wanted 
out  of  that  group. 

We  didn't  want  the  mass  in  the  Communist  Party ;  we  wanted  the 
leadership,  and  down  into  secondary  and  third  leadership,  but  we 
didn't  just  want  a  person;  we  wanted  somebody  with  some  capacity 
for  leadership. 

The  Communist  Party  was  not  a  mass  organization.  Its  essential 
structure  was  one  that  required  everybody  to  have  some  leadership 
capacity,  perhaps  minute,  but  some  leadership  capacity. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  And  by  securing  that  leadership  as  members  of  the 
party,  you  could  more  nearly  direct  the  activity  of  the  group  that  he 
was  otherwise  identified  with  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Exactly.  The  purpose  then  was — when  you  speak 
about  a  hundred  Communists,  you  speak  about  people  who  have  real 
influence  over  a  few  thousand  people. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4529 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Now,  I  assume  that  the  purpose  of  recruiting  lead- 
ers of  various  groups  as  members  of  the  Communist  Party  was  to 
increase  the  power  of  the  Communist  Party  to  project  its  own  policies. 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  question  about  that. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  describe  more  fully  the  efforts  that  were 
made  by  the  Communist  Party  to  infiltrate  other  organizations  ? 

(At  this  point  Representative  James  B.  Frazier,  Jr.,  left  the  hearing 
room. ) 

Mr.  Tavenner,  For  instance,  you  began  in  your  statement  to  tell  us 
about  the  Unemployed  Council. 

Mr,  Hancock.  Well,  we  created— no,  we  created  the  Unemployed 
Council.  There  later  came  into  existence  a  similar  group,  the  name 
of  which  escapes  me.  We  infiltrated  that  group  and  took  it  over. 
The  process  was  a  rather  simple  one. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Well,  in  what  field  was  this  other  group  interested  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  was  unemployment.  It  was  a  period  when  people 
grouped  together  to  try  to  find  some  way  to  pay  their  rent  or  get  relief. 
At  that  time  there  were  all  kinds  of  redtape  restrictions  on  getting 
relief. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  it  the  Workers'  Alliance? 

Mr,  Hancock.  That  name  sounds  like  it ;  sure  sounds  like  it.  Yes, 
I — there  was  a  Workers'  Alliance  at  that  time,  and  it  was  a  rapidly 
changing  period,  and  I  think  that  that  is  the  group  that  I  now  have 
in  mind,  the  Workers'  Alliance. 

Mr,  Tavenner.  Can  you  be  specific  as  to  how  your  work  was  done 
in  infiltrating  that  and  other  organizations  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes — if  you  will  just  allow  me  this  margin,  that  I 
may  be  describing  what  happened  in  some  other  organization,  but  it 
is  the  same  tactic. 

The  tactic  is,  we  learn  of  or  we  see  the  existence  of  an  organization 
in  which  we  would  like  to  have  influence  or  control.  We  put  a  few 
people  into  it  as  members.     They  cultivate  other  existing  members. 

Prior  to  the  time  this  group  is  going  to  have  a  meeting,  we  have 
what  we  call  a  fraction  meeting.  We  discuss  the  issues  that  are  coming 
up  at  that  meeting.  We  discuss  how  we  may  gain  influence  or  leader- 
ship by  what  we  will  say.  We  discuss  how  to  prevent  something 
from  being  done  that  we  disagree  with.  This  might  be  done  by  wearing 
out,  by  a  succession  of  speakers  getting  up  and  wearing  out  the  patience 
of  the  group. 

But  our  major  purpose  is  to,  first  of  all,  go  in  there  with  our  own 
members;  secondly,  to  recruit  other  members  into  a  committee  that 
thinks  along  the  same  lines,  and  sooner  or  later  to  draw  these  people 
back  into  the  Communist  Party  and  then  to  conduct  ourselves  on  the 
floor  of  these  meetings  in  a  way  that  will  give  us  leadership,  elected 
to —  for  example,  they  are  going  to  send  a  committee  down  to  the  city 
to  protest  about  something.  AVe  will  volunteer  to  be  on  that  committee. 
Since  we  are  the  vocal  means,  most  likely  one  of  our  committee  will 
be  elected  chairman  of  the  committee,  and  we  will  come  back  and  talk 
about  all  we  accomplished,  and  the  first  thing  you  know  we  are 
in  charge  of  the  organization. 

I  think  it  is  important  to  understand  that  we  gained  leadership  by 
doing  something.  We  were  very  active.  Most  people  are  inclined  to  be 
hesitant,  timid,  don't  want  to  take  charge,  and  so  forth.  We  were 
very  bold — very  stupid,  I  might  say,  very  stupid,  too. 


4530       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Jackson.  You  came  before  your  own  people  with  a  determined 
course  of  action,  voluntarily  while  you  were  there,  and  you  stayed 
until  the  last  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  We  were  quite  willing  to  do  the  dirty  work,  and 
people  said  "let  them  do  it." 

Mr.  Jackson.  That  is  the  weakness  of  so  many  organizations  that 
have  been  infiltrated  in  that  area. 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  question,  it  is  a  powerful  approach,  highly  suc- 
cessful, but  I  think  not  as  successful  today  because  I  think  it  is  pretty 
well  known  that  this  is  a  Communist  tactic.  In  those  days  it  was 
not  known. 

Mr.  Jackson.  The  Waldorf  peace  conference  ^  was  very  successful. 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  what  ? 

Mr.  Jackson.  The  peace  conference  at  the  Waldorf. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  am  not  familiar  with  it. 

Mr.  Jackson.  And  certainly  they  are  experiencing  that  today  in 
bringing  in  a  lot  of  substantial  names  to  the  Committee  for  Amnesty 
to  the  Smith  Act  Victims. 

That  committee  is  flourishing;  it  is  flourishing  out  in  Los  Angeles. 
The  Communists  have  obtained  the  use  of  the  names  of  a  number  of 
substantial  community  leaders.  Anyone  who  can  look  past  the  false 
facade  of  the  organization  must  know  that  it  is  Communist  domin- 
nated  and  directed. 

Go  ahead,  Mr.  Counsel. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Would  you  say  that  one  of  your  greatest  allies  in 
your  successful  infiltration  of  various  organizations  was  complacency 
on  the  part  of  the  membership  of  that  organization,  that  is,  an  attitude 
not  to  vote  in  their  meetings  or  not  to  take  active  parts  in  the 
organizations  of  which  they  were  members  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  doubt  that  element  existed. 

I  would  say  that  our  greatest  ally  was  the  economic  circumstance 
of  the  period.  The  fact  that  we  were  in  motion  and  other  people  were 
motionless.  The  secondary  ally  was  the  normal,  human  bewilderment 
of  how  to  cope  with  committees  and  stand  on  your  feet  when  your  legs 
are  shaking  and  people  are  looking  at  you,  and  the  average  guy,  he 
might  think  that  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  be  a  leader,  but  he  doesn't 
quite  have  the  courage  to  get  up  and  do  these  things,  and  when  someone 
else  is  very  vociferous  and  holds  out  the  verbal  promise  that  "follow 
my  leadership  and  everything  will  be  wonderful" — here  you  have  what 
might  be  termed  an  element  of  complacency. 

No.  1,  though,  was  the  economy  of  the  period.  If  we  hadn't  been  in 
such  economic  straits  nothing  as  peculiar  as  the  Communist  appeal 
could  have  taken  place. 

Mr.  Jackson.  I  don't  want  to  go  too  far  astray  here,  but  I  think 
you  are  making  a  very  valuable  contribution  to  the  committee  in  your 
testimony  on  the  effective  work  done  by  Communist  minorities  in 
organizations,  and  I  shoidd  like  to  explore  a  little  further  the  eco- 
nomic aspect  of  communism. 

Communism  undoul)tedly  holds  an  appeal  to  the  underprivileged, 
those  who  are  hungry,  but  how  do  you  account,  out  of  your  own  ex- 


'  The  Cultural  find  Scipntific  Conference  for  World  Teacp,  held  nt  the  Wnldorf-Astoria 
Hotel,  New  York  City.  March  25-27,  1949,  under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Council  of 
the  Arts,  Sciences,  and  Professions. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4531 

perience,  for  the  noneconomic  Communists,  the  Alger  Hisses,  the 
people  in  the  motion-picture  industry  who  were  making  two  or  three 
thousand  dollars  a  week  when  they  joined  the  Communist  Party? 
To  what  do  you  attribute  their  association  with  the  party  ? 
'  Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  there  is  no  all-encompassing  answer.  You 
ask  a  question  that  would  have  to  be  answered  in  a  dozen  different 
ways.  I  would  just  like  to  approach  it  in  the  following  way :  I  will 
talk  about  the  movie  actors. 

We  have  a  phenomenon  of  modern-day  life  where  people  are  recom- 
pensed far  beyond  their  possible  talents 

Mr.  Doyle.  Far  beyond  what  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Their  talents.  A  person  suddenly  makes  a  million 
dollars.  They  live  then  with  great  inner  fears  of  insufficiency.  They 
have  guilt  complexes ;  they  try  to  assuage  these  complexes  by  saymg, 
Well,  I  will  do  something  for  somebody  else." 

That  would  be  a  very  partial  approach  to  the  movie  actor  problem. 

The  intellectual  is  something  of  a  different  problem.  He  also  has 
guilt  complexes.  He  also  has  traces  of  desire  for  leadership.  He  sees 
a  ripe  field  for  leadership.  As  he  moves  over  to  the  left  he  becomes  in 
his  own  mind  a  Messiah  to  the  downtrodden.  And  some  of  the  people 
that  I  have  been  in  touch  with  seem  to  be  that  type,  that  they  fully 
relish  the  leadership  role  and  the  poor  people  looking  up  to  them. 

I  think  in  the  troubled  mind  of  the  intellectual  there  is  sometimes 
an  incapacity  to  balance  the  problems  of  modern-day  living.  As  a 
person — they  say  "sometimes  a  lot  of  knowledge  is  worse  than  a  little," 
and  some  of  the  intellectuals  get  themselves  far  afield  to  the  point  that 
they  believe  that  the  capitalist  society  as  we  know  it  cannot  continue, 
that  it  historically  will  disappear,  and  that  they,  therefore,  believe 
that  it  is  intelligent  to  ally  themselves  with  what  seems  to  them  to  be 
the  new  society. 

You  see,  it  is  a  part  of  Communist  philosophy,  we  learned — my  edu- 
cation was  not  very  much,  but  I  went  through  the  same  study  activity 
of  all  Communists. 

We  are  taught  this,  for  example,  if  I  may  digress  for  just  a  moment, 
that  history  shows  a  succession  of  civilizations,  savagery  itself  being 
one  of  the  earliest  forms,  barbarism  being  a  horrible  thing  in  our 
modern-day  lights,  but  a  vast  improvement  over  the  social  structure 
of  savagery.  Feudalism  was  a  step  forward,  but  by  our  modern-day 
lights  would  not  be  good;  however,  it  was  a  way  of  life.  And  after 
feudalism  came  capitalism,  which  was  a  great  step  forward,  but  by 
modern  or  future  lights  a  terrible  condition.  Then  after  capitalism 
will  come  this  glowingly  wonderful  state  of  communism. 

You  can't  pursue  it  much  further  because  logic  won't  take  you 
much  further. 

You  learn  that  up  to  this  point  one  of  the  essentials  of  life  is  con- 
flict ;  yet,  when  they  are  selling  you  communism  they  tell  you  all  con- 
flict ceases.  It  is  a  contradiction,  but  they  wrestle  with  it,  and  they 
believe  it,  up  to  a  certain  point.  I  could  surely  say  I  believed  it.  I 
wasn't  equipped  to  believe  anything  else.  I  believed  it.  I  don't  be- 
lieve it  now. 

I  think  that  intelligent  people,  intellectuals,  wealthy  people,  have  in 
some  measure  guilt  complexes  combined  with  messiah  impulses,  and 
that  brings  them  into  this  activity. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Thank  you. 


4532       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  give  us  instances  in  which  the  Commu- 
nist Party  was  successful  in  infiltrating  groups  in  the  San  Diego 
area? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Infiltrating,  let  me  add,  to  the  extent  that  it  became 
the  dominating  influence  in  the  group,  because  I  assume  they  infil- 
trated everything,  sometimes  successfully,  and  sometimes  not.  I  think 
what  we  are  trying  to  determine  is  the  point  at  which  they  did  suc- 
eeed  in  actually  taking  over  the  physical  direction. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  actually,  the  field  is  quite  limited. 

At  that  time  this  considerable  turmoil  over  unemployment  brought 
organizations  into  existence,  and  it  would  be  true  to  say  that  they 
all  came  under  the  domination  of  the  Communist  Party.  They  had 
no  great  significance  or  any  great  lasting  quality. 

The  most  significant  activity  of  that  period  that  I  am  familiar  with 
was  the  infiltration  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  which  is  a 
rather  remarkable  story  in  that  it  was  done  with  a  half  a  dozen  men, 
and  at  one  point  it  consisted  of  capturing  the  control  of  the  Central 
Labor  Council. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Wlien  would  that  have  been  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  am  quite  sure  it  was  1935  and  1936,  or  one  of  the 
two.  There  was  a — it  could  be  tied  down  because  there  was  a  State 
federation  of  labor  meeting  in  San  Diego  which  was,  it  seems  to  me, 
in  the  early  part  of  1936,  in  that  area,  1935  or  1936. 

Mr.  Jackson.  And  by  saying  that  they  achieved  complete  domina- 
tion, you  mean  to  say  that  the  policies  of  the  Communist  Party  were 
actually  effected  in  the  Central  Labor  Council  during  that  period  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  By  and  large.  Sometimes  you  have  a  recalcitrant 
membership,  but  by  and  large,  we  were  successful  in  getting  the  things 
across  that  we  wanted. 

Mr.  Jackson.  From  a  practical  standpoint  and  in  most  organiza- 
tions the  recommendations  of  the  board  of  directors  or  those  who  are 
in  charge  of  the  development  of  a  program  are  generally  accepted  by 
the  membership.  I  don't  know  how  many  times  I  have  listened  to 
nominating  committees'  reports,  and  very  seldom  does  the  conven- 
tion go  off  on  a  tangent  and  introduce  another  slate.  It  has  been  done, 
but  I  gather  when  you  say  that  the  Communists  achieved  domination, 
that  was  political  domination  of  the  council  at  that  time  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  is  right.  So  you  could  say  80  percent  of  what 
the  Communists  wanted  done  was  accomplished,  and  the  Communists 
didn't  want  some  things  done  because  they  knew  it  wasn't  possible,  but 
80  percent  of  what  the  Communists  wanted  came  into  being  in  the 
form  of  resolutions,  and  so  forth. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Would  you  say  that,  conversely,  80  percent  of  the 
things  they  didn't  want  done  were  not  done? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  would  say  so. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  am  informed  that  there  was  a  convention  in  San 
Diego  in  1935  of  the  California  State  Federation  of  Labor. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Then  it  was 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Is  that  the  event  you  are  referring  to  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  that  is  the  one  I  tie  my  memory  to,  because 
we  build  up  to  a  certain  point  there  and  I  can  recall  this  thing  I  am 
talking  about  in  relation  to  that  convention. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4533 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Well,  will  you  give  us  the  full  history  of  that,  both 
what  led  up  to  it  and  what  occurred  at  the  time  of  the  convention  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes.  Somewhere,  perhaps  a  year  earlier,  my  uncle, 
Henry  Hancock 

Mr.  Doyle.  Wliat  is  his  name  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Heniy;  Heniy  Hancock. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Henry  Hancock. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Who  was  a  member  of  the  carpenters'  union,  spoke  to 
me  about  A.  C.  Eogers,  secretary  of  the  Central  Labor  Council,  who 
seemed  to  be  quite  radical  in  his  expressed  belief.  His  original 
organization  was  the  office  workers,  which  is  to  say  that  he  was  not 
a  union  man,  or  at  least  he  didn't  come  from  a  basic  group,  but  his 
qualities  were  such  that  he  had  been  elected  secretary  of  the  Central 
Labor  Council,  which  was  the  dominant  position. 

We  had  at  that  time,  perhaps,  1  or  2  or  3  delegates  to  the  Central 
Labor  Council  who  observed  the  actions  there.  I  say  "we  had" — 
the  Communist  Party  had  members  who  were  delegates  from  their 
own  organization  to  the  Central  Labor  Council,  so  that  his  name  came 
to  our  attention,  A.  C.  Rogers,  in  a 

Mr.  Tavenner.  May  I  interrupt  you  there. 

Wio  were  the  delegates? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  my  uncle  would  have  been  one  of  them,  and  I 
am  really  vague  on  the  others. 

There  is  a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Jones,  also  a  carpenter,  from  the 
East  San  Diego  branch  of  the  carpenters'  union,  who  was  a  delegate. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  mean  he  was  a  member  of  the  Communist 
Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  and  a  member  of  the  carpenters'  union,  and, 
as  such,  elected  a  delegate  to  the  Central  Labor  Council. 

At  various  times  my  difficulty — the  name  is  Claude  Jones — my 
problem  is  pinning  down  names  and  activity  to  a  certain  period.  I 
cannot  with  accuracy  tell  you  that  these  people  were  the  delegates  at 
the  time  I  am  talking  about,  which  is  at  the  beginning. 

Mr.  Jackson.  That  will  be  understood. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  hope  you  will  understand. 

Mr.  Jackson.  To  the  best  of  your  recollection;  and  in  discussing 
any  names  of  any  individuals,  of  course,  would  you  please  indicate 
whether  they  were  or  were  not  members  of  the  Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Now,  somewhere  along  the  line — anyway,  this  was  the  original,  just 
2  or  3 — my  recollection  is  that  some  time  around  early  1935,  anyway, 
I  went  to  see  A.  C.  Rogers.  He  knew  who  I  was,  I  persuaded  him 
to  join  tlie  Communist  Party.  It  is  in  my  recollection  I  walked  out 
of  there  with  a  signed  card.  It  is  very  hard  to  recall  20  years  ago, 
but  it  is  in  my  recollection  that  that  is  what  happened. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Wliat  were  you  then  in  connection  with  the  Communist 
Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  was  the  leader  of  the  Communist  Party. 

Mr.  Doyle.  And  he  knew  that? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  he  knew  it.  When  I  walked  in  the  door  he 
knew  it,  and  when  I  walked  out  he  knew  it  for  damned  sure,  because 
I  had  his  application. 


4534       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Jackson.  You  were  an  open  member  of  the  Communist  Party, 
generally  known  throughout  San  Diego  to  be  the  organizer  or  head 
of  the  party  in  that  area  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  is  correct. 

Mr.  Jackson.  And  in  all  of  your  contacts  throughout  the  city 
generally,  that  fact  was  known  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  I  was  an  open  party  member. 

The  recruitment  of  A.  C.  Kogers  was  a  considerable  step  forward 
for  us  because  it  gave  us  advance  knowledge  of  what  was  to  come 
before  the  meetings,  and  through  his  offices  we  were  able  to  plan  our 
strategy,  but  I  think  I  might  develop  this  a  little  further. 

Somewhere  in  the  coming  year  and  prior  to  the  State  federation 
convention,  we  had  succeeded  in  creating  a  group,  and  it  is  in  my  mind 
that  quite  possibly  all  of  them  were  party  members. 

I  have  searched  my  mind  to  find  the  specific  instance  when  they 
became  such,  and  I  am  unable  to  do  so,  but  I  want  to  give  you  the 
names;  I  think  I  have  already  given  them  here,  but  in  the  event  I 
haven't 

One  was  a  Daisy  Lee  Worcester,  who  was  a  delegate  from  the  teach- 
ers union.  She  ran  a  private  school,  a  very  intelligent  woman,  and 
before  we  came  in  contact  with  her,  was  pretty  much  of  a  radical. 
She  was  at  least  completely  under  our  domination  for  approximately 
a  year.     I  think  she  was  a  party  member. 

I  also  think  Harry  L.  Steinmetz  was,  but  I  cannot  find  in  my  mind 
when  it  happened,  and  so  forth,  but  I  have  to  tell  you  what  I  know, 
anyway. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Is  that  the  Steinmetz  from  San  Diego  State  College? 

Mr.  Hancock.  He  was  at  that  time. 

I  met  with  these  people.    I  will  give  you  the  rest  of  the  names. 

David  Wosk,  W-o-s-k,  who  was  an  engineer;  I  don't  even  know 
what  kind  of  an  engineer,  but  some  kind  of  an  engineer ;  he  had  an 
office. 

There  was  some  broker;  I  gave  you  his  name,  Mark  somebody — 
Mark  somebody — Mark  Fisher,  who  was  a  broker. 

There  was  another  teacher  whose  name  escapes  me,  but  who  occupied 
a  relatively  unimportant  role  in  this  activity. 

Meeting  with  the  group  was  Paul  Alexander,  who  was  my  right- 
hand  man  in  the  Communist  Party,  and  myself. 

Mr.  Jackson.  I  want  to  get  this  clear  in  the  record. 

You  say  you  met  with  these  people  on  various  occasions? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Jackson.  For  the  purpose  of  discussing  Communist  Party 
operations? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  I  think  you  would  have  to  say  it  that  way. 

Mr.  Jackson.  That  is,  it  was  not 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  didn't  say  it  that  way,  but  I  think  it  was  even 
accepted  that  way. 

Mr.  Jackson.  I  don't  want  to  put  any  words  in  your  mouth,  but 
I  do  want  to  get  it  very  clear  that  in  your  discussions  with  these 
people,  you  were  known  to  them  as  a  member  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

I  am  going  to  give  you  another  name  before  it  gets  away  from  me : 
Johnnie  Leyden,  L-e-y-d-e-n.^ 

^  This  individual  later  identified  by  witness  as  John  Lydick. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4535 

I  think  that  is  about  the  sum  total  of  the  group. 

Now,  in  the  next  several  months  in  meeting  with  this  group,  of 
whom  most,  if  not  all,  were  eventually  party  members,  we  took  over 
control  of  the  Central  Labor  Council,  I  think  it  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  we  maneuvered  the  election  of  Harry  Steinmetz  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Central  Labor  Council.  A.  C.  Rogers  was  already  secre- 
tary, and  we  had  him  reelected,  or,  at  least,  it  was  our  wish,  and  it 
came  out  that  way,  that  he  be  reelected. 

We  had  several  more  delegates  in  the  council  by  then ;  this  being  the 
heyday  of  union  organization,  we  put  this  fellow  Sol  Bernhart  in  as 
a  delegate  from  the  tailors  union,  if  I  remember  correctly,  and  we  had 
a  fellow  from  the  electrical  union;  I  can't  think  of  his  name.  He 
wasn't  too  important  anyway,  but  I  suppose  we  had  8  or  10  delegates 
on  the  floor,  so  that  when  an  issue  came  up,  this  being  a  group  of  60 
to  100  men,  with  the  president  and  secretary  following  the  line,  and 
a  number  on  the  floor,  it  was  sufficient  to  bring  about  the  things  that 
we  wanted,  except  for  certain  problems,  like  we  wanted  to  take  over 
the  San  Diego  Labor  Leader,  which  was  the  weekly  voice  of  the  labor 
movement. 

There  was  another  fellow  by  the  name  of  Eogers,  who  was  an  old- 
time  editor  of  that  paper,  an  old-time  radical,  but  a  violent  opponent 
of  communism.  He  was  in  his  declining  days,  and  one  of  our  big 
fights  was  to  take  over  that  paper. 

The  opposition,  headed  by  a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Dowell,  from 
the  projectionists'  union,  motion  picture  projectionists  union,  Stan- 
ley Gue,  the  labor  commissioner,  and  this  old  fellow  Rogers,  were  the 
rallying  center  for  the  opposition,  and  somewhere  along  the  line 
Rogers,  the  editor,  got  sick — and  now  comes  the  name  that  you  asked 
me  about.  Brick  Garrigues — we  maneuvered  his  appointment  as  editor 
of  the  San  Diego  Labor  Leader. 

Mr.  Jackson.  By  "we"  you  mean  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  Communist  Party,  yes.  And  I  should  say  that 
by  "we,"  so  as  to  give  you  a  complete  picture  of  this,  I  don't  mean 
that  this  group  I  have  just  named  originated — Paul  L.  Alexander 
and  I  and  the  San  Diego  Central  Committee,  in  consultation  with  the 
San  Francisco  Central  Committee,  as  it  was  called 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Of  the  Communist  Party — would  work  out  the  over- 
all strategy.  We  would  then  decide  how  and  when  we  would  present 
it  to  this  group,  which  contained  a  number  of  party  members,  and  on 
the  basis  of  that  we  would  take  it  on  to  the  floor  of  the  Central  Labor 
Council. 

Anyway,  we  took  over  the  editorship  of  the  San  Diego  Labor  Leader, 
and  I  am  not  clear  about  Brick  Garrigues.  He  was  working  on  the 
San  Diego  Sun.  I  don't  know  how  his  name  came  to  us,  but  he 
fitted  into  the  group  and,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  was  a  party 
member.     We  recruited  him  as  a  party  member. 

So  I  remember  driving  over  to  Coronado  in  the  greastest  secrecy 
one  night  to  meet  him  and  discuss  whether  or  not  he  was  prepared 
to  give  up  his  job  on  the  San  Diego  Sun  and  take  over  the  Labor 
Leader.     He  was,  and  it  was  accomplished. 

There  was  a  gathering  storm.  Dowell,  Gue,  and  Rogers,  being 
in  touch  with  the  main  office  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor, 
had  said,  what  I  must  say  was  quite  truthful,  that  the  Communists 
were  taking  over  the  labor  council. 

47718— 54— pt.  1 4 


4536       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

There  came  a  day  when  they  sent  somebody  in,  Kelly  somebody, 
to  remove  the  charter;  on  order  from  Bill  Green  he  just  came  in  and 
yanked  the  charter  of  the  central  labor  committee.  That  started  our 
decline. 

I  must  say  it  was  a  very  sagacious  move.  We  went  to  court  and 
did  one  thing  or  another,  but  they  took  over  again. 

Mr.  Doyle.  What  year  was  that,  1935, 1936? 

Mr.  Hancock.  1935  or  1936. 

We  held  some  rump  sessions,  but  these  people  that  we  were  leading 
began  to  realize  that  the  full  strength  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  was  alined  against  us,  and  so  we  were  unable  to  hold  our  con- 
trol and  they  set  up  an  entirely  new  central  labor  council,  would  not 
admit  our  known  members  or  suspected  members,  and,  to  the  best  of 
my  knowledge,  we  drifted  away  from  control,  but  that  control  brought 
about  the  following: 

First  of  all,  it  gave  us  domination  of  the  San  Diego  delegation  to 
the  State  federation  of  labor  convention  in  San  Diego.  The  record 
will  show  that  for  the  first  and  the  last  time  San  Diego  voting  strength 
went  to  Harry  Bridges  and  the  line  that  he  pursued,  being  very 
intricate  and  involved,  but  Harry  Bridges  was  the  rallying  point  for 
the  left  of  center  group,  and  Vandeleur  was  the  rightist,  but  we  made 
a  bid  for  power,  stronger  than  ever,  but  not  strong  enough  to  take  over 
the  State  federation  of  labor. 

Mr.  Jackson.  I  assume  Bridges  was  known  to  you  to  be  a  member 
of  the  Communist  Party.     You  said  you  testified  at  his  trial  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  was  so  informed.  I  was  not  a  participant  in  any 
of  the  activity  that  brought  him  into  the  party. 

Mr.  Jackson.  You  never  met  in  a  party  meeting  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  a  party  meeting  ?  No.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
thing  I  testified  on  at  the  Bridges  trial  was  a  fraction  meeting. 

Our  definition  of  a  fraction  meeting  is  that  it  is  party  members 
drawn  from  various  organizations.  Now,  it  is  possible  for  a  nonparty 
member  to  be  present  at  a  fraction  meeting,  but  at  this  particular 
meeting  the  people  that  I  recalled  who  were  there  were  party  members, 
and  I  so  testified. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  that  a  meeting  attended  by  Harry  Bridges? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  and  that  was  in  relation  to  this  State  federa- 
tion convention.  It  was  primarily  as  to  the  State  federation  meeting. 
For  example,  A.  C.  Rogers  either  was  at  that  meeting  or  we  brought 
him  into  contact  with  Harry  Bridges  to  lay  out  our  plans  for  the  floor 
fight  at  the  federation. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Had  Eogers'  membership  in  the  party  become  gen- 
erally known  by  that  time  or  at  that  time  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No;  it  had  not.  In  fact,  it  was  never  known.  It 
would  have  destroyed  his  capacity  as  a  known  member  of  the  party. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Do  you  have  any  knowledge  as  to  his  present  where- 
abouts ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No.  You  see,  he  was  sacrificed  in  this  struggle.  I 
heard  he  went  to  Arizona ;  that  is  the  last  I  heard. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Jackson.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Hancock.  And  I  would  just  like  to  say  this:  I  think  he  is  a 
hell  of  a  nice  guy,  Rogers.     So  many  people  of  that  period  just  wnnted 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4537 

desperately  to  do  something.  I  honestly  believe  that  he  did  not  have 
an  evil  thought  in  his  mind. 

Mr.  Doyle.  An  evil  thought? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes.  I  think  that  everything  that  he  did  was  moti- 
vated by  a  desire  to  do  good.  Of  course,  we  are  all  motivated  by  a 
desire  to  improve  our  own  position,  but  I  believe  Rogers  is  a  very  line 
fellow,  and  I  believe  you  will  think  so  if  you  come  in  contact  with 
him. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Do  you  know  if  he  later  broke  with  the  party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  but  it  is  not  firsthand ;  it  is  second  or  third- 
hand.     He  just  drifted  away — wouldn't  come  to  any  more  meetings. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  have  mentioned  the  name  of  Garrigues.  Ts 
that  Charles  H.  Garrigues  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  is  C.  H.,  parentheses  "Brick"  Garrigues,  and  I 
can't  remember  his  first  name;  it  probably  is  Charles. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  He  has  testified  in  executive  session  before  this  com- 
mittee and  stated  that  he  was  recruited  into  the  Communist  Party 
by  you,  so  if  there  is  any  uncertainty  in  your  mind  as  to  his  being 
an  actual  member  he  has  admitted  his  membership. 

Mr.  Hancock.  No;  I  have  the  feeling  that  he  was  a  member.  I 
remember  driving  to  Coronado  to  talk  to  him  as  a  party  member  in 
the  matter  of  his  becoming  a  labor  leader,  but  I  just  don't  have  the 
picture  of  how  and  when  I  recruited  him. 

I  am  reasonably  sure  he  was  a  party  member.     Now  you  say  he  was. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  mentioned  the  names  of  a  number  of  other 
people,  and  it  is  not  quite  clear  in  my  mind  whether  you  identified 
them  definitely  as  members  of  the  party  or  not,  and  I  want  to  see  what 
you  say  about  that. 

You  mentioned  the  name  of  Mark  Fisher.  Was  he  known  to  you 
to  be  a  member  of  the  party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  Mark  Fisher  was  one  of  this  intellectual  group 
that  we  met  with.  I  think  it  is  quite  possible  that  everyone  of  those 
groups  were  actually  members  of  the  party.  My  problem  is  to  try 
to  say  or  recollect  in  my  mind  the  actual  physical  action  of  them  be- 
coming members  of  the  party. 

We  considered  them  fully  in  support  of  our  program.  With  the 
peculiar  arts  that  all  individuals  have,  we  considered  them  as  exten- 
sions of  the  Communist  strength  in  whatever  activity  we  had  been  in. 

I,  for  example,  don't  remember  recruiting  Mark  Fisher.  Maybe 
somebody  else  did.    I  just  don't  remember. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  But,  at  any  rate,  he  engaged  in  Communist  Party 
activities  with  full  understanding  of  the  nature  of  those  activities? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  question  about  that. 

Mr.  Doyle.  May  I  ask  this  right  there : 

I  notice  this  man  Rogers,  you  said  everytliing  he  did  was  with  a 
desire  to  do  good. 

Now,  was  he  the  revolutionary  type  of  Communist  that  you  testified 
to  prior  to  the  time  the  line  changed  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  sir,  he  wasn't.  His  connection  with  the  Com- 
munist Party  was  confined  entirely  to  his  trade-union  activity.  He 
participated  in  no  party  activity  except  accepting  from  us  directions 
on  what  to  do  in  his  trade-union.  At  that  period  the  directions  we 
gave  had  some  semblance  of  reasonableness  to  them. 


4538        COMIVIUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  mentioned  the  name  of  John  Leyden. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Lidick,  yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  understood  you  to  say  Leyden. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  will  correct  that  now.    It  is  Lidick,  I  believe. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  he  a  member  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  am  quite  sure  I  recruited  him. 

Incidentally,  he,  at  a  later  time,  identified  himself  with  the  revolu- 
tionary forces  and  f ouo;ht  us  quite  vigorously. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Which  would  indicate  he  withdrew  from  the  Com- 
munist Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Somewhere  about  half-way  along  he  did  a  reversal, 
so  that  he  was  fully  identified  with  the  group  that  was  fighting  us. 
At  an  earlier  period  he  was  one  of  our  delegates.  We  recruited  him 
through  A.  C.  Rogers.  He  was  in  the  plasterers  union,  and  he  was 
one  of  our  floor  delegates. 

At  the  time  that  we  had  the  president  and  the  secretary,  Lidick 
went  over  to  the  other  side  and  fought  us  most  vigorously,  and  later 
became  secretary  of  the  Central  Labor  Council. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  mentioned  a  person  by  the  name  of  Wosk, 
W-o-s-k. 

Mr.  Hancock.  L.  David  Wosk. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  he  known  to  you  to  be  a  member  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  He  was  in  this  group. 

I  have  to  repeat — I  think  so ;  I  think  so. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Is  it  true  from  the  descriptions  you  have  given  that 
he  was  a  person  who  carried  out  the  directions  of  the  Communist  Party 
and  participated  in  Communist  Party  activities  with  Iniowledge  of 
the  character  of  those  activities,  that  is,  with  knowledge  that  he  was 
performing  the  will  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  answer  is  "Yes." 

Mr.  Jackson.  Mr.  Tavenner. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Yes. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Whenever  you  reach  a  point  which  is  convenient  as  a 
breaking  point,  I  think  perhaps  we  could  all  stand  some  lunch. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Yes,  sir.     I  would  like  to  have  just  a  few  minutes. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Very  well. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  referred  to  Daisy  Lee  Worcester  as  a  member 
of  the  Communist  Party.  I  think  you  identified  her  definitely  as  a 
member  of  the  Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  simply  have  a  stronger  feeling  that  she  was  a  mem- 
ber.    I  think  they  all  were,  but  I  can't  pin  it  down. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Well,  can  we  put  it  on  this  basis,  that  all  of  these 
people  of  whom  Mr.  Tavenner  is  inquiring  now  and  whom  you  have 
named  as  those  who  did  the  work  of  the  Communist  Party  in  one  way 
or  another,  these  are  all  individuals  with  whom  you  have  conferred 
on  Communist  Party  problems,  and  I  assume  there  were  no  non-Com- 
munists or  anti-Communists  present  at  the  time  you  had  these 
discussions 

Mr.  Hancock.  There  were  no  anti-Communists.  There  could  have 
been  non-Communists. 

Mr.  Jackson.  There  could  have  been  non-Communists  present? 

Mr.  Hancock.  And  with  that  qualification,  the  answer  is  "Yes." 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4539 

Mr.  Jackson.  And  again,  I  am  certainly  not  trying  to  direct  your 
answer,  but  I  am  trying  to  pin  tliis  point  down  because  it  is  an  ex- 
tremely important  point. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Right  in  there,  may  I  add  this  to  identify  my  own 
thinking. 

I  remember,  I  think  you  said  in  1934  or  1935  there  was  a  radical 
change  from  the  revolutionary  line;  that  there  was  an  unemployed 
condition  around,  people  on  relief,  and  then  the  Communist  Party 
later  changed  to  emphasize  minor  social  changes. 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  is  correct. 

Mr.  DoTLE.  Well,  now,  does  that  mean  that  you  active  Communists 
and  leaders  stopped  emphasizing  the  revolutionary  line  in  fact,  I  mean 
you  top  leaders  ? 

Do  you  get  the  difference?     In  other  words,  when  later  on? 

If  I  may,  I  want  to  ask  more  in  detail  on  that,  but  I  would  be  inter- 
ested to  know  when  these  Communist  leaders  in  our  State,  Mr.  Chair- 
man— because  you  and  I  both  live  in  California — stopped,  at  least  for 
a  time,  advocating  the  revolutionary  line,  which  I  am  thinking  of  as 
the  policy  of  advocating  that  sooner  or  later  there  would  come  a  revo- 
lution, if  need  be,  by  force. 

Is  that  what  I  understand  the  revolutionary  line  to  be  that  you  are 
talking  about? 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  essence,  that  is  correct. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Now,  I  mean  did  you  top  leaders  in  '34,  '35,  w^hen  you 
said — I  understood  you  to  say  that  you  abandoned  the  revolutionary 
line  temporarily  and  began  emphasizing  minor  social  changes. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  we 
violently  shifted  our  emphasis.  The  hard  core  revolutionist  always 
believed  at  all  times  that  the  end  would  have  to  be  a  revolution. 
The 

Mr.  Doyle.  Now,  right  at  that  point,  what  kind  of  a  revolution? 
I  mean,  how  would  that  revolution  come  about  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  you  have  a  point  of  interest  here,  because  it 
is  a  part  of  my  personal  history  that  I  got  involved  in  a  rather  serious 
dispute  with  the  party  around  that  issue,  to  the  extent  that  somebody 
from  New  York  State  came  out  here  ready  to  throw  me  out  of  the 
party,  and  that  was  the  beginning  of  my  decline. 

But  to  get  back  to  this  point,  there  was  a  controversy  among  the 
party  leaders  as  to  whether  it  was  correct  to  say  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  have  communism  without  a  bloody  revolution.  There  was 
an  important  trend  of  thought  that  in  this  existing  period  it  can  be 
voted  into  existence. 

I  must  say,  to  my  eternal  shame,  that  at  that  time  my  position  was 
that,  as  a  student  of  communism,  that  was  not  true ;  that  the  revolu- 
tion would  have  to  be  a  violent  one. 

Mr.  Doyle.  And  up  until  what  year  did  you  believe  that  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  believe  it  now — if  you  understand  what  I  mean. 
I  believe  that  if  the  Communists  came  into  control  they  will  come 
into  control  through  a  violent  revolution. 

Mr.  Jackson.  That  is  basic  doctrine,  isn't  it,  in  all  of  the  writings, 
from  Marx  on  through  Lenin  and  the  rest  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  it  is. 

Mr.  Jackson.  It  is  a  theory  of  violent  revolution;  it  is  stated  in 
so  many  words  on  many  occasions. 


4540       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  it  is ;  but  it  was  tempered  in  that  united- front 
period  where  important  sections  of  leadership  temporized  with  the 
idea  of  what  was  happening  in  France,  pointing  possibly  to  a  way  of 
peaceful  coming  into  power. 

Mr.  Jackson.  That  was  the  period  immediately  preceding  the 
Duclos  letter,  wasn't  it  ? 

Mr.  Doyle.  That  was  in  April  of  1945. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Was  it  a  period  of  coexistence  between  communism 
and  capitalism  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  we  thought  of  such  things  in  terms  of  rela- 
tionship to  the  existence  of  Soviet  Russia,  maintaining  its  status 
indefinitely  in  the  face  of  capitalist  powers.  We  never  thought  of  the 
existence  of  the  Communist  Party  as  something  that  would  just  go 
on  and  on  forever  in  relation  to  existing  hostile  anti-Communist 
organizations. 

I  think  it  would  be  correct  to  say  that  in  that  period  there  was 
considerable  discussion  on  the  possibility  of  bringing  communism  into 
effect  by  peaceful  means,  and  I  think  it  would  also  be  true  to  say  that 
these  people  that  I  have  just  named  here  were  approached  on  that 
basis — maybe  on  the  other  basis,  too — but  they  could  have  been  ap- 
proached on  a  basis  that  this  was  an  entirely  peaceful  activity. 

This  group  came  into  contact  with  us  in  the  united  front,  in  the 
surge  of  the  united-front  activity. 

Mr.  DoYLE.  After  lunch,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  at  the  convenience  of 
counsel,  I  wish  this  very  fine  witness  could  give  us  any  conclusion  he 
has  as  to  the  relationship  of  the  firing  of  Earl  Browder  from  the 
American  Communist  Party. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  am  sorry,  sir,  but  that  happened  after  I  left. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Then  there  had  been  no  move  prior  to  your  leaving 
the  activity  as  to  Earl  Browder  being  discharged  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  ;  he  was  the  leader  at  the  time. 

Mr.  Doyle.  All  right.     Thank  you. 

Mr.  Jackson.  I  think  this  is  a  very  good  time  to  break. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Very  well.  The  committee  will  stand  in  recess  until 
2  o'clock,  and  reconvene  at  that  time. 

(Whereupon,  at  12 :  30  p.  m.,  the  hearing  was  recessed,  to  reconvene 
at  2 :  30  p.  m.,  the  same  day.) 

afternoon  session 

(At  the  hour  of  2 :  50  p.  m.,  of  the  same  day,  the  proceedings  were 
resumed,  the  following  committee  members  being  present:  Repre- 
sentatives Donald  L.  Jackson  (presiding),  Francis  E.  Walter,  and 
Clyde  Doyle;  the  following  staff  members  being  present:  Frank  S. 
Tavenner,  Jr.,  counsel,  Thomas  W.  Beale,  Sr.,  chief  clerk,  and  George 
B.  Cooper,  investigator.) 

Mr.  Jackson.  The  session  of  the  subcommittee  will  continue  at 
this  time. 

TESTIMONY  OF  STANLEY  B.  HANCOCK— Resumed 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Mr.  Hancock,  at  the  beginning  of  the  recess  you 
were  talking  of  an  experience  that  you  had  in  the  Communist  Party 
when  a  high  functionary  was  sent  from  New  York  to  San  Diego  to 
correct  certain  deviations  on  your  part. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4541 

Will  you  tell  the  committee  what  you  were  referring  to  and  explain 
the  situation,  please  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  party  structure  to  encourage  the  establishment 
of  bookstores  in  every  possible  community.  These  were  generally 
known  as  peoples  book  stores,  or  something  of  that  nature,  a  name 
like  that.  We  had  one  such  in  San  Diego.  Most  of  the  literature 
came  directly  through  party  channels.  It  consisted  of  little  pamph- 
lets. One  publishing  company  by  the  name  of  International  Pub- 
lishers produced  party  books  in  hard  covers,  and  some  considerable 
material  was  apparently  shipped  in  from  Russia  in  the  form  of 
pamphlets,  one  magazine  being  somewhat  in  the  format  of  Life  maga- 
zine, called  Soviet  Russia  Today ;  another  being  U.  S.  S.  R.  Construc- 
tion; and  a  series  of  pamphlets  or  tracts  which  excited  the  attention 
of  Paul  Alexander  and  myself. 

The  general  tenor  of  these  tracts  was  violently  unacceptable  in  this 
country,  consisting  of  long  praises  of  Joe  Stalin,  the  great  leader, 
Joe  Stalin,  our  father  who  taught  us  how  to  farm  chickens,  or  how 
to  dig  gold,  or  how  to  catch  fish,  and  it  just  sounded  downright  stupid. 

What  we  did  in  the  eyes  of  the  party  was  no  doubt  stupid,  too, 
but  Paul  and  I  called  a  meeting  of  the  county  committee  of  the  party 
and  we  put  through  a  resolution,  in  the  name  of  the  county  committee, 
that  this  nonsense  ought  to  cease,  and  we  sent  it  to  the  national 
committee. 

Well,  things  happened.  Within  a  short  time,  perhaps  a  couple  of 
weeks,  a  party  by  the  name  of  V.  J.  Jerome 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Hancock  (continuing).  Who  was  at  that  time  a  member  of 
the  national  committee,  an  editor  of  the  monthly  theoretical  magazine 
called  The  Communist,  came  into  San  Diego  late  one  evening  and 
gave  us  the  task  of  calling  the  county  committee  together,  and  by  all 
means  to  get  a  secretary,  because  every  little  pearl  of  wisdom  he 
dropped  had  to  be  taken  down. 

So,  I  got  the  committee  and  the  secretary,  and  we  were  in  what 
amounted  to  an  all-night  session — broke  up  about  4  or  5  o'clock  in 
the  morning — at  which  time  he  lectured  to  us,  accusing  us  of  being — 
sounds  fantastic,  but — Trotskyite  deviationists. 

This  is  a  dream  world ;  you  know  you  can  get  so  far  and  then  you 
can  begin  to  flounder. 

The  county  committee  didn't  accept  it,  didn't  accept  his  recom- 
mendation, and  we  all  thought  the  whole  outfit  was  going  to  be  thrown 
out,  but  the  wheels  began  to  grind.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  think  some 
kind  of  a  motion  was  passed  correcting  our  misunderstanding  of  the 
value  of  this  literature,  but  the  original  motion  of  sharp  personal 
censorship  was  not  passed. 

So,  he  was  somewhat  disappointed  at  that,  and  some  maneuvering 
began  to  take  place,  the  ultimate  result  of  which  I  found,  not  at  all 
to  my  dissatisfaction,  that  I  was  no  longer  the  leader  of  the  party. 

This  began  the  6-month  process  that  I  spoke  about  some  time  early 
in  1937,  and  in  that  6  months'  process  Esco  L.  Richardson  was  ap- 
pointed and/or  elected  county  chairman,  and  I  went  up  to  Bakersfield 
as  a  CIO  organizer. 

That  would  be  the  mainstream  of  the  complication,  there  being 
others  of  a  similar  and  perhaps  more  minor  dissident  nature. 


4542       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

It  was  pretty  well  considered  that  even  during  the  hectic  days  of 
1934  when  I  went  into  Imperial  Valley  that  I,  well,  I  had  my  good 
points,  but  I  was  somewhat  erratic. 

Mr.  Walter.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Jackson.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  goes  back  to  the  fact  that  in  1934,  when  I  was  sent 
into  Imperial  Valley  as  an  organizer  for  what  was  then  a  completely 
party-dominated  agricultural  union,  created  and  dominated  by  the 
Communists — I  forget  the  name  of  it;  it  was  the  forerunner  of  this 
one  we  spoke  of  later.  UCAPAWA — the  valley  was  in  complete  tur- 
moil. We  organized  big  strikes  down  there,  and  I  was  arrested. 
While  awaiting  trial,  some  kind  of  a  meeting,  I  think  it  was  a  State 
committee  meeting,  was  scheduled  in  San  Francisco. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Committee  meeting  of  what  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  State  committee  meeting  of  the  Communist  Party. 
And  at  such  a  time  elections  were  to  be  held  for  a  new  State  com- 
mittee, and  my  name,  as  being  somewhat  in  the  news  at  that  time, 
was  put  forth  in  nomination  for  State  committee  membership. 

Sam  Darcy,  who  was  the  district  organizer,  resisted  it  and  I  was  not 
elected. 

I  just  cite  this  to  indicate  the  lack  of  complete  agreement  that  began 
at  that  point  and  finally  led  up  to  V.  J.  Jerome's  appearance,  and 
from  his  appearance,  actually,  my  party  activity  or  party  authority,  I 
might  say  happily,  began  to  wane. 

I  remained  with  the  People's  World  for  3  years,  or  approximately  so, 
but  doing  something  that  was  largely  routine  newspaper  work. 

Mr.  Walter.  When  did  you  leave  (California  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  enlisted  in  the  merchant  marine  out  there  in 
January  1943.     I  got  back 

Mr.  Walter.  At  that  time  were  you  still  in  the  party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  I  was  maintaining  a  home  in  Santa  Cruz,  Calif. 
Some  time,  I  suppose  I  could  say  around  1944,  my  official  residence 

Mr.  Walter.  But  when  did  you  get  out  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  1940. 

Mr.  Jackson.  A  total  period  of  about  9  or  10  years  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  About  9  years,  yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Let  us  return  at  this  point  to  your  discussion  of  the 
group  which  met  for  the  purpose  of  laying  plans  for  infiltration  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

You  will  recall  that  I  reviewed  with  you  the  names  of  some  of  those 
that  you  had  mentioned.  The  last  one  that  I  mentioned  was  Daisy 
Lee  Worcester.  You  stated  that  she  was  a  member  of  a  teachers 
union  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  us  more  about  Communist  Party 
activities  within  the  Teachers  Union? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  our  contact  with  the  Teachers  Union  was 
channeled  through  Daisy  Lee  Worcester,  Harry  L.  Steinmetz,  and  one 
other  teacher  whose  name  escapes  me. 

I  actually  have  no  recollection  of  any  policy  that  we  instigated 
affecting  the  Teachers  Union.  I  think  it  would  be  very  true  to  say 
that  we  endeavored  at  that  time  to  have  the  same  policies  carried  out 
in  the  Teachers  Union  as  we  did  in  the  Central  Labor  Council.     We, 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4543 

to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  controlled  their  delegates  to  the  Central 
Labor  Council,  and  the  contest  at  that  time  was  along  the  lines  of 
rallying  liberal  and  labor  support  for  election  activities,  setting  up 
united-front  committees  to  sponsor  candidates. 

We  never  actually  set  up  any  such  group  in  San  Diego,  but  we 
endeavored  to  get  the  Central  Labor  Council  to  support  that  program 
and  to  have  its  delegates  to  the  State  labor  federation  convention 
support  that  program. 

Mr.  Walter.  Did  you  attempt  to  infiltrate  the  Central  Labor 
Council  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  we  did. 

Mr.  Walter.  In  what  manner? 

Mr.  Hancock.  We  covered  that  this  morning. 

Mr.  Walter.  Oh,  excuse  me. 

Mr.  Jackson.  They  finally  succeeded  in  achieving  complete  domi- 
nation. 

Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Jackson.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  spoke  of  Dr.  Harry  Steinmetz 

Will  you  spell  that  name. 

Mr.  Hancock.  S-t-e-i-n-m-e-t-z. 

Mr.  Tavenner  (continuing).  Being  used  in  connection  with  the 
party  plans  and  work  in  the  Teachers  Union.  Will  you  describe  that 
a  little  more  fully? 

Mr.  Hancock,  Well,  my  concern  was  not  in  the  Teachers  Union 
as  such  because,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  it  was  a  small  group. 
I  have  no  recollection  of  it  being  actually  representative  of  the  teach- 
ers as  a  unit  in  San  Diego,  but  our  concern  was  to  have  these  teacher 
contacts  that  we  had  represent  the  policy  we  favored  in  the  Central 
Labor  Council,  and  my  recollection  of  it  working  back  the  other 
way 

(At  this  point  Kepresentaitve  Donald  L.  Jackson  left  the  hearing 
room.) 

Mr.  Hancock.  Except  it  would  be  truthful  to  say  that  consistency 
would  require  that  you  lay  a  foundation  in  the  union  to  favor  that 
policy  on  the  floor  of  the  Central  Labor  Council. 

But  I  think  the  record  will  show  it  was  a  small  group  dominated  by 
Worcester,  Steinmetz,  and  a  couple  of  other  names  that  escape  me. 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  You  have  spoken  of  Dr.  Steinmetz'  participation  in 
the  Central  Labor  Council  and  the  part  he  played  in  the  plans  of  the 
Communist  Party  to  perfect  your  organization  within  that  group. 

Are  you  in  position  to  definitely  identify  Dr.  Steinmetz  as  a  member 
of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  sir ;  I  am  not.  I  have  no  further  information 
than  what  I  said  this  morning.    I  will  restate  it  if  you  wish. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  wish  you  would  state  your  position  fully  on  that 
so  that  we  may  Iniow  just  what  you  know  about  Dr.  Steinmetz. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  have  to  begin  by  saying  I  think  it  is  quite  likely 
that  at  one  time  or  anbther  every  name  mentioned  was  actually  a 
member  of  the  party.  This  happened  about  20  years  ago,  and  I  can- 
not find  in  my  memory  the  actual  incident  that  would  permit  me  to 
say  T  know  they  were  members  of  the  party.     I  do  say  that,  with 


4544       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

reservations  that  result  from  interrelation  of  human  beings,  they  per- 
formed as  we  desired  them  to.  They  knew  that  Paul  Alexander  and 
I  were  officials  of  the  party.  When  we  met  with  them  we  met  with 
their  knowledge  that  we  were  projecting  official  party  policy. 

The  group  had  its  beginning  at  a  time  when  I  was  away  from  San 
Diego.  It  is  a  little  unclear  in  my  mind,  but  at  a  time  when  I  was 
away,  and  I  think  it  was  that  period  when  I  was  up  2  or  3  months  on 
the  Western  Worker,  there  was  a  group  came  into  existence  called  the 
Contradictory  Social  Problems  Forum.  So  far  as  I  know,  it  was  just 
a  belt  organization  into  the  party,  but  it  attracted  people  of  this  stat- 
ure. It  was  through  that  original  group  that  I  was  able  to  make  my 
contacts  with  them.  The  specific  chain  was  a  fellow  by  the  name  of 
Peter  Carr,  and  my  uncle,  Henry  Hancock,  with  members  of  this 
forum,  cultivated  some  or  several  of  these  people  and  passed  informa- 
tion on  to  me  so  that  I  might  cultivate  them,  myself,  and  Paul  Alex- 
ander. 

I  am  not  trying  to  hedge  here.  I  will  say  everything  that  I  know ; 
but  I  don't  want  to  say  something  that  I  don't  know. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  And  we  are  equally  anxious  that  you  do  not. 

Now,  referring  again  to  Dr.  Steinmetz,  how  frequently  do  you  think 
you  conferred  in  an  official  way,  that  is,  representing  the  Communist 
Party,  with  Dr.  Steinmetz  regarding  the  work  of  the  party  under 
circumstances  which  he  must  have  known  of  the  nature  of  the  Com- 
munist Party's  interest  in  the  matter  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  would  say,  generally  speaking,  over  a  period  of 
several  months,  possibly  up  to  a  year,  once  every  week  or  two,  with 
some  variations ;  people  couldn't  keep  appointments  or 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  Well,  as  leader  of  the  Communist  Party  in  that 
area  at  that  time,  wouldn't  you  have  known  whether  Dr.  Steinmetz 
was  a  member  of  the  party  or  not  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  yes,  1  w^ould,  and  no  doubt  at  that  time  I  did 
know.  There  would  be  no  possibility  of  his  being  a  member  of  the 
party  without  my  knowing  it. 

I  think  you  are  asking  why  I  don't  know  now  what  I  knew  then. 
I  give  you  this  answer:  There  is  no  question  I  knew  at  that  time 
whether  he  was  or  he  was  not.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  he  was,  but 
I  have  nothing  in  my  memory  that  permits  me  to  give  you  the  details 
of  it. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Other  than  the  fact  that  Dr.  Steinmetz  was  carry- 
ing out  Communist  Party  decisions  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  that  would  not  necessarily  tie  down  member- 
ship. We  dealt  with  many  people  who.  in  one  degree  or  anotlier, 
carried  out  party  wishes. 

Mr.  Walter.  Some  of  them  unconsciously  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  would  be  correct. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  But  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Steinmetz,  it  must  have  been 
with  liis  knowledge,  if  I  have  understood  your  testimony  correctly. 

Mr.  Hancock,  Well,  it  was  certainly  in  his  knowledge  that  in  meet- 
ing with  me  he  was  meeting  with  the  local  leader  of  the  Communist 
Party.    Our  relationship  was  on  that  basis. 

Mr.  Walter.  Do  you  know  anything  of  the  infiltration  into  the 
aircraft  industry  in  southern  California  of  Communists? 

Mr.  Hancock.  There  was  something  in 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4545 

One  of  these  names  here,  this  machinist,  Mr.  Cooper,  that  I  spoke 
to  you  about 

Mr.  Cooper.  Kerrigan? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No. 

Mr.  Cooper.  Kepler? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No. 

Mr.  Cooper.  May  I  show  you  the  list  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  I  think  it  would  help. 

It  seems  to  me  that  right  about  that  time  Consolidated  Aircraft 
came  into  existence. 

Mr.  Walter.  Yes. 

Mr.  Hancock.  McDermott,  James  McDermott,  a  local — I  think  he 
lived  in  La  Mesa — real-estate  agent  who  had  for  years  retained  his 
membership  in  the  machinists  union,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Com- 
munist Party,  became  active  in  the  machinists  union  as  it  began  to 
work  in  Consolidated  Aircraft. 

It  is  very  hazy  in  my  mind,  except  to  say  that  we  were  interested 
in  the  development  of  the  union.  I  don't  recall  that  we  had  any  par- 
ticular influence  there  except  through  McDermott,  who  was  our  source 
of  information. 

Mr.  Walter.  ^Yhilt  happened  to  McDermott? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  have  no  idea,  sir. 

Mr.  Walter.  Is  he  still  there,  do  you  know  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  My  contact  with  the  people  in  San  Diego  ceavsed 
largely  in  1937. 

Mr.  Walter.  Oh,  excuse  me. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  McDermott's  first  name? 

Mr.  Hancock.  James;  James  McDermott. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  he  a  member  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  he  was. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  On  what  do  you  base  your  statement  that  he  was  a 
member  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  it  is  very  strongly  in  my  mind  that  in  all  the 
contact  I  had  with  James  McDermott  it  was  that  of  his  being  a  party 
member. 

(At  this  point  Representative  Donald  L.  Jackson  returned  to  the 
hearing  room.) 

Mr.  Hancock.  There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  at  all  that  he  was  a 
card-carrying  member. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  j^ou  acquainted  with  his  wife? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  her  name? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  it  is  on  the  list.    It  escapes  me  now. 

He  didn't  work  in  Consolidated,  but  when  Consolidated  came  into 
existence  the  machinists  union,  or  the  lAM  [International  Associa- 
tion of  Machinists],  claimed  jurisdiction,  went  in  and  started  organiz- 
ing, and  McDermott  was  just  a  lay  member;  as  such,  entitled  to  attend 
the  meetings.  And  there  were  other  people  we  had  contact  with,  1  or 
2,  but  it  is  very  vague  in  my  mind,  and  the  contacts,  I  think,  would 
have  come  through  McDermott. 

I  have  no  knowledge  of  our  attaining  any  influence  in  the  Consoli- 
dated group.  We  had  information,  but  not  influence.  We  knew  what 
was  going  on. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  do  you  mean,  you  had  information  ? 


4546       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  through  McDermott,  and  I  am  sure  there  were 
1  or  2  others.  We  knew — I  think  that  it  will  develop  that  McDermott 
got  himself  appointed  as  some  kind  of  an  organizer  for  the  machinists 
union,  I  think  without  pay,  but  nevertheless,  some  kind  of  an  organ- 
izer, and  I  can't  think  of  these  other  people. 

One  or  two  other  minor  characters  were  in  the  union  in  positions  to 
advise  us,  keep  us  fully  informed  of  what  the  union's  plans  were  for 
extending  their  organization,  making  their  contractual  demands  on 
management,  and  so  forth. 

We  should  have  been  delighted  to  be  influential.  We  were  not  at 
the  time  I  was  in  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  the  general  type  of  information  which 
you  received  through  McDermott  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  would  have  to  do  with  his  relaying  to  us  informa- 
tion given  at  the  union  meetings  on  grievances  described  by  the  shop 
stewards,  plans  of  the  officials  to  build  up  their  membership  to  a  point 
of  demanding  recognition  of  the  union,  wage  demands,  and  that  sort 
of  thing. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  that  information  useful  to  the  Communist 
Party  as  a  basis  for  making  the  issues  of  the  union  the  issues  of  the 
Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  we  considered  it  useful  for  the  purpose  of  hav- 
ing a  knowledge  of  an  important  field  which  we  hoped  would  permit 
us  to  gain  further  adherence  from  the  employees  there,  and  eventually 
assume  considerable  influence  in  the  aircraft  industry.  That  was  the 
iiltimate  intention. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  give  the  committee  any  further  informa- 
tion regarding  Communist  Party  activity  within  the  airplane  field? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  don't  believe  I  can ;  but,  to  place  this  period  in  rela- 
tion to  the  overall  situation,  I  perhaps  should  mention  that  at  the  same 
time  we  developed  some  influence  in  the  fishermen's  union  and  in  the 
longshoremen's  union. 

In  the  longshoremen's  union,  which  was  already  in  existence,  we 
had — the  names  escape  me — 1  or  2  party  members.  It  is  a  small  or- 
ganization in  San  Diego,  maybe  a  hundred  people  altogether  at  that 
time. 

Mr.  Walter.  The  fishermen's  union,  was  it  up  at  San  Pedro? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Our  union  was  affiliated  to  the  one  at  San  Pedro. 

Now,  that  is  a  development  which,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection, 
took  place  in  this  6-month  period  of  my  diminishing  control  and  in- 
fluence in  San  Diego.  I  remember  that  somebody  was  sent  down 
from  San  Pedro  to  take  charge,  and  to  create  and  take  charge  of  the 
San  Diego  Fishermen's  Union,  and  that  person  was  a  party  member. 

Mr.  Walter.  What  was  his  name? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  have  no  idea,  and  I  haven't  run  across  it  in  any 
of  these  names,  either. 

Mr.  Walter.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Jackson.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Hancock.  So  this  person,  who  was  not  known  to  me  before, 
came  in  and  introduced  himself  as  a  fellow  party  member,  was  ap- 

f)ointed  as  secretary  of  the  fishermen's  union,  and  they  had  a  pretty 
ively  group ;  and  about  at  that  point  I  went  up  to  Bakersfield  to  or- 
ganize the  CIO. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4547 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  about  your  activity  in  the  longshoremen's 
union  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  We  had  1  or  2  members.  We  succeeded  by  having 
people  like  Lee  Gregovich,  whose  name  is  on  the  list,  talk  to  the 
already  elected  officials.  We  succeeded  in  pretty  well  holding  them  in 
line  for  the  State  federation  of  labor  convention  in  San  Diego  and, 
of  course,  they  came  in  contact  with  Harry  Bridges  and  his  crowd, 
and  the  group  came  down.    We  exercised  some  influence 

Let  me  go  back  just  a  bit  here. 

We  issued  a  mimeographed  newspaper,  trade-union  newspaper, 
called  Trade  Union  News.  We  issued  it  for  a  couple  of  years.  It 
came  out  every  week.  It  was  printed  anonymously.  I  believe  we  said 
it  was  published  by  rank  and  file  members  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor.  It,  at  one  time,  played  a  rather  important  part  in  this 
overall  struggle. 

The  contents  of  this  weekly  mimeographed  publication  consisted 
of  reports  from  various  unions  on  what  actually  went  on  during  the 
union  meeting.  Also,  it  was  heavily  larded  with  editorials  on  our  own 
issues  or  drives. 

I  have  in  my  memory  getting  reports  from  somebody  in  the  long- 
shoremen's union  as  to  just  what  went  on  in  the  meeting,  and  we  would 
report  it  in  there,  report  it  anonymously. 

We  also  had,  through  some  method  that  escapes  me,  secured  the 
membership  list  of  the  longshoremen's  union,  so  we  sent  it  to  all  the 
longshoremen  and  it  developed  some  influence  on  them  in  this  manner. 
We  sent  it  to  several  hundred  trade  unionists  in  San  Diego,  and  it  was 
presented  in  such  a  way  that  it  exercised  for  a  period  some  decisive 
influence. 

We  liad  such  reports  from  perhaps  15  or  20  unions,  in  addition  to 
what  went  on  in  the  Central  Labor  Council. 

Mr.  Walter.  How  was  it  paid  for  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  By  donations  from  the  trade  union  members  of  the 
Communist  Party.     The  cost  was  very  little. 

Mr.  Walter.  Was  anybody  else  solicited  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Solicited — no,  no. 

Mr.  Walter.  Just  the  Communist  members  of  the  union  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  I  would  have  to  qualify  that.  It  was  a  part  of 
our  strategy  that  when  somebody  would  express  interest  in  apprecia- 
tion of  the  contents  then  they  would  be  asked  if  they  didn't  want  to 
contribute;  and  I  think  we  carried  appeals  in  there,  "Send  in  a  dollar 
for  a  subscription,"  or  something  like  that.  But  actually  to  put  it 
out,  it  probably  cost  us  $10  a  week  and  it  represented  no  financial 
problem. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  This  may  be  a  very  good  place  for  you  to  tell  the 
committee  more  about  the  [California]  State  Federation  of  Labor  con- 
vention which  you  have  mentioned  several  times,  as  to  what  part  the 
Communist  Party  plaj'ed  in  that  convention. 

You  told  us  about  the  fraction  meeting  which  occurred  prior  to  that 
convention. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr,  Tavenner.  We  would  like  to  know  what  the  objectives  of  the 
Communist  Party  were  in  that  convention,  as  well  as  to  understand 
how  tlie  party  manipulated  its  work. 


4548       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Hancx)ck.  May  I  say  to  begin  with  that  I  have  made  a  compre- 
hensive report  of  this  activity  to  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  and 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Jackson.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Hancock.  You  may  observe  that  I  struggle  mightily  to  recall 
these  incidents,  and  it  is  quite  possible  I  will  deviate  in  some  respect 
from  what  I  have  already  said.  I  just  say  that  that  is  the  way  things 
come  back  to  mind,  and  will  tell  it  the  best  I  can. 

We  did  research  very  heavily  into  it,  to  the  point  where  I  took  a 
couple  of  days  in  the  I.  &  S.  offices  in  San  Francisco  and  read  all 
the  Western  Workers  of  that  period  to  refresh  my  memory,  bring  back 
incidents,  names,  and  so  forth,  and  it  helped.  That  was  1949,  5  years 
ago. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  that  work  done  on  the  west  coast  or  was  it 
done  in  Washington. 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  ;  it  was  done  on  the  west  coast  in  the  office  of  the 
I.  &  S.  in  San  Francisco.  So  it  is  a  complicated  thing ;  I  may  leave  out 
things ;  I  may  not  have  them  in  exactly  the  right  sequence,  but  I  will  do 
the  best  I  can  with  them. 

Mr.  Walter.  Are  there  any  Communists  coming  across  the  border, 
1  mean  in  any  appreciable  number  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  You  mean  from  Mexico  ? 

Mr.  Walter.  Yes. 

Mr.  Hancock.  You  know,  it  is  rather  interesting — ^first  of  all,  I 
liave  to  say  no. 

Secondly,  there  was  one  period  when  Communists  from  Tijuana 
came  into  our  bookstore  in  San  Diego  and  invited  us — they  were 
Communist  officials  of  the  labor  unions  down  there — invited  us  to 
come  to  their  labor  council  meetings.  I  went — and  understood  very 
little,  it  all  being  in  Spanish. 

Mr.  Walter.  Actually,  it  is  very  difficult  for  any  white  person  to 
get  across  the  border  without  proper  identification,  isn't  it ;  a  Mexican 
can  do  it  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  sir,  when  you  live  on  the  border  there  is  no 
requirement;  as  I  recollect,  you  can  get  into  Tijuana  at  almost  any 
time  of  the  day  or  night.  It  seems  to  me  they  ask  you  questions  like 
"How  long  are  you  going  to  be  here  ?"  Like  Canada,  if  you  are  going 
to  stay  for  several  days  you  have  to  get  visas,  and  what-not,  I  think, 
but  during  prohibition  days  the  whole  population  went  down  to 
Tijuana,  drank  their  beer,  and  came  back  in  the  evening. 

Mr.  Jackson.  It  is  open.  They  used  to  have  a  6  o'clock  closing 
time,  but  they  changed  that. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Maybe  I  could  say  briefly  something  that  the  Fed- 
eral Bureau  of  Investigation  was  interested  in,  and  it  is  awfully 
sketchy  but  perhaps  plays  a  part  in  your  overall  thinking  here.  To 
the  best  of  my  knowledge  I  was  in  contact  just  once  with  a  person 
whom  I  was  advised  was  a  C.  I.  representative,  representative  of  the 
Communist  International.  This  happened  sometime  around  1935  at 
my  liome  in  San  Diego,  a  snuill,  rather  slender  fellow  whose  features 
I  cannot  recall.  He  came  to  my  house  and  properly  identified  himself 
and  did  not  say  himself  that  he  Avas  C.  I.  representative  but  wanted 
me  to  become  the  State  oro-anizer  of  the  Young  Communist  League. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4549 

It  was  not  my  wish  to  do  so.  I  have  no  doubt  at  that  time  I  was 
flattered  at  the  request.  I  was  asked  to  think  it  over.  I  made  no  move 
in  that  direction  but  later  the  Young  Communist  League  leader  in 
Los  Angeles,  Ben  Dobbs,  spoke  to  me  about  the  incident  and  identified 
this  person  whose  name  is  in  my  mind  as  Max  somebody,  as  a  C.  I. 
representative.  That  was  considered  a  very  exciting  event,  to  deal 
with  such  a  person.  I  have  looked  at  pictures  and  searched  my  mind 
for  further  details  but  that  is  the  only  thing  that  I  can  recall  about 
this  person  supposedly  from  Russia. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  To  what  extent  were  the  activities  of  the  San  Diego 
County  organization  integrated  or  coordinated  with  tlie  Los  Angeles 
County  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  the  very  early  days  we  were  set  up  as  a  part  of 
Los  Angeles.  As  another  name,  I  have  just  thought  of  Ida  Rothstein, 
who  was  my  original  contact.  In  the  very  earliest  days  of  my  contact 
with  the  Communist  Party,  I  attended  the  Los  Angeles  County  com- 
mittee meetings.  They  were  not  called  county  committee  meetings. 
I  cannot  remember  what  they  were  called.  The  term  "county  com- 
mittee" came  into  existence  in  the  united  front  period.  Somewhere 
in  the  first  few  months  when  San  Diego  was  separated  as  a  separate 
unit,  it  became  answerable  to  San  Francisco  or  what  was  then  called 
the  district  13  office,  which  originally  included  California,  Arizona, 
Idaho,  and  Oregon;  I  think  Oregon.  Seattle  was  another  district. 
Later  California  became  a  unit  itself  and  outside  of  the  first  few 
months  we  were  a  part  of  the  State  organization  answerable  to  San 
Francisco. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  And  the  person  you  mentioned  by  the  name  of  Max, 
was  that  Max  Bedacht  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Oh,  no ;  I  know  that  name.  He  was  a  rather  elderly 
fellow  in  the  International  Workers'  Order.  This  was  a  young  man 
with  no  connection  at  all  with  that  organization. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  w^ere  about  to  describe  for  us  the  activity  of 
the  party  in  connection  with  the  convention  of  the  [California]  State 
Federation  of  Labor. 

Mr.  DoTLE.  I  wonder  if  the  record  should  not  show  how  you  know 
that  this  man  who  gave  you  the  invitation  to  the  Young  Communist 
League  probably  operated  from  Russia?  You  mentioned  supposedly 
from  Russia. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  thought  I  covered  that.  I  was  so  advised  by  the 
head  of  the  Young  Communist  League  in  Los  Angeles. 

Mr,  DoYLE.  He  did  not  tell  you  himself  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  don't  recall  that. 

Mr.  DoYLE.  You  say  he  identified  himself  to  you.     As  what? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  cannot  say  exactly,  but  suitable  identification 
would  be  to  have  some  message  from  our  State  organization.  I  can 
say  very  definitely  that  subsequent  inquiry  on  my  part  in  the  State 
organization  confirmed  he  was  a  CI  representative. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  the  name  of  the  head  of  the  Young  Com- 
munist League  in  Los  Angeles  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Ben  Dobbs.  The  circumstances  in  relation  to  the 
State  Federation  of  Labor  convention  in  San  Diego  were  as  follows : 
Some  few  weeks  prior  to  the  convention  date,  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Jack  Johnstone,  and  I  have  since  been  told  he  is  dead,  and  I  thought 
at  that  time  he  was  an  Englishman,  I  understood  at  that  time  he  was 


4550       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

a  charter  member  of  the  national  party  and  he  was  a  cantankerous 
old  soul,  if  I  do  say  so,  he  came  to  San  Diego  interested  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  San  Diego  organization  for  the  State  convention. 
These  preparations  were  to,  union  by  union,  do  our  best  to  have  the 
right  delegates  elected  to  the  State  convention  meeting  and  whatever 
delegates  were  elected,  to  start  working  on  them  to  support  our  pro- 
gram. Our  program  consisted  of  several  things,  one  a  leftwing  slate 
of  officers  headed  by  Harry  Bridges ;  No.  2,  such  resolutions  as  create 
and  support  a  united  labor  party;  several  other  leftist  resolutions, 
such  as  opposing  the  criminal  syndicalism  law. 

In  1949  I  reviewed  the  minutes  of  the  convention  and  was  able  to 
recall  a  great  deal  more.  But  this  was  the  general  tenor  of  our  activ- 
ity. Just  a  day  or  two  before  the  convention  began,  Walter  Lambert, 
who  had  the  title  of  State  trade  union  director  for  the  Communist 
Party,  came  to  town  and  advised  me  that  several  of  the  northern  dele- 
gates who  are  also  party  members  were  arriving  in  town.  Some  of 
them  had  taken  rooms  at  a  place  called  the  Sumner  apartments  at  12th 
and  B  Streets  in  San  Diego,  just  took  rooms  there.  That  is  all.  We 
later  had  a  meeting.  I  know  A.  C.  Rogers  was  there  and  possibly 
Harry  Steinmetz,  Harry  Bridges  was  there.  Jack  Johnstone,  a  fellow 
by  the  name  of  Raven,  a  member  of  the  Los  Angeles  Cleaners  and 
Dyers  Union,  some  sailors  from  the  Sailors'  Union  of  the  Pacific,  and 
some  longshoremen.  These  names  are  on  record.  It  was  not  in  my 
memory  at  that  time.  At  this  time  we  went  over  strategy  as  to  how 
we  would  conduct  our  fight  on  the  floor  of  the  convention. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  Henry  Schmidt  there  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  I  am  quite  sure  he  was.  He  was  in  that  group 
at  that  time. 

Mr.  Walter,  In  view  of  the  fact  that  it  was  not  and  is  not  a  crime 
to  be  a  Communist,  why  were  so  many  meetings  held  by  Communist 
Party  members  surrounded  with  such  secrecy  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  First  of  all,  I  must  say  it  was  a  very  realistic  policy 
for  the  Communists  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events.  At  that  time 
some  of  it  was  due  to  the  presence  of  people  who  were  either  first-  or 
second-generation  foreign  born  who  brought  with  them  memories  of 
the  revolutionary  activities  overseas. 

Mr.  Walter.  You  had  be  better  be  careful  now.  I  was  charged  with 
being  anti-Semitic  because  I  mentioned  the  names  of  many  of  these 
people.  We  had  a  hearing  of  Philadelphia  school  teachers  and  after  a 
while  I  became  struck  by  the  names  and  I  asked  one  of  the  witnesses 
where  she  was  born,  and  she  told  me  in  the  United  States.  I  asked 
her  where  her  parents  were  born  and  she  said  Russia.  Then  Mr. 
Kunzig,  counsel  for  our  committee,  said  that  39  out  of  40  of  the  school 
teachers  were  either  sons  or  daughters  of  fathers  or  mothers,  or  both, 
who  were  born  in  Russia. 

You  seemed  to  have  confirmed  the  very  thing  that  sort  of  entered  my 
mind.  They  brought  this  Old  World  revolutionary  ideology  with 
them. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Secrecy  and  so  forth.  I  have  no  idea  what  percent- 
age of  Russians  were  there,  but  it  was  during  my  period,  especially  in 
the  early  days,  first  and  second  generation  of  foreign-born  people  were 
of  a  rather  large  percentage  in  the  organization,  of  whom  a  large 
percentage  were  Jewish  and  perhaps  an  equal  percentage  Russian. 
Bear  in  mind  we  are  not  talking  about  large  numbers.  Communists 
operate  in  small  groups. 


COMJ^nJNlST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4551 

Mr.  Walter.  But  wliy  the  secrecy  ?    It  was  not  a  crime. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  the  atmosphere  was  that  you  were  steeped  in 
the  education  of  the  struggles  of  the  Communist  Party,  Russian  Com- 
munist Party.  The  history  of  that  party  goes  back  to  1905  where  they 
had  a  bloody  revolution  and  it  was  beaten  down  and  I  think,  to  a  large 
degree,  the  people  who  were  there  were  establishing  the  mood  and 
atmosphere,  they  were  reflecting  Old  World  experiences.  I  think  there 
is  something  more  in  identifying  my,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  slow  drifting 
away  from  the  Communist  Party — with  a  growing  comprehension  of 
the  Russian  influence  in  the  Communist  Party. 

Mr.  Walter.  Weren't  some  of  these  people,  and  I  have  given  this 
an  awful  lot  of  thought  since  the  other  day,  weren't  these  people 
ashamed  because  they  realized,  perhaps  only  subconsciously,  that  it 
was  not  in  the  best  interests  of  the  worker  whom  they  spoke  for  to  do 
what  they  were  doing? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  there  was  an  element  of  that,  a  shame  of 
another  form.  People  were  fearful  they  would  lose  their  jobs  if  they 
were  not  secretive  about  it. 

Mr.  Doyle.  I  asked  you  something  about  revolutionary  teachings 
and  philosophy,  even  though  it  was  not  an  illegal  party.  Was  the 
secrecy  of  the  place  of  meeting  promulgated  from  the  top  because  the 
top  hard-core  Communists,  even  at  that  time,  were  consciously  aware 
that  they  were  advocating  that  at  some  time  there  would  be  a  necessary 
forceful  revolution  in  the  United  States  ?    Am  I  in  error  on  that  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  believe  you  are  correct.  If  I  may  say  so,  while 
San  Diego  was  only  a  small  part  of  the  State  and  national  activity,  it 
never  had  the  deep  significance  of  the  struggles  on  the  San  Francisco 
waterfront,  but  the  fact  is  that  as  local  leaders,  we  were  required  to  be 
theoreticians,  or  attempt  to  be,  and  we  made  considerable  studies  of 
communism  beginning  with  Das  Kapital,  written  by  Marx,  and  vari- 
ous volumes  by  Engels  and  so  forth,  and  Lenin's  contributions.  It  was 
a  great  party  activity  at  one  time  to  publish  and  have  widely  dis- 
seminated 10  volumes  by  Lenin  and  the  person  who  considered  hnnself 
a  Communist  leader  had  this  knowledge  in  mind,  which  was  simply 
a  quote,  or  at  least  the  sense  of  a  quote,  from  some  of  Lenin's  writ- 
ings, that  in  order  to  bring  about  the  Communist  state  there  were 
several  requirements :  One  is  the  failure  on  the  part  of  the  opposition 
to  act,  the  paralysis  of  the  opposition,  the  breakdown  of  existing 
society  as  No.  1.  No.  2,  a  strong  and  evident  indication  of  revolu- 
tionary zeal  or  fervor  among  large  parts  of  the  population. 

They  say  nothing  about  leadership  at  this  point.  The  populace, 
by  various  tests,  is  ready  to  move  into  revolutionary  action.  No.  3, 
the  existence  of  a  hard  Communist  core  which,  at  the  signal,  will 
say,  "Now  start  shooting,"  which  is  one  way  of  expressing  it.  These 
are  the  three  major  requirements  that  party  theoreticians  say  are 
necessary  for  a  movement  into  a  Communist  dictatorship. 

Mr.  Jackson.  On  that  point  of  secrecy,  isn't  it  a  true  evaluation  to 
state  that  the  very  nature  of  revolution  is  secret? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  would  say  so. 

Mr.  Jackson.  When  you  go  to  the  barricades,  you  don't  tell  the 
police,  and  in  the  depths  of  the  being  of  every  philosophical  Marxist- 
Leninist  is  the  knowledge  that  he  is  doing  something  which  is  contrary 
to  law  in  seeking  this  eventual  revolution  by  force  which  necessitates, 


4552       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

in  turn,  that  he  cloak  all  his  activities  consciously  and  subconsciously 
in  such  things  as  assumed  names,  secret  meeting  places,  and  things  of 
that  sort.  It  seems  to  me  that  violent  revolution  is  inherent  in  the 
Communist  philosophy,  and  as  a  consequence  you  don't  tell  the  police- 
man when  you  are  going  to  start  shooting. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  you  could  say  yes.  You  could  almost  say 
when  you  are  proposing  to  rob  a  bank  you  don't  hold  your  discussions 
on  the  subject  in  tlie  public  square. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Exactly. 

Mr.  Hancock.  And  that  you  know  sooner  or  later  that  there  will 
be  a  conflict  with  the  existing  authority.  It  is  important  to  bear 
in  mind  the  wild  violations  in  the  Communist  Party  in  point  of  time. 
In  the  early  united  front  time,  there  was  a  wild  speculation  of  bring- 
ing this  all  about  peaceably.  I  think  they  were  permitted  and 
Browder's  ascendancy  was  a  part  of  the  domination  of  this  theory, 
it  was  permitted  as  perhaps  a  necessary  evil,  the  old  hard-core  revolu- 
tionaries, of  course,  felt  that  that  was  nonsense,  but  if  you  can  bring 
in  people,  liberals  and  leftists,  let  them  believe  it  can  be  voted  in 
and  then  show  them  it  cannot  be  voted  in. 

If  I  may,  let  me  say  something  I  have  in  mind  here,  something 
that  is  an  essential  part  of  the  Communist  strategy  and  drives  an 
awful  lot  of  people  out  of  the  Communist  Party,  and  I  am  speaking 
now  of  violence.  I  don't  know  about  anyone  else,  but  we  learned, 
and  it  was  a  bitter  pill  to  take,  that  there  were  times  when  the  Com- 
munists wanted  violence.  We  were  never  told  that.  We  just  saw  it 
happen.  We  were  told  that  we  would  prepare  ourselves  for  the 
violent  struggle  because  those  in  power  will  never  give  it  up  willingly 
and  when  the  people  overwhelmingly  express  their  desire  for  some- 
thing and  it  is  denied  them,  they  have  every  right  to  fight  for  it. 
George  Washington  was  a  revolutionary^,  and  so  forth. 

I  have  in  mind  several  minor  events  that  convince  me  that  it  is  an 
integral  part  of  the  Communist  Party  philosophy  to  provoke  violence. 
{Something  happened  in  San  Diego,  and  the  name  Leo  Gallagher,  an 
attorney  of  some  prominence  in  Los  Angeles,  came  up,  associated  with 
the  Civil  Liberties'.  In  that  period  of  time,  I  was  in  San  Francisco  and 
there  w^as  some  kind  of  people's  demonstration  organized.  They 
brought  a  lot  of  people  down  from  Los  Angeles  to  attend  this  thing. 
Most  of  the  people  were  Los  Angeles  people.  My  mother  was  there 
and  of  course  several  other  people  when  I  came  back  from  San  Fran- 
cisco told  me  about  it.  They  wanted  to  parade  from  some  open  park 
up  to  some  place.  It  seems  to  me  it  was  to  the  Unitarian  Church.  I 
don't  know.  The  permit  for  the  parade  had  been  denied.  There  was 
a  little  hysteria  in  the  air  and  the  police  were  present  to  prevent  the 
march,  and  although  the  name  escapes  me  now,  there  was  quite  a  vio- 
lent repercussion  in  our  ranks  because  the  party  provoked  tlie  riot  that 
ensued.  In  the  face  of  this  overwhelming  authority  which  said  "No, 
you  cannot  march,"  they  started  marching,  and  my  recollection  is  that 
they  had  their  kids  there  and  they  put  their  kids  out  in  front,  and 
I  am  only  telling  you  what  was  told  to  me.  My  mother  had  a  very 
violent  reaction  to  it.  I  think  she  was  there.  It  was  very  sharp  in 
her  mind.  There  was  quite  a  bit  of  screaming  and  I  remember  the 
expression,  the  people  from  Los  Angeles  used  language  we  never 
heard  of.    They  called  the  policemen  cossacks.    They  must  have  come 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4553 

from  Russia  to  use  such  expressions.  We  had  in  our  mind  that  the 
party  provoked  that  riot.  Several  people  were  arrested  and  were 
beaten  and  it  was  made  a  big  civil-liberties  deal  and  it  seems  to  me  the 
court  case  petered  out.  Leo  Gallagher  was  the  defending  attorney. 
Maybe  somebody  went  to  jail.  I  think  not.  I  think  finally  it  was 
dismissed. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  say  they  brought  down  the  people  from  Los 
Angeles.     Who  was  "they"? 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  was  an  organizational  activity  of  the  Communist 
Party,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  that  is  what  it  was.  If  I  am 
testifying  in  a  court  of  law,  I  have  to  say  exactly  what  I  know.  I  tell 
you  that  is  what  I  know  as  well  as  I  am  in  this  room.  I  know  the 
party  organized  it,  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  that  this  man  who 
was  a  party  man  organized  this  action.  There  was  no  question  but 
what  I  am  saying  was  that  it  was  a  party  activity.  I  was  a  par- 
ticipant in  an  activity  in  the  Imperial  Valley,  where  we  had  several 
thousand,  6,000,  I  think  it  was,  workers  on  strike.  The  wage  at  that 
time  was  18  cents  an  hour.  We  had  demands  for  25  and  30  cents  an 
hour.  In  the  early  stages,  the  growers  who,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  were 
badly  hurt  by  those  activities,  were  ready  to  negotiate.  A  fellow  by 
the  name  of  Elmer,  real  name  Efim  Hanoff,  was  present  as  the  State 
representative  in  the  Imperial  Valley. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  State  representative  of  what? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Of  the  State  committee  of  the  Communist  Party.  A 
young  lady  by  the  name  of  Dorothy  Ray  and  myself  were  running  the 
strike.  It  was  one  of  those  spontaneous  things  that  all  of  a  sudden  we 
had  6,000  people,  soup  kitchens,  and  miles  of  cars  picketing.  We  had 
an  offer  from  the  growers  of  2  cents.  It  made  sense  to  accept  it,  even 
from  the  Communist  Party  point  of  view,  even  from  my  knowledge  of 
it.  We  had  no  organization.  These  people  were  desperate.  Under 
directions,  direct  instructions  from  Efim  Hanoff,  I  was  not  permitted 
to  accept  it.  I  was  subsequently  arrested  and  served  6  months  in  the 
Imperial  County  jail.  Hanoff,  being  an  undercover  man  all  the  time, 
escaped  and  rushed  up  to  San  Francisco  to  make  a  report  to  the  State 
committee,  wliich  was  printed  in  the  Western  Worker  in  some  abbrevi- 
ated form.  When  I  was  released  on  bail,  I  went  to  San  Francisco  just 
in  time  to  get  to  the  State  convention,  and  that  was  the  conflict  I  men- 
tioned earlier,  being  somewhat  in  the  news  I  was  nominated  for  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  committee  and  Sam  Darcy,  the  State  organizer,  and 
working  very  closely  with  Hanoff,  vetoed  it.  Here  again  the  party 
did  not  want  the  solution.  At  least  they  did  not  want  it  at  that  time. 
Commonsense  and  every  intelligence  demanded  that  it  should  be  done. 
I  think  without  question  to  some  degree  this  agricultural  foment  in 
California  at  that  time  was  fostered  by  the  party  with  the  thought  in 
mind  of  whipping  up  something  tremendous. 

Perhaps  you  gentlemen  recall  there  were  strikes  in  the  cotton  fields, 
in  the  lettuce  fields,  in  the  packing  sheds.  The  party  played  a  pretty 
influential  part  in  those  activities.  I  know  nothing  about  the  admin- 
istration of  it.  But  my  own  little  experience  in  the  Imperial  Valley 
gave  me  the  feeling  that  there  was  something  screwy  here. 

Mr.  Waltp:r.  Where  did  the  orders  come  from? 

Mr.  Hancock.  There  is  a  chain  of  command.  I  will  tell  you  what 
I  know  and  what  I  believe.  Many  of  those  came  from  the  State.  For 
instance,  my  orders  came  from  the  State  leaders  of  the  party. 


4554        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Walter.  For  example,  in  the  Imperial  Valley  situation,  did  the 
leaders  of  the  Communist  Party  in  California  discuss  the  advisability 
of  settling  this  strike  with  the  Communist  Party  leaders  of  the  United 
States  before  orders  were  transmitted  to  you  ? 

Mr.  Hais^cock.  Did  they  discuss  it  with  the  national  organization? 

Mr.  Walter.  Yes. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  not.  I  think  it  would  not  be  done  for  that. 
Usually  there  is  some  labor  representative  in  the  State  office,  at  least 
where  there  is  something  happening,  and  he  will  speak  for  the  national 
committee. 

Mr.  Walter.  Is  that  the  situation  here? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  cannot  say  because  I  was  in  the  Imperial  Valley 
and  our  lines  of  communication  were  very  bad. 

Mr.  Walter.  But  in  most  instances  where  a  situation  of  this  sort 
existed,  there  was  somebody  present  at  State  headquarters  to  give  the 
proper  national  guidance? 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  is  correct.  I  think  I  can  go  a  bit  further.  It 
is  my  very  strong  belief,  based  on  my  experience  in  that  period  of  time 
in  the  labor  group,  that  there  was  a  C.  I.  representative.  In  the  State 
group,  especially  when  things  began  to  get  exciting,  there  is  a  national 
representative  and,  as  previously  testified,  right  on  down  on  the 
scene  of  the  strike  there  was  a  State  representative. 

Mr.  Walter.  In  other  w^orcls,  to  some  degree,  the  entire  activity  of 
a  local  strike  was  controlled  by  a  representative  of  the  Russian 
Cominf  orm  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  At  least  in  policy,  general  strategy ;  that  would  be 
correct. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  referred  a  number  of  times  to  the  Western 
Worker.  Do  you  know  where  we  may  obtain  copies  of  the  Western 
Worker? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes.  Copies  at  one  time  were  on  file  in  the  public 
library  of  San  Francisco.  I  think  many  libraries  in  California  will 
have  them.     The  I.  N.  S.  brought  me  a  complete  file,  bound  file. 

Mr.  Jackson.  That  was  the  predecessor  to  the  Daily  People's 
World? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes.  I  recalled  it.  They  were  asking  me  so  many 
things  that  I  said,  "Get  me  the  papers  and  let  me  look  through."  It  is 
almost,  in  some  respects  it  is,  a  minute  account  of  what  the  Communists 
are  interested  in  and  there  are  all  kinds  of  names  in  there  too,  and  so 
they  brought  me  several  bound  volumes.  I  pored  over  them  for  2  or  3 
days. 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  Let  us  return  again  now  to  the  convention  of  the 
State  federation  of  labor  which  you  were  describing.  I  believe  at  the 
point  when  we  began  discussing  these  other  matters  you  were  telling 
us  of  a  fraction  meeting  at  some  hotel. 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  Sumner  Apartments.  This  was  the  subject  of 
my  testimony  at  the  Harry  Bridges  trial  in  San  Francisco.  The 
I.  &  S.  took  me  to  California  and  took  me  into  the  Sumner  Apart- 
ments to  see  if  I  could  find  tlie  room  we  met  in.  I  could  not,  exce])t 
that  I  was  clear  in  my  mind  that  that  was  where  we  met.  They 
wanted  to  develop  something  further. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  were  telling  us  the  objectives  of  the  Communist 
Party  and  then  you  started  to  describe  this  fraction  meeting  which  I 
assume  was  for  the  purpose  of  outlining  the  strategy  to  be  used. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4555 

Mr.  Hancock.  On  the  floor  of  the  convention. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  And  I  think  you  have  ah-eady  given  us  the  names 
of  those  who  took  part  in  this  fraction  meeting,  inckiding  Harry 
Bridges. 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  is  correct.  I  am  trying  to  think  if  I  have  left 
out  any  names  that  I  am  familiar  with.  I  have  left  out  names  of 
people  there.  There  were  roughly  8  to  12  people  there.  Some  of  the 
people  I  met  for  the  first  and  last  time  at  that  meeting.  The  sig- 
nificant names  I  have  given.  When  you  mentioned  Henry  Schmidt, 
I  am  quite  sure  I  testified,  which  means  I  recognized  him  as  one  of 
the  persons  present,  but  my  previous  testimony  will  show  that.  I 
think  he  was  on  trial  with  Bridges  in  this  thing. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  That  is  correct. 

Mr.  Hancock.  If  a  saw  a  roster,  I  would  recognize  other  names  of 
the  seamen  and  sailors.    Oh,  I  know,  big  John  Shoemaker  was  there. 

The  gist  of  it  was  this  was  the  procedure  in  which,  in  effect,  it  was 
a  State  fraction  meeting,  fraction  meeting  being  different  from  what 
I  was  used  to  in  that  I  would  organize  meetings  of  all  members  and 
possibly  friends  of  our  members  in  a  given  San  Diego  organization 
going  to  influence  that  meeting  and  there  was  a  meeting  where  Bridges 
and  the  northern  people  were  present  with  our  southern  people.  If  I 
recall  correctly,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  San  Diego  chairman,  which 
would  have  meant  Harry  Steinmetz,  to  open  the  meeting  as  the  host 
council.  Harry  Steinmetz  made  a  welcoming  speech  and  turned  the 
meeting  over  to  Ed  Vanderleur,  who  was  State  president. 

Mr.  Ta\t2Nner.  I  thought  Vandeleur  was  the  head  of  the  opposition 
to  the  Communist  Party. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  he  was;  but  the  convention  was  held  in  our 
city. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  think-  you  might  tell  us  what  occurred  at  this 
fraction  meeting  which  was  attended  by  Harry  Bridges  before  coming 
to  the  convention  itself. 

]\Ir.  Hancock.  I  would  like  to  start  by  saying  there  must  have  been 
more  than  one  fraction  meeting.  This  being  so  long  ago,  I  am  recall- 
ing this  particular  incident.  I  think  there  were  meetings  that  I  did 
attend.  I  was  not  a  trade-union  delegate,  and  AValter  Lambert's  pres- 
ence was  the  party  representation.  There  must  have  been  other  meet- 
ings. I  have  knowledge  of  only  this  one.  Jack  Johnstone  was  tlie 
national  representative  present.  Then  the  general  tone  of  the  meeting 
was  to  review  who  were  the  elected  delegates  from  the  important 
organizations.  I  cannot  recall  any  single  conversation,  but  it  was 
important  for  us  to  make  a  last-minute  count  of  who  was  coming 
down.  I  recall  somebody  was  elected  and  his  wife  was  sick  and  he 
could  not  get  there  and  possibly  would  come  later.  We  needed  to  de- 
termine our  strength  to  begin  with.  We  made  some  decisions  that 
we  would  introduce  this  resolution  and  we  would  withhold  these 
others.  When  we  made  that  decision,  then  the  representative  of  that 
union  would  take  the  resolution  and  lay  it  before  the  secretary  of 
the  convention.  The  slate  of  officers  was  a  matter  of  concern  to  us. 
We  debated  who  we  would  put  up  for  president,  who  would  we  put  up 
for  secretary  and  who  would  we  put  up  for  the  regional  representa- 
tives of  the  State  federation,  and  I  forget  the  title.  We  had  an  oppo- 
sition slate.    Every  area  is  entitled  to  a  representative  on  the  State 


4556       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

committee  of  the  State  federation.  We  had  an  opposition  slate.  Soy 
at  that  last  minute  we  were  going  over  such  things  as  is  there  any 
change  necessary  here  ?  Is  this  fellow  all  right  and  shall  we  support 
this  and  so  forth?  These  men  that  we  supported  included  Commu- 
nists and  non-Communists,  but  by  all  means  they  had  to  be  at  vari- 
ance with  people  like  Vanderleur,  a  stanch  conservative.  That  was 
the  general  nature  of  our  fraction  meeting. 

Part  of  the  strategy,  too,  was  who  will  talk  on  this  resolution,  who 
will  nominate  this  resolution  and  who  will  second  the  resolution.  It 
gets  very  involved,  but  it  is  very  effective  when  it  works  out. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  That  brings  you  up  to  the  convention  itself  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  started  to  tell  us  that  Dr.  Harry  Steinmetz 
opened  the  convention.  What  position  did  he  hold  which  would 
entitle  him  to  open  the  meeting  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  He  was  president  of  the  San  Diego  Federated  Coun- 
cil of  Labor  Unions,  or  a  shorter  name  is  the  Central  Labor  Council. 
As  such,  he  was  the  host  officer  and  opened  the  meeting  and  made  a 
speech  and  turned  it  over  to  Ed  Vanderleur. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  there  anything  that  occurred  during  the  course 
of  that  convention  which  would  demonstrate  the  methods  of  opera- 
tion of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  there  was  a  very  sharp  floor  fight.  Inciden- 
tally, I  must  tell  you  that,  and  it  comes  back  to  me  now  that  I  sat  in 
the  gallery  and  sat  and  watched  it  and  reported  fully  on  it  in  the  trade 
union  news  that  we  put  out.  I  was  disappointed,  as  a  Communist, 
at  what  Harry  Steinmetz  said,  from  my  point  of  view,  which  is  another 
way  of  saying  that  we  had  no  influence  or  did  not  choose  to  or  did  not 
try  to  get  around  to  finding  out  what  he  was  going  to  say. 

To  get  into  the  actual  proceeding  of  the  meeting,  the  fraction  meet- 
ing that  we  held  was  the  core  of  a  larger  group  of  dissidents 
or  opponents,  of  existing  officers.  It  is  proper  strategy,  accepted 
strategy,  that  they  held  a  caucus  meeting  and  through  our  good  offices 
and  through  our  control  of  the  San  Diego  situation,  we  held  it  in  the 
offices  of  the  Central  Labor  Council  vv^here  we  invited  all  left-wing, 
I  suppose  we  called  it,  or  progressive  or  democratic  delegates  to  attend 
so  that  the  chain  was  that  the  decisions  made  at  the  party  fraction 
which  sometimes  does  include  nonparty  members  and,  to  the  best  of 
my  knowledge,  everybody  there  was  a  party  member,  were  then  car- 
ried to  the  floor  of  the  left  wing  caucus,  and  I  don't  recall  any  change 
being  made  in  them,  and  on  the  basis  of  the  approval  of  the  left  wing 
caucus,  they  were  then  presented  on  the  floor  of  the  convention. 
It  builds  up  from  a  very  tiny  party  membership  involving  a  very  few 
into  a  larger  fraction  and  going  into  a  left-wing  caucus  and  then  going 
on  the  floor  of  the  convention.  We  had  some  sharp  differences  on  the 
floor  and  some  pretty  violent  words  wore  mentioned  on  the  floor. 

In  the  show  of  strength  Bridges  was  stronger  than  ever  before,  but 
I  think  roughly  the  Bridges  ticket  got  25  percent  of  the  votes.  It 
was  considered  a  very  marked  step  forward.  And  San  Diego  pro- 
duced about  50  percent  of  the  local  vote.  You  see,  the  delegate  votes 
for  his  members.  We  produced  about  50  percent  of  the  San  Diego 
movements,  and  that  excited  comment  all  over. 

Mr.  Doyle.  In  other  words,  you  had  delegates  representing  numeri- 
cally about  one-half  of  the  union  membership  of  San  Diego? 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA    *  4557 

Mr.  Hancock,  No,  we  did  not  have  the  delegates,  but  sympathetic 
to  us  and  working  with  us  were  the  highest  officers  like  Steinmetz 
and  so  when  their  highest  officers  voted  for  us,  the  sheep  went  along. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Evidently  from  what  you  said  you  had  not  undertaken 
to  control  w^hat  the  chairman  said,  Steinmetz.  Did  he  say  anything 
that  you  can  now  recall  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Something  that  had  no  bearing  on  the  clashes  that 
were  to  come.     It  was  one  of  those  polite  5-or  lO-mmute  speeches. 

Mr.  Doyle.  He  was  chairman  of  the  convention  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Opening  chairman. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Did  he  attend  the  meeting  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  he  was  not  present.  A.  C.  Rogers  attended. 
By  the  way,  I  want  to  correct  something  in  your  notes  there.  You 
have  on  this  list  of  names  A.  C.  Rogers,  Sr.,  and  A.  C.  Rogers,  Jr. 
Possiblv  there  is  some  confusion  here.  An  old  fellow  by  the  name 
of  A.  (jr.  Rogers  was  there,  editor  of  the  trade-union  publication  of 
the  labor  movements,  no  connection  with  that  whatsoever.  I  think 
you  may  have  the  confusion  of  A.  G.  Rogers  and  A.  C.  Rogers.  I 
don't  recall  A.  C.  Rogers  having  a  son.     Maybe  he  did. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Is  there  anything  in  addition  that  you  can  tell  us 
about  the  convention  which  you  think  would  be  of  interest  to  the 
committee  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  am  sorry,  I  cannot.  The  preceding  and  the  sub- 
sequent conventions  all  represented  a  continuation  of  this  struggle,  the 
one  in  San  Diego  I  was  more  familiar  with.  It  is  my  recollection 
that  that  represented  something  of  a  high  mark  in  Harry  Bridges' 
attempt  to  gain,  to  force  his  way  into  leadership  in  the  State  organiza- 
tion. At  a  later  convention,  he  was  actually  elected  as  one  of  the 
regional  directors  of  the  State  federation,  but  at  this  point  there  was 
a  head-on  clash  to  unseat  the  old  people  and  take  over  the 
organization. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Going  back  to  the  Central  Labor  Council  again, 
I  would  like  to  ask  you  whether  a  person  by  the  name  of  Sterling 
Campbell  Alexander  was  connected  with  it. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Sterling  Campbell  Alexander  is  the  person  I  pre- 
viously referred  to  as  Paul  Alexander. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  The  same  person  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  the  same  person, 

Mr.  Walter.  Suppose  we  made  it  illegal  to  participate  in  the  activi- 
ties of  this  group  who  are  engaged  in  Communist  Party  activities? 
Would  it  make  it  more  difficult  for  them  to  continue  their  conspiracy? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  am  really  not  qualified  to  answer  that.  I  can  give 
you  a  personal  opinion  but  it  is  not  very  valuable.  The  first  thing 
that  comes  to  my  mind  is  what  will  you  then  have  done  to  move 
people  who  are  left  of  center  further  over  to  the  radical  side?  That 
is  what  the  Communists  think  would  happen.  They  think  if  you 
drive  them  over  into  illegality,  they  will  get  the  staunch  liberals 
closer  and  closer  to  the  Communists.  It  seems  to  me  if  you  make  it 
absolutely  illegal  it  ought  to  be  highly  restrictive.  They  are  used  to 
working  in  an  illegal  way,  but  it  ought  to  restrict  their  capacity  to  find 
converts. 

There  are  situations  in  the  world  that  sort  of  belie  that.  For  exam- 
ple, the  Mexican  Communist  Party  was  declared  illegal.  It  just 
sprang  up  under  another  name. 


4558*      COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Walter.  I  know.  So  many  people  don't  realize  the  fact  that 
you  cannot  make  a  party  illegal.  You  can  make  it  a  crime  or  you 
can  made  it  prohibitive  to  do  a  certain  thing,  which  of  course  makes, 
in  effect,  the  constitution  of  a  group  doing  that  thing  illegal  and 
thereby  makes  the  party  illegal,  I  suppose.  I  am  wondering  what 
effect  it  would  have  now  when  the  party  is  underground  if  the  activi- 
ties of  its  members  were  spelled  out  precisely  as  constituting  a  crime 
against  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  suggest  what  would  happen  is  that  the  Com- 
munist Party,  so  named,  would  disappear,  and  the  "American  Labor 
something  or  other"  would  come  into  existence. 

Mr.  Walter.  Yes,  but  what  it  was  doing  would  be  the  same  as  the 
Communists  were  doing,  and  that  would  be  a  crime. 

Mr.  Jackson.  You  outlaw  a  specific  sect  or  activity.  It  is  a  matter 
of  definition. 

Mr.  Hancock.  You  have  the  greatest  definition,  the  organization 
believing  in  overthrowing  the  Government.  That  is  a  very  good  defi- 
nition and  far  better  than  to  say  Communist. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Isn't  that  under  the  Smith  Act?  It  is  already  outlawed 
under  that  act. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Only  the  fact  of  conspiring  to  advocate  and  teach 
violence,  but  not  membership  in  the  party  itself. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  really  don't  know.  I  wish  to  God  I  did  know  the 
answer  to  that.  I  prefaced  my  remarks  by  saying  I  am  not  qualified. 
I  tell  you  quite  frankly  that  I  am  not  one  who  believes  that  ex- 
Communists  are  oracles  of  wisdom.  I  think  ex-Communists  have  very 
little  to  give  to  society. 

Mr,  Walter.  I  do  not  agree  with  you  therein.  You  have  given 
us  a  great  deal. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  want  to  say  that  first  of  all  it  is  important  to  throw 
light  on  what  happens.  There  is  a  very  great  danger,  and  here  I  find 
that  I  come  to  a  blank  wall,  I  say  there  is  a  danger  in  what  I  per- 
sonally cannot  do  anything  about  because  of  my  past  activities,  but 
there  is  a  danger  that  in  creating  restriction  you  will  move  people  over 
from  this  side  of  the  fence  to  that  side  of  the  fence. 

I  am  a  student  of  the  English  type  of  government,  which  en- 
courages loyal  opposition  and  has  very  real  opposition.  There  is  a 
terrific  advantage  in  having  the  opposition  out  in  the  open  so  that 
you  can  bat  them  down. 

Mr.  Jackson.  There  is  a  distinction  between  the  loyal  opposition 
and  a  disloyal  opposition.  I  am  certain  that  all  of  us  are  convinced 
that  a  2  party  system  or  a  3  party  system  is  an  excellent  thing.  We 
represent  it  here  in  the  House.  However,  I  think  the  general  feeling 
of  the  American  people  is  too  often  to  consider  the  Communist  Party 
as  a  political  party,  per  se,  as  Americans  know  political  parties,  when 
actually  it  is  not. 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  :  it  is  not.  Possibly  the  solution  may  be  .some- 
thing in  this  field.  First  of  all,  I  think  that  it  would  be  very  difficult 
for  the  Communists  to  escape  their  own  doctrine  which  gives  us  all 
their  literature  stee]:)ed  in  that  theory.  Whatever  they  call  themselves, 
they  are  identified  with  the  existing  definitions  of  communism.  Let 
us  say  that  theoretically  this  group  can  be  outlawed. 

Mr.  Walter.  You  fall  right  into  the  thing  that  many  of  us  have 
fallen  into.    I  always  believed  that  if  anything  was  wrong  it  could 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4559' 

not  continue  to  exist,  but  this  thing  has  been  going  on  a  long  while 
and  it  is  wrong,  in  my  opinion. 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  is  such  a  vast  field.  It  goes  on  for  two  reasons^ 
roughly.  One  is  that  it  is  fed  by  a  foreign  influence.  Without  Russia, 
it  would  not  be  a  problem. 

Mr.  Wali^er.  How  would  anybody  in  his  right  mind  today,  having 
access  to  all  of  the  means  of  communication  that  we  have,  permit 
Russia  to  dictate  to  him  for  1  second  ?  They  know  that  there  are  slave 
labor  camps.  They  know  that  in  China,  in  order  to  eliminate  opposi- 
tion, 15  million  people  were  murdered.    Why  would  people  tolerate  it? 

Mr.  Hancock.  They  don't  know  about  it.    They  won't  believe  it. 

Mr.  Jackson.  We  have  had  witnesses  who  say  that  is  simply  propa- 
ganda on  the  other  side. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  believe  it  now,  but  I  did  not  believe  it  for  a  long 
time. 

Mr.  Jackson.  What  is  your  other  reason  ? 

Mr.  PIancock.  I  sincerely  believe  that  the  American  Communist 
movement  is  an  instrument  of  Russian  imperialism  or,  to  be  more 
gpecific,  it  is  an  instrument  of  the  Russian  National  Government. 
The  process  of  applying  control  over  the  American  party  is  presented 
in  a  way  that  the  average  American  has  no  concept  of  tlie  actual 
Russian  control.  As  a  full-fledged,  highly  respected  member  of  the 
Communist  Party,  I  had  very  little  concept  of  the  roots  running  all 
the  way  back  to  Russia.  Tlieir  representatives,  in  secrecy,  meet  with 
carefully  selected  American  representatives,  of  whom  a  good  per- 
centage are  foreign  born,  in  the  national  committee  of  the  American 
Communist  Party.  The  others  are  brought  into  a  frame  of  mind  to 
accept  that.  In  the  highest  leadership,  they  do  have  to  accept  the 
fact  that  there  is  foreign  domination. 

From  that  point  on  down,  the  foreign  domination  is  diluted  to  the 
State  groups  and  so  forth.  We  were  told  to  be  very  friendly  to  these 
Russian  people  who  had  blazed  the  trail  for  the  rest  of  the  world. 
We  did  not  say  that  when  the  Russian  snaps  the  whip  the  American 
Communist  Party  starts  dancing.     Enlightenment  is  the  answer  there. 

The  second  question  is  why  does  this  evil  persist  in  your  knowledge 
and  mine  ?  In  my  estimation,  the  second  reason  lies  in  the  economy 
we  live  in,  in  the  economic  conditions  and  the  times,  the  failure  of 
society  to  properly  carry  out  its  obligations.  I  ask  you  to  remember 
what  little  we  did  in  San  Diego  and  which  was  detrimental  to  society's 
best  interests,  where  possible,  because  the  local  relief  people  were 
paralyzed.  People  were  hungry  and  nobody  did  anything  about  it 
and  the  Communists  jumped  in.  When  we  allow  injustice  to  exist, 
or  when  we  move  too  slowly  to  correct  it,  we  allow  unthinking,  unin- 
telligent people  to  move  and  say,  "By  God,  it  is  time  for  somebody 
else  to  move  in." 

Mr.  Jackson.  Were  you  acquainted  with  Charles  Judson,  a  news- 
paper man  ? 
Mr.  Hancock.  I  don't  recall  the  name. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Mr.  Judson  appeared  and  cooperated  with  the  com- 
mittee relative  to  a  newspaper  branch  of  the  party  in  Los  Angeles. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  would  like  to  follow  up  your  very  interesting 
comments  on  the  Communist  Party  generally.  How  did  you  and 
other  Communist  Party  members  rationalize"  the  purges  that  were 


4560       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

conducted  in  Russia  in  1935  and  1937  and  1938  ?  What  was  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Communist  Party  on  those  matters? 

Mr.  Hancock.  One  of  complete  acceptance  of  whatever  explana- 
tion was  made  by  the  Stalin  leadership.  I  recall  some  of  the  old- 
timers  becoming  violently  upset  by  these  purges.  People  who  had 
been  thinking  at  least  about  that  subject  for  many  years.  For  in- 
stance, Sol  Bernhart  was  very  upset  at  these  purges  because  he  could 
not  understand  how  a  man  could  be  in  such  high  leadership  and  then, 
all  of  a  sudden,  turns  out  to  be  a  traitor  from  the  very  beginning. 
But  it  is  to  our  discredit  that  unimportant  segments  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  became  upset  at  these  purges.  We  became  upset  at  other 
things,  but  the  purges  were  so  unrealistic  to  us.  The  explanation 
was  that  some  terrible  international  influence  created  this  and  it  is  a 
good  thing  the  party  was  alert  enough  to  discover  this,  and  so  forth. 
Of  course,  now  I  know  it  was  a  pure  struggle  for  power.  If  I  may 
say  so,  I  would  say  that  my  pattern  of  reaction  is  more  American 
than  normal  Communist  Party  reaction.  My  background  is  entirely 
American.  My  people  are  Texans.  My  dad  came  from  Kentucky. 
God  knows  how  I  ended  up  in  the  situation,  but  the  thing  that  drove 
me  out  of  the  party  was  when  Russia  went  into  Poland. 

I  had  a  violent  argument  with  the  editor  of  the  paper,  who  was 
Harrison  George,  and  when  it  came  over  the  radio  and  in  the  news- 
papers that  Rvissia  had  invaded  Poland,  there  was  a  joint  announce- 
ment issued  by  the  Russian  generals  in  the  field  and  the  German 
generals  in  the  field  and  there  was  a  joint  statement  that  these  miser- 
able Nazis  had  issued  a  joint  statement  with  the  Russians  that  they 
liad  come  together  for  the  good  of  the  Polish  people  to  drive  out 
the  reactionary  Polish  Government  and  between  the  great  German 
Army  and  the  Russian  Army  that  peace  would  prevail.  I  liked  to 
blew  my  lid.  Harrison  George  said  to  me,  "You  are  always  looking 
for  something  and  you  had  better  clam  up  or  you  will  get  in  trouble," 
or  things  of  that  kind,  and  that  was  just  a  few  months  before  this 
Bridges  testimony  and  before  other  agencies,  but  the  way  I  left  the 
party,  it  may  dispel  some  mystery  in  your  minds,  is  that  first  of  all 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  formal  resignation  from  the  party.  If 
I  personally  were  foolish  enough  to  say,  "I  hereby  resign  from  the 
party,"  that  would  have  no  significance.  The  party  would  then  expel 
that  person.  You  are  a  Communist  until  you  are  expelled  or  just 
dropped,  but  you  don't  resign.  You  don't  say,  "So-and-so  resigned." 
They  don't  say,  "God  bless  you  and  good  luck." 

Mr.  Walter.  What  about  the  Philadelphia  schoolteachers?  They 
were  Communists  until  the  time  they  took  the  loyalty  oath.  They 
took  the  oath  and  then  apparently  became  Communists  immediately 
afterward.  How  do  they  get  out  of  the  Communist  Party,  if  they 
did,  long  enough  to  take  that  oath  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  They  did  not.  Obviously  they  did  not,  and  the  same 
thing  with  Ben  Gold.  Ben  Gold  is  a  charter  member  of  the  Com- 
munist Party,  and  all  of  a  sudden  he  signs  the  Labor  Relations  oath 
that  he  is  not  a  Communist.  Obviously,  a  man  like  that  does  not 
become  a  non-Communist  overnight.  They  reached  an  impasse. 
Rather  than  retire  from  the  organization,-  they  decided  to  bluff  it  out. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Would  it  be  that  the  officials  did  not  even  know? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  they  might  even  put  in  the  records  a  letter  of 
resignation,  but  it  would  be  meaningless. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4561 

Mr.  Jackson.  In  hearings  such  as  the  ones  conducted  by  this  com- 
mittee or  this  meeting,  will  a  hard-core  Communist  repudiate, 
under  any  circumstances,  any  of  the  statements  of  the  party  leaders, 
or  any  of  the  basic  doctrines  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock,  The  answer  is  a  qualified  yes,  depending  on  the  ma- 
terial of  his  particular  work  and  the  nature  of  his  assignment.  He 
will,  to  protect  that  assignment,  become  a  violent  anti-Communist, 
if  necessary,  ostensibly. 

Mr.  Jackson.  I  have  never  seen  it  happen  when  confronted  actually 
with  a  question,  an  answer  to  which  would  reflect  upon  the  leadership 
internationally  or  here  in  this  country,  Communists  who  have  failed  to 
take  the  fifth  amendment  at  that  point.  Possibly  because  very  few, 
if  any,  present  Communists  have  ever  talked  before  this  committee. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  a  present-day  Communist  who  was  protecting 
his  position  as  a  Communist  would  follow  the  line  you  have  just  sug- 
gested. Say  he  was  in  secret  or  spy  activity  and  dredged  up  in  some 
way,  he  might  talk  as  a  complete  and  violent  anti-Communist.  I 
speak,  not  from  personal  knowledge,  but  general  observation  over  the 
years. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Which  is  very  important  observation. 

Mr.  Doyle.  May  I  ask  this  question,  it  always  worries  me,  to  what 
extent  can  we  believe  in  the  good  faith  and  the  sincerity  of  former 
Communists  who  say  they  have  withdrawn,  not  only  from  the  Com- 
munist Party,  but  from  the  precepts  of  the  Communist  Party  ?  When 
we  have  folks  come  before  us  generally,  would  you  say  that  most  of 
tliem  come  before  us  in  good  faith,  having  actually  renounced  con- 
sciously within  themselves,  as  well  as  probably  the  doctrines  of  the 
Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Unless  they  are  in  some  highly  secret  activity,  once 
they  have  renounced  communism,  they  have  denounced  communism. 
The  only  exception  would  be  a  spy. 

Mr.  Doyle.  But  wouldn't  the  Communist  Party  officially  have  John 
Doe  come  before  us  and  probably  renounce  it  and  then  go  back  in, 
in  fact,  never  get  out  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  they  would  not.  You  will  identify  a  person 
like  that  by  his  evasion  of  the  questions,  a  question  such  as  "Don't  you 
know  that  So-and-so  was  a  direct  representative  of  Russia?"  They 
will  evade  a  question  like  that. 

And  then  a  question  like  "Don't  you  know  that  the  American  Com- 
munist Party  is  an  instrument  of  a  foreign  power?".  Well,  they 
may  say  no,  but  you  will  find  them  squirming  around  these  questions. 
Anybody  who  is  still  identified  with  the  Communist  Party  can  hardly 
come  before  you  and  denounce  the  Communist  Party  and  be  considered 
of  any  value  to  the  Conmiunist  Party.  It  is  a  part  of  the  Communist 
reaction  to  divert  or  block  these  questions  or  to  give  you  a  roundabout 
answer  or  to  hide  behind  the  fifth  amendment. 

This  is  not  a  good  example  but  it  will  give  you  some  idea  of  what 
T  am  trying  to  say.  The  question  that  comes  up  about  Communists 
being  OTeat  advocates  of  racial  equality,  the  question  of  "Do  you  want 
your  daughter  to  marry  a  Negro?"  and  the  proper  response  of  a  good 
Communist  is  always  "I  don't  know  any  Negro  who  wants  to  marry 
my  daughter."     The  man  has  maintained  his  position. 

Mr.  Doyle.  What  is  your  appraisal  and  your  opinion  of  the  func- 
tion of  this  particular  un-American  Activities  Committee?     Is  it 


4562        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  ^TATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

doing  a  constructive  job  ?  Is  it  valuable  ?  Is  it  worth  a  damn  or  two 
or  three  damns?  What  is  the  appraisal  that  we  could  get  from  you 
of  this  committee? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Let  me  answer  it  in  two  main  categories:  No.  1, 
from  the  time  that  I  got  out  of  the  Communist  activity,  I  have  been 
very  nonpolitical  in  my  reactions.  I  followed  very  little  national 
and  international  events. 

No.  2,  I  am  greatly  impressed  by  the  value  that  comes  from  men 
like  yourself  concerning  yourselves  with  a  question  that  can  only 
lead  to  good.  There  is  something  that  I  take  for  granted,  the  require- 
ment being  that  men  of  good  faith  and  good  will  probably  evaluate 
the  evidence  that  comes  before  you. 

Mr.  Walter.  Are  we  hurting  them? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  publicity  is  a  tremendous  weapon  to  use 
against  communism,  I  suggest,  very  humbly,  that  you  have  the 
capacity  to  do  great  damage  to  individuals  as  you  expressed  concern 
for  not  doing  damage  to  this  individual  we  mentioned.  I  think  it  is 
of  great  significance  and  offers  potentially  great  good  to  men  of  your 
capacities  to  take  the  time  to  even  consider  the  minute  words  that  I 
have  to  say  here.    Only  good  can  come  from  it. 

I  would  like  to  lay  certain  facts  before  you.  I  came  here,  not  wish- 
ing to  say  the  words,  but  to  give  you  the  truth  as  it  is  within  me  of 
the  events  and  without  reservation,  to  persuade  you  by  deeds  that  I 
desire  to  be  completely  cooperative. 

I  at  this  point  want  to  remind  you  that  I  have  personally  suffered 
great  misfortune  by  my  original  decision  to  testify  at  the  Harry 
Bridges  trial.  I  lost  my  position,  the  only  field  I  am  qualified  to 
work  in,  and  it  took  me  2  years  to  get  back  into  the  work.  I  have  a 
fine  wife  and  a  fine  daughter. 

Mr,  Walter,  Where  was  this? 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  Erie,  Pa.  The  circumstances  are  such  that  in 
my  line  of  work  we  also  have  an  opposition  newspaper.  I  have  an 
opposition  newspaper  now  and  it  is  the  nature  of  the  sources  that  what 
I  have  told  you  if  it  becomes  public  information,  it  will  make  it  im- 
possible for  me  to  continue  in  my  present  line  of  work.  I  speak  not 
theoretically,  but  it  has  already  happened  to  me,  the  only  difference 
now  being  that  the  people  I  work  for  are  now  fully  aware  of  my 
background,  but  that  changes  not  one  whit  the  fact  that  the  opposi- 
tion newspaper  can  crucify  me. 

Mr,  Walter.  How  can  they? 

Mr.  Hancock,  I  can  only  tell  you  how  they  did. 

Mr,  Walter.  How  did  they  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  Erie  Times,  which  is  the  paper  in  constant  con- 
flict with  the  Erie  Dispatch,  went  way  out  of  their  way  by  telephoning 
several  times  to  San  Francisco  when  I  was  at  the  trial  to  have  photo- 
graphs taken  of  me,  and  extensive  quotes,  and  they  had  their  Washing- 
ton representative  digging  up  my  entire  background.  They  talked 
about  the  Imperial  Valley  struggle  and  the  fact  that  I  was  arrested 
and  served  time  in  jail  and  as  public  relations  director  of  a  newspaper, 
and  my  employers  had  no  choice. 

Mr.  Walter,  When  was  this? 

Mr,  Hancock.  In  Deceml:)er  1949. 

Mr.  Walter.  And  they  fired  you  ? 

Mr.  Hancock,  Yes. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4563 

Mr.  Walter,  They  were  cowardly. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  respectfully  disagree. 

ISIr.  Walter.  Was  there  a  fellow  on  that  paper,  the  editor,  by  the 
name  of  Keith  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  his  name  was  White,  that  was  our  editor. 

Mr.  Walter.  Do  you  know  Donald  Keith  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No. 

Mr.  Walter.  I  would  like  to  say  at  this  point,  jSIr.  Chairman,  that 
in  the  event  anyone  does  in  anywise  attempt  to  penalize  the  witness 
for  his  contribution  that  he  has  made  to  the  security  of  the  country,  it 
will  indicate  the  need  for  legislation. 

Mr.  Doyle.  To  me,  not  only  the  punitive  action  against  this  witness, 
Mr.  Chairman,  but  the  using  of  his  voluntary  contribution  toward  the 
security  of  our  Nation  against  the  Communist  conspiracy  in  the  field 
of  competition,  this  man  is  employed  by  a  newspaper,  think  how  ter- 
rible it  would  be  if  a  rival  newspaper  should  capture  this  incident  and 
capitalize  on  it  in  order  to  hurt  the  other  competitor. 

Mr.  Walter.  I  am  prepared  to  state  that  we  should  subpena  the 
persons  responsible  before  this  committee  in  open  session  if  any  such 
thing  should  happen  and  have  a  showdown  on  that  subject. 

Mr.  Doyle.  I  would  like  to  see  that. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Let  me  say  before  I  leave,  this  is  precisely  the  point 
I  wanted  to  touch  at  the  conclusion  of  this  testimony.  I  personally 
think,  and  I  am  sure  that  it  is  the  expression  of  the  entire  committee 
and  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  that  in  making  this  appear- 
ance here  you  have  rendered  signal  service  to  the  committee,  the  Con- 
gress and  the  American  people.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  do,  as  you 
yourself  have  pointed  out.  But,  without  such  testimony  as  you 
have  given  here  today,  the  American  people  would  not  have  the  tre- 
mendous total  knowledge  of  the  operations  of  the  Communist  Party 
that  they  do  have,  and  because  they  have  it  I  think  that  this  nation 
is  probably  more  alert  to  and  more  aware  of  the  true  nature  and  signifi- 
cance of  the  Communist  Party  than  any  people  on  earth.  That,  1  say, 
is  due  to  testimony  such  as  yours.  It  would  certainly  be  the  hope  of 
the  Chair  that  under  no  circumstances,  irrespective  of  what  may  in 
the  future  be  done  with  this  testimony — and  we  cannot  foresee  at  the 
moment  Avliat  may  be  necessary  to  do — but  I  would  certainly  express 
the  thought  that  retaliatory  action  of  any  kind  taken  against  you  or 
against  any  other  witness  who  sees  it  as  his  obligation  to  come  before 
the  Congress  or  this  committee  or  any  committee  to  give  such  testi- 
mony, is  reprehensive  and  would  destroy  the  work  of  this  committee 
more  rapidly  and  more  effectively  than  could  the  Communist  Party 
itself. 

I  want  to  express  to  you  the  thanks  of  the  Committee  on  un-Ameri- 
can Activities  for  your  lucid,  comprehensive  and  splendid  testimony 
today. 

With  that,  the  committee  will  stand  adjourned. 
(Whereupon,  at  5 :  05  p.  m.,  the  hearing  was  adjourned  to  reconvene 
on  Monday,  March  1,  1954.) 


INDEX  TO  PART  1 


INDIVIDUALS 

Page 

Alexander,  Paul  {see  also  Alexander,  Sterling  CampbeU) 4534, 

4535, 4541,  4544,  4557 

Alexander,  Sterling  Campbell  {see  also  Alexander,  Paul) 4557 

Ball,    Lucille 4525 

Bedacht,   Max 4549 

Bernhart,  Sol 4522, 4535,  4560 

Billings,   Warren  K 4526 

Bridges,    Harry 4519,  4536,  4547,  4550,  4554,  4555,  4557,  4560,  4562 

Browder,   Earl 4540, 4552 

Carr,  Peter 4544 

Darcy,    Sam 4553 

Dimitroff,    Georgi 4527 

Dobbs,  Ben 4549 

Dowell 4535 

Duclos 4540 

Fisher,   Mark 4534, 4537 

Gallagher,    Leo 4552,  4553 

Garrigues,  Charles  H.  ("Brick") 4535,4537 

George,    Harrison 4560 

Gold,   Ben 4560 

Green,    Bill 4536 

Gregovich,  Lee 4547 

Gue,   Stanley 4535 

Hancock,    Henry 4533, 4544 

Hancock,  Stanley  B (testimony)  4517-4563 

Hanoff,  Elmer   (Efim;  Effim) 4553 

Hillkowitz,    Saul 4522 

Jerome,   V.   J 4541,  4542 

Johnstone,    Jack 4549,  4550,  4555 

Jones,  Claude  L 4533 

Judson,    Charles 4559 

Keith,    Donald 4563 

Lambert,    Walter 4550,  4555 

Levin,    Meyer 4521-4523 

Leyden,  Johnnie 4534 

Lovestone,   Jay 4522 

Lydick,  John 4534,  4538 

McDermott,    James 4545,  4546 

Meyers,  Frank  S 4521 

Mooney,  Tom 4526 

Pollack,    Harry 4519 

Raven 4550 

Ray,  Dorothy 4553 

Richardson,  Esco  L 4524,4541 

Rogers,  A.  C 4533^538,4550,4557 

Rogers,  A.  G 4557 

Rothstein,    Ida 4549 

Schmidt,  Henry 4550,  4555 

Shoemaker,    John 4555 

Steinmetz,  Harry  L 4534,  4535,  4542-4544,  4550,  4555-4557 

Stromberg,    Yetta 4526 

Vandeleur,   Ed 4536,  4555,  4556 

Worcester,    Daisy    Lee 4534,  4538,  4542 

Wosk,   David  . 4534,4538 

1 


ii  INDEX 

ORGANIZATIONS 

Page 

American  Federation  of  Labor 4532,  4535,  4536,  4542,  4547 

Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Naturalization 4524,  454S 

California  Committee  to  Repeal  the  California  Syndicalism  Act 4521 

California  State  Federation  of  Labor 4532,  4547,  4549 

Central  Labor  Council,  San  DiegO—  4532,  4533,  4535,  4542,  4543,  4547,  4556,  4557 

Cleaners  and  Dyers  Union,  Los  Angeles 4550 

Cominform    4554 

Comintern    4527 

Committee  for  Amnesty  to  the  Smith  Act  Victims 4530 

Committee  to  Free  Tom  Mooney  and  Warren  K.  Billings 4526 

Communist  International 4548,  4549,  4554 

Communist  Party,  San  Francisco  Central  Committee 4535 

Congress  of  Industrial  Organizations 4541,  4546 

Consolidated  Aircraft  Corp 4545 

Contradictory   Social   Problems   Forum 4544 

Cultural  and  Scientific  Conference  for  World  Peace 4530 

Federal  Bureau  of  Investigation 4548 

Immigration  and  Naturalization  Service   (INS) 4554 

International  Association  of  Machinists 4545 

International    Publishers 4541 

International   Workers'    Order 4549 

Sailors'  Union  of  the  Pacific 4550 

San  Diego  Federated  Council  of  Labor  Unions 4556 

San  Diego  Fishermen's  Union 4546 

San  Diego  Labor  Council 4528 

San  Diego  State  College 4534 

Teachers  Union 4542,  4543 

Unemployed  Council 4526,  4529 

United  Cannery,  Agricultural,  Packing  and  Allied  Workers  of  America, 

CIO 4518,  4542 

Workers'    Alliance 4529 

Works    Progress    Administration 4518 

Young  Communist  League,  California 4548 

Young   Communist  League,   Los  Angeles 4549 

PUBLICATIONS 

The  Communist 4541 

Daily  People's  World 4518^520,  4542,  4554 

Erie  Dispatch 4562 

Erie   Times 4562 

Lockport  Union  Sun  and  Journal 4519 

Long  Island  Daily  Press 4518-4520 

Pasadena  Star-News 4518,  4520 

San  Diego  Labor  Leader 4535 

San  Diego  Sun 4518,  4520,  4521,  4535 

Santa  Cruz  Sentinel  News 4519 

Seripps-Howard  newspapers 4521,  4526 

Soviet  Russia  Today 4541 

Trade   Union   News 4547 

U.  S.  S.  R.  Construction 4541 

Western  Worker 4518,  4544,  4548,  4553,  4554 

o 


INVESTIGATION  OF  COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE 
STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA— Part  2 


HEARINGS 


BEFORE  TECB 


OMMITTEE  ON  UN-AMERICAN  ACTIVITIES 
HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 


EIGHTY-THIKD  CONGRESS 

SECOND  SESSION 


FEBRUAKY  1,  M>mCH  1,  AND  APRIL  12,  1954 


Printed  for  the  use  of  the  Committee ou  I'n-American  Activities 


INCLUDING  INDEX 


UNITED   STATES 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 

WASHIXGTON  :   1954 


Boston  Public  Library 
Superintendent  of  Documents 

SEP  8-1954 


COMMITTEE  ON  UN-AMERICAN  ACTIVITIES 

United  States  House  op  Representatives 
HAROLD  H.  VELDE,  Illinois,  Chairman 
BERNARD  W.  KEARNEY,  New  York  FRANCIS  E.  WALTER,  Pennsylvania 

DONALD  L.  JACKSON,  California  MORGAN  M.  MOULDER,  Missouri 

KIT  CLARDY,  Michigan  CLYDE  DOYLE,  California 

GORDON  H.  SCHERER,  Ohio  JAMES  B.  FRAZIER,  Jr.,  Tennessee 

ROBERT  L.  Kdnzig,  Counsel 

Frank  S.  Tavenner,  Jr.,  Counsel 

Thomas  W.  Beale,  Sr.,  Chief  Clerk 

Raphael  I.  NixOn,  Director  of  Research 

CODRTNEX  E.  Owens,  Acting  Chief  Investigator 

II 


CONTENTS 


Pas« 

March  1,  1954,  testimony  of  Stanley  B.  Hancock  (resumed) 4565 

February  1, 1954,  testimony  of  Benjamin  Holmes  Haddock 4595 

April  12, 1954,  testimony  of : 

Frances  Burke 4619 

Index i 


Public  Law  601,  T9th  Congress 

The  legislation  under  which  the  House  Committee  on  Un-American 
Activities  operates  is  Public  Law  601,  79th  Congress  [1946],  chapter 
753,  2d  session,  which  provides : 

Be  it  enacted  ty  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  *  *  * 

PART  2— RULES  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 

Rtjle  X 

SEC.  121.    STANDING  COMMITTEE 
«  *  *  «  «  •  • 

17.  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  to  consist  of  nine  members. 

RulbXI 
powers  and  duties  of  committb^^s 

*  4:  «  *  «  4>  * 

{q)    (1)  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities. 

(A)  Un-American  activities. 

(2)  The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  as  a  whole  or  by  subcommit- 
tee, is  authorized  to  make  from  time  to  time  investigations  of  (i)  the  extent, 
character,  and  objects  of  un-American  propaganda  activities  in  the  United  States, 
(ii)  the  diffusion  within  the  United  States  of  subversive  and  un-American  propa- 
ganda that  is  instigated  from  foreign  countries  or  of  a  domestic  origin  and  at- 
taclis  the  principle  of  the  form  of  government  as  guaranteed  by  our  Constitution, 
and  (iii)  all  other  questions  in  relation  thereto  that  would  aid  Congress  in  any 
necessary  remedial  legislation. 

The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  shall  report  to  the  House  (or  to  the 
Clerk  of  the  House  if  the  House  is  not  in  session)  the  results  of  any  such  in- 
vestigation, together  with  such  recommendations  as  it  deems  advisable. 

For  the  purpose  of  any  such  investigation,  the  Committee  on  Un-American 
Activities,  or  any  subcommittee  thereof,  is  authorized  to  sit  and  act  at  such, 
times  and  places  within  the  United  States,  whether  or  not  the  House  is  sitting, 
has  recessed,  or  has  adjourned,  to  hold  such  hearings,  to  require  the  attendance 
of  such  witnesses  and  the  production  of  such  books,  papers,  and  documents,  and 
to  take  such  testimony,  as  it  deems  necessary.  Subpenas  may  be  issued  under 
the  signature  of  the  chairman  of  the  committee  or  any  subcommittee,  or  by  any 
member  designated  by  any  such  chairman,  and  may  be  served  by  any  person 
designated  by  any  such  chairman  or  member. 


RULES  ADOPTED  BY  THE  83D  CONGRESS 
House  Resolution  5,  January  3,  1953 

«  4:  4:  «  «  *  « 

Rule  X 

STANDING  COMMITTEES 

(1)  There  shall  be  elected  by  the  House,  at  the  commencement  of  each  Con- 
gress, the  following  standing  committees : 

(q)  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  to  consist  of  nine  members. 
*  «  *  *  *  *  « 

Rule  XI 

POWEES  AND  DUTIES  OF  COMMITTEES 
******* 

17.  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities, 

(a)  Un-American  activities. 

(b)  The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  as  a  whole  or  by  subcommittee, 
is  authorized  to  make  from  time  to  time,  investigations  of  (1)  the  extent,  char- 
acter, and  objects  of  un-American  propaganda  activities  in  the  United  States, 
(2)  the  diffusion  within  the  United  States  of  subversive  and  un-American  propa- 
ganda that  is  instigated  from  foreign  countries  or  of  a  domestic  origin  and 
attacks  the  principle  of  the  form  of  government  as  guaranteed  by  our  Constitu- 
tion, and  (3)  all  other  questions  in  relation  thereto  that  would  aid  Congress 
in  any  necessary  remedial  legislation. 

The  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  shall  report  to  the  House  (or  to  the 
Clerk  of  the  House  if  the  House  is  not  in  session)  the  results  of  any  such  investi- 
gation, together  with  such  recommendations  as  it  deems  advisable. 

For  the  purpose  of  any  such  investigation,  the  Committee  on  Un-American 
Activities,  or  any  subcomittee  thereof,  is  authorized  to  sit  and  act  at  such  times 
and  places  within  the  United  States,  whether  or  not  the  House  is  sitting,  has 
recessed,  or  has  adjourned,  to  hold  such  hearings,  to  require  the  attendance 
of  such  witnesses  and  the  production  of  such  books,  papers,  and  documents,  and 
to  take  such  testimony,  as  it  deems  necessary.  Subpenas  may  be  issued  under 
the  signature  of  the  chairman  of  the  committee  or  any  subcommittee,  or  by  any 
member  designated  by  such  chairman,  and  may  be  served  by  any  person  desig- 
nated by  any  such  chairman  or  member. 

VI 


INVESTIGATION  OF  COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE 
STATE  OF  CALIFOKNIA— Part  2 


MONDAY,  10.BCH   1,   1954 

United  States  House  of  Kepresentatives, 
Subcommittee  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities, 

Washington^  D.  C. 

executive  session  ^ 

The  subcommittee  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities 
met,  pursuant  to  adjournment,  at  11 :  15  a.  m.,  m  room  22o,  Old  House 
Office  Building,  Hon.  Clyde  Doyle,  presiding. 

Committee  member  present:  Representative  Clyde  Doyle. 

Staff  member  present :  Frank  S.  Tavenner,  Jr.,  counsel. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  hearing  conducted  on  i^  eb- 
ruarv  24  the  subcommittee  chairman  announced  that  the  hearing  would 
be  continued  to  Monday,  March  1,  at  10:  30  a.  m.  Pursuant  to  the 
direction  of  the  chairman  of  the  subcommittee  the  hearing  is  resumed 
at  11 :  15  a.  m.,  March  1,  1954.  .  tt       i    c 

Present  are  Hon.  Clyde  Doyle,  Member  of  Congress,  and  Frank  b. 
Tavenner,  Jr.,  counsel.  .         „    ,  .    , 

Mr.  Doyle.  Mr.  Tavenner,  I  just  received  notice  of  this  hearing  a 
few  minutes  ago,  and  while  I  am  here  in  the  committee  room,  as  you 
know,  I  have  always  objected  to  a  one-man  subcommittee  hearing,  so 
I  will  not  ask  any  questions  nor  participate  in  the  hearing  except  ]ust 
to  sit  here,  not  undertaking  to  function  as  a  member  of  the  committee. 
But  because  the  witness'  testimony  does  involve  situations  m  my 
native  State  of  California,  where  I  reside,  which  I  represent,  I  want 
to  have  the  benefit  of  hearing  his  testimony. 

I  regret  that  the  other  members  are  not  here. 

TESTIMONY  OF  STANLEY  B.  HANCOCK— Resumed 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Mr.  Hancock,  during  the  course  of  your  earlier 
testimony  you  described  one  major  incident  of  infiltration  of  groups 
or  organizations  in  San  Diego  by  the  Communist  Party.  This  related 
in  the  main  to  the  Central  Labor  Council  at  San  Diego. 

Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  what  other  principal  efforts 
were  made  by  the  Communist  Party  while  you  were  one  of  its  leaders 
in  San  Diego  to  infiltrate  other  organizations? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Mr.  Tavenner,  I  do  not  have  in  my  mind  any  other 
infiltration  of  consequence  in  the  same  sense  as  the  one  we  are  dis- 
cussing.   I  no  doubt  would  be  better  equipped  to  answer  the  question 

1  Released  by  the  committee. 

4565 


4566       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA  | 

were  I  in  a  position  to  review  events  of  that  period,  but  I  am  confident 
that  I  have  the  general  course  of  events  in  mind. 

What  stands  out  in  my  mind  is,  in  that  period  the  major  activity 
was  infiltration  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  Central  Labor  Council.  There  was 
something  going  on  around  then  that  had  to  do  with  election  activity, 
and  I  am  just  not  clear  on  it,  but  I  think  Dr.  Harry  Steinmetz  was  a 
candidate  for  something  not  backed  by  the  Communist  Party,  but  the 
general  procedures  of  that  election  campaign,  if  not  originated  in  our 
councils,  were  followed  very  closely  and  influenced  by  that  activity. 

I  cannot  think  of  the  precise  situation.  It  has  to  do  with  the  opening 
up  of  the  CP's  united-front  policy  organizationally  and  politically. 

I  cannot  even  say  that  the  man  was  a  candidate  or  who  the  candi- 
dates were,  but  I  think  so,  and  I  think — of  course,  he  obviously  was 
not  elected,  but  our  interest  was  in  influencing  men  of  that  caliber 
to  endeavor  to  either  bring  about  what  might  be  called  a  far-left-of- 
center  local  government  in  which  we  would  exert  some  or  considerable 
influence,  or,  failing  in  that,  to  run  up  the  highest  possible  protest 
vote  which  would  be  considered  a  milestone  on  the  road  to  eventual 
election  success. 

The  two  outstanding  events  of  the  period  have  to  do  with  the  activi- 
ties in  Imperial  Valley  as  well  as  the  Central  Labor  Council  activity. 
For  a  time  we  were  quite  influential  in  Imperial  Valley  among  the 
agricultural  workers,  and  in  answer  specifically  to  your  question,  I 
just  do  not  have  in  mind  any  other  organization  that  we  penetrated 
except  in  the  sense  I  have  already  testified  through  delegates  to  the 
Central  Labor  Council  we  reached  back  into  various  organizations, 
and  I  do  not  have  any  in  mind  beyond  that. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Would  you  tell  the  committee  how  the  Communist 
Party  functioned  in  its  work  in  Imperial  Valley  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes.  This  has  to  do  with  the  period  starting  in 
early  1934.  I  am  not  too  clear.  The  events  which  led  up  to  our 
activity  in  Imperial  Valley  may  have  started  around  the  fall  of 
1933,  but  there  were  a  series  of  violent  organizational  activities  in  the 
San  Joaquin  Valley  culminating  in  strikes  in  the  cotton  fields.  I  am 
not  too  sure  of  my  dates  here,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  as  these  agri- 
cultural workers  moved  throughout  the  State — they  followed  a  pat- 
tern, really,  and  it  would  be  Salinas,  down  to  the  San  Joaquin  Valley 
and  down  over  into  the  Imperial  Valley  and  down  to  Yuma  and  make 
the  circle  again — I  do  not  say  that  is  the  sequence,  but  they  went 
roughly  in  a  circle  during  the  12-month  period — so  that  2  people, 
Pat  Chambers  and  Caroline  Decker,  party  members,  became  some- 
where in  that  period  leaders  of  a  completely  Communist-controlled 
and  established  union  for  the  agricultural  field  workers. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  recall  the  name  of  the  union  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  but  I  will  tell  you  one  thing:  On  the  orignial 
membership  books  that  came  out,  it  said,  "affiliated  to  the  Red  Inter- 
national of  Labor  Unions."  It  was  not  disguised  in  any  way.  I  re- 
call the  original  application  cards,  such  a  name,  affiliated  to  the  RILU, 
Red  International  of  Labor  Unions.  It  was  a  predecessor  of  the 
UCAPAWA. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  will  endeavor  to  refresh  your  recollection  later 
about  that. 

Mr.  Hancock.  All  right. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4567 

Pat  Chambers  and  Caroline  Decker,  known  Comnnmist  Party  mem- 
bers, came  into  leadership  of  this  organization,  which  grew  like  wild- 
'tere  in  Salinas  and  central  San  Joaquin  Valley,  and  not  being  a  part 
1  3f  it,  I  have  not  too  specific  knowledge  of  the  cumulative  results, 
contractual  or  otherwise,  but  these  workers  by  the  thousands  began 
pouring  into  Imperial  Valley  for  their  annual  stint  in  the  agricultural 
fields.  That  came  into  my  territory,  and  I  spent  quite  a  bit  of  time 
in  Imperial  Valley,  setting  up  locals  of  this  Red  union,  and  corralling 
the  members  who  carried  their  cards  from  the  San  Joaquin  Valley 
down  into  Imperial  Valley. 

I  participated  in  two  rather  large  strikes,  and  I  am  not  absolutely 
slear  on  the  dates,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  first  one  was  in  November 
or  December  of  1933,  and  the  second  one  was  in  January  or  February 
oi  1934. 

I  cannot  even  recall  the  first  crop.  Anyway,  in  this  period,  agri- 
ultural  work  for  practical  purposes  in  the  field  ceased  in  Imperial 
Valley  for  perhaps  2,  2V2  to  3  weeks.  The  going  salary  or  wage  was 
18  or  20  cents  an  hour.  Wliereas  our  long-range  objectives  were  to 
onduct  ourselves  in  a  way  that  would  build  the  influence,  member- 
ship, prestige,  and  power  of  the  Communist  Party,  our  specific  short- 
range  objective  was  to  consolidate  this  union  organization  to  win  some 
gain,  some  economic  gains,  and  fortify  ourselves  for  reasons  to  come. 
We  actually  did  not  get  to  the  point  of  negotiation  in  the  first  strike. 

I  think  we  horrified  the  local  people.  At  this  point  of  looking  back 
I  can  say  understandably. 

They  one  day  came  to  a  strike  meeting  at  a  garage  and  hall  called 
Azteca  Hall  in  Brawley,  Calif.,  owned  by  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Maldonado,  M-a-1-d-o-n-a-d-o.    These  Spanish  names  are  all  phonetic. 

We  had  at  about  10  o'clock  in  the  morning  some  1,500  men,  women, 
and  children  in  the  hall,  organizing  the  picket  lines  for  the  day  and 
organizing  the  details  of  our  soup  kitchen  which,  to  the  best  of  our 
ability,  fed  these  people,  when  a  group  of  men,  50  to  75  in  number,  in 
civilian  clothes,  but  marked  with  black  armbands,  surrounded  the 
hall.  There  were  some  officers  in  uniform  present — they  pressed 
into  the  building. 

Sitting  in  the  office  we  heard  the  commotion,  and  I  guess  they 
retreated.  They  later  testified  in  court  that  they  were  trying  to  arrest 
myself  and  Dorothy  Ray,  who  was  a  representative  of  the  Young 
Communist  League  and  participating  in  the  strike  organization.  The 
first  we  knew  of  their  presence  was  the  sound  of  tear  gas,  and  this 
cordon  of  men  we  then  discovered  armed  with  pickaxe  handles — 
pretty  much  of  a  slaughter.  As  our  people  tried  to  escape  the  building, 
they  were  knocked  back  in,  knocked  down,  and  Miss  Ray  and  I  escaped 
through  a  side  window.  We  went  into  hiding  for  10  days.  We  were 
finally  flushed  out,  arrested,  tried,  sentenced  to  6  months  for  a  series 
of  charges,  one  of  them  being  vagrants.  I  do  not  recall  the  other 
specific  charge. 

That  ended  our  immediate  participation,  and  my  recollection  is  that 
the  strike  sort  of  petered  out.  The  men,  leadership,  drifted  back, 
went  somewhere.  The  trial  did  not  occur,  though,  until  some  time  in 
early  1934,  maybe  March  or  April,  somewhere  in  there.  I  am  not 
too  sure  on  that,  because  it  seems  to  me  I  got  out,  actually  served  5 
months,  got  out  in  October  1934. 

47718 — 54 — pt.  2 2 


4568        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

But  in  the  meantime,  while  we  were  out  on  bail,  another  influx  of 
union  members  from  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  came  down,  this  time 
to  work  the  lettuce  crop,  and  the  organization  of  that  strike  was  almost 
spontaneous.  We  were  accepted  into  leadership  by  virtue  of  our 
previous  activity  but  had  to  be  very  circumspect  about  it.  At  that 
time  the  actual  negotiating  committee  was  approached  by  representa- 
tives of  the  growers  and  offered  some  increase,  21/0  or  3  cents  an  hour, 
something  like  that,  and  the  State  committee  of  the  party,  personally 
represented  by  Elmer  Hanoff,  rejected  it,  which  is  to  say,  we  were 
then  instructed  to  instruct  our  supporters  to  reject  it.  This  was 
something  of  repetition  of  the  previous  strike  where  long  lines, 
perhaps  picket  lines  a  mile  or  two  long,  circled  the  fields,  and  all 
work  ceased,  and  many  of  these  people  were  living  in  what  we  called 
in  those  days,  Hoovervilles,  just  shacks  built  of  canvas,  tins,  anything, 
and  I  cannot  say  this  for  sure,  but  we  were  told  that  they  were  burned 
out,  I  did  not  see  it.  We  were  told  they  were.  I  accepted  it  as  a 
fact.  It  might  not  be  a  fact,  but  we  were  told  that  one  evening  the 
places  were  set  afire,  and  I  was  not  even  in  a  position  to  move  around 
enough,  facing  a  trial  myself. 

We  could  not  show  too  much  activity,  so  I  never  even  went  up  to  see 
whether  the  place  was  burned  out,  and  that  strike  just  petered  out. 

But  it  must  be  said  that  the  influence  of  the  Communist  Party  was 
very  strong  in  both  of  these  major  economic  movements  in  Imperial 
Valley  in  that  period. 

It  would  be  phrased  by  some  that  these  were  completely  created 
Communist  activities,  but  that  would  be  ignoring  the  vast  social  forces 
on  the  move  at  that  time,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  most  significant 
truth  that  can  be  stated  is  that  the  Communist  Party  stepped  to  the 
front  of  this  great  foment  and  tried  to  direct  it, 

I  think  we  give  the  Communists  too  much  credit  to  say  that  they 
created  it.  They  studied  these  developing  actions,  and  they  moved 
to  the  leadership  as  best  they  could,  and  they  kept  them  going  when 
they  would  have  normally  died.  So  that  is  the  second  of  the  out- 
standing activities  in  my  mind  in  that  period. 

There  may  have  been  others  that  you  would  consider  of  some  small 
consequence,  but  they  are  not  in  my  mind, 

I  might  say  that  these  people  all  have  changed  their  names  several 
times,  Dorothy  Ray  was  married  a  couple  of  times  after  that,  but 
I  guess  the  name  is ■ 

Mr,  Tavenner,  Will  you  identify  other  members  of  the  Communist 
Party  who  took  an  active  part  in  the  strikes  in  Imperial  Valley? 

Mr.  Hancock,  Well,  one  would  be  Paul  Alexander.  I  do  not  recall 
bringing  anyone  else  from  San  Diego  down  there.  Dorothy  Ray  was 
a  member  of  and  representing  the  Yoinig  Communist  League.  Oh,  yes, 
Emma  Cutler  was  another  one.  She  was  from  somewhere  around 
Sacramento,  pretty  well  known  Communist  member. 

There  was  an  attorney  who  came  in  from  Arizona  to  defend  some 
of  the  Communists  arrested  at  that  period.  I  would  know  his  name 
if  I  heard  it.  It  escapes  me  now.  He  was  arrested  and  served  time 
with  the  rest  of  us,  and  it  is  my  impression  that  he  was  a  party  member. 
Up  in  my  territory  he  talked  like  we  did  and  acted  like  we  did. 

We  recruited  local  Communists,  almost  all  of  Mexican  extraction, 
and  the  names  are  just  a  blur  to  me,  I  gave  you  this  name, 
Maldonado — I  connect  him  with  that  event — I  can  give  you  a  name 


COMIMUNIST  ACTWITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4569 

like  Juan  Olivas,  J-u-a-n  0-1-i-v-a-s.  I  can  give  you  the  name  of 
Miguel  Guiterrez,  M-i-g-u-e-1  G-u-i-t-e-r-r-e-z,  Sr.  and  Jr.  Junior 
died. 

There  are  several  others  that  I  just  do  not  have  the  names,  and  they 
played  no  particular  important  part. 

I  think  it  should  be  said  that  somewhere  along  in  this  period  we 
made  contact  with  the  president  and  the  secretary  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  Central  Labor  Council,  in  El  Centro,  Calif. 
There  was  a  later  packinghouse  strike  that  brought  them  into  the 
picture,  and  I  had  many  meetings  with  these  two  people  whose  names 
escape,  but  I  later  learned  on  pretty  good  authority  that  they  were 
working  with  us  under  the  direction  of  some  authoritative  group, 
perhaps  FBI. 

I  can  only  recall  that  one  of  them  was  the  motion  picture  projection- 
ists' representative.  I  do  not  remember  their  names.  But  they  took 
out  membership  cards  in  the  party. 

There  was  another  fellow,  Ed  somebody — his  name  escapes  me — 
who  misled  us  very  nicely  at  that  period.  He  was  working  for  the 
party  and  Captain  Hines  of  the  Red  Squad  of  Los  Angeles — this 
fellow  Burke,  Ed  Burke — this  is  going  to  be  something  that  may 
interest  you. 

Ed  Burke  came  to  San  Diego  in  this  early  period  as  a  member  of  the 
Communist  Party  of  Los  Angeles  and  with  proper  credentials,  and 
because  his  work  allegedly  consisted  of  importing  birds  from  Mexico, 
lie  was  able  to  offer  us  a  messenger  service  back  and  forth.  With 
what  we  tliought  due  precautions,  such  as  sealing  an  envelope  with 
a  human  hair  sticking  out,  when  the  glue  dries,  withdrawing  the  hair, 
which  will  tell  you  whether  or  not  an  envelope  has  been  steamed 
open — that  line  will  disappear.  We  entrusted  messages  to  him,  and 
I  later  learned  that  he  was  on  Captain  Hines'  payroll  in  Los  Angeles, 
though  he  never  testified  against  us.  Our  relationship  was  such  that 
he  knew  quite  a  bit  about  the  activities  we  were  in.  He  knew  my 
hiding  place  when  I  was  trying  to  avoid  arrest. 

Now,  about  3  years  later,  somewhere  around  19?»6,  1037 — it  would 
be  later  than  that,  1938  or  1939 — as  the  circulation  manager  for,  at 
that  time,  tlie  People's  World,  I  made  a  trip  to  Los  Angeles,  and  it 
was  the  custom  at  that  time  to  put  such  people  as  myself  up  in  the 
homes  of  other  people.  So,  for  no  pai'ticular  reason  I  was  sent  to 
Steve  Nelson's  home.  Steve  Nelson  was  the  party  arrested,  and  I  see 
now,  freed  in  Pittsburgh. 

Prior  to  this  overnight  stay  and  discussion  with  Steve  Nelson  there 
had  been  the  Politlabor  Committee  in  California  interested  in  excesses, 
alleged  excesses,  of  party  officials,  vigilante  officials,  and  so  forth.  I 
was  not  involved  in  any  of  it  because  by  that  time  I  was  circulation 
manager  for  People's  World. 

Burke  somehow  or  other  called  me  when  I  was  at  the  local  People's 
World  office  and  said,  after  exchanging  "hellos"  that  he  was  still 
running  back  and  forth  to  Mexico,  and  as  representative  of  the 
People's  World  could  I  give  him  a  letter  that  he  was  an  authorized 
correspondent,  that  it  would  help  him,  and  so  forth. 

I  was  glad  to  do  it  for  an  old  friend,  told  him  if  he  would  drop 
by  the  next  day,  I  woiild  have  it  for  him. 

That  night  just  casually  I  mentioned  it  to  Steve  Nelson.  He  said, 
"Whoops,  he  is  a  full-fledged  representative  of  Captain  Hines." 


4570       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

I  said,  "Yes?  How  come?  I  have  been  through  thick  and  thin 
with  this  fellow  down  in  the  valley." 

He  said,  "You  sure  have,  and  that  is  how  the  authorities  got  a 
great  deal  of  their  information." 

I  do  not  know  if  Nelson  told  me  outright  that  the  La  Follette  Com- 
mittee got  this  information,  but  I  think  that  is  true,  and  the  record 
will  show  there  were  some  leftist  lawyers  in  this  group  got  into  police 
records,  and  it  is  my  impression,  very  strong,  that  a  number  of  names 
came  to  light,  so  this  was  another  Communist  Party  member  who 
was  represented  in  Imperial  Valley. 

Mr.  Tavenner,  I  would  like  for  you  at  this  point  to  give  the  com- 
mittee all  the  information  that  you  have  regarding  Steve  Nelson's 
activities.  I  believe  at  the  time  he  was  the  Communist  Party  or- 
ganizer for  Alameda  County. 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  is  not  too  clear  in  my  mind,  but  I  will  give 
you  what  I  feel  that  I  know.  It  is  my  impression  that  his  name 
came  into  prominence  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay  area  at  the  time 
that  I  was  on  the  People's  World,  San  Francisco  office. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Wlien  you  referred  to  staying  in  the  home  of  Steve 
Nelson,  was  that  in  San  Francisco  or  Los  Angeles  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  was  in  Los  Angeles. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  Steve  Nelson's  affiliation  in  Los  Angeles, 
or  his  function  there? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  cannot  say — I  would  have  to  guess  at  something. 
For  example,  people  did  not  walk  around  with  badges,  "I  am  the 
commissar  of  defense."  In  our  dealings  with  them,  we  realized  that 
they  fit  into  a  certain  slot  in  party  activity. 

Now,  in  view  of  the  foregoing  information,  it  was  quite  obvious  to 
me  that  Steve  Nelson  was  concerned  with  security  matters  in  Los 
Angeles.  In  some  way  that  I  cannot  at  the  moment  define,  he  was 
more  concerned  with  the  development  of  the  People's  World  than 
any  ordinary  Communist  Party  member.  That  comes  about  by  some- 
body on  a  State  committee  being  appointed  as  the  representative  to 
see  that  this  activity  is  undertaken  and  pushed,  and  that  campaigns  go 
over,  and  so  forth.  So,  while  no  one  ever  said  to  me  "Steve  Nelson  is 
the  State  committee  representative,  and  so  forth,"  this  man  in  his 
actions  to  me  quite  clearly  showed  that  he  was  representing  the  State 
committee  in  the  interest  he  showed  in  the  People's  World. 

I  do  not  think  that  he  was  the  county  president  or  whatever  the 
title  was,  but  he  might  have  been.  He  was  certainly  power  behind 
the  scenes. 

Now,  you  know,  I  wish  to  heaven  I  could  give  you  more  precise  in- 
formation. You  showed  me  a  list  the  other  day  that  had  the  name 
"Decker"  on  it.  There  are  two  Deckers  of  prominence,  one  being 
Caroline  Decker,  a  little  girl  who  was  arrested  and  so  on,  in  the  strike 
activity.     The  other  is  a  Dr.  Decker. 

For  many  months  I  carried  her  address  and  name  in  my  personal 
papers  as  a  secret  contact  point  with  the  Communist  Party.  If  I  had 
something  ultrasecret  that  I  would  not  trust  to  normal  channels,  I 
would  send  it  to  Dr.  Decker. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  And  Dr.  Decker  would  see  that  it  reached  its  proper 
destination,  is  that  it? 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4571 

Mr.  Hancock.  That  is  right. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Then  Dr.  Decker  was  acting  either  as  a  courier  or 
a  letter  drop  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Eight. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  For  the  Communist  Party. 

Mr.  Hancock.  You  see,  there  is  in  the  Communist  Party  a  shadow 
organization  for  purposes  of  maintaining  secrecy  in  various  matters. 
Once  again  you  are  never  told  anything  specific,  but  it  is  my  impres- 
sion that  Steve  Nelson  was  involved  in  this,  that  Dr.  Decker  was 
involved  in  this,  and  I  can  give  you  another  San  Francisco  name,  but 
I  cannot  think  of  anybody — I  am  talking  about  Los  Angeles  now. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Let  us  confine  our  testimony  at  this  point  to  San 
Diego  and  Los  Angeles. 

Can  you  fix  the  date  of  your  stay  in  the  home  of  Steve  Nelson  in 
Los  Angeles  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Only  to  say  that  it  was  probably  somewhere  in 
1938  because  I  made  an  overnight  trip — which  I  did  about  once  a 
month — from  San  Francisco  to  Los  Angeles  to  check  up  on  our  Los 
Angeles  office,  my  duties  being  confined  entirely  to  working  out  the 
organizational  procedures  for  People's  World. 

The  best  I  can  do — I  am  sure  it  was  in  1938  or  the  early  part  of  1939. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  spoke  of  contacts  with  the  Communist  Party 
or  Communist  Party  members  in  Mexico  through  the  use  of  Ed  Burke 
as  a  courier.  Will  you  describe  more  fully,  please,  the  purposes  of 
the  Mexico  contacts  that  were  made  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  will  have  to  make  a  correction.  Ed  Burke's  value 
to  us  was  that  he  went  back  and  forth  to  Mexico  through  Imperial 
Valley.     We  were  concerned  with  Lnperial  Valley. 

It  is  true,  though,  that  I  stayed  at  the  home  of  some  family  in 
Calexico  on  the  Mexican  side — correction,  Mexicali,  which  is  the  town 
opposite  Calexico  on  the  Mexican  border,  and  I  am  under  the  impres- 
sion that  Ed  Burke  introduced  me  to  this  family.  We  never  actually 
had  any  organizational  contact  with  the  Mexican  party  members  except 
as  they  came  across  the  line  to  work  in  California,  but  while  Burke 
allegedly  worked  in  Mexico,  it  had  no  significance  to  us  except  that  it 
brought  him  throu";!!  Imperial  Valley. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Where  were  these  messages  sent  to  which  were 
carried  by  Ed  Burke  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  they  would  be  sent  to  our  Mexican  party  mem- 
bers or  our  party  members  in  Imperial  Valley,  in  Brawley,  El  Centro. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Sent  from 

Mr.  Hancock.  Our  San  Diego  office. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  His  work  as  courier  then  did  not  necessarily  take 
him  into  Mexico? 

Mr.  Hancock.  We  had  no  messages  for  people  in  Mexico.  Although 
1  think  I  did  mention  that  I  attended  a  meeting  of — a  labor  union 
meeting  in  Tia  Juana  at  which  Mexican  Communist  Party  members  of 
Mexico  were  present,  but  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  Ed  Burke,  and  this 
party's  home  where  I  stayed  in  Mexicali  might  or  might  not  be  party 
members.  I  would  be  inclined  to  think  they  would  be,  otherwise  I 
would  not  have  stayed  there,  as  a  general  security  precaution.  There 
is  nothing  in  my  mind  that  Ed  Burke  was  instrumental  or  active  in 
putting  us  in  contact  with  natives  of  Mexico,  citizens  of  Mexico. 


4572     coMMuisrisT  activities  in  the  state  of  California 

Mr.  Tavenner.  The  unrest  and  the  strikes  in  Imperial  Valley  and 
adjacent  territory  made  a  very  fertile  gromid  for  recruiting  into  the 
Communist  Jt^arty,  did  it  not? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Everything  being  equal,  it  was  relatively  very  fertile. 
Actually,  at  no  time  were  hundreds  of  members  recruited  into  the 
Communist  Party.  It  was  not  intended  that  way.  The  Conmiunist 
Party  rather  carefully  would  select  1,  2,  up  to  a  dozen,  set  up  a  unit, 
and  then  start  working  on  another  unit. 

The  Communist  Party  at  that  time  was  not  a  mass  organization,  and 
people  would  be  selected  on  the  basis  of  their  leadership  capacity,  real 
or  inherent. 

Mr.  Tavenner,  How  many  cells  or  units  in  the  Communist  Party 
were  set  up  in  Imi)erial  Valley  during  the  period  you  have  described? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  do  not  have  it  in  my  mind,  but  I  am  inclined  to  saj' 
a  couple,  and  probably  confined  to  Brawley.  We  probably  had  20  or 
25  party  members  recruited  from  Imperial  Valley.  It  had  no  whole 
significance  in  the  acti\'ity  of  the  Communist  Party  because  these  were 
in  the  main  uneducated  laborers  of  Mexican  extraction,  many  of  whom 
spoke  no  English.  They  read  a  Mexican  weekly  newspaper  issued  by 
the  party,  named  Lucha  Obrera,  L-u-c-h-a  0-b-r-e-r-a.  Some  party 
literature  came  across  the  Mexican  border  into  Imperial  Valley.  I 
remember  magazines  like  Hoy,  and  El  Machete,  the  daily  organ  of  the 
Communist  Party  of  Mexico. 

This  literature  was  widely  read  by  the  people  I  am  discussing  in  this 
particular  period,  but  at  the  most  we  had  20  to  25  people  who  signed  a 
card,  and  they  never  actually  became  our  conception  of  the  Communist 
Party  member.    They  drifted  away,  and  we  lost  track  of  them. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Approximately  how  many  Communist  Party  mem- 
bers were  brought  into  this  area  from  the  outside  during  the  period 
you  have  testified  about? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Oh,  at  the  most  at  any  one  given  time,  at  the  most,  a 
half  a  dozen. 

Another  name  comes  to  mind,  Nathaniel  Griffin,  a  colored  boy,  be- 
cause a  large  number  of  agricultural  workers  were  colored.  We 
brought  him — his  name  is  well  known  in  San  Diego.  He  was  kind  of 
a  mild,  passive,  not  too  bright  individual,  and  we  brought  him  down 
to  work  on  the  colored  agricultural  workers,  but  that  would  just  about 
complete  the  roster. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  such  a  small  number  as 
12  Communists  from  the  outside,  with  a  total  of  not  more  than  25 
local  people  recruited  into  the  Communist  Party  could  have  and  did 
gain  positions  of  leadership  among  the  agricultural  workers  in  that 
large  area  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  that  is  completely  true.  It  should  be  said 
that  such  a  group  could  not  create  something  that  did  not  exist.  They 
could  stand  in  the  forefront  of  a  moving  body  and  divert  its  move- 
ment, which  is  what  we  did. 

The  impetus  came  from  the  deplorable  economic  conditions  of  that 
period.  It  must  be  said,  too,  that  what  happened  in  Imperial  Valley 
was  a  result  of  similar  activities  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  just  a  few 
months  prior,  where  once  again,  the  same  pattern  prevailed,  Pat 
Chambers  and  Caroline  Decker  being  the  open  Communist  members. 
They  built  around  them  a  small  corps  of  people,  such  as  I  have  just 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4573 

described,  and  they  led  pretty  large  agricultural  strikes  in  that  area, 
and  they  had  people  by  the  thousands  who  had  accepted  open  Com- 
munist leadership  who  then  poured  into  Imperial  Valley,  ready  and 
waiting  to  accept  some  more  Communist  leadership. 

We  found  at  that  time  no  antagonism  nor  even  antipathy  resulting 
from  our  known  party  membership.  We  were  very  freely  and  easily 
accepted  as  logical,  legitimate,  respectable,  from  their  point  of  view, 
labor  leaders. 

Now,  I  think  it  might  also  be  said  to  anyone  making  a  study  of  this 
period  that  another  factor,  negative,  but  highly  influential  at  the  time, 
was  the  complete  absence  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  in  this 
activity,  their  complete  lack  of  interest  in  what  happened  to  these 
poorly  paid  and  long-suffering  agricultural  workers. 

So  that  we  stepped  into  a  vacuum. 

Mr.  Ta\'enner.  As  you  look  back  upon  the  situation  now,  what 
could  have  been  done  successfully  in  that  area  to  have  resisted  the 
functioning  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  A  most  important  thing  that  should  have  happened, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  normal  social  activities,  is  that  existing 
labor  unions  should  have  undertaken  their  responsibility  and  led  these 
people.  Their  leadership  would  have  been  more  conservative,  more 
thoughtful,  and  no  doubt  more  resultful,  because  while  once  again 
it  was  never  stated,  the  facts  are  that  the  Communists  conducted  them- 
selves in  a  way  that  riots  occurred,  deaths  occurred,  and  while  these 
things  finally  died  down,  the  furor,  the  excitement  created  by  them 
died  down,  this  was  not  because  the  Communist  Party  wanted  them 
to  die  down.  One  of  the  functions  of  the  Communist  Party  was  to 
keep  alive  the  violent  antagonisms  that  deyeloped  from  riots  and 
deaths  and  so  forth. 

So  that  I  would  make  the  broad  statement  that  first  of  all  the  local 
civic  and  social  leaders  were  delinquent  in  their  responsibilities.  Chief 
dmong  these  were  the  existing  appointed  leaders  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor. 

I  offer  as  evidence  that  when  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
did  step  in  for  the  packinghouse  workers,  which  are  considered  the 
aristocracy  of  the  agricultural  workers,  the  packinghouse  workers 
gladly  accepted  their  leadership,  which  was  a  radical  leadership,  but 
not  one-tenth  as  radical  as  the  Communist  leadership. 

The  party  was  able  to  create  dissension,  sow  strife,  win  adherence, 
because  for  practical  purposes  the  local  leaders  of  society  failed  in 
their  duties,  washed  their  hands  of  these  dregs  of  humanity. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Why  was  it  that  later  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  did  not  measure  up  to  what  you  conceive  to  have  been  their 
responsibilty  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  American  Federation  of  Labor  historically  is  a 
craft  union.  It  is  an  organization  of  skilled  employees.  They  consider 
themselves  above  the  unskilled  worker.  That  line  of  thinking  brought 
into  existence  the  Congress  of  Industrial  Organizations  sometime 
around  1935,  when  the  economic  condition  in  America  cried  for  the 
organization  of  large  industrial  organizations  cutting  across  craft 
lines,  such  as  came  about  in  the  IT.  A.  W.,  steel  workers'  union,  and  so 
forth,  so  that  at  that  time  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  con- 
sidered it  contrary  to  their  normal  function. 


4574       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  EST  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Later,  under  the  pressure  of  the  existence  of  the  CIO,  they  broad- 
ened their  outlook. 

For  example,  while  I  am  not  at  all  clear  on  this,  this  was  a  con- 
tradiction that  hampered  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  in  the 
aircraft  industry,  and  I  just  cannot  say.  It  seems  to  me — yes,  I  know 
there  is  a  CIO  aircraft  union,  and  under  that  pressure  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  broadened  either  officially  or  unofficially  the 
charter  of  the  lAM,  International  Association  of  Machinists. 

(Representative  Clyde  Doyle  left  the  hearing  room  at  this  point.) 

Mr.  Hancock.  Under  the  broad  interpretation  of  their  charter, 
they  began  an  association  of  aircraft  workers,  but  all  this  finding,  if 
original  impetus  in  the  early  struggles  that  I  spoke  about,  where  no 
one  of  the  constituted  organizations  would  have  anything  to  do  with 
these  unskilled  workers 

Mr.  Tavenner.    Off  the  record  a  moment. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  summarize  your  testimony  and  add  such 
further  thoughts  as  you  have  as  to  the  objectives  of  the  Communist 
Party  in  seeking  the  leadership  among  employees  in  Imperial  Valley  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  long-range  objective  was  to  gain  control  of  the 
agricultural  industry  of  California,  of  which  Imperial  Valley  was  an 
important  part.  It  was  our  hope  to  eventually  establish  the  most  rigid 
control  of  every  agricultural  worker  in  the  agricultural  areas  of  Cali- 
fornia for  the  still  further  eventual  policy  of  having  large  masses  of 
people  at  the  disposal  of  the  Communist  Party. 

It  was  our  presentation  to  the  agricultural  workers,  specifically  in 
regard  to  Imperial  Valley,  that  the  landowners  were  largely  absentee 
owners,  that  vast  profits  were  made  at  the  expense  of  the  underpaid 
field  laborer,  and  it  would  be  entirely  possible  under  the  leadership 
of  the  openly  known  Communist-led  Red  unions  for  the  agricultural 
workers  to  sharply  increase  their  economic  position,  their  being  at  all 
times  in  party  activity  two  streams  of  activity ;  one,  to  affect  as  best 
can  be  done  some  economic  improvement ;  secondly,  to  simultaneously 
carry  on  considerable  educational  activities  calculated  to  move  people 
closer  to  and  into  the  Communist  Party  for  the  eventual  purpose  of 
taking  over  the  government. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  there  occasions  within  your  recollection  when 
the  interests  of  the  worker  were  in  conflict  with  the  interests  of  the 
party ;  that  is,  the  Communist  Party,  which  required  the  Communist 
Party  to  decide  whether  to  endeavor  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
worker  as  distinguished  from  their  own  peculiar  interests  and 
objectives? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  have  in  mind  the  one  incident  that  so  thor- 
oughly enraged  me  that  it  surely  marks  one  of  the  important,  to  me, 
events  that  eventually  permitted  me  to  get  out  of  this  activity. 

That  was  the  second  early  1934  Imperial  Valley  strike  where  an  offer 
of  settlement  was  made,  and  my  reaction  was  to  accept  it  quickly,  and 
I  was  instructed  by  Elmer  Hanoff  that  the  party  was  opposed  to  this 
settlement,  and  that  we  would  be  required  to  talk  against  it. 

Carrying  out  our  normal  discipline,  I  did  that.  A  week  later  the 
entire  structure  of  the  strike  was  broken  down,  and  no  settlement  was 
made. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  advised  as  to  why  the  Communist  Party 
was  opposed  to  the  settlement? 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4575 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  cannot  put  my  answers  on  that  basis,  because  this 
implies  a  remembrance  of  conversation.  This  is  an  event  of  20  years 
ago.  I  have  to  deal  with  impressions.  It  is  my  impression  that  I 
understood  why  the  party  opposed  to  the  settlement.  It  is  my  im- 
pression that  as  of  the  given  moment  the  settlement  was  offered,  it 
Avas  the  party  theory  that  sufficient  momentum  had  been  built  up  to 
carry  all  our  objectives  to  a  higher  level  than  would  be  possible  if  a 
settlement  was  quickly  accepted. 

For  example,  had  we  accepted  the  settlement,  we  would  have  had 
to  fight  hot-heads  who  woulcl  have  accused  us  of  selling  out. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  would  have  had  a  gain  which  meant  a  con- 
dition somewhat  an  improvement  of  previous  existing  conditions.  In 
my  estimation  this  would  have  given  us  time  for  consolidation.  I 
thought  mine  was  the  more  realistic  approach  because  I  had  had  a  taste 
of  the  power  of  the  local  authorities  by  then,  and  it  seemed  to  me  we 
needed  a  little  peace  and  quiet  for  careful  consolidation. 

But  I  must  say  that  the  party  action  conformed  to  its  general  ap- 
proach to  such  situations  which,  namely,  is  that  when,  in  their  terms, 
a  revolutionary  situation  exists,  it  must  not  be  beheaded,  but  should 
be  allowed  to  continue  its  course,  and  its  volume  of  movement  or 
activity  should  be  encouraged,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
State  party  member,  it  just  made  more  sense  to  keep  this  commotion 
in  existence  than  shut  it  off. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  It  continued  the  favorable  opportunities  for  recruit- 
ment and  i^ropagandizing  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Which  would  have  been  broken  off  by  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  the  dispute. 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  that  is  true.  You  might  say  that  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  rigid  police  restriction  of  uncertain  supply  of  food  for 
families,  of  violent  passions  and  excitement,  that  the  party  was  able 
to  move  along  toward  its  aims  better  than  in  a  calmer  atmospliere. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  involved  in  an  incident  at  Superstitious 
Mountain  in  Imperial  Valley  in  which  vigilantes  played  a  part? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  I  was.  As  a  prisoner  serving  a  G-month  sen- 
tence in  the  Imperial  County  jail,  I  and  several  other  former  strikers 
were  taken  to  a  labor  camp  commonly  called  chain  labor  camp,  al- 
though no  chains  were  used,  out  in  the  desert  of  California,  at  the  base 
of  Superstitious  Mountain  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  up  rocks.  The 
activity  was  rather  uneventful  until  one  evening  we  heard  a  bugle,  we 
heard  voices.  We  assumed  that  an  attack  was  to  be  made  on  the  camp 
from  the  shouted  threats  that  we  heard. 

We  posted  guards.  We  collected  rocks ;  we  were  ready  to  do  or  die, 
and  nothing  happened,  except  we  lost  a  little  sleep.  We  had  almost 
unrestrictecl  freedom  at  this  camp,  I  suspect  so  that  we  might  escape 
and  not  bother  the  local  people  any  more.  In  fact,  one  man  did  escape, 
and  it  worked  out  to  the  advantage  of  the  authorities. 

He  had  to  go  to  Mexico  and  therefore  was  not  in  Imperial  Valley 
any  more. 

The  next  morning,  exercising  our  freedom,  we  went  up  the  moun- 
tain and  found  a — I  will  have  to  say  that  a  large,  fiery  cross  was 

47718— 54— pt.  2 3 


4576       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

burned  the  night  before,  and  Ave  went  up  and  examined  it,  and  it  seems 
to  me  there  was  a  smaller  cross  with  my  name  on  it.  I  do  not  remem- 
ber any  open  grave.  I  think  somebody  stuck  a  stick  in  the  ground  and 
put  a  cross  on  it  and  put  "Hancock"  on  it. 

There  was  a  package  all  tied  up,  and  in  the  package  was  a  brass- 
studded  leather  knout  or  cat-o'-nine-tails,  a  hangman's  noose,  and  a 
written  message  which,  I  guess,  was  quoted  verbatim  in  the  book  you 
just  read. 

I  recall  one  phrase,  "The  man  who  went  home  yesterday" — Salor- 
cino,  his  name  was'  Anthony  Salorcino — "got  his ;  you  will  get  yours." 
And  it  is  true.  One  man  was  released  at  his  proper  time,  by  the  name 
of  Salorcino,  and  the  first  night  or  two  he  was  home  his  home  was 
invaded,  and  he  was  badly  beaten. 

So  nothing  further  ever  came  of  it,  except  as  a  result  of  this  atmos- 
phere, the  local  authorities  were  under  pressure  from — I  do  not 
know- — anybody  who  considered  themselves  of  influence,  writing  and 
wiring,  demanding  protection  for  the  prisoners  and  so  forth,  and  there 
were  considerable  indications  that  as  the  date  of  my  release  grew 
nearer,  that  there  would  be  some  interference. 

The  local  authorities  spirited  me  out  24  hours  ahead  of  the  release 
date,  drove  me  to  San  Diego,  took  me  home,  and  deposited  one  badly 
frightened  little  boy.     That  is  all  that  happened. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  the  effect  of  these  vigilante  activities 
upon  you  and  other  members  of  the  Communist  Party  who  had  been 
arrested  and  sentenced  in  connection  with  your  activities  in  Imperial 
Valley? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  the  effect  was  contrary  to  the  effect  they  de- 
sired. The  structure  of  vigilantism  is  so  contrary  to  American  con- 
cepts that  many  people  not  at  all  sympathetic  with  communism  were 
brought  very  close  to  us  in  their  active  resentment  against  such 
activities. 

For  example,  the  night  I  came  home  it  was  quite  an  event  in  San 
Diego.  The  reporters  were  there.  I  remember  the  reporters  being 
violently  upset  at  this  series  of  events  and  expressing  sympathy,  which 
is  a  gratuitous  gain  for  the  Communists  when  such  a  condition  exists, 
one  which  should  not  be  handed  so  easily  to  them. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  So  in  every  instance  where  people  take  the  law  into 
their  own  hands  in  their  opposition  to  communism,  it  is  actually  play- 
ing into  the  hands  of  the  Communist  Party  and  gives  them  a  propa- 
ganda weapon  of  great  value  to  the  Communist  Party ;  is  that  not  true  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Very  decidedly  because  it  is  the  major  tenet  of  the 
Communist  Party  that  authority  exists  for  the  protection  of  the  well- 
to-do  and  entrenched  management,  and  it  is  their  further  tenet  that 
when  normal  authority  fails  to  meet  specific  needs  of  entrenched 
management,  they  cast  it  aside;  therefore,  the  workers  are  justified  in 
doing  the  same  when  normal  authority  does  not  meet  their  specific 
requirements. 

It  is  a  beautiful  atmosphere  for  the  creation  of  violence.  The  bul- 
wark of  commonsense  or  thoughtful  action  is  the  existence  of  authority 
which  allows  time  for  tempers  to  die  down  and  thought  to  prevail, 
and  when  anyone  takes  the  law  in  their  own  hands,  especially  those 
claiming  to  represent  the  existing  order,  it  requires  very  little  effort 
to  produce  an  equal  action  on  the  part  of  the  opposing  side. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4577 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  it  also  have  the  effect  of  tying  the  individuals 
involved  more  closely  to  the  Communist  Party  than  they  otherwise 
would  have  been? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  yes  and  no.  Yes  and  no,  but  from  the  long- 
range  point  of  view  of  the  Communist  Party,  more  decidedly  yes.  It 
had  the  effect  of  winnowing  out  those  who  lacked  the  stomach  for  this 
atmosphere.  The  weak-kneed  people  were  dropped  by  the  wayside, 
but  those  who  showed  the  greatest  amount  of  fight  were  the  ones  that 
we  showed  the  greatest  amount  of  interest  in  drawing  into  the  Com- 
munist Party. 

It  permitted  us  to  say,  "We  know  how  these  men  will  respond  in  a 
critical  situation  because  we  have  seen  them  in  action." 

It  gave  us  a  power  of  estimation  that  might  have  taken  months  or 
years  to  acliieve  with  equal  validity  in  normal  times,  and  the  overall 
effect  was  one  of  bringing  closer  to  us  that  large  segment  of  the  pop- 
ulation that  calls  itself  liberal  with  radical  offshoots. 

They,  in  this  atmosphere,  came  more  and  more  to  identify  them- 
selves with  the  Communists. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Ta\t:nner.  Was  there  a  professional  cell  or  group  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  in  San  Diego? 

Mr.  Hancock.  To  the  best  of  my  recollection  we  had  a  group  that 
could  be  called  a  professional  cell. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  professions  were  represented  in  that  group? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  here  again  we  are  on  this,  in  my  mind,  very 
cloudy  field  of  memory.  I  would  have  to  put  it  this  way :  We  met 
with  a  group  which,  although  it  might  be  called  professional,  also 
included  labor  leaders.  Some  of  these  people,  without  any  doubt  in 
my  mind,  were  party  members.  It  is  even  possible  they  all  were.  You 
see,  I  can't  think  of  them  in  just  terms  of  existing  forever.  It  was  a 
group  that  in  1  month  some  people  were  not  yet  involved ;  at  a  later 
time  some  people  had  dropped  out  and  others  came  in. 

The  original  purpose  of  this  group  was  to  win  adherence  or  sup- 
porters to  the  Communist  Party  policies,  and  the  best  way  we  did 
that  was  by  actually  recruiting  them  into  membership.  I  remember 
recruiting  some  of  them  into  membership  myself,  such  as  A.  C.  Rogers. 

I  can  just  see  the  picture  of  sitting  in  his  house  and  talking  to  him 
and  his  signing  a  card.  The  same  for  Johnny  Lydick.  It  is  a  little 
vaguer  in  my  mind  that  "Brick"  Garrigues  was  recruited,  but  I  am 
advised  that  he  was  by  his  own  testimony — by  myself. 

I  just  do  not  have  the  picture  in  my  mind.  There  were  4  or  5  others 
that  may  have  been.  It  was  our  desire  that  they  be.  We  would  have 
worked  to  bring  that  about.     I  think  quite  possibly  they  were. 

I  cannot  recall  from  personal  memory  this  situation,  that  they 
actually  were  card-carrying  party  members. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  recall  whether  or  not  it  was  organized  as 
a  separate  group  or  cell  of  the  Communist  Party  ?  That  is,  the  pro- 
fessional group  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  I  would  say  that  it  did  not  function  as  a  normal 
cell  or  unit  of  the  Communist  Party.  There  is  an  organizational 
procedure  of  the  Communist  Party  which  was  not  followed  in  this 
group. 


4578        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Specifically,  I  mean  a  Communist  unit  opens  its  meetings  with  a 
reading-  of  minutes — or  at  least  it  did  at  that  time.  There  is  a 
collection  of  dues.  There  follows  an  educational  period  and  the  sale 
of  literature.  There  are  communications  read  from  the  local  office, 
from  the  staff  office.  All  these  are  things  calculated  to  produce  an 
integrated  action  in  the  party. 

This  was  not  the  atmosphere  of  the  professional  group  I  talked 
about.  Its  responsibilities,  from  our  point  of  view,  were  specific  and 
limited.  I  cannot  recall  talking  about  anything  except  two  major 
subjects :  One,  the  activities  in  the  Central  Labor  Council,  which  was 
another  way  of  saying  activities  in  the  labor  unions  culminating 
in  the  effect  our  activity  had  on  the  Central  Labor  Council;  and  the 
other  having  to  do  with  some  local  election  activity  in  which  we 
Avere  interested  in  getting  prominent — what  we  considered — liberals 
to  run  for  office.     We  discussed  these  things  in  the  gi'oup. 

I  honestly  cannot  recall  any  of  the  other  phases  of  a  unit  meeting 
occurring  in  this  group. 

Mr,  Tavenner.     Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tam3Nxer.  You  have  previously  testified  about  the  setting  up 
of  the  Communist  Party  Central  Committee  under  the  laws  of  the 
State  of  California. 

I  show  you  a  statement  indicating  that  certain  individuals  were 
apj)ointed  to  this  group  by  you  in  the  year  1934.  Will  you  examine  it, 
please,  and  state  the  circumstances  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  There  is  a  committee  appointed  to  fulfill  legal  re- 
quirements in  California  that  a  political  party  must  name  its  central 
committee  and  must  hold  a  convention  in  the  State  capital.  The 
names  I  submitted  were  people  who  could  afford  to  be  known  openly 
as  Communists,  and  in  no  sense  was  it  other  than  a  dummy  committee, 
and  it  did  not  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Communist  Party. 

Mr.  Ta\t3nner.  I  believe  this  is  a  good  time  to  break  for  lunch. 

We  will  reconvene  at  2  o'clock. 

(Whereupon,  at  1 :10  p.  m.,  the  hearing  was  recessed,  to  reconvene 
at  2  p.  m.,  the  same  day.) 

AFTERNOON  SESSION 

(At  2  p.  m.,  the  hearing  was  reconvened,  the  following  staff  member 
being  present :  Frank  S.  Tavenner,  Jr.,  counsel.) 
Mr.  Tavenner.  On  the  record. 

TESTIMONY  OF  STANLEY  B.  HANCOCK— Resumed 

Mr.  Taatenner.  I  hand  you  from  the  files  of  the  Committee  on 
Un-American  Activities  certain  data  relating  to  the  organization  of 
the  State  [California]  central  committee  of  the  Comnmnist  Party. 
Will  you  examine  it,  please,  and  state  whether  or  not  you  can  identify 
the  names  of  any  of  the  persons  appearing  there  as  persons  known  to 
you  to  have  been  members  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  list  before  me  consists  of  names  appointed  to 
the  dummy  State  central  committee  of  the  Communist  Party,  so-called 
because  it  was  created  to  meet  legal  requirements  of  the  California 
election  laws. 

I  can  identify  Karl  Hama. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4579 

Mr.  Tavexner.  In  identifying  these  individuals,  I  would  like  for 
you  to  state  as  nearly  as  you  can  the  basis  for  your  identification; 
that  is,  how  you  knew  him  to  be  a  member  of  the  party. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  can  identify  Karl  Hama  and  his  wife,  Elaine  Black, 
whom  I  met  in  Los  Angeles  sometime  around  1932.  They  were  in 
charge — or  more  specifically,  Elaine  Black  was  in  charge  of  the  Inter- 
national Labor  Defense  activities  in  southern  California. 

Elaine  Black's  assignment  in  this  activity  came  from  the  Comnuuiist 
Party.  Karl  Hama  at  that  time  had  a  general  assignment  from  the 
party  of  working  on  the  Japanese- Ajnerican  population.  I  first  met 
him  at  the  home  of  Elaine  and  Eddie  Black,  both  party  members,  and 
later  Karl  Hama  became  the  husband  of  Elaine  Black. 

Bessie  A.  Keckler  was  a  Communist  Party  member  in  our  San  Diego 
group. 

Willian  H.  Bradley,  Everett  O.  Still,  and  Claude  L.  Jones  were  also 
members  of  our  San  Diego  party. 

Those  are  all  the  names  I  can  identify. 

Mr.  Ta\t;nner.  I  hand  you  another  list  of  individuals  from  the  files 
of  this  committee,  indicating  the  persons  appointed  to  the  State  central 
committee  for  the  year  193G.  Will  you  examine  that  list  and  state 
whether  or  not  you  can  identify  any  of  the  persons  named  there  as 
persons  known  to  you  to  be  members  of  the  Communist  Party  and  the 
basis  of  your  knowledge  ? 

j\Ir.  Hancock.  The  first  party  listed,  Matt  Pellman,  was  a  Young 
Communist  League  functionary  from  Los  Angeles,  and  at  one  time 
he  was  YCL  organizer,  which  was  the  designation  of  the  person  in 
highest  authority  in  that  organization  in  that  community. 

I  knew  and  worked  with  Carroll  Barnes,  C-a-r-r-o-1-1  B-a-r-n-e-s, 
at  a  time  when  he  was  Communist  Party  organizer  for  Alameda 
County,  and  I  recall  attending  State  meetings  in  1934  at  which  he 
was  present. 

Those  are  all  the  names  I  can  identify  here. 

Betty  Gannett  is  known  to  me  or  was  known  to  me  as  State  organi- 
zational secretary  of  the  Communist  Party. 

Peter  J.  Garrison  and  his  wife,  Ruth  Garrison,  I  knew  as  Com- 
munist Party  members  with  whom  I  met  in  unit  meetings  while  I 
worked  in  Alameda  County  as  Peo])le's  World  manager  for  that  area. 

The  name  you  have  listed  as  Lucy  Kyle  no  doubt  should  be  Lacey 
Kyle,  a  Communist  Party  member  in  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  do  you  spell  ''Kyle"? 

Mr.  Hancock.  K-y-l-e.  Oleta  O'Connor  was  known  to  me  as  a 
top  functionary  of  tlie  San  Francisco  section  of  the  Communist  Party 
and  a  member  in  some  capacity,  in  my  mind  at  the  moment,  of  the 
State  committee  of  the  party.  She  was  later  known  as  Oleta  O'Con- 
nor Yates,  Y-a-t-e-s. 

Pettis  Perry  from  Los  Angeles  was  known  to  me  as  a  member 
of  the  State  committee  of  the  Communist  Party,  and  I  have  in  my 
mind  that  he  was  later  elected  a  member  of  the  national  committee. 

E.  L.  Saunders,  S-a-u-n-d-e-r-s,  was  known  to  me  as  Dave  Saunders, 
a  party  member  from  the  San  Francisco  waterfront,  and  I  think  a 
member  of  the  sailors'  union. 

William  Schneiderman  was,  of  course,  the  State  organizer  of  the 
Communist  Party  following  Samuel  Darcy,  D-a-r-c-y,  and  it  seems 
to  rae  the  change  took  place  immediately  after  the  1935  World  Con- 


4580       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

gress  of  Communist  Parties  in  Moscow,  which  was  attended  by 
Samuel  Darcy,  and  due  to  some  legal  difficulties  in  California  he 
failed  to  return,  causing  Schneiderman  to  be  named  State  Secretary. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Hancock.  James  Tormey,  T-o-r-m-e-y,  is  in  my  memory  from 
San  Francisco  as  a  Communist  Party  member,  and  I  recall  that  he 
was  active  in  departent  store  union  activities. 

Everett  Still  was  a  Communist  member  fom  San  Diego. 

John  Weatherwax,  W-e-a-t-h-e-r-w-a-x,  was  a  CP  member  from 
Los  Angeles. 

I  think  that  is  all. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  many  State  conventions  of  the  Communist 
Party  did  you  attend  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  would  guess  3  to  5,  although  it  should  it  stated 
that  I  attended  many  more  meetings  of  the  Communist  Party  of 
which  the  State  committee  had  organized,  but  conventions  as  such 
might  have  been  held  once  a  year  and  sometimes  every  2  years. 

More  conmionly  we  held  State  committee  meetings  to  which  non- 
members  such  as  myself  were  invited. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  That  is,  nonmembers  of  the  State  committee  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  State  committee,  yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  But  nevertheless  members  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Right.  For  example,  at  most  times  I  would  have 
been  invited  to  any  meeting  of  the  State  committee  of  the  Communist 
Party,  not  because  I  was  a  member,  which  to  the  best  of  my  recollec- 
tion I  was  not,  but  because  I  was  the  highest  authority  of  the  party  in 
San  Diego  and  Imperial  County. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Is  there  any  incident  in  connection  with  any  of  the 
meetings  you  attended  which  would  throw  light  on  the  objectives  of 
the  Communist  Party  in  California  which  would  be  of  interest  to 
this  committee  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  none  of  them  stand  out  in  my  mind.  They 
represented  the  various  phases  of  activities  we  were  engaged  in,  and 
nothing  special  occurred  there  that  was  not  dealt  with  in  our  every- 
day work.  I  could  say  that  of  course  at  the  State  committee  meet- 
ings we  received  firsthand  reports  of  various  activities  that  held  our 
interest,  and  the  dominating  theme  of  the  meetings  in  the  period  we 
are  covering  was  the  success  of  the  Communist  Party  on  the  water- 
front of  San  Francisco,  and  to  a  lesser  but  considerable  degree,  San 
Pedro.  This  was  a  major  drive  of  the  Communist  Party  in  the  years 
from  1934  to  1936,  at  which  time  their  strength  was  consolidated 
into  almost  complete  control  of  the  leadership  of  the  waterfront 
organizations. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  describe  at  this  point  the  functioning 
of  the  Communist  Party  in  acquiring  leadership  in  the  waterfront 
areas? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Any  information  I  have  in  this  respect  is  second- 
hand, coming  from  people  reporting  to  the  party  from  these  various 
organizations,  but  the  procedure  was  one  often  described  as  infiltra- 
tion by  a  few  select  individuals  who  build  around  themselves  close 
sympathizers,  supporters,  who  are  in  turn  by  circumstances  brought 
into  party  membership,  and  the  classic  Communist  procedure  pre- 
vailed of  holding  fraction  meetings,  attended  mainly  by  Communist 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4581 

members,  and  if  non-Communists  were  present,  they  were  identified 
as  very  close  supporters  of  the  Communists, 

In  these  fraction  meetings  decisions  would  be  made  to  raise  various 
issues  on  the  floor  of  the  union  meetings  in  a  way  calculated  to 
embarrass  or  expose  the  opposition  for  their  do-nothing  policies  and 
further  calculated  to  bring  Communist  Party  members  or  supporters 
into  proininence  as  the  active  leaders  of  the  particular  group  involved. 

This  procedure  could  be  said  to  apply  to  almost  any  organization 
at  that  time,  and  it  was  the  classic  procedure  followed  in  the  water- 
front unions. 

Mr.  Tavenxer.  What  measure  of  success  was  attained  by  the  Com- 
munist Party  in  the  waterfront  area  ? 

Mr.  Hancock,  I  think  the  appropriate  word  would  be  "complete," 
in  that  Harry  Bridges  stepped  from  one  position  to  another  until 
he  advanced  from  chairman  of  the  rank  and  file  committee  of  the 
ILA,  which  led  the  violent  1934  strike,  to  actual  president  of  the 
ILA  in  San  Francisco,  and  finally  to  a  position  of  the  highest  leader- 
ship among  the  west-coast  longshoremen,  extending  his  authority  from 
Seattle  to  San  Diego,  and  then  again  to  the  position  of  CIO  regional 
director  for  the  west  coast,  all  of  this  at  least  partially  maneuvered 
by  the  Communist  Party,  and  all  of  it  being  the  expression  of  the 
Communist  Party's  activity  in  this  field. 

There  were  other  lesser  successes  in  the  period.  The  waterfront 
activity  is  the  outstanding  example  of  Communist  successful  infiltra- 
tion in  labor  unions. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner,  I  hand  you  a  list  of  individuals  who  at  one  time 
lived  in  the  San  Diego  area.  Will  you  please  examine  the  list  and 
identify  any  appearing  on  it  who  are  known  to  you  to  be  members 
of  the  Communist  Party  with  such  identifying  information  regard- 
ing them  as  you  can  give  ? 

Mr.  Hancock,  I  Icnew  a  party  named  Clair,  C-1-a-i-r  Aderer, 
A-d-e-r-e-r,  a  young  lady,  I  think,  from  Los  Angeles,  who  became 
affiliated  with  our  San  Diego  CP,  and  it  seems  to  me  she  was  engaged 
in  youth  activities. 

Ray  and  Julia  Berquist,  B-e-r-q-u-i-s-t,  were  young  kids  in  YCL 
work.    I  believe  their  real  name  was  "Wliitehead,  W-h-i-t-e-h-e-a-d. 

Wilmer  Breedon,  B-r-e-e-d-o-n,  was  a  lawyer  who  represented  the 
party  in  many  activities,  but  I  don't  recall  his  being  a  party  member. 

Mike  Delgado,  D-e-1-g-a-d-o,  and  it  seems  to  me  he  was  an  agricul- 
tural worker  from  Chula  Vista  and  a  member  of  the  party. 

Bob  Fuller  was  a  YCL  member  and  party  member  in  San  Diego. 
They  are  all  San  Diego, 

Carroll  Hunnewell,  H-u-n-n-e-w-e-1-1-,  was  a  party  member,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  cleaners  and  dyers  union  and  a  member  of  the  party  com- 
mittee which  issued  the  mimeographed  weekly  paper  called  Trade 
Union  News. 

Clarence  Jasmagy,  J-a-s-m-a-g-y,  was  a  local  party  member  and  a 
piano  tuner  by  profession. 

Ben  Carron  was  an  old-time  party  member  rerecruited  during  the 
time  I  was  active  and  a  chicken  farmer  somewhere  in  the  La  Mesa 
area. 


4582        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LeRoy  Keckler  was  the  perennial  unemployed  husband  of  Bessie 
Keckler. 

Mar<yaret  Kerrigan — that  LeRoy  Keckler,  both  of  whom  were  San 
Diegjo  party  members. 

Margaret  Kerrigan  was  known  to  me  as  Margie  Kerrigan,  wife  of 
Tony  Kerrigan,  both  of  whom  were  local  YCL  members. 

Bert  Leech  was  Los  Angeles  county  chairman  of  the  Communist 
Party  although  at  another  time  he  no  doubt  was  known  as  Los  Angeles 
organizer,  a  different  name  for  the  same  duties.  He  came  to  San 
Diego  on  occasion,  including  occasions  when  he  was  seeking  relief  from 
his  duties  in  the  company  of  members  of  the  opposite  sex. 

La  Verne  and  Frances  Lym,  L-y-m,  M'ere  active  as  party  members  in 
San  Diego  in  charge  of  the  People's  Bookstore  after  my  assignments 
took  me  to  San  Francisco. 

Beatrice  McDermott,  M-c-D-e-r-m-o-t-t,  was  the  wife  of  James 
McDermott,  and  both  were  party  members  in  the  San  Diego  group. 
James  was  for  a  time  active  in  the  aircraft  union. 

Mrs.  Grover  Roe,  R-o-e,  was  a  rank-and-file  member  of  the  San 
Diego  party. 

Adrian  Ryan,  R-y-a-n,  who  was  a  YCL  member  and  at  one  phase 
a  Communist  Party  member  in  San  Diego. 

Paul  Alexander,  otherwise  known  as  Sterling  Campbell  Alexander, 
was  a  party  functionary  in  San  Diego  with  varying  titles,  but  his 
influence  was  approximately  equal  to  mine. 

Otto  Bensinger,  B-e-n-s-i-n-g-e-r,  is  a  name  known  to  me,  but  I 
can't  recall  that  person. 

The  name  Bowman,  Bowman,  on  the  list  brings  to  mind  a  person 
by  the  name  of  Bollman,  B-o-l-l-m-a-n,  who  in  1934—35  was  an  active 
party  member  in  unemployment  organizations. 

Carmen  Edwards  was  a  rank-and-file  party  member. 

Lee  Gregovich,  G-r-e-g-o-v-i-c-h,  was  a  party  member  in  the  cooks 
and  waitresses  union. 

Ed  Hollingshead,  H-o-l-l-i-n-g-s-h-e-a-d,  came  into  the  party  in 
the  later  days  of  my  connection  in  San  Diego,  and  he  later  went  to 
Los  Angeles  into  trade-union  activity  as  a  party  member. 

Margaret  Hunnewell  is  the  wife  of  Carroll  Hunnewell,  previously 
identified,  and  both  were  party  members. 

Claude  Jones  was  a  party  member  in  East  San  Diego  and  a  member 
of  the  carpenters  union  which  at  times  made  him  local  delegate  to 
the  Central  Labor  Council. 

John  Lydick  was  a  party  member  for  a  short  period  and  was  also 
a  member  of  the  lathers  and  plasterers  union.  He  later  broke  with 
the  party  and  became  the  appointed  secretary  of  the  Central  Labor 
Council,  replacing  A.  C.  Rogers. 

Cosby,  C-o-s-b-y,  and  Mrs.  Newsome,  N-e-w-s-o-m-e,  were  party 
members  with  duties  largely  in  the  unemployment  field. 

The  name  listed,  Clarence  Wahlenmaier,  W-a-h-l-e-n-m-a-i-e-r, 
brings  to  mind  a  Vernon  Wahlenmaier,  perhaps  one  and  the  same,  a 
Communist  Party  member  from  the  National  City  area  and  largely 
assigned  to  unemployment  work. 

Pauline  Winston  was  the  wife  of  a  young  fellow  whose  first  name 
escapes  me.  Even  the  name  Winston  is  assumed.  He  came  from 
somewhere  in  the  East  and  was  identified  with  a  family  connected  with 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4583 

one  of  the  chocolate  empires.  These  two  young  people  were  for  a 
time  in  charge  of  the  party  bookstore. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Where? 

Mr.  Hancock.  In  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  voii  know  where  the  bookstore  was  located? 

Mr.  Hancock.  635  E  Street,  San  Diego.  David  Wosk,  W-o-s-k, 
was  some  kind  of  an  engineei-  and  a  frequent  participant  in  the  meet- 
ings of  the  special  groujD  previously  identified  as  being  composed  of 
sympathizers  and  party  members.  I  do  not  recall  that  Wosk  was  an 
actual  party  member. 

Frank  Thibault,  T-h-i-b-a-u-1-t,  was  one  of  the  old  guard  party 
members,  and  for  a  considerable  ])eriod  he  was  organizational  secre- 
tary of  tlie  party. 

Mike  Tosney  is  a  young  boy  who  was  in  the  party  around  1932  for 
a  short  period. 

Rose  Volmer,  V-o-l-m-e-r,  was  a  party  member,  but  I  cannot  place 
her  in  any  special  capacity. 

Daisy  Lee  Worcester,  W-o-r-c-e-s-t-e-r,  was  another  member  of  the 
special  group  of  intellectuals  and  professionals  who  appear  sym- 
pathetic to  the  currently  expressed  aims  of  the  party,  who  attended 
many  meetings  at  which  I  was  present. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  mean  meetings  of  the  Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Xo,  meetings  of  this  special  group.  But  I  cannot 
identify  her  as  a  party  member.     That  completes  the  list. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  hand  you  another  list  of  names  of  persons  living 
in  southern  California,  and  I  will  ask  you  to  examine  the  list  and  give 
us  the  names,  if  any,  that  you  can  identify  as  Communist  Party  mem- 
bers to  your  knowledge,  with  such  identifying  information  regarding 
them  as  you  are  able  to  give  as  well  as  any  instances  of  Communist 
Party  activity  Avhich  you  may  now  recall. 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  Robert  Anguis,  A-n-g-u-i-s,  was  the  party 
known  to  me  as  Robert  White,  a  ])erson  in  the  Communist  Party  and 
in  the  butchers  union. 

Arthur  Badger  was  a  i)arty  member,  largely  identified  with  un- 
employment activities. 

Forest  Beyrer,  B-e-y-r-e-r,  was  a  party  member  active  in  organiza- 
tions that  grew  out  of  WPA  activity. 

William  H.  Bradley  and  his  wife  were  YCL  and  later  party  mem- 
bers of  some  prominence  in  San  Diego;  that  is,  prominent  in  open 
party  activities. 

Frances  Decker  brings  to  mind  a  Dr.  Decker  of  Los  Angeles  not 
personally  known  to  me  as  a  party  member,  but  known  to  me  as  a 
person  who  permitted  her  home  to  be  used  as  a  mail  drop  for  secret 
party  communications. 

Joe  Langer,  L-a-n-g-e-r,  was  a  party  member  and  a  member  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union,  and  he  was  a  member  of  the 
small  group  which  published  the  mimeographed  Trade  Union  News. 

Esco  L.  Richardson  was  the  party  member  who  succeeded  me  as 
county  chairman  of  the  party. 

Dan  Taylor,  T-a-y-1-o-r,  was  a  party  member  and  was  a  member  of 
the  group  wdiich  published  the  Trade  Union  News. 

James  E.  Toback,  T-o-b-a-c-k,  was  a  party  member,  largely  identified 
with  unemployment  activities. 

47718—54 — pt.  2 4 


4584       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

John  Williams  brings  to  mind  a  pseudonym  used  by  Pat  Chambers, 
a  well-known  party  member  and  a  strike  leader  in  the  San  Joaquin 
Valley  during  the  agricultural  foment  of  1934  and  1935.    That  is  all. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  stated  that  at  the  time  of  your  entry  into  the 
party  that  there  was  a  nucleus  of  persons  in  San  Diego  who  had  been 
members  of  the  Communist  Party  in  San  Diego  at  an  earlier  date.  Do 
you  recall  the  names  of  any  of  those  persons  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes;  I  recall  Sol  Bernhart  as  the  one  who  would 
at  times  tell  me  about  these  activities  around  1927-28,  a  time  at  which 
I  had  no  contact  with  the  party. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  any  of  the  persons  in  the  older  group  of  the 
party  admit  former  Communist  Party  membership  to  you  in  addition 
to  Sol  Bernhardt? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  can't  recall  any  others. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  have  any  information  as  to  why  the  Com- 
munist Party  went  temporarily  out  of  existence  in  San  Diego  prior 
to  the  time  of  your  joining  it? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  was  told  by  Sol  Bernhardt  that  as  a  result  of  the 
Jay  Lovestone,  L-o-v-e-s-t-o-n-e-Benjamin  Gitlow  feud  with  the  Wil- 
liam Z.  Foster  supporters,  that  representatives  of  the  Communist 
International  came  to  this  country,  and  as  a  result  of  their  instructions. 
Communist  members  who  had  sympathized  with  Lovestone  and 
Gitlow  had  their  books  picked  up,  and  they  were  never  returned. 

I  was  advised  this  meant  that  all  the  books  in  San  Diego  were 
picked  up,  and  therefore  the  activities  ceased. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  a  member  at  any  time  of  the  American 
Newspaper  Guild  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  While  living  in  California  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes.  Although  it  was  only  nominal  membership, 
all  circulation  and  editorial  employees  of  the  People's  World  were 
required  by  contract  to  be  guild  members. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  This  was  after  you  took  up  your  work  in  San 
Francisco? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes.  It  dated  from  somewhere  around  1938  or  1939 
for  a  year  or  two,  and  I  think  I  attended  one  meeting  in  which  I  took 
no  part.  Somebody  pressured  to  get  an  attendance  out,  but  whatever 
influence  the  party  had  in  the  guild  was  not  represented  by  open 
People's  World  members. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  In  your  association  with  the  Newspaper  Guild  in 
San  Francisco  did  you  learn  to  know  any  of  its  members  as  members 
of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Only  my  fellow  employees  from  the  People's  World. 

Mr.  Ta\t:nner.  Wlio  were  they  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  A1  Richmond,  Bertha  Wilson,  Morrie  Smolen, 
M-o-r-r-i-e  S-m-o-l-e-n — there  were  several  others  I  can't  remember. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  the  Daily  People's  World  in  San  Francisco 
an  official  organ  of  the  Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  sir;  not  so  designated  in  contrast  to  its  predeces- 
sor, the  Western  Worker,  which  carried  on  its  masthead  the  title 
"Official  organ  of  the  Communist  Party."  The  Daily  People's  World 
ostensibly  was  the  product  of  leftwingers.  In  actuality  it  was  com- 
pletely controlled  and  dominated  by  the  Communist  Party,  but  it 
never  stated  these  facts  in  its  columns. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4585 

Mr.  Taat:xner.  On  what  do  you  base  the  statement  that  this  paper 
was  dominated  and  controlled  by  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  The  many  meetings  I  attended  with  the  State  com- 
mittee of  the  party  at  which  details  of  the  circulation  problems  and 
financial  problems  of  the  People's  World  were  reported  on,  and  the 
solution  was  discussed.  Certainly  all  the  key  people  on  the  paper 
were  party  members,  including  the  editor,  city  editor. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  his  name? 

Mr.  Hancock.  A1  Richmond  was  the  city  editor.  The  editor  was 
Harrison  George,  and  the  business  manager,  circulation  manager  of 
the  regional  office.  The  progress  of  the  People's  World  was  an  in- 
tegral— the  discussion  of  this  progress  was  an  integral  part  of  almost 
every  Communist  Party  meeting  on  a  unit  basis,  county,  and  State 
basis. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  the  members  of  the  staff  of  the  Daily  People's 
World  assigned  to  any  particular  unit  or  group  of  the  Communist 
Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Not  to  any  particular  unit,  although  every  staff 
member  who  was  a  Communist  had  to  be  assigned  to  a  unit.  They 
apparently  were  various  scattered  units,  and  in  my  particular  case  the 
assignment  was  simply  to  fulfill  party  requirements  of  attending  a 
unit  meeting. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Does  that  mean  that  you  were  not  identified  with 
any  particular  unit? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  or  to  put  it  another  way,  I  was  identified  with 
several  units  over  a  period  of  time.  One  that  is  in  my  memory  now 
met  in  Alameda  County  because  I  lived  there,  but  while  I  was  a  member 
of  that  unit  my  function  on  the  People's  World  made  it  unnecessary 
for  me  to  participate  in  unit  activities  such  as  they  were. 

Unit  activities  means  you  go  out  and  distribute  leaflets  door  to  door 
and  belong  to  other  organizations  and  so  on  and  so  forth.  Theoreti- 
cally everybody  has  to  do  this,  but  if  you  have  a  major  assignment  like 
I  have,  it  is  forgiven. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  know  what  assignment  Harrison  George 
had  in  the  Communist  Partv  prior  his  becoming  editor  of  the  Daily 
People's  World  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  except  his  name  is  identified  in  my  mind  with 
the  early  party  history.  I  recall,  oh,  in  1932  or  1933  reading  some 
pamplilets  written  by  him  issued  by  the  national  office,  and  I  just 
know  him  as  an  oldtime  member  of  the  national  organization. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  have  any  knowledge  of  his  activity  in  a 
movement  to  prepare  propaganda  material  for  dissemination  in  J  apan  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No  ;  I  do  not. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  the  name  of  the  group  or  unit  in  San 
Francisco  with  which  you  were  identified  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  really  can't  recall.  We  sometimes  used  number 
designations,  or  it  might  be  a  regional  neighborhood  designation,  or 
sometimes  it  would  be  a  trade-union  unit.  I  can't  recall.  This  one 
was  a  neighborhood  unit  and  probably  had  some  name  of  a  neighbor- 
hood, but  I  don't  remember. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  identify  any  of  the  members  of  that  imit? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  at  one  time  this  husband  and  wife  combina- 
tion identified  on  this  list  were  members,  Garretson,  Jimmy — I  for- 
get his  wife's  name.     I  don't  have  any  other  names  in  mind.     It  was 


4586        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNL\ 

a  neighborhood  thing,  just  to  say  it  was  not  a  special  unit  engaged  in 
ordinary  activities. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  whether  or  not 
the  Daily  People's  World  was  directed  by  Communist  Party  leaders 
other  than  those  who  were  members  of  its  editorial  staff? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Most  decidedly  it  was.  The  editorial  and  business 
staff  took  their  directions  from  certain  members  of  the  State  com- 
mittee of  the  party,  specifically  William  Schneiderman,  Betty  Gan- 
nett, Walter  and  Rudy  Lambert,  and  Oleta  O'Connor  are  some  of 
the  names  I  recall. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  recall  any  specific  directions  which  you  or 
other  members  of  the  staff  received  from  the  high  Communist  Party 
functionaries  of  the  State  of  California  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  can  trace  my  own  history,  beginning  at  the 
point  where  I  was  a  paid  CIO  organizer  for  the  UCAPAWA. 
Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  give  the  name  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  United  Cannery,  Agricultural,  Packing  and  Allied 
Workers  of  America.  I  was  called  to  the  State  office  at  121  Haight 
Street  and,  as  I  recall,  was  interviewed  by  William  Schneiderman 
and/or  Betty  Gannett  as  to  my  willingness  to  take  over  the  Alameda 
office  of  the  People's  World,  being  informed  at  that  time  by  the  party 
officials  that  the  CIO  activity  in  which  I  was  engaged  was  about  to 
cease. 

Six  months  later  I  was  called  to  the  State  office  and  told  that  I  had 
been  selected  as  State  circulation  manager  of  the  People's  World. 
In  addition,  every  single  financial  drive  of  the  People's  World,  which 
occurred  at  least  annually,  was  organized  in  minute  detail  in  the  State 
committee  meetings  of  the  Communist  Party,  and  every  single  circu- 
lation drive  in  every  detail  was  similarly  instituted  by  that  body. 

Any  important  change  of  personnel  had  to  be  checked  with  whoever 
happened  to  be  designated  as  the  State  representative  for  the  People's 
World,  and  there  was,  it  seems  to  me,  complete  integration  of  the  party 
and  the  organizational  structure  of  the  People's  World  plus  its  edi- 
torial policies. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Prior  to  your  connection  with  the  Daily  People's 
World  you  were  identified,  as  I  recall  from  your  previous  testimony, 
with  the  Western  AVorker.  Will  you  explain  how  you  became  con- 
nected with  that  organ  of  the  Communist  Party  and  give  the  com- 
mittee all  the  information  you  can  regarding  its  activities  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  When  I  left  the  employment  of  the  San  Diego  Sun 
in  early  1933,  I  was  advised  by  State  party  members,  including  Mrs. 
Rudy  Lambert — I  can't  thinlc  of  the  name  she  goes  by — that  they 
would  like  me  to  come  to  San  Francisco  and  work  on  the  Western 
Worker.     I  was  there  for  3  or  4  months,  receiving  no  salary,  and 
receiving  no  salary  I  was  unable  to  remain  and  returned  to  San  Diego. 
My  activity  there  was  nominally  that  of  circulation  manager,  but 
the  Western  Worker  was  a  weekly  paper  with  almost  none  of  the 
intricacies  of  the  operation  of  a  daily  paper. 
That  is  all  I  can  say  about  that. 
Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 
(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  In  the  early  part  of  your  testimony  you  mentioned 
Leo  Gallagher  as  an  attorney  who  defended  a  number  of  Communist 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4587 

Party  members  involved  in  the  Imperial  Valley.  A  question  lias 
arisen  as  to  whether  or  not  Mr.  Gallagher  was  at  any  time  a  member 
of  the  Communist  Party,  Do  you  have  any  knowledge  of  his  alleged 
membership  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No;  I  do  not.  It  was  the  impression  among  the 
San  Diego  party  functionaries  that  he  was  not  a  member,  and  this 
was  deduced  in  some  part  from  the  fact  that  as  a  devout  Catholic  he 
religiously  attended  services  wherever  he  was,  including  the  times 
that  he  was  in  San  Diego. 

In  those  early  days  it  was  not  conceivable  to  us  that  the  party  would 
have  accepted  his  membership  with  that,  from  their  point  of  view, 
important  deviation  in  his  personal  habits  and  beliefs. 
Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 
( Discussion  off  the  record. ) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  have  described  in  a  general  way  the  reports 
received  at  Communist  Party  meetings  in  San  Francisco  regarding 
the  work  of  the  Communist  Party  in  the  waterfront  section.  Did  you 
have  any  personal  contact  of  your  own  in  Communist  Party  affairs 
in  that  area  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Only  for  a  matter  of  a  couple  of  weeks  in  1933,  at 
which  time  I  was  working  on  the  Western  Worker,  and  my  party 
unit  assignment  brought  me  to  the  waterfront  where  I  spoke  on 
occasion  to  longshoremen  at  Communist-called  outdoor  rallies. 

In  1938  and  1939  I  was  quite  friendly  with  Dave  Saunders, 
S-a-u-n-d-e-r-s,  who  was  quite  prominent  personally  in  party  water- 
front activities.    We  had  many  personal  discussions. 

Otherwise  my  information  came  from  reports  at  State  and  local 
committee  meetings. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  identify  Communist  Party  members  active 
in  the  unions  on  the  waterfront  whose  names  you  have  not  already 
indentified  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  think  not.  While  I  haven't  mentioned  it,  the 
names  are  sprinkled  through  various  hearings,  like  some  guy  by  the 
name  of  Yates  married  to  Oleta  O'Connor,  prominent  in  party  activi- 
ties and  prominent  in  waterfront  union  activities.  John  Schumacher 
was  a  party  member;  Dave  Saunders — the  other  names  escape  me — 
Henry  Schmidt,  but  these  names  have  been  rehashed  a  thousand  times. 
There  is  nothing  I  can  add  to  what  has  been  said  before. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  evidence  about  the 
insistence  of  the  Communist  Party  that  its  members  join  various  mass 
organizations  or  front  organizations  to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  the 
party.  Did  you  at  the  instance  of  the  Communist  Party  become  a 
member  of  any  such  organizations  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes ;  I  did,  although  it  should  be  remembered  that 
as  a  publicly  known  Communist  my  activities  were  pretty  limited 
in  this  respect. 

However,  in  the  organizational  wave  which  we  largely  instituted 
in  San  Diego,  I  took  out  membership  through  the  assistance  of  Carroll 
Hunnewell  in  the  Cleaners  and  Dyers  Union  and  as  such  conducted 
an  organizational  campaign  in  San  Diego  that  moved  along  pretty 
well  until  some  national  representative  of  the  union  came  to  one  of 
our  meetings,  and  I  was  deposed  as  an  open  Communist. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Have  you  identified  him  as  a  member  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  or  not? 


4588       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  have  identified  him. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  ran  for  political  office  at  any  time  as  a 
member  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  I  did  several  times.  I  don't  know  that  I  can 
even  recall  the  offices. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  at  one  time  a  candidate  for  the  Board  of 
Education  in  San  Diego  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  in  1935. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  state  the  circumstances  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  This  was  a  period  where  people  in  large  numbers 
were  in  need  of  relief,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  machinery  of  any 
consequence  to  help  them.  Following  rigid  laws,  the  local  city  govern- 
ment was  disconnecting  the  water  supply  to  various  homes  for  failure 
to  pay  bills.  We  created  quite  a  campaign  to  put  a  stop  to  this  situa- 
tion, and  finally,  to  dramatize  the  facts  we  announced  publicly  that 
we  would  start  turning  the  water  back  on,  and  I  did  that  in  2  or  3 
cases  and  was  arrested  and  sentenced  to  10  days  in  jail,  as  I  recall, 
and  it  was  right  around  that  period  that  an  election  came  up  for 
some  local  offices,  and  the  party  decided  to  submit  my  name  for  board 
of  education  which  had  no  significance  except  to  select  a  position  for 
which  we  could  put  our  name  before  the  public.  Ostensibly  while 
we  were  electioneering,  we  were  talking  about  the  current  aims  of  the 
party. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  elected? 

Mr.  Hancock.  No,  sir. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  an  open  member  of  the  Communist  Party 
at  that  time  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  I  was.  But  it  should  be  remembered  that  while 
I  was  an  open  member,  not  too  many  people  knew  about  it  because  we 
lacked  means  of  publicity,  and  this  specific  activity  was  carried  out 
by  the  Unemployed  Council,  a  front  organization  of  the  party,  so  that 
it  would  not  be  quite  true  to  say  that  everybody  that  voted  for  my  name 
voted  for  a  Communist. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  percentage  of  the  vote  did  you  receive  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  just  don't  remember,  but  the  vote  electrified  the 
State  office  of  the  Communist  Party  because  at  that  point  they  had 
never  seen  a  vote  of  this  size.  I  can't  even  remember  the  total.  I 
think  the  total  I  have  given  you  is  wrong.  It  might  have  been 
eighteen  or  twenty  thousand,  but  it  was  something  that  was  a  surprise 
to  everybody,  and  perhaps  25  percent  of  what  it  took  to  be  elected.  It 
was  a  sizable  protest  vote,  considering  that  the  Communists  running 
as  the  national  candidates  of  1932  had  perhaps  received  a  hundred 
votes  in  San  Diego.  My  vote  running  into  the  thousands  excited  quite 
a  good  deal  of  comment. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  later  become  a  candidate  for  State  senator 
in  San  Diego  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  I  did. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  running  for  that  office  openly  as  a  member 
of  the  Communist  Pary  and  on  the  Communist  Party  ticket  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  that  race  that  you  made  at  the  instance  of  the 
Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  I  was  an  official  candidate  of  the  Communist 
Party.    It  was  an  open  party  ticket. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4589 

Mr.  Tavenner,  Wliat  was  tlie  date? 

Mr.  Hancock.  1934. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  the  strength  of  the  party  increase  at  the  time 
of  that  election  over  what  it  had  been  before,  or  did  it  diminish? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  don't  think  it  had  any  visible  effect  on  the  party, 
although  I  may  be  unable  to  remember,  but  I  have  a  general  impression 
that  electioneering  activity  didn't  serve  any  important  benefit  to  the 
party.  This  might  have  been  because  the  issues  of  the  day,  the  elec- 
tioneering issues  of  the  day,  were  not  exciting.  Our  most  important 
progress  was  made  in  the  trade  union  field  on  trade  union  issues.  We 
liked  the  idea  of  being  able  to  call  ourselves  official  candidates  because 
after  opening  a  meeting  as  a  candidate,  we  could  talk  about  anything, 
but  I  have  no  recollection  of  making  any  important  gains  because  of 
that  situation. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  motivated  the  Communist  Party  in  putting  a 
slate  for  election  in  the  field? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  the  question  is  interesting  because  the  record 
shows  that  at  no  time  was  a  Communist  candidate  ever  the  recipient 
of  more  than  a  tiny  fraction  of  votes  cast.  I  think  there  were  many 
reasons,  the  chief  one  being  that  it  tended  to  establish  in  the  minds 
of  the  public  the  fact  that  the  Communist  Party  was  a  legitimate, 
fully  legal,  political  organization  with  aims  and  ideals,  if  not  the 
same  as  other  political  parties,  within  the  confines  of  the  normal 
definition  of  a  political  party. 

In  one  sense  the  political  electioneering  permitted  Communists  to 
come  before  audiences,  not  conceivably  at  their  disposal  under  any 
other  circumstance. 

For  example,  I  was  given  at  least  once  free  radio  time,  and  on  other 
occasions  had  no  difficulty  in  buying  radio  time  during  election  cam- 
paigns. On  occasions  I  was  invited  to  civic  meetings  on  a  par  with 
other  candidates  running  for  the  same  office,  and  all  of  this  tended  to 
create  an  atmosphere  of  legitimacy  that  furthered  the  interests  of 
the  party  insofar  as  they  were  interested  in  establishing  their  legality, 
which  was  another  way  of  saying  it  gave  them  a  cloak  for  their  illegal 
activities. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  This  committee  has  heard  a  great  deal  of  evidence 
showing  that  the  Communist  Party  of  the  United  States  was  being 
directed  and  controlled  by  a  foreign  power,  and  from  evidence  of  that 
type  it  has  been  concluded  by  the  committee  that  the  Communist  Party 
of  the  United  States  was  not  a  political  party  in  the  sense  that  a 
political  party  is  known  in  our  system  of  political  science,  but  on  the 
contrary,  is  a  conspiratorial  apparatus  which  was  being  used  by  a 
foreign  power  to  promote  its  own  foreign  policy. 

To  what  extent,  if  at  all,  were  you  aware  of  such  influences  within 
the  Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Well,  I  was  aware  of  the  influence.  It  made  itself 
felt  by  Communist  Party  membere  being  constantly  propagandized 
on  the  virtues  of  Russia.  Party  functionaries  soon  learned  that  every- 
thing that  existed  in  Russia  had  to  be  considered  good. 

In  every  phase  of  our  activity  at  least  an  attempt  was  made  to  insert 
propaganda  on  the  virtues  of  Russia.  In  many  instances  this  created 
ludricious  situations.  When,  for  example,  we  would  be  trying  to  win 
additional  relief  for  the  unemployed,  our  printed  pamphlets  would 
say,  "Support  the  unemployed  and  defend  the  Soviet  Union."     Even 


4590       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

further  afield  the  slogans  frequently  said,  "Defend  Soviet  China," 
which  at  that  time  meant  that  portion  of  China  which  was  under  the 
military  domination  of  the  Chinese  Red  army. 

Records  will  show  that  in  many  trade-union  meetings  and  State 
conventions  resolutions  were  issued  by  trade-union  delegates  defending 
some  aspect  of  Russian  activity. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  policy  of  sending  American  citizens  to  Russia 
and  bringing  them  back  as  lecturers  was  extensively  carried  on. 

I  recall  several  young  people  who  purportedly  were  sent  to  and  from 
Russia  by  the,  quote,  "'Friends  of  the  Soviet  Union,"  end  quote,  and 
upon  their  return  spoke  glowingly  at  mass  meetings  around  the  State 
of  the  great  things  happening  in  Russia. 

I'his  same  organization  sent  adults,  who  also  lectured  upon  their 
return,  and  in  the  party  structure  itself  it  was  commonly  known  that 
once  a  year  some  members  in  the  United  States  were  selected  for  study 
in  the  Lenin  Institute,  Moscow.  So  that  all  in  all  there  was  a  stream 
of  activity  and  thought  supporting  every  aspect  of  whatever  line  the 
Soviet  Union  needed  support  on. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee  what  your  knowledge  is 
of  underground  activities  of  the  party  in  California  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  What  Ave  termed  '"underground  activities"  referred 
to  security  measures  to  protect  the  party  apparatus,  and  I  have  some 
brief  knowledge  of  underground  activities  which  resulted  in  printed 
propaganda  being  placed  aboard  ships  for  dissemination  aboard.  At 
one  point  in  our  San  Diego  trade-union  campaign  we  received  several 
thousand  leaflets  written  in  German,  signed  by  the  Communist  Party, 
and  our  task,  which  was  successfully  concluded,  was  to  place  them 
aboard,  through  the  longshoremen's  union  membership,  a  ship  which 
happened  to  be  in  San  Diego  in  a  way  that  when  the  cargo  hatches 
were  opened,  the  longshoremen  at  the  point  of  destination  would  read 
the  leaflets.  This  was  considered  from  our  point  of  view  illegal  and 
carefully  hidden  activity. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  the  name  of  the  ship  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  have  no  knowledge  of  that. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  identify  any  other  persons  who  would  have 
knowledge  of  that  activity  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  It  is  possible  that  Lee  Gregovich  nuxy  know.  I  think 
Paul  Alexander  would  know. 

As  I  recollect,  we  produced  the  desired  result  through  party  mem- 
bers getting  nonparty  longshoremen  to  do  this  because  we  didn't  have, 
at  that  time,  party  membership  among  the  longshoremen — just  on  a 
friendly  basis. 

What  perhaps  should  be  considered  in  the  field  of  illegal  activity 
from  our  point  of  view  was  our  training  and  knowledge  of  coding, 
clandestine  mail  drops,  preparation  of  letters  and  envelopes  in  a  way  to 
guard  against  their  being  opened  surreptitiously. 

Something  that  stands  out  in  my  mind  of  the  many  methods  passed 
on  to  us  is  the  most  successful  coding  method  which  is  simplicity  itself. 
Verbally  or  by  personal  courier  an  agent  or  party  member  or  party 
functionary — a  party  functionary  is  told  to  get  a  certain  well-known 
popular  book — for  example,  (rone  With  the  Wind.  This  title  is  never 
written  down,  and  normally  the  only  2  people  that  know  of  its  selec- 
tion is  the  1  to  send  and  the  1  to  receive  the  message.  The  sender  has 
a  book  of  the  same  title.     His  message  is  dictated  by  the  use  of  nu- 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4591 

merals.  The  numerals  represent  in  1,  2,  3  sequence:  1,  page;  2,  line 
down ;  3,  letter  from  the  left  side. 

It  seems  to  me  this  is  a  foolproof  code.  I  haven't  the  slightest  idea 
how  it  could  ever  be  broken,  and  it  was  used  rarely,  and  in  my  experi- 
ence mostly  in  practice,  but  with  three  numbers  representing  a  single 
selected  letter  from  any  one  of  thousands  of  books  found  in  a  public 
library,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  a  very  good  code. 

We  used  other  systems  when  sometimes  we  suspected  people  of  open- 
ing our  mail,  such  as  placing  heavy  black  paper  around  a  message  and 
sealing  it  in  an  envelope  to  prevent  photography,  although  I  don't 
know  how  effective  that  would  be  against  X-ray. 

As  previously  indicated,  we  were  taught  how  to  seal  a  letter  with  a 
tiny  human  hair  left  in  the  mucilage,  and  then  by  extracting  it,  a  tiny 
line  of  unglued  mucilage  remained.  In  the  simple  process  of  steam- 
ing open  an  envelope,  this  line  would  disappear. 

The  party  was  in  those  days  seemingly  fully  prepared  for  the 
emergency  of  going  completely  underground,  and  it  was  a  part  of 
our  regular  duties  on  the  higher  levels  of  the  party  to  prepare  our- 
selves for  this  emergency. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  any  form  of  Aesopian  language  used  by  which 
one  Communist  could  recognize  another  without  specifically  identi- 
fying himself  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  At  least  on  the  west  coast  the  terminology  was  used 
which  permitted  Communists  to  describe  party  members  in  the  pres- 
ence of  strangers  without  detection.  For  example.  State  headquarters 
at  121  Haight  Street  was  in  public  referred  to  as  "the  cathedral." 
Individual  party  members  were  identified  in  conversation  as  "church 
members."  And  that  terminology  prevailed  in  such  expressions  as, 
"He  belongs  to  the  church,"  and  so  forth. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Are  you  now  able  to  identify  the  union  of  agricul- 
tural workers  which  in  the  early  part  of  your  testimony  you  were 
somewhat  uncertain  of  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  Yes,  it  is  in  my  mind  as  the  Cannery  and  Agricul- 
ture Workers  Industrial  Union,  and  I  know  it  by  the  initials  of  C.  and 
A.  W.  I.  U. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  In  the  early  part  of  your  testimony  you  stated  that 
you  left  the  Communist  Party  at  the  time  that  you  left  the  Daily  Peo- 
ple's World.  You  stated  that  you  did  not  hand  in  a  formal  resigna- 
tion. Will  you  explain  to  the  committee  more  fully  the  circumstances 
and  the  method  by  which  you  left  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Hancock.  I  wish  I  could  say  that  I  became  disillusioned  early 
in  my  membership,  but  the  facts  are  otherwise. 

The  actual  process  of  disillusionment  with  me  was  a  tedious,  lengthy 
process. 

Beginning  sometime  around  1936,  when  I  was  the  object  of  a  violent 
attack  as  the  San  Diego  leader  by  the  previously  named  V.  J.  Jerome, 
I  realized  that  I  could  no  longer  conscientiously  consider  myself  a 
full-fledged  supporter  of  the  Communist  policies. 

Something  that  isn't  easy  to  describe  but  perhaps  should  be  said  is 
that  in  the  same  way  that  membership  in  any  organization  causes 

4TT1.S — 54— pt.  2 — —5 


4592        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

fcocial  pressures  to  be  exerted  on  members  to  cany  out  the  policies  of 
t]iat  organization,  the  atmosphere  of  the  Communist  organization  was 
such  that  it  appeared  to  be  extremely  distasteful  to  leave  the  organiza- 
tion, distasteful  and  unpleasant. 

For  example,  the  issues  of  the  Western  Worker  frequently  carried 
articles  on  the  expulsion  of  this  or  that  Communist,  and  terms  most 
uncomplimentary  were  used,  so  that  Communists  knew  you  were  either 
a  Conununist  member  or  the  lowest  possible  order  of  human  being. 

The  circumstances  of  normal  relationship  with  party  members  made 
it  difficult  for  me  to  one  day  give  instructions  on  Communist  policy 
and  the  next  day  deny  them  myself,  so  that  I  took  the  circuitous 
course  of  drifting  away  from  party  activity  by  in  1937  requesting 
relief  from  direct  organizational  assignment  with  the  request  that 
I  be  permitted  to  go  into  trade  union  work. 

That  was  finally  achieved  in  the  latter  part  of  1937,  and  when  that 
program  expired,  instead  of  going  back  to  me  the  then  distasteful 
work  of  party  organizational  activity,  I  accepted  a  further  assign- 
ment of  circulation  manager  for  the  People's  World. 

This  was  a  compromise  with  myself,  and  it  became  increasingly 
difficult  for  me  to  accept  even  that  relationship  with  the  Communist 
Party. 

The  greatest  impact  on  my  mind  came  from  final  reluctant  realiza- 
tion that  communism  was  in  every  practical  aspect  a  complete  personal 
dictatorship.  Tlie  so-called  democratic  centralism  of  the  party  per- 
mitted the  members  to  decide  such  things  as  where  the  next  meeting 
would  be  held,  but  all  policy  decisions  originated  in  small  groups  of 
people  ostensibly  elected,  but  actually  selected  by  a  still  smaller  and 
higher  group. 

For  example,  the  State  committee  nominees  were  always  passed  on 
by  national  representatives  of  the  party.  Decisions  almost  never 
flowed  from  membership  discussion.  The  membership  discussion  had 
to  do  with  implementing  the  decision,  and  under  no  circumstances  was 
the  membership  permitted  to  challenge  the  basic  correctness  of  the 
decision. 

In  my  slow  way  the  intelligence  finally  came  to  me  that  every  hero 
in  the  Communist  movement  was  no  more  than  a  human  being,  and 
mostly  in  my  conception  of  the  role  of  Stalin  as  he  was  presented  as 
almost  a  party  deity,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  organization, 
while  it  accomplished  some  good  to  some  people,  in  the  main  represen- 
ted a  very  terrible  tlireat  to  society  because  one  man  in  this  whole 
world  had  the  power  to  do  anything  he  wished,  and  right  on  down  the 
line,  one  man  in  the  United  States  could  have  touched  a  button  to 
cause  Communists  to  do  his  personal  wishes,  and  in  the  State  organi- 
zation one  man  could  liave  instructed  his  membership  to  do  liis  per- 
sonal wishes,  and  the  thought  would  come  to  me,  what  if  this  man 
should  suddenly  go  insane?  There  is  no  possible  restriction  on  what- 
ever he  may  say,  for  whatever  he  says  becomes  absolute  law  and  can 
only  be  even  mildly  questioned  at  a  later  time  after  the  action  has  been 
committed. 

To  me  the  final  bh)w  came  in  the  attack  on  Poland  of  the  Soviet 
Union  and  in  the  issuance  of  various  communiques  which  reversed 
overnight  the  international  line  of  the  Conununist  Party  and  caused 
llie  Conununist  movement  in  this  country  to  become  blood  brothers 
with  the  Nazi  organization  of  Germanv. 


COMJ\/njNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4593 

A  few  months  after  that  event  I  found  a  way  to  quietly  leave  the 
party  by  simply  advising  State  functionaries  of  the  party  that  since 
my  father  had  died  in  recent  months,  it  was  necessary  for  me  to 
provide  sufficient  income  to  meet  whatever  necessities  my  mother 
might  have,  and  that  I  would  have  to  leave  that  work. 

I  was  called  to  the  State  office  2  or  3  times,  and  attempt  was  made 
to  prevent  me  from  doing  that,  but  in  a  very  friendly  persuasive  way. 
I  persisited  in  the  story  and  in  my  decision  and  gave  my  resignation. 
Actually  the  People's  World  held  a  going-away  party  for  me,  gave 
]]ie  a  typewriter,  and  with  that  I  walked  out  and  began  looking  for  a 
job  in  my  original  profession.  Three  weeks  later  I  became  circulation 
manager  of  the  Santa  Cruz  Sentinel  News  and  received  in  the  next 
year  or  two  one  or  two  letters  from  Leo  Barroway  whose  name  is  now 
introduced  for  the  first  time,  who  was  at  that  time  the  State  organiza- 
tional secretary,  and  he  insistently  urged  that  I  do  something  about 
i-ejuvenating  or  reestablishing  party  activities  in  Santa  Cruz.  I 
ignored  the  letter  or  letters,  and  that  was  my  last  contact  with  the 

I  am  not  proud  of  this  overall  activity  of  mine  in  the  realm  of  com- 
munism. I  think  some  small  good  was  accomplislied,  but  damage  of 
a.n  unknown  quantity  might  well  have  been  done  through  my  influenc- 
ing others  to  come  into  the  Communist  Party  and,  for  all  I  know, 
remain  to  this  day. 

I  consider  communism  as  something  very  dangerous,  although  not 
imminently  so,  dangerous  in  its  philosophy  to  the  good  and  welfare 
of  this  country.  I  think  it  has  without  question  deteriorated  into  a 
simple  expression  of  the  aims  and  policies  of  the  Soviet  Union,  and 
as  such  can  bring  nothing  but  evil  to  this  country  if  it  prospers. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  have  no  further  questions. 

I  would  like  the  record  to  show  at  this  point  the  closing  statement 
made  by  the  chairman  of  the  subcommittee. 

(The  statement  of  Kepresentative  Donald  L.  Jackson  (presiding) 
from  the  hearing  of  Wednesday,  February  24, 1954,  is  as  follows : 

Mr.  .Jackson.  I  personaUy  think,  and  I  am  sure  that  it  is  the  expression  of 
the  entire  committee  and  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  that  in  making 
tliis  appearance  here  you  have  reudei-ed  signal  service  to  the  committee,  the 
(.'ongress  and  the  American  people.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  do,  as  you  yourself 
have  pointed  out.  But,  without  any  such  testimony  as  you  have  given  here 
today,  the  American  people  would  not  have  the  tremendous  total  knowledge  of 
the  operations  of  the  Communist  Party  that  they  do  have,  and  because  they  have 
it  I  think  that  this  Nation  is  probably  more  alert  and  more  aware  to  the  true 
nature  and  significance  of  the  Communist  Party  than  any  people  on  earth.  That, 
1  say,  is  due  to  testimony  such  as  yours.  It  would  certainly  be  the  hope  of  the 
Chair  that  under  no  circumstances,  irrespective  of  what  may  in  the  future  be 
done  with  tins  testimony — and  we  cannot  foresee  at  the  moment  what  may  be 
necessary  to  do — but  I  would  certainly  express  the  thought  that  retaliatory  ac- 
tion of  any  kind  taken  against  you  or  against  any  other  witness  who  sees  it  his 
obligation  to  come  before  the  Congress  or  this  committee  or  any  committee  to 
give  such  testimony ;  is  reprehensive  and  would  destroy  the  work  of  this  com- 
mittee more  rapidly  and  more  effectively  than  could  the  Communist  Party  itself. 

I  want  to  express  to  you  the  thanks  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activi- 
ties for  your  lucid,  comprehensive,  and  splendid  testimony  today. 

(Whereupon,  at  5 :  00  p.  m.,  the  hearing  was  adjourned.) 


INVESTIGATION  OF  COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE 
STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA-Part  2 


MONDAY,   FEBRUARY   1,    1954 

United  States  House  of  Representatives, 

Subcommittee  of  the  Committee 

ON  Un-American  Activities, 

Washington^  D.  C. 
executive  session  ^ 

The  subcommittee  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities 
met,  pursuant  to  notice,  at  2 :  14  p.  m.,  in  room  227,  Old  House  Oflfice 
Building,  Hon.  Bernard  W.  Kearney  (presiding). 

Committee  member  present :  Representative  Bernard  W.  Kearney 
(presiding). 

Staff  members  present:  Frank  S.  Tayeimer,  Jr.,  counsel;  and 
Thomas  W.  Beale,  Sr.,  chief  clerk. 

Mr.  Kearney.  The  committee  will  be  in  order. 

Let  the  record  show  that  the  Honorable  Harold  H.  Velde,  chairman 
of  the  House  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities,  has  appointed 
the  Honorable  Bearnard  W.  Kearney  as  a  subcommittee  of  one  for 
the  purpose  of  conducting  this  hearing. 

Mr.  Haddock,  would  you  stand  and  be  sworn  ? 

Do  you  solemnly  swear  that  the  testimony  you  are  about  to  give 
before  this  House  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  shall  be 
the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  so  help  you  God  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  do. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Would  you  state  your  full  name  for  the  record, 
please? 

TESTIMONY  OF  BENJAMIN  HOLMES  HADDOCK 

Mr.  Haddock.  Benjamin  Holmes  Haddock. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Are  you  accompanied  by  counsel  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No  ;  I  am  not. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  It  is  the  practice  of  the  committee  to  explain  to 
each  witness  that  he  has  the  right  to  have  counsel  during  the  course 
of  his  interrogation  and  a  right  to  consult  counsel  at  any  stage  of  his 
testimony  Avhether  he  has  one  initially  or  not. 

With  that  understanding,  do  you  want  to  proceed  now  or  do  you 
desire  to  have  counsel  ? 

Mr.  H.VDDOCK.  It  is  all  right.     Proceed. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  When  and  where  were  you  born,  Mr.  Haddock  ? 


^  Released  by  the  committee. 

4695 


4596       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  was  born  in  Coronado,  Calif.,  November  3,  1917. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  is  your  occupation  or  profession  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  am  in  the  social-work  profession;  I  am  chief 
psychiatric  social  worker. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Where  do  you  reside  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Montclair,  N.  J.,  836  Mount  Bloomfield  Avenue. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Where  is  your  work  centered  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Plainfield,  N.  J. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  what  your 
educational  training  and  background  has  been,  that  is,  your  formal 
training  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  went  through  the  public  schools  in  San  Diego  and 
then,  following  my  Army  experience,  which  was  just  short  of  4 
years,  I  went  to  the  New  York  School  of  Social  Work,  Columbia 
University,  in  New  York  City;  graduated  with  a  master  of  science 
degree. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Wliat  was  the  date  of  your  entrance  at  Columbia 
University  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  It  was  September  1947. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  many  years  were  you  in  attendance  at 
Columbia  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  was  through  March  31,  1949.  It  was  a  2-year 
course. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  me,  please,  whether  you  served  in 
the  Armed  Forces  during  the  period  of  the  war  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes,  I  did.  I  was  entered  under  selective  service 
October  21, 1941,  and  I  was  discharged  October  5, 1945. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Where  did  you  serve  during  that  period  of  time? 

Mr.  Haddock.  The  primary  area  was  the  Pacific,  headquarters  at 
Hawaii,  T.  H. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  "Wlien  were  you  discharged? 

Mr.  Haddock.  October  5,  1945. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  how  you  have 
been  employed  or  how  you  have  been  engaged  since  your  release  from 
the  Army  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  was  sick  for  a  couple  of  months  after  I  got 
out  of  the  Army,  and  I  started  as  a  substitute  teacher  January  16, 
1946,  and  I  taught  as  a  substitute  for  a  few  months,  and  then  I  guess 
it  was  for  the  latter  part  of  April,  May,  and  June,  I  was  a  permanent 
teacher  in  the  San  Diego  systems. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  In  what  school  were  you  teaching? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Florence  School  was  the  school  where  I  was  a  per- 
manent teacher.  I  was  a  substitute  prior  to  that,  so  I  went  to  many 
schools. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Is  that  a  junior  college  or  a  high  school? 

Mr.  Haddock.  It  is  an  elementary  school.     I  taught  the  sixth  grade. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Then  after  the  completion  of  the  year  and  a  half 
or  more  of  work  as  a  teacher,  what  did  you  do  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  worked  during  the  summer  of  1947,  ran  a 
day  camp  for  one  of  the  local  groups.  United  Jewish  Appeal  group, 
and  then  I  came  East  with  my  wife  to  attend  the  New  York  School 
of  Social  Work.  She  was  a  graduate  social  worker  and  had  2  semes- 
ters or  2  quarters  to  complete,  so  we  both  attended  school  and  she 
then  worked  after  the  2  quarters  and  I  completed  my  degree. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4597 

Mr.  Tavenner.  After  the  completion  of  your  degree,  in  what  work 
did  you  engage? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  then  secured  a  job  as  a  psychiatric  social  worker 
in  the  Mental  Hygiene  Clinic  of  Union  County,  Plainfield,  N.  J.  This 
is  a  private  Community  Chest-supported  all-purpose  clinic. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  And  you  are  still  employed  there  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  still  am  there. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Mr.  Haddock,  we  desire  to  inquire  as  to  what  knowl- 
edge you  have  of  Communist  Party  activities  in  the  San  Diego  area, 
and  also  in  New  York. 

Have  you  had  an  opportunity  to  know  at  first  hand  of  activities  of 
the  Communist  Party  in  those  areas  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes;  I  have. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  is  the  basis  of  your  knowledge  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  joined  the  party  in  the  fall  of  1945  and,  oh, 
after  a  month  or  two  I  was  accepted,  I  guess,  because  then  I  was  notified 
of  where  the  meetings  were  to  be  held,  and  then  I  left  the  party  in  the 
fall  of  1948. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  joined  the  party  after  you  were  discharged 
from  the  United  States  Army  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  the  circum- 
stances under  which  you  became  a  member  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  May  we  be  off  the  record  a  minute? 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Haddock.  In  answer  to  your  question,  I  walked  into  the  party 
office  in  San  Diego  and  asked  for  an  application  form,  and  signed  it. 
The  person  who  accepted  it  was  Mrs.  Lolita  Bunyard.  Her  name  now 
is  Gibson.     She  married  after  the  time  of  my  joining. 

Well,  I  became  interested  in  the  Communist  Party  through  men 
who  were  in  the  information  and  education  section  of  the  Army.  I 
had  more  education  than  most  of  the  men  in  my  outfit,  even  though 
it  was  only  a  B.  A.  and  then  we  went  to  the  Gilbert  Islands ;  I  was  on 
that  invasion  and  was  stationed  there  for  8  months  following  the 
invasion,  so  while  there  they  needed  someone  to  do  the  information 
and  education,  which  I  volunteered  to  do.  There  wasn't  much  else 
to  do,  and  I  also  found  it  quite  interesting.  There  weren't  any  libraries 
there. 

Well,  I  might  interject  here  the  comment  that  the  person  who  really 
gave  me  the  introduction  to  this  was  a  little  fellow  named  Solomon 
Kantor,  from  New  York  City,  who  was  a  subscriber  to  this  little  labor 
paper  called  In  Fact,  and  he  gave  me  copies  of  that,  and  he  gave  me 
a  book  by  Seldes,  I  think,  Facts  on  Fascism,  so  this  was  interesting. 
I  don't  know  how  leftist  this  boy  was,  but  tliis  was  certainly  the  kind 
of  thing  that  appealed  to  him,  and  although  most  of  my  activity  on 
Makin  was  fairly  intellectual  in  terms  of  presenting  factual  material 
and  had  no  leftist  tinge,  as  far  as  I  was  able  to  discern,  I  had  no  intro- 
duction to  anyone  who  might  be  described  as  a  real  leftist ;  however, 
when  I  got  back  to  Hawaii  it  was  purely  by  accident  that  I  met  a 
man,  whose  name  I  have  been  trying  to  think  of  for  the  last  week, 
who  was  in  the  information  and  education  section  of  the  Antiaircraft 
Command,  and  he  came  in  and  talked  to  me  one  day.     I  was  just  about 


4598        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

to  take  a  5-day  pass  to  Hawaii,  that  is,  the  ishiiid  of  Hawaii,  and  he 
told  me  he  was  organizing  a  school  for  officers  and  enlisted  men  as  a 
part  of  the  information  and  education  program  so  that  the  two  groups 
could  be  brought  closer  together  so  they  could  function  moreetfectively. 
I  don't  know  whether  I  met  him  again  or  not^ — I  may  have — but  if  I 
did  it  was  in  passing,  because  he  was  returned  to  the  mainland;  but 
he  said,  "You  come  up  to  the  information  and  education  shack;  there 
are  several  other  fellows  who  meet  here  whom  you  will  get  to  know." 
And  sure  enougli,  I  was  interested ;  and  I  met  three  fellows,  one  whose 
name  was  Martin  Mitchnick;  another  one  was  Robert  Gould — and 
both  of  these,  incidentally,  are  from  Detroit — and  then  a  third  one 
who  I  think  was  like  me,  sort  of  excited  by  this  new  area,  a  fellow 
named  Murray  Crummins. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  know  where  he  was  from  ? 
Mr.  Haddock.  No;  I  don't.     The  last  time  I  heard,  he  was  living 
with  his  mother  in  a  hotel  in  New  York  City,  which  was  used  by  one 
of  the  social  organizations  that  handle  refugees  when  they  come  in, 
and  I  wrote  him  there  to  see  if  I  could  get  in  touch  with  him  because 
1  was  interested  in  seeing  him  again;  but  he  never  answered,  and  I 
rather  got  the  impression  that  he  didn't  want  to  answer,  that  he  sort 
of  cut  the  ties;  but  I  made  2  or  3  efforts  to  get  in  touch  with  him. 
Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  spell  his  last  name? 
Mr.  Haddock.  C-r-u-m-m-i-n-s. 

Well,  this  became  a  very  interesting  experience  for  these  fellows. 
Eveiy  Sunday  morning  we  used  to  go  down  to  the  Army-Navy  YMCA 
to  a  forum  that  was  held  by  the  chaplain — I  wish  I  could  remember 
his  name  but  I  can't — a  very  pleasant  man — and  this  was  sort  of  a 
current-event  forum  and  it  was  the  self-imposed  obligation  of  this 
group  to,  you  know,  present  the  right  point  of  view  from  their  point 
of  view  or  from  our  point  of  view. 

Another  little  project  that  the  four  of  us  developed  was  that  we 
thought  it  might  be  good  to  get  some  body  of  information  on  veterans' 
organizations,  with  the  hope  of  influencing  the  organization  that  the 
men  went  into. 

Now,  it  was  the  thinking  of  this  group  that  the  organization  that 
should  be  used  by  veterans  were  the  American  Legion,  Veterans  of 
foreign  Wars — I  don't  know  if  there  was  any  other — on  the  assump- 
tion that  people  who  were  Communists  or  leftists  would  be  much  more 
effective  in  large  mass  organizations. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  This  was  before  you  had  become  a  member  of  the 
Communist  Party? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes.  These  other  fellows  were  not  Communists,  but 
two  of  them  had  been,  and  I  think  planned  to  be  again,  but  this  is  the 
way  party  people  work.  They  are  supposed  to  have  projects,  and  this 
was  the  project  of  Robert  Gould  and  Martin  Mitchnick,  primarily 
]\Iartin  Mitchnick. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  know  which  of  the  two  had  been  former 
members  of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  The  two  I  mentioned,  Gould  and  Mitchnick.  This 
was  what  they  said  to  me ;  they  were  not  members  at  the  time.  This 
was  something  that  Martin  was  doing  on  his  own,  I  might  say.  He 
didn't  have  any  party  sanction  for  it.  He  was  a  little  bit  worried 
that  the  party  line  might  be  something  else,  which  it  did  turn  out  to 
be,  but  at  least  I  assumed  it  was. 


I 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4599 

You  asked  me  about  Jack  Hall.  One  day  we  went  over  to  Jack 
Hall's  place,  and  one  of  his  questions  was  to  try  to  find  out  from  Jack 
Hall  what  the  leftist  thinking  was  on  the  question  of  veterans'  organ- 
izations, and  Jack  Hall  indicated  he  didn't  know  and  let  it  go  at  that. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  confer  with  Dr.  Reinecke  on  that  subject? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No;  we  didn't.  I  was  at  his  home.  I  was  at  his 
home  with  Crummins  and  Mitchnick.  I  think  it  was  one  of  these 
things,  "Well,  stop  in  some  time,"  and  we  did.  He  used  to  entertain 
primarily  Merchant  Marine  men;  that  is  the  impression  I  had.  I 
knew  lie  was  a  leftist — I  knew  he  was  a  Marxist,  let's  put  it  that  way, 
and  I  can  be  more  specific.  This  was  why  he  either  quit  or  was  fired 
from  the  University  of  Hawaii.  I  don't  know  whether  you  gentle- 
men know  him  or  not. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Yes ;  he  has  testified  before  this  committee. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Yes,  sure. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  do  not  want  to  disturb  too  much  the  order  of 
your  statement  with  regard  to  the  circumstances  under  which  you 
oecame  a  party  member.  You  were  telling  us  about  the  projects  that 
the  four  of  you  had  in  regard  to  veterans'  organizations,  so  if  you  will 
proceed  now  as  you  expected  to  develop  your  statement. 

Mr.  Haddock.  All  right.  Well,  we  wrote  voluminously,  and  got  all 
kinds  of  replies.  That  was  sort  of  the  end  of  that,  as  it  were.  It 
occupied  our  time.     I  don't  know  that  it  was  ever  used  for  anj^  purpose. 

Mr.  Ta-\-enner.  Well,  does  your  testimony  in  that  respect  mean  that 
through  the  influence  of  these  two  persons  who  had  been  members  of 
the  Communist  Party  you  were  becoming  interested  in  some  objectives 
of  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes ;  that  is  a  good  way  to  put  it ;  yes. 

Then  about  this  time  there  was  a  move  afoot,  initially,  I  think, 
about  some  labor  leaders  in  Hawaii — of  this  I  am  not  sure,  however — 
to  organize  a  labor  canteen,  and  so  I  became  one  of  those  who  was 
active  in  that  group. 

Essentially,  it  was  in  this  group  that  I  met  a  number  of  people  whom 
I  find  are  quite  prominent  in  the  Communist  movement ;  I  didn't  know 
it  at  the  time,  although  I  had,  you  know,  hints  of  it,  certain  labor 
leaders. 

Mr.  TA^^:NNER.  From  Hawaii  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  They  were  not  Hawaii  labor  leaders,  no;  they  were 
mainland. 

Well,  for  example,  one  of  them  was  David  Livingston,  who  is  one  of 
the  leaders  of  Local  65  in  New  York  City.  Another  was  a  politi- 
cian  

Mr.  Kearney.  Local  65  of  what,  may  I  ask  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  don't  know.     Let  me  see  if  I  do  know 


Mr.  Kearney.  I  mean,  is  it  United  Electrical  Workers  Union,  or 
branch  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No  ;  I  see  what  you  mean.  They  are  store  employees, 
clerks  in  department  stores. 

Then  another  person  who  was  there,  a  very  mild-mannered  West 
Indian — he  Avas  a  politician — Ewart  Guinier,  G-u-i-n-i-e-r,  I  think. 

Mr.  Kearney.  A  member  of  the  Labor  Party  of  New  York  State? 

Mr.  Hademdck.  Yes.  You  probably  have  heard  the  name.  This 
group  had  quite  a  push  by  one  of  the  employees  of  the  Longshoremen's 


4600       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORl 

Union.  This  was  Elinor  Kahn.  who  is  their  research  assistant,  and  I 
think  she  did  a  great  deal  to  stimulate  the  activity  of  some  of  these 
soldiers  to  get  this  labor  canteen  into  existence. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Excuse  me;  what  was  the  name  of  the  person — 
did  yon  say  Elinor  Kahn  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Kahn,  K-a-h-n. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  On  the  record. 

Wlio,  in  your  judgment,  were  the  controlling  positions  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  labor  canteen  in  Hawaii  ? 

Let  me  put  the  question  this  way:  Do  you  know  from  where  in- 
struction emanated  to  organize  the  canteen  ? 

Mr,  Haddock,  That  I  clon't  know,  because  the  4  of  us,  this  4  I  spoke 
of  earlier,  we  came  in  a  little  late  on  that.  I  think  this  thing  had 
gotten  rolling.  We  sort  of  came  in  while  it  was  in  its  formative 
stages.  I  did  go  out  and  sell  advertising  for  the  booklet  which  was 
for  their  opening  day. 

As  I  said,  this  project  just  about  died,  and  if  it  hadn't  been  for 
Elinor  Kahn  I  think  it  probably  would  have,  and,  essentially,  she 
mobilized  some  people,  and  I  really  don't  know  who  they  were  be- 
cause this  was  one  of  the  times  I  didn't  get  to  meet  with  them.  This 
was  a  private  session.    I  remember  a  group  did  meet  with  her, 

Mr,  Tavenner.  In  connection  with  the  labor  canteen,  did  you  have 
occasion  to  meet  Alice  Hyun  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  met  her,  I  know,  at  least  once,  and  I  think  she 
was  earning  a  living  making  block  print  blouses  at  the  time,  and  I  was 
told  that  she  was  a  Korean  revolutionary.  Now,  that  is  the  extent  of 
it,  and  I  know  shortly  after — well,  I  don't  know  how  shortly,  but,  any- 
way, she  went  back  to  Korea  or  Japan. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  have  occasion  to  meet  Kimoto  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  don't  know  if  I  did  meet  him. 

Mr,  Tavenner,  McElrath ;  did  you  meet  McElrath  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes;  the  name  is  familiar.  I  don't  recall  him  in 
my  mind's  eye. 

These  names  register.     I  don't  know  about  Kimoto, 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  have  any  specific  knowledge  about  the  con- 
nection of  the  labor  canteen  with  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  could  not  say  that  I  do  specifically  because  I  just 
don't  have  the  concrete  evidence  to  say  it  was  at  this  party  meeting  that 
such  and  such  was  done,  because  I  was  never  included  in  any  like  that. 

What  would  happen,  there  would  be  a  party  in  which  there  was 
this  intermingling  of  people  who,  well,  you  could  just  tell  by  the  way 
they  talked  that  they  were  radicals,  and  others  who  were  babes  in  the 
woods.  This  was  one  of  the  things  that  struck  me;  if  this  was  sup- 
posed to  be  so  confidential,  why  did  they  rope  in  comparative  strangers 
to  some  of  the  things  that  they  did  ? 

For  example,  this  just  seems  unbelievable,  but  you  remember  when 
the  big  controversy  around  Earl  Browder  developed?  Well,  I  got 
invited,  and  I  don't  know  by  whom,  to  attend  a  dinner  where  this 
was  presented  to  the  people  who  were  present.  T  don't  know  whether 
it  was  an  officer  whose  first  name  was  Lee,  or  whether  it  was  Mitchuick, 
or  I  don't  even  know  if  Mitchnick  was  present,  but  the  thing  about 
this  that  was  so  dramatic  was  that  out  of  the  15  or  16  people  who  were 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4601 

present,  there  were  at  least  3  or  4  that  I  had  never  seen  before — they 
were  soldiers — and  never  saw  them  again,  and  these  were  just  some 
fellows  somebody  brought  in. 

Mr.  Ta\tnner.  That  was  in  Hawaii  ? 

Mr.  Haddock,  In  Hawaii,  and  whenever  there  was  any  kind  of 
party  discussion  such  as  this,  it  was  always  loaded  with  about  a  third 
nonparty  people,  so  it  became  sort  of  a  group  gathering,  so  you  didn't 
know  wlio  were  the  people  who  considered  themselves  Communists 
even  though  they  were  not  technically  Communists  at  the  time,  and 
you  didn't  know  who  were  not  party  members  and  never  had  been. 

For  example,  this  first  meeting  I  speak  of  was  held  at  a  Chinese  res- 
taurant down  along,  well,  I  wish  I  could  think  of  the  name  of  this — 
I  think  it  is  by  the  Alai  Canal.  It  is  that  canal  which  separates  the 
main  part  of  Honolulu  from  Waikiki.  And  then  the  other  meeting 
was  held  in  the  home  of  a  fellow  named  Bristow.  I  think  the  name 
is  B-r-i-s-t-o-w.  And  I  remember  that  the  same  thing  happened  in 
which  there  was  quite  a  conglomeration  of  people. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Now,  these  were  things  that  led  up  to  your  joining 
the  party  ? 

Mr.  Kearney.  What  is  Bristow's  business,  do  you  know  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Gee,  I  don't  know.  I  know  he  married  a  woman 
named  Mitchell,  who  was  a  photographer,  professional  photographer, 
and  that  he  divorced  his  first  wife,  who  had  been  a  secretary  to  Jack 
Hall. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  All  right ;  go  ahead. 

Mr.  Haddock,  Well,  there  were  many  other  people  and  many  other 
factors,  but  I  found  that  some  of  the  positives  and  some  of  the  pro- 
grams that  were  supported  tended  to  coincide  with  some  of  the  things 
1  believed  in. 

For  a  while  during  this  period  I  was  considering  going  back  to 
school  and  taking  my  graduate  studies  in  religion  in  order  to  be  a 
preacher.  In  fact,  one  of  my  very  good  friends  in  the  Army,  Chaplain 
Fairclough,  sent  my  name  in  to  a  number  of  schools  as  a  possibility. 
That  is  Frederick  Fairclough,  a  United  Lutheran  minister.  I  think 
he  has  a  church  in  Trenton. 

Well,  I  was  excited  by  many  of  the  factors  in  this  group ;  the  com- 
raderie  was  really  the  first  I  had  had.  I  was  an  enlisted  man,  fairly 
well  isolated  from  the  population  in  Hawaii,  although  I  did  have  a 
school  chum  named  Peter  Ching,  and  I  spent  considerable  time  at  his 
home,  which  was  something  I  enjoyed  very  much. 

Mr.  Ta\t:nner.  You  are  not  indicating  by  that  that  there  was  any 
influence  used  upon  you  by  Ching  of  a  Communist  character  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No,  absolutely  no.  He  was  not  in  any  way  commu- 
nistic or  progressive  or  radical. 

And  so  this  labor  group  which  was  also  a  new  group,  culturally,  to 
me — I  had  never  met  people  like  this  before.  I  had  never  even  met 
the  variety  of  backgrounds,  European  backgrounds,  for  example,  that 
I  found  present  in  this  group,  and  so  I  believed  everything  that  was 
said.    I  had  no  reason  to  doubt  it. 

So,  when  I  got  back  to  San  Diego  the  day  after  I  got  out  of  the 
service  I  went  down  and  joined  the  party,  walked  right  in  the  door 
and  signed  the  card. 

However,  I  think  I  had  a  reaction  after  that.  I  had  been  offered 
a  job  by  the  unions  in  Hawaii,  so  it  gives  you  some  idea  of  how  they 


4602       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

felt  about  me.  A  fellow  named  Ralph  Vossbrink  said  that  if  1  wanted 
to,  he  would  let  me  join  his  union  and  he  would  put  me  on  a  ship 
and  I  would  come  back  to  San  Diego  and  and  spend  some  time  with 
the  folks  and  then  ship  back  to  Hawaii  and  go  to  work,  I  don't  know 
whether  for  him  or  Jack  Hall's  union.  I  don't  know  just  what  the 
job  was,  but  anyway,  the  job  w^as  offered,  sort  of,  you  know,  nebu- 
lously, and  I  never  did  get  too  serious  about  it. 

Off  the  record. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tam^nner.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Haddock.  There  was  another  couple  who  was  active  in  the  labor 
canteen  whom  I  am  sure  you  know.  She  was  a  Negro  girl  who  married 
a  white  civilian  employee  in  the  islands.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
the  one  who  owned  Trader  Vic's.  Her  name  was  Smith,  I  believe; 
that  was  her  maiden  name.  But  I  think  she  broke  with  the  left  side 
of  the  fence,  because  I  had  heard  her  criticized  by  people  because  she 
had  sort  of  turned  against  them. 

Does  this  give  you  a  picture  of  what  led  up  to  it  { 

Mr.  Kearney.  Yes,  very  interesting. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Now,  will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  just  what 
your  experience  was  in  the  Comnmnist  Party  ? 

I  believe  it  would  be  better  for  you  to  attempt  to  give  the  com- 
mittee as  complete  a  statement  as  you  can,  and  the  committee  or  I 
will  interpose  questions  to  develop  more  fully  things  we  think  could 
be  developed  more  fully. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  joined  the  party  in  San  Diego  and  was  as- 
signed to  the  East  San  Diego  branch,  and  I  remained  in  that  branch 
during  my  stay  in  San  Diego.  I  was  then  transferred  to  New  York 
City  and  was  affiliated  with  the  student  group. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Let  me  break  in  there. 

You  were  transferred,  or  you  were  assigned  to  the  East  San  Diego 
branch,  and  while  you  were  a  member  of  that  branch  did  you  attend 
Communist  Party  meetings  there  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes ;  I  did. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Can  you  furnish  the  committee  with  the  names  of 
any  party  members  of  that  branch  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes;  I  could. 

Would  you  like  me  to  do  this,  sir  ? 

Mr.  Kearney.  If  you  would,  please  ? 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  suggest  that  you  describe  the  type  of  meetings 
that  were  held  and  what  projects  there  were,  if  any,  in  which  this 
particular  branch  of  the  Communist  Party  was  engaged. 

Mr.  Haddock.  The  East  San  Diego  branch  was,  well,  it  was  com- 
posed of  family  people,  I  would  say,  with  not  too  much  drive,  and 
actually  our  projects  over  the  year  and  a  half  that  I  was  a  member 
of  it  consisted  of  2  or  3  fund-raising  parties,  an  attempt  to  get  people 
interested  in,  I  don't  know  what,  but  I  knoAV  leaflets  were  passed  out. 
I  didn't  pass  them  out,  but  several  people  in  the  branch  did. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Would  they  be  consTuners  projects  or  party  projects? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  the  one  that  I  remember  was  a  consumer 
project,  in  terms  of  bringing  prices  down 

Mr.  Kearney.  Hich  cost  of  living;? 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4603 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  that  was  one  of  them.  In  fact,  it  was  right 
in  that  period  there  where  the  OP  A  stopped  functioning,  but  there 
was  more  than  one  of  them.  It  was  just  an  attempt  to  make  a  show- 
ing; it  was  a  very  small  operation  and,  as  I  go  over  the  list  of  these 
people's  names,  not  too  many  of  them  were  really  active.  Most  of  them 
were — they  belonged  and  they  paid  their  dues  and  came  to  meetings 
semiregularly.  In  fact,  some  of  them  here  very  rarely  came  to  a  meet- 
i]ig,  on  this  list. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  hold  any  official  position  at  any  time  in  the 
group  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  see  I  am  listed  as  the  educational  adviser.  I 
think  I  was  responsible  for  the  educational  part  of  the  club  meeting, 
but  I  took  this  job  from  Lloyd  Hamlin  when  he  left. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  position  did  Lloyd  Hamlin  hold  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  he  was  the  educational  chairman,  and  then 
he  moved,  of  course,  from  our  club  to  become  the  chairman  of  the  pro- 
fessional group  which  he  organized  and  was  the  organizer  of. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  what  was  the 
nature  of  the  study  groups  conducted  within  your  own  cell  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  This  will  be  hard  for  me  to  do,  but  I  think  that  they 
would  consist  of  such  projects  as  current  events,  and  then  we  would 
bring  leaflets ;  our  leaflets  would  be  sold  to  the  members,  or  they  would 
be  encouraged  to  read  something.  I  think  when  I  was  educational 
chairman  I  was  supposed  to  meet  once  in  a  while  with  the  educational 
chairman  for  the  whole  area. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Who  was  the  educational  chairman  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  William  Reich ;  and,  essentially,  the  programs  came 
from  him  and  filtered  on  down  to  the  membership. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  visited  from  time  to  time  by  functionaries 
on  a  higher  level  who  lectured  to  the  group  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  know  Bill  Reich  came  once;  I  don't  know  if 
he  came  more  than  once ;  and  I  think  the  area  chairman  would  come, 
George  Lohr.  I  don't  know  how  extensive  that  was,  but  I  know  an 
attempt  was  made  to  do  this.  You  never  saw  anything  like  it — well, 
I  guess  you  have — to  try  to  get  the  people  to  do  something,  to  mobilize 
them — "This  is  very  important."  I  know  once  they  needed  money  for 
something — "Well,  we  need  a  day's  pay,"  you  know ;  well,  there  was 
always  something  that  had  to  be  done.  It  never  did  amount  to  too 
much,  but  it  had  to  be  done. 

Mr.  Kearney.  What  were  your  dues  a  month? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  don't  think  they  were  over  $2.50. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Well,  was  that  on  a  dues-paying  basis,  or  was  that 
an  assessment,  if  you  made  so  much  you  were  assessed  so  much  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Your  income  determined  your  dues.  In  other  words, 
the  dues  were  stated.  A  person  with  such-and-such  an  income  paid 
so  much  a  month  or  so  much  a  week,  and  you  bought  stamps  to  pay  for 
j^our  dues. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  were  you  employed  during  this  period  of  time, 
this  year  and  a  half  while  you  were  in  San  Diego  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  was  a  schoolteacher  in  the  elementary  grades. 

Mr.  Ta\t:nner.  How  did  you  obtain  that  position  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  had  a  teacher's  license  and,  therefore,  I  qualified 
for  a  position. 


4604       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  a  member  of  the  party  before  you  became 
employed  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes ;  and,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  I  was  the  only 
teacher  who  was  a  party  member,  except  Bill  Reich,  and  I  think  he 
taught  one  night-school  course  a  week. 

May  I  say  something  off  the  record  ? 

Mr.  Kearney.  Yes.     Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr,  KJEARNEY.  On  the  record. 

Did  you  say  while  you  were  teaching  school  that  you  were  the  only 
party  member  among  the  teachers  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  in  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Now,  if  there  were  other  members  of  the  party  who 
were  teaching  school  in  San  Diego,  wouldn't  you  have  knowledge  of  it  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  would  think  so.  I  say  that  because  one  of  the  jobs 
I  got  saddled  with  was  raising  subscriptions  for  the  People's  World, 
and  I  remember  I  visited  a  number  of  clubs ;  I  don't  know  how  many, 
but  I  remember  La  Jolla,  National  City;  I  may  have  gone  to  the 
Downtown  Club.  But  if  there  were  any  teachers  in  that  group,  I 
would  have  recognized  them,  and  the  only  basis  on  which  they  would 
be  functioning  would  be  on  a  very,  very  secret  basis,  and  I  never  saw 
a  group  that  kept  fewer  secrets. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Isn't  it  true  that  many  of  the  teachers  belonged 
to  professional  groups  of  the  party  instead  of  neighborhood  groups  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  if  that  were  the  case 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Generally  speaking? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  would  think  so,  and,  as  I  said,  this  professional 
group  was  organized  in  San  Diego;  and  if  there  were  any  in  that,  I 
did  not  know  of  it — I  mean  I  would  be  surprised,  let's  put  it  that  way. 
I  just  couldn't  say  absolutely  there  were  no  other  teachers  in  the 
system  but  me,  but  on  the  basis  of  what  I  know  there  were  not. 

I  understood,  and  this  again  is  one  of  these  rumors  that  you  pick 
up,  there  was  a  secret  club,  but  this  was  businessmen  who  were  not 
really  party  members,  but  the  party  would  use  them  to  get  money. 
In  fact,  rumor  had  it  that  one  of  the  liberals  was  asked  to  join  this 
club  and  he  refused. 

So  this  is  how  I  learned  about  it.  I  didn't  learn  about  it  through 
party  sources,  believe  it  or  not.  I  learned  about  it  through  an  out- 
side source,  and  he  had  been  approached  by  this  James  Toback,  whom 
I  mentioned  to  you  before. 

Now,  more  of  the  activities,  my  activities  in  San  Diego.  Most  of 
them  were  in  relation  to  on-club  activities.  In  other  words,  this  was 
done  in  the  American  Veterans'  Committee — I  know  I  am  going  to 
leave  some  of  these  activities  out,  but  my  memory  doesn't  serve  me 
too  well — and  the  housing  committee.  The  main  activity  was  the 
American  Veterans'  Committee. 

I  remember  Lloyd  Hamlin  and  I  would  meet  before  meetings  and 
talk  things  over.  We  sort  of  caucussed  on  it,  which  really  is  a  lousy 
procedure.     I  have  a  lot  of  personal  feeling  about  this  for  any  group. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Well,  let's  take  these  separate  projects  or  mass  or- 
ganizations separately  and  develop,  as  well  as  you  can,  all  of  the  details 
about  the  Communist  infiltration  into  them. 

Take  first  the  veterans'  organization  and  tell  us  just  how  the  party 
went  about  infiltrating  it,  to  what  extent  it  influenced  its  actions. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4605 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  wouldn't  even  call  it  an  infiltration.  I  would 
just  call  it  the  leaders  in  the  veterans'  group  were  party  people. 

Mr.  Kearnet.  That  is,  in  the  American  Veterans'  Committee  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Do  I  understand  you  to  mean  at  this  time  when  you 
say  "the  veterans'  group"  the  American  Legion,  Veterans  of  Foreign 
Wars? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No.  That  is  a  good  point,  because  I  do  not  mean 
that.  There  were  no  Communists,  to  my  knowledge,  in  any  other 
group  except  the  American  Veterans'  Committee,  and  how  many  were 
in  that  I  just  couldn't  say,  but  I  know  that  the  fellows  our  age  who 
were  veterans  were  affiliated  with  the  AVC. 

Mr.  Kj:arney.  Were  you  a  member  of  the  AVC  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Are  you  now  a  member  of  it  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No. 

Mr.  Kearney.  When  did  you  leave  the  organization  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  In  1947. 

Mr.  Kearney.  I  understand  they  have  cleaned  house  in  that  organi- 
zation, haven't  they? 

Mr.  Haddock.  That  is  what  I  understand  from  just  reading  the 
newspapers,  and  the  way  things  were  going  at  that  time. 

I  think  Lloyd  Hamlin  was  a  delegate  to  some  meeting  up  in  San 
Jose,  in  which  you  began  to  see  the  signs  that  Communist  people  were 
not  as  strong  as  they  had  been.    This  is  just  an  impression  of  mine. 

If  I  can  just  add  by  just  insert  here,  these  projects  of  the  party  go 
by  spurts.  For  example,  if  the  American  Veterans'  Committee  is 
something  that  you  should  belong  to  or  work  with,  then  you  work 
with  it,  or  if  it  is  the  Progressive  Party,  you  work  with  it. 

I  remember  at  one  point  the  National  Negro  Congress  was  an  or- 
ganization in  which  the  party  had  quite  a  stake,  or  thought  they  had, 
and  party  people  were  instructed  to  join  it.  This  was  very  unsuc- 
cessful. Not  many  party  people  did,  and  not  many  Negroes  joined  it, 
and  the  thing  flopped,  and  I  remember  within  a  comparatively  short 
time  after  that  it  was  sort  of  wiped  off  the  books  as  far  as  the  party 
was  concerned. 

Now,  getting  back  to  these  projects.  This  Lloyd  Hamlin  and  I 
probably  worked  closer  together  than  anyone  else  in  the  party.  He 
was  the  first  party  person  I  met  besides  Mrs.  Gibson,  and  for  a  few 
weeks  I  didn't  realize  he  was  a  party  person.  It  wasn't  until  I  met 
him  at  my  club  meeting  that  I  realized  he  was  a  member  of  the  party, 
but  he  and  I  worked  hand  in  glove  in  the  American  Veterans'  Com- 
mittee, and,  essentially,  any  of  the  counsels  from  the  top  office  of  the 
party  were  usually  communicated  through  him. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  know  the  exact  source  of  the  counsels  that 
came  from  the  head  of  the  party  to  him  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No,  but  I  think  Lloyd,  after  he  became  the  chair- 
man of  this  professional  group,  was  then  promoted,  you  see,  into  the 
executive  committee  of  the  county,  so  he  would  then  be  in  a  position 
to  know  what  was  going  on  at  the  top  level. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee  how  you  first  met 
Hamlin  ? 


4606        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  Lloyd  Hamlin  was  acting  as  a  secretai'y  or 
some  functionary  for  the  Spanish  Refugee  Appeal — I  think  that  is 
correct — and  Dr.  Steinmetz  was  the  one  who  suggested  I  meet  Lloyd, 
gince  Lloyd  and  he  were  both  interested  in  the  project,  and  so  I  met 
Lloyd.  I  don't  know  why  I  went  to  see  him,  but  it  may  have  been 
around  the  veterans,  because  I  know  he  was  active  in  the  veterans 
at  that  time,  too. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Were  you  personally  acquainted  with  Dr.  Stein- 
metz ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes;  I  knew  Dr.  Steinmetz.  I  met  him  after  the 
war.  I  talked  with  him  several  times.  I  have  been  in  his  home  a 
few  times. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Was  he  a  member  of  the  party  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  he  was  not.  He  made 
quite  a  point  of  keeping  his  skirts  clean.  He  was  a  very  nervous  per- 
son in  terms  of  getting  caught.  He  certainly  didn't  seem  to  be 
bothered  by  talking  and  working  with  people  who  were  party  mem- 
bers.    I  think  that  is  the  best  way  to  put  it. 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  Did  he  suggest  that  you  meet  this  man  Hamlin  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes ;  and  I  think  the  reason  he  did  was  because  it 
was  going  to  be  through  him  and  Hamlin  that  I  was  going  to  meet 
Colonel  Carlson. 

I  had  a  reason  for  meeting  Colonel  Carlson,  by  the  way.  When 
I  was  in  the  Gilbert  Islands  I  went  to  one  of  the  outlying  atolls, 
called  Little  Makin,  and  met  a  Protestant  minister  there  trained  by 
the  London  Missionary  Society.  His  name  was  Korenorio.  He 
wanted  me  to  hear  a  story. 

The  story  was  that  he  had  preached  one  Sunday  for  peace  and  word 
of  this  had  gotten  back  to  the  Japanese  on  the  main  island  of  Butari- 
tari,  and  so  they  had  come  and  arrested  him  and  his  assistant  minister 
and  placed  them  in  pail  on  Butaritari. 

Well,  it  was  while  they  were  in  jail  that  Colonel  Carlson  and  his 
raiders  raided  Makin,  and  it  was  epitomized  in  this  movie,  Gung  Ho, 
and  so  they  saw  these  two  natives  and  caught  them,  and  so  these  two 
Protestant  ministers  acted  as  a  guide  to  Colonel  Carlson's  raid  on 
Makin,  and  this  was  the  story  he  had  to  tell,  and  it  was  a  very  in- 
teresting circumstance  that  I  should  land  in  San  Diego  and  within 
a  few  days  of  my  arrival  be  able  to  see  Colonel  Carlson  and  tell  him 
this  story  which  he  read. 

So  this  was  a  personal  interest  I  had  in  meeting  him,  beyond  the 
fact  that  he  was  going  to  run  for  Senator,  and  there  was  a  possibility 
of  my  getting  a  job  working  for  him. 

Mr.  Kearney.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Kearney.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Colonel  Carlson's  name  was  Evans  Carlson. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  describe  in  a  general  way  to  the  com- 
mittee, please,  the  type  of  activity  that  this  veterans'  organization 
engaged  in  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  as  best  I  can  remember,  it  was  on  current  ( 
issues.    I  know  housing  seemed  to  play  an  important  part,  since  that 
was  one  of  the  major  problems  in  San  Diego,  and  I  think  I  was  the 
vice  president  of  the  American  Veterans'  Committee  at  the  time, 
and  I  was  appointed  to  chair  the  citizens'  housing  committee,  which 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4607 

I  did,  and  we  organized  what  turned  out  to  be  a  very  sound  commit- 
tee, and  I  was  the  only  Communist  on  that  committee. 

At  some  of  the  organizational  meetings  there  were  a  number  of 
people,  Communists,  present;  there  were,  also,  quite  a  wide  variety  of 
interested  people  because  the  purpose  of  the  committee  was  to  get 
more  housing,  get  more  public  housing,  and  this  was  opposed  by  cer- 
tain real-estate  interests  in  town,  so  they  were  very  interested  in  the 
influence  the  committee  might  have.  We  really  organized  what  I 
think,  as  I  remember,  was  a  fairly  broad  board,  and  they  acted  as  an 
advisory  committee  to  San  Diego,  and  the  last  time  I  heard  they  were 
still  in  existence,  and  after  I  left  it  there  were  no  other  Communists 
on  it. 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  In  performing  your  functions  as  chairman  of  that 
group,  did  you  receive  directives  of  any  character  from  the  Commu- 
nist Party  as  to  the  program  that  you  should  follow  or  the  methods 
that  should  be  used  in  carrying  out  the  objectives  of  the  group? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  would  hate  to  answer  that  either  yes  or  no,  because 
you  know  some  directives  can  be  tacit,  and  this  had  been  rehashed, 
this  whole  thing  had  been  hashed  and  rehashed  by  Lloyd  and  me, 

and  I  had  a  pretty  clear  focus  in  my  mind  as  to  what  the  program 
should  be;  I  don't  remember  what  it  was,  but  I  don't  think  that  it 
varied  at  all  from  what  the  general  party  line  might  have  been. 

Mr.  Kearney.  I  think  I  will  have  to  leave  now.  Thank  you  very 
much  for  coming  down  and  giving  your  complete  story  here.  It  is  of 
immense  value  to  the  committee.  I  know  that  I  express  the  thanks 
of  counsel  and  the  committee,  too. 

(At  this  point  Representative  Bernard  W.  Kearney  left  the  hear- 
ing room.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  "Wliat  was  the  general  nature  of  the  secret  meetings 
held  by  you  and  Hamlin  regarding  the  proposals  to  be  followed  in  any 
of  these  organizations  which  you  have  spoken  of? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  sometimes  we  would  meet  before  an  AVC 
meeting,  or  we  might  even  talk  on  the  telephone.  How  much  of  this 
we  did  I  don't  know.  I  think  my  line  was  tapped  for  the  entire  period 
I  was  a  party  member.  But  I  do  know  that  we  worked  pretty  close, 
hand  in  glove,  on  this  business. 

Perhaps  the  other  project  that  was  even  more  significent  as  a  com- 
munity project  was  the  formation  of  the  PAC  in  San  Diego,  and  then 
a  group  met  with  some  nonparty  people  present  and  told  them  what 
we  wanted  to  do,  and  we  talked  over  the  steps  of  getting  this  com- 
mittee into  action,  and  I  was  selected  to  chair  the  first  meeting,  I 
think,  and  T  know  I  chaired  the  second  meeting,  and  it  was  at  the 
second  meeting  that  the  PAC,  which  was  the  forerunner  of  the  Pro- 
gressive Party,  came  into  being.  This  was  a  very  carefully  planned 
operation,  and  the  point  was  that  this  was  going  to  be  a  Progressive 
Party ;  it  was  not  going  to  be  an  extension  of  the  Communist  Party 
even  though  the  Communists  were  going  to  have  the  right  to  play  an 
important  role  in  it,  but  at  the  organizational  meeting  I  was  nomi- 
nated for  chairman,  which  I  had  to  decline  because  I  was  leaving  San 
Diego,  and  another  person  was  nominated. 

This  man,  who  represented  a  middle-of-the-road,  liberal  outlook, 
was  nominated,  and  then  some  adolescent  in  the  audience  nominated 
a  man  from  Linda  Vista  named  Rogers. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  remember  his  first  name? 


4608       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  it  was  C.  A.,  and  that  is  probably  correct. 

Now,  this  man  was  known  locally  as — put  Red  in  quotes,  because 
he  always  identified  himself  with  leftist  activity  and  minority  prob- 
lems, and  he  had  been  one  of  the  group  that  had  sat  in  on  the  initial 
planning  for  this  meeting,  but  he  did  not  decline,  and  he  was  elected, 
which  I  knew  and  Lloyd  Hamlin  knew  sealed  the  doom  of  this  ever 
being  any  kind  of  a  broad,  progressive  group.  I  might  add  that  Lloyd 
and  I  only  expressed  this  opinion  once  or  twice,  and  we  got  an  official 
reprimand  from  the  party  for  not  following  the  will  of  the  majority 
which  elected  Rogers  to  the  presidency  of  this  group.  It  so  happens 
we  were  right,  though. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  In  other  words,  it  was  the  basic  plan  of  the  party 
to  use  liberals  in  positions  of  prominence  in  these  organizations  rather 
than  men  closely  identified  with  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes,  that  is  correct. 

Well,  I  left  San  Diego  at  this  time  and  I  probably  have  left  out 
nmnerous  things,  but  this  is  a  general  outline,  very  general,  of  my 
work. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  give  me  more  definite  information  as  to 
when  the  professional  group  or  unit  of  the  Communist  Party  was 
formed  in  San  Diego  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  it  was  formed  in  the  spring  of  1947,  and  if  it 
were  earlier  it  would  only  have  been  by  2  or  3  months. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  learn  the  identity  of  any  of  its  members  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  could  guess  on  some  of  them.  I  know  you  would 
rather  not. 

I  don't  think  I  was  ever  at  one  of  their  meetings.  If  I  was,  it  wasn't 
for  a  full  meeting ;  it  was  only  for  a  partial  one,  and  I  would  rather  not 
state — but  I  can  say  that  most  of  them  were  not  professionals,  which  is 
an  interesting  contradiction.  There  were  a  couple  of  labor  people  in 
it ;  there  was  a  woman  who  later  became  active  in  the  PAC,  a  writer, 
a  businessman. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  May  I  put  the  matter  this  way : 

It  would  be  of  importance  to  the  committee  as  lead  information 
only,  and  not  at  any  time  to  be  made  the  subject  of  public  release,  the 
names  of  these  persons  that  you  think  were  members,  which  is  entirely 
a  different  thing  from  identifying  them  as  members  of  that  group,  but 
purely  as  a  basis  for  further  investigation  on  our  part. 

In  other  words,  I  am  asking  you  for  this  purpose  of  lead  information 
only  to  give  us  the  benefit  of  any  hearsay  testimony  that  you  have. 

Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Haddock.  It  is  A.  C.  Rogers,  I  see  here.  It  is  not  the  other  way 
around.  I  believe  he  is  one.  Ray  Morkowski,  Lynn  Ackerstein,  Jen 
Boehm. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Now,  can  you  identify  them  a  little  more  definitely 
as  to  which  is  a  writer  and  which  is  a  member  of  the  union,  and  so  on  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Rogers  is  a  businessman;  Morkowski  is  a  labor 
leader;  Boehm  is  a  writer.    I  think  Jack  O'Brien  was  one. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  identify  them  more  fully  as  to  occupation? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  Jack  worked  for  the  union.  He  had  some 
kind  of  cerebral  palsy,  I  believe. 

Dave  Buchanan,  he  was  a  labor  leader. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA      4609 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 
(Discussion  off  the  record.) 
Mr.  Ta\^nner.  On  the  record. 

Was  there  any  other  organizational  work  that  you  undertook  in 
behalf  of  the  Communist  Party  while  in  San  Diego  5 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  may  have,  but  I  do  not  remember  it. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  any  effort  made  to  recruit  members  to  the 

Communist  Party  from  the  teaching  profession,  to  your  knowledge? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  was  urged  to  recruit,  but  I  made  no  effort 

to  recruit  from  the  teaching  profession  because  I  knew  no  one  that 

1  would  feel  was  susceptible  to  party  membership. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  did  you  get  your  directions  in  that  respect  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  this  would  be  at  a  club  meeting. 

"We  have  got  to  do  something  to  increase  membersiiip.  There  has 
got  to  be  more  recruiting  done.  Look  here,  you  come  to  meetings 
every  week" — or  every  month,  or  whenever  it  was — "and  it  is  the 
same  gang ;  no  effort  to  recruit." 

Mr.  Ta\^nner.  Would  you  identify  at  this  place  in  your  testimony 
the  names  of  all  persons  known  to  you  to  be  members  of  the  East 
San  Diego  Branch  of  the  Communist  Party  of  which  you  were  a  mem- 
ber, and  in  so  identifying  these  individuals  would  you  give  us  all 
of  the  identifying  information  you  can  with  respect  to  their  profes- 
sions or  occupations  and  any  particular  activity  that  you  can  recall 
on  their  part  in  the  Communist  Party  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes. 

Joe  Danger,  I  think,  was  a  bachelor  and  was  a  workingman.  He  was 
very  regular  in  his  attendance  at  party  meetings,  but  I  didn't  see 
him  other  than  at  the  party  meetings  and,  also,  occasionally  the  party 
would  run  seminars  on  Sunday  down  at  Bill  Reich's  farm  down 
in  one  of  the  rural  areas  of  San  Diego,  and  he  would  go  to  that. 

Margaret  Gartz  was  a  nice  and  simple  woman,  who  was  secretary, 
but  not  too  much  color.  She  was  a  person  that,  again,  was  never 
in  anything  that  I  was  in,  outside  of  East  San  Diego  and  there  Sun- 
day seminars  and  picnics. 

Now,  Nathan  and  Millie  Herman  were  a  young  couple  who  came 
from  a  working  class  background  and  were  party  members  and  very 
faithful.    He  was  a  elevator  operator  at  the  U.  S.  Grant  Hotel. 

Mrs.  Lillian  Hunt  was  the  chairman  of  the  East  San  Diego  group 
while  I  was  a  member. 

Mr,  and  Mrs.  Crosby  Newsome  were  members  but  never  active  in  any 
other  organization  that  I  was  affiliated  with. 

Leo  Gregovich  was  the  Yugoslavian  who  owned  the  Track  Restau- 
rant, and  I  think  another  one  in  San  Diego,  and  he  was  active  in  the 
Yugoslav  group  and  in  the  Cooks'  and  Waitresses'  Union. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  By  that,  do  you  mean  to  identify  them  also  as  a 
member  of  this  Communist  Party  group  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes.  Yes,  Lee  Gregovich  was  a  member  of  the  East 
San  Diego  Branch  of  the  party. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  is  the  basis  for  your  statement  that  he  was  a 
member  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  he  came  to  the  meetings  and  was  active  in  or- 
ganizational work.  In  fact,  he  was  more  active  than  anybody  else  in 
the  club,  frankly.  He  would  pay  kids  to  pass  leaflets  out,  ?tnd  he 
would  even  do  it  himself. 


4610       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Tavenner.  All  right. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Now,  Mary  Arabian  was  very,  very  rarely  active. 
She  would  come  to  meetings  once  in  a  great  while,  and  she  put  on  a  big 
party  for  the  party,  which  I  didn't  go  to,  but  I  think  in  planning  for 
the  party  was  the  first  time  I  ever  knew  she  was  a  member  of  the 
club,  and  this  was  toward  the  middle  of  1947,  but  evidently  she  had 
been  for  a  long  time  and  I  just  didn't  know  it — one  of  those  cir- 
cumstances. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  subseqviently  meet  her  in  Commimist  Party 
meetings  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  she  came  to  1  or  2,  yes.  If  she  came  to  more 
than  that  my  memory  has  failed  me. 

Bob  Watrous  was  a  watchmaker  in  P^ast  San  Diego  and  had  been 
active  in  his  watchmen's  union  for  a  number  of  years.  He  was  a 
person  that  was  really  on  the  verge  of  severing  his  Communist  Party 
ties.    It  was  too  much  of  a  strain  for  him  that  he  was  under. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Let  me  say  at  this  point,  if  any  of  the  persons  whom 
you  have  already  identified  or  will  identify  later  did  break  with  the 
party,  to  your  knowledge,  I  would  like  for  you  to  so  state. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes. 

Jack  Bennett,  I  think,  was  an  employee  of  an  aircraft  company  in 
San  Diego,  but  he  came  to  meetings  for  not  too  long  a  time.  I  think 
I  am  right  on  that.  My  impression  is  that  he  left  the  party,  but  again 
this  is  an  impression,  but  I  can  be  definite  as  to  having  seen  him  at 
the  East  San  Diego  Branch,  of  which  he  was  a  member. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  stated  in  the  early  part  of  your  testimony  that 
you  were  active  in  subscription  work  for  the  Daily  People's  World. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  the  circum- 
stances under  which  you  undertook  that  work  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  was  asked  by  county  leadership  to  take  this 
as  an  assignment,  which  required  that  I  go  to  the  various  clubs  and 
tell  them  the  story  about  the  People's  World  and  encourage  them  to 
get  subscriptions. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  give  us  the  names  of  county  functionaries 
wiio  gave  you  directions  in  that  regard  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No,  I  can't.    I  don't  know  how  I  got  the  information. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  long  did  you  engage  in  that  type  of  work,  and 
over  what  period  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  it  was  in  1947,  and  I  don't  know  that  it  lasted 
moi'e  than  the  month.    It  may  have. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  many  different  groups  or  cells  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  did  you  come  in  contact  with  in  the  performance  of 
that  work  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  think  I  came  in  contact  with  the  La  Jolla 
Club  and  the  National  City  Club,  East  San  Diego  Branch  Club.  I 
don't  think  of  any  others. 

Did  I  mention  one  to  you  a  little  while  ago  ? 

Mr.  TA%rENNER.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  On  the  record. 

What  occasion  did  you  have  besides  doing  work  of  that  type  to  be- 
come acquainted  witli  other  members  of  the  Connnunist  Party  in  the 
greater  San  Dieo-o  area  ? 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4611 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  there  was  one  occasion  when  I  was  asked  by 
George  Lohr  to  go  down  to  National  City  about  an  incident  where  a 
Negro  boy  had  been  hurt,  and  it  was  the  feeling  that  there  might  have 
been  an  issue  involved  here  which  the  party  could  take  action  on,  and 
I  went  to  National  City  with  George  Lohr  and  David  Buchanan,  and 
I  think  we  met  in  the  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dugdale  to  talk  it  over. 
The  consensus  was  that  there  was  no  basis  for  any  kind  of  action,  so 
the  thing  was  dropped. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  meet  with  clubs  other  than  your  home  club 
on  any  other  occasions  besides  those  you  have  described  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  may  have  met  briefly  with  the  professional  club,  but 
of  this  I  am  not  sure. 

Mr.  Ta\'enner.  Will  you  give  us  the  names,  please,  and  all  the 
identifying  information  you  can  regarding  the  Communist  Party 
membership  of  any  other  persons  other  than  those  you  have  already 
named  where  you  have  direct  knowledge  of  your  own,  indicating 
Communist  Party  membership? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Richard  Adams,  who  was  the  first  party  functionary 
to  come  to  me  and  get  me  to  sign  the  application  card  for  my  1946 
membership.  I  was  sick  at  the  time,  and  so  he  came  to  my  home.  I 
had  never  seen  him  before,  and  he  later  ran  for  office  in  National  City 
and  was  elected. 

Mr.  Ta-^^nner.  Wliat  office? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  don't  know.     I  think  it  was  councilman. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  he  run  on  the  Communist  Party  ticket  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No  ;  he  ran  on  some  community  ticket,  and  he  later 
was  caught  accepting  a  bribe  and  was  expelled  from  the  party. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  Jeff  Boehm  is  the  writer  who  had  been  fired  by 
the  San  Diego 

Do  you  remember  Clifford  McKinnon,  who  was  a  Representative  a 
few  years  ago  ? 

Mr.  TA^^i:NNER.  I  remember  the  name. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Do  you  remember  the  paper  he  owned  ? 

]Mr.  Tavenner.  No. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  Jeff  Boehm  worked  for  his  paper,  and  he  was 
fired  by  McKinnon. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  All  right. 

Mr.  Haddock.  And  David  and  Lucia  Buchanan 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record  a  minute. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Go  ahead. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  David  Buchanan. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  position  did  Buchanan  hold  in  the  party  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  don't  know  that  he  held  any  position. 

Now,  Lucia  has  visited  our  East  San  Diego  Branch  meeting,  but  why 
she  came  I  don't  know,  but  she  came  for  some  reason.  I  remember  she 
brought  a  fairly  newborn  baby  along  that  slept  very  well  in  the  other 
room — a  very  lovely  girl,  and  she  appeared  quite  devoted  to  the  goals 
of  the  Communist  Party. 

Lolita  Bunyard  Gibson  was  practically  an  open  Communist.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  a  Unitarian  minister. 

William  Conway  and  Mrs.  Conway 


4612        COIMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  give  her  first  name  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No,  I  can't. 

He  had  been  a  party  member  for  many  years  and  had  been  on  the 
books  of  the  east  San  Die<>o  branch,  but  never  came  to  meetings,  and 
during  the  end  of  m}^  stay  there  he  started  coming  again.  He  was  a 
very  retiring,  pleasant  fellow  to  whom  personal  relationships  meant  a 
great  deal.  I  remember  he  was  one  of  the  few  people  in  the  party 
that  came  to  me  when  I  was  leaving  to  go  to  school  and  made,  you 
know,  real  personal  mention  of  what  it  had  meant  to  know  me,  and 
that  he  hoped  some  time  he  would  meet  me  again.  Whether  these 
people  ever' continued  in  the  party  or  not — my  suspicion  is  that  Bill 
Conway  probably  dropped  out.  I  don't  know  what  he  did  for  a  living. 
I  know  he  was  an  inventor  on  the  side,  one  of  these  inventors  who 
never  make  any  money  off  of  their  inventions. 

Enos  Baker,  Jr.,  I  obviously  know.  He  was  the  organizer  that  suc- 
ceeded George  Lohr,  and  was  organizer  when  I  left  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  On  the  record. 

Mr.  Haddock.  Enos  Baker  was  a  Negro,  and  how  long  he  stayed  a 
party  leader  I  don't  know ;  it  seems  as  though  it  wasn't  very  long. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Let  me  suggest  this  to  you :  When  you  are  naming 
these  persons,  if  they  attended  Communist  meetings  at  which  you 
were  present,  I  believe  eacli  time  you  ought  to  say  so. 

Mr.  Haddock.  All  right. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  this  true  in  this  last  instance  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  believe  that  is  true.  I  don't  remember  any  specifi- 
cally, but  he  was  the  party  organizer,  and  it  was  well  known,  so  there 
is  no  question. 

Lloyd  Hamlin  was  a  party  member  in  the  east  San  Diego  branch. 
As  I  have  indicated  earlier,  he  was  my  main  liaison  to  party  leader- 
ship.   He  was  a  member  of  Naval  Intelligence. 

Harry  Hunt  was  the  husband  of  Lillian  Hunt,  and  he  has  sat  in  on 
some  of  the  meetings  of  the  east  San  Diego  branch,  but  during  most  of 
the  period  that  I  was  a  party  member  he  was  not,  since  he  had  been 
expelled  for  being  too  highhanded,  I  think  is  the  best  term.  He  be- 
came a  little  dictatorial  in  his  handling  of  membership. 

Now,  William  Reich,  I  have  already  mentioned  in  this  testimony, 
and  he  was  a  party  member  and  left  San  Diego  prior  to  me  to  take  a 
job  as  editor  of  some  newspaper  up  in  the  Oakland  area. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  May  I  ask  you  at  this  point,  who  were  connected 
with  the  Daily  People's  World  with  whom  you  dealt  that  were  known 
to  you  to  be  members  of  the  Communist  Party,  if  any  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  You  know,  there  must  have  been  someone  on  the 
county  level  that  I  passed  this  material  through,  but  I  can't  think  who 
it  was.  Your  question  reminds  me  of  this.  I  know  there  was  some- 
one, now.     I  don't  know  who  it  is. 

Now,  Nancy  Rosenfield  was  a  party  member.  She  was  a  party  func- 
tionary. 

Harry  and  Cecelia  Shermis — he  was  a  contractor,  and  I  think  she 
was  the  county  treasurer  of  the  county  organization,  but  I  think  we 
have  held  a  meeting  in  their  home,  which  is  in  La  Mesa,  or  a  party,  but 
1  do  remember  them. 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4613 

James  Toback  was  known  as  a  Communist,  and  would  say  so  to 
people,  though  I  have  never  seen  him  at  an  exclusively  party  meeting 
and  he  was  not  in  my  club, 

I  can't  think  of  any  others  in  the  San  Diego  group. 

Mr.  Ta^^nxer.  We  will  take  a  short  recess. 

(Whereupon,  at  3:58  p.  m.  a  recess  was  taken,  after  which  the 
hearing  was  resumed  at  4 :  05  p.  m. ) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  state  to  the  committee,  please,  whether  the 
Communist  Party  was  successful  during  the  period  you  were  in  San 
Diego  in  carrying  out  its  objectives  within  the  field  of  mass  organiza- 
tion? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  do  not  feel  it  was  effective  in  any  of  its  activities, 
and  the  main  reason  seemed  to  be  that  it  was  unable  to  provide  the  kind 
of  leadership  to  whicli  people  responded.  There  was  a  lot  of  convic- 
tion, in  intensity,  on  the  part  of  Communists  in  relation  to  the  pro- 
grams they  espoused,  but  they  didn't  have  ties  of  sufficient  strength  to 
have  many  followers. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Had  the  party  been  successful  in  recruiting  mem- 
bership in  a  broad  enough  field  it  would  have  been  more  effective  in  its 
operations,  would  it  not  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  That  is  a  good  way  of  stating  it,  and  I  think  it  im- 
plies that  the  doctrine  of  the  party  was  so  narrow  that  they  didn't 
open  the  doors  wide  enough  to  let  people  in. 

It  is  like  a  strict  religious  group  whose  tenets  you  have  to  follow  in 
detail  or  they  don't  want  you  to  belong. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Was  disciplinary  action  of  any  kind  resorted  to 
within  your  knowledge  or  any  methods  of  compulsion  used  in  prevent- 
ing deviation  from  the  Communist  Party  line? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  the  only  disciplinary  action  that  I  can  recall 
was  administered  by  George  Lohr  to  Lloyd  Hamlin  and  me  for  our 
opinion  at  the  election  of  A.  C.  Rogers  to  be  chairman  of  the  political 
action  committee,  that  it  was  an  error. 

There  may  have  been  other  instances,  but  they  are  not  vivid  enough 
for  me  to  remember,  mostly  verbal  haranguing,  and  I  might  add  that 
Mrs.  Lillian  Hunt,  who  was  the  chairman  of  the  east  San  Diego  branch, 
was  quite  an  orally  aggressive  woman. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Off  the  record. 

(Discussion  off  the  record.) 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  was  the  reason  for  your  leaving  San  Diego 
and  going  to  New  York  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  wanted  to  do  graduate  work  in  social  work,  and  the 
reason  for  this  was  that  while  teaching  in  San  Diego  city  schools  my 
classroom  was  right  next  to  the  mental  hygiene  clinic,  and  another 
reason  was  that  I  met  several  social  workers  during  the  war,  and  I 
met  several  in  San  Diego,  and  then  I  married  one. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Wlien  you  entered  Columbia  University  did  you 
continue  in  any  Communist  Party  activities  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  My  membership  was  transferred  to  New  York  City — 
and  then  I  was — it  filtered  down  to  the 

Mr.  Ta\t;nner.  Did  you  take  the  initiative  in  having  your  member- 
ship transferred  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  would  say  it  was  half  and  half.  I  made  no  effort 
not  to  have  it  transferred  because  I  wasn't  ready  at  that  point  to  leave 
the  party. 


4614       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Is  it  the  practice  and  custom  of  the  party  when  a 
member  moves  from  one  locality  to  another  to  take  the  initiative  in  the 
original  place  of  membership  and  cause  the  transfer  to  be  made  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  it  is ;  yes.  In  fact,  they 
came  to  my  house,  Nancy  Rosenfield,  and  I  forget  who  else  was  with 
her,  and  made  out  the  transfer  slip  right  there  at  the  time  they  did  it. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  With  what  group  did  you  affiliate  in  New  York? 

Mr.  Haddock.  A  student  group  within  the  New  York  School  of 
Social  Work. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  And  that  is  a  branch  of  Columbia  University  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  It  is  an  independent  school  which  has  become  af- 
filiated, and  we  get  our  degrees  from  Columbia.  But  the  school  doesn't 
get  any  money  or  administration  from  Columbia. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  tell  the  committee,  please,  about  the  ac- 
tivities of  that  group  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  this  group  was  composed  only  of  student  social 
workers  or  social  workers  in  training,  and  this  was  a  much  more  active 
club  than  the  east  San  Diego  branch,  had  more  experienced  leadership 
and  more  experienced  members. 

The  main  responsibility  of  this  club  was  in  the  Student  Social 
Service  Employees'  Union. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Wliat  did  the  Communist  Party  seek  to  achieve 
through  the  organization  of  a  cell  within  the  student  body  at  that 
school  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  from  as  near  as  I  could  gather,  to  encourage  so- 
cial work  students  to  join  the  Social  Service  Employees'  Union,  which, 
in  itself,  would  give  union  indoctrination  and  party-line  thinking, 
since  it  was  my  understanding  that  this  was  a  party-led  union. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  members  of  that  group  join  that  union? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  we  all  did,  and  this 
was  one  of  their  party  responsibilities,  that  they  go  to  their  party 
meeting  and  then  go  to  the  union  meetings  and  take  leadership  roles 
in  it. 

Now,  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  club  that  I  attended  I  was  asked 
what  I  would  like  to  do.  I  found  at  this  meeting  that  the  members  of 
the  club  were  people  who  had  been  Communists  for  some  time,  and 
just  the  way  that  that  question  was  phrased  was  a  new  concept  to  me, 
since  the  party  discipline  and  leadership  had  not  been  this  astute  on 
the  West  Coast. 

Well,  the  leader,  who  was  Jesse  Nemiso,  suggested  that  I  might 
want  to  work  in  the  student  council,  since  there  was  an  opening  for  a 
representative  from  the  labor  unions  group  on  the  student  council. 
I  was  just  appointed  by  him,  and  then  my  appointment  was  presented 
to  the  executive  council  of  the  union. 

I  worked  on  the  student  council  for  5  out  of  my  6  quarters  at  school. 
From  this  time  on  I  think  I  only  went  to  1  or  2  union  meetings,  and 
my  whole  time  was  devoted  to  student  council  work. 

I  also  commuted  from  Orangeburg,  N.  Y.,  where  I  lived  in  Shanks 
Village,  which  was  a  veterans'  housing  project,  so  I  didn't  have  time 
for  too  much  activity.  I  found  the  party  work  in  New  York  an 
emotional  strain.  I  couldn't  put  my  finder  on  it,  but  I  felt  under 
pressure.  Actually,  I  think  I  did  a  minimum,  even  getting  out  of 
party  meetings  when  I  could,  but  I  did  a  good  job  in  the  student 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4615 

council  and  I  was  elected  president  of  the  student  council  in  May  or 
June  of  1948  and  served  two  quarters,  my  term  expiring  in  December. 

l3uring  that  period  I  was  also  on  tlie  student  faculty  committee, 
which  was  responsible  to  the  students  for  working  out  a  problem  which 
had  resulted  because  of  some  hasty  action  by  the  student  council  of 
the  previous  semester. 

The  president  of  the  student  council  at  that  time,  Mr.  Ray  Lerner, 
also  a  party  member,  decided  to  transfer  a  strike  protesting  a  raise  in 
tuition  from  the  front  of  the  school  itself  and,  on  the  lunch  hour,  to 
a  fiftieth  anniversary  luncheon  in  front  of  one  of  the  leading  hotels 
in  New  York  City.  The  Social  Service  Employees'  Union  partici- 
pated in  this  demonstration,  provided  the  placards,  and  even  sent 
people  to  walk  on  the  picket  line,  and  this  action,  justifiably,  resulted 
in  terrific  hostility  toward  the  student  government. 

Well,  it  was  following  this  that  I  was  elected  to  be  the  chairman  of 
the  council,  and  it  was  2  or  3  days  after  I  was  elected  that  a  meeting 
was  called  to  discuss  this  proposal  of  the  school,  and  I  was  given 
about  6  hours'  notification  on  it.  I  heard  of  it,  but  I  didn't  say  any- 
thing to  anybody  until  suppertime,  and  then  I  met  with  party  leaders 
in  our  club,  and  was  severely  reprimanded  for  not  letting  them  know 
earlier.  Their  hope  was  that  had  they  known,  they  could  then  have 
presented  the  students'  side  of  this  controversy. 

Dean  Margaret  Leo  announced  at  this  meeting,  to  which  all  school 
students  were  invited,  that  the  school  government  would  have  to 
prepare  a  new  constitution  and  that  this  constitution  would  be  subject 
to  faculty  approval.  At  that  meeting  I  felt  it  was  my  obligation  to 
stand  up  and  speak  to  the  dean's  remarks,  which  I  did,  and  the  main 
content  was  that  I  felt  that  this  was  a  hasty  action  on  the  part  of  the 
faculty  and  that  I  hoped  that  the  students  would  be  permitted  to 
organize  their  own  government,  so  for  the  two  quarters  of  my  term 
I  was  the  leader  of  a  divided  student  council  and  in  constant  negotia- 
tion with  the  faculty,  and  I  might  say  that  the  students'  side,  which 
I  attempted  to  broaden  so  that  we  had  a  good  conmaittee,  broad  com- 
mittee to  represent  the  students,  did  not  help  the  matter,  and  I  think 
that  this  is  understandable  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  faculty  had  had 
its  sensibility  so  outraged  by  the  student  action  that  they  just  could 
not  relate  to  us. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  To  what  extent  was  the  Communist  Party  responsi- 
ble for  the  action  in  transferring  the  picket  line  to  the  hotel  where  the 
50th  anniversary  luncheon  of  the  school  was  being  celebrated? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  don't  know  that  they  had  any  part  in  that.  If 
they  did,  I  didn't  know  about  it,  and  I  am  sure  I  would  have.  But  it 
was  done  very  hastily. 

I  may  have  been  counsulted  as  one  of  the  members  of  the  student 
council,  but  this  is  one  of  the  kind  of  things  I  like  to  forget,  that  I 
might  have  been  consulted,  but  I  may  have  been,  so  I  would  share 
the  responsibility  for  this.  It  was  a  verbal  O.  K.,  and  the  whole 
student  council  was  not  consulted. 

At  the  end  of  my  term,  in  fact  before  the  end  of  my  term,  I  sat 
down  with  the  leader  of  the  club,  Jesse  Nemiso,  and  I  told  him  that 
I  was  finding  party  membership  too  great  a  strain,  I  just  couldn't 
take  it,  and  that  I  was  going  to  have  to  get  out.  I  didn't  tell  him 
that  I  was  getting  out  on  any  theoretical  break  with  the  party.  I 
told  him  it  was  too  much  of  an  emotional  strain,  which  it  was. 


4616        COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

The  only  thing  that  did  bother  me  about  the  club  activity  was 
some  of  the  blind  following  that  was  done  by  the  party.  For  example, 
when  Yugoslavia's  leader  objected  to  some  of  the  thinking  of  the 
Soviet  Union,  Tito  immediately  became  the  subject  of  party  hostility ; 
he  was  no  good  any  more.  From  my  point  of  view,  why  shouldn't  he  ? 
He  could  say  what  he  wanted.  He  was  the  leader  of  his  own  country, 
and  if  he  wanted  to  express  an  opinion  that  was  contrary  to  some 
Joe  Blow  up  in  Poland  or  some  place  else,  I  didn't  see  that  this  was 
reason  for,  you  know,  kicking  him  out,  but  this  was  literally,  slavishly 
followed  by  most  of  the  leadership,  and  I  voiced  my  opinion  on  it 
and  they  gave  me  all  the  chance  to  discuss  it,  and  so  on,  but  one  of 
the  things  that  happened  in  the  party  is  that  they  have  a  big,  long 
period  for  discussion,  but  after  the  discussion  and  a  decision  is  made, 
you  know,  you  keep  quiet. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Did  you  have  the  feeling  that  the  decision  had  been 
reached  before  the  discussion  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  there  wasn't  anybody  objecting  to  this  point 
of  view,  let's  put  it  that  way.  The  decision  came  through  some  Com- 
munist national  newspaper  in  Poland. 

There  was  also  a  couple  in  the  club,  not  a  married  couple,  whose 
names  I  don't  remember;  one  was  a  Syrian  girl,  I  do  know.  They 
became  quite  provocative  in  the  meetings,  and  these  two  people  were 
eventually  expelled. 

I  know  there  was  another  girl  in  the  party  who,  on  the  basis  of 
this,  resigned  from  the  party.  She  didn't  go  along  with  this  action. 
Her  name  I  don't  remember,  either,  and  then  I  think  she  left  the 
party  after  I  did,  but  I  heard  that  this  had  happened,  and  I  know 
she  was  very  dissatisfied  with  this  expulsion. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  How  many  members  were  in  the  group  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  organized  at  this  branch  of  Columbia  University  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Oh,  I  would  say  about  15.  There  may  have  been 
more  than  that. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  You  have  given  the  name  of  the  leader  of  the  group. 
Will  you  give  us  the  names  of  any  others  that  you  can  now  recall  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  his  wife  was  a  member. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Do  you  know  her  name  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Only  as  Mrs.  Nemi.  And  Mollie  Eisenstadt, 
E-i-s-e-n-s-t-a-d-t,  I  think. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Can  you  give  me  any  information  as  to  where  either 
or  any  of  these  persons  are  now  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  they  are  all  in  New  York. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  In  what  fields  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  All  in  social  work.  And  I  can't  remember  any 
others — and  the  other  one  I  already  mentioned,  Ray  Lemer. 

It  is  kind  of  funny,  too,  because  this  is  the  group  I  should  have 
known  better  than  I  did,  but  I  forgot  them  very  quickly,  and  I  haven't 
had  contact  with  any  of  them  since. 

You  might  be  interested,  following  my  resignation,  Ray  Lerner  then 
became  chairman  of  the  club,  and  he  asked  me  to  go  out  to  lunch  with 
him,  and  he  told  me — — 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  do  you  mean  by  "chairman  of  the  club"? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Well,  I  think  maybe  the  technical  word  is  organizer. 
He  is  the  president  of  the  club. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Of  the  Communist  club? 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4617 

Mr.  Haddock.  Of  the  Communist  club,  yes. 

We  went  out  to  lunch  together — he  didn't  take  me  out  to  lunch,  but 
Ave  went  out  to  lunch  together  and  he  told  me  he  was  sorry  I  had  left 
the  i^arty.  He  said  he  was  in  the  party  because  he  felt  this  was  the 
best  way  to  fight  fascism,  which  he  felt  was  a  real  threat  to  America, 
and  I  said  to  him  that  he  might  be  right,  but  I  really  didn't  think  so, 
and,  essentially,  that  is  the  way  we  parted,  and  that  was  the  end  of  it. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Have  you  been  approached  since  that  time  to  rejoin 
the  party? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  never  have,  no.  I  might  have  been  if  I  stayed  in 
New  York  and  worked,  because  then  I  would  be  in  contact  with  people 
who  knew  that  I  had  been  a  party  member,  but  out  in  New  Jersey 
I  don't  think  there  would  be  anybody  who  would  have  those  kind  of 
lines. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Have  you  joined  any  other  mass  organizations  or 
front  organizations  besides  those  you  have  already  mentioned? 

Mr.  Haddock.  You  mean  during  the  period  I  was  a  Communist? 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Yes. 

Mr.  Haddock.  The  answer  is  "Yes,"  but  I  can't  give  you  the  names. 
I  am  sure  I  have,  you  know,  one  of  these  things  in  which  you  subscribe 
to  something  and  you  become  a  member. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Or  a  sponsor  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  don't  know  tliat  I  was  ever  a  sponsor.  I  didn't  join 
any  of  these  groups  since  I  left  San  Diego. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Have  you  engaged  in  any  type  of  Communist  Party 
activity  since  you  resigned  from  the  party  in  1948  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  No. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Has  your  severance  of  your  connections  been  full 
and  complete  ? 

Mr.  Haddock.  Yes ;  they  have  been.  As  I  indicated,  the  only  per- 
son that  I  had  any  contact  with — and  I  didn't  realize  he  was  a  Com- 
munist— was  Ralph  Vossbrink,  and  I  sent  him  a  Christmas  card. 

When  I  went  to  San  Diego  3  years  ago  I  didn't  even  look  up  any 
of  the  party  people  that  I  knew.  If  I  met  any  others  they  were  party 
members  at  that  time  and  I  didn't  know  about  them.  I  didn't  even 
look  up  Lloyd  Hamlin,  even  though  I  like  him  very  much. 

I  figured  well,  I  am  no  longer  in  the  party  and  I  just  wouldn't  feel 
particularly  comfortable,  because  I  would  have  told  him  that  I  had 
left  the  party.  I  figured  he  might  give  me  an  argument  or  something,, 
and  I  didn't  see  any  reason  to  defend  mvself .  It  was  my  choice.  I 
went  in  of  my  free  will  and,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  I  didn't  have  to 
justify  my  leaving  to  him  or  anybody  else. 

I  think  my  convictions  about  the  party  have  become  more  crystal- 
lized as  time  has  elapsed.  I  have  had  a  better  perspective  on  it.  It 
was  a  very  intense  emotional  experience  for  me.  I  gave  a  lot  of  time ; 
I  was  out  4  or  5  evenings  a  week.  That  is  why  I  was  in  a  lot  of  activ- 
ity that  I  can't  remember,  and  I  can't  say  that  I  accomplished  one 
thing,  not  a  thing.     It  is  very  sad  but  it  is  the  truth. 

There  is  another  thing  about  the  party  that  perhaps  bothers  me 
as  much  as  anything  else,  that  there  doesn't  seem  to  be  any  continuing 
relationship  with  people  who  are  party  people,  as  people,  if  you  don't 
believe  what  they  believe,  and  that  is  not  right.  When  this  exists 
there  is  something  very  haywire  with  the  people  who  hold  this  point 
of  view. 


4618       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

After  I  left  the  party,  for  example,  the  people  that  I  knew,  I  sent 
them  Christmas  cards.  I  got  one  back  from  Lloyd.  So  I  figured, 
well,  if  this  is  the  way  they  really  feel  maybe  this  is — and  the  people 
in  Hawaii  are  the  same  way,  you  know,  out  of  sight,  out  of  mind, 
that  kind  of  thing.  There  is  something  wrong  with  that.  It  means 
that  whatever  their  own  pet  beliefs  are,  are  more  important  than 
human  relationships,  and  I  don't  feel  that  way,  and  this  was  the  big 
conflict  around  testifying,  that  I  didn't  want  to  hurt  people  regardless 
of  how  they  felt  about  me  now  or  how  they  looked  upon  me.  I  still 
related  to  them  when  I  knew  them  as  human  beings,  and  I  liked  them, 
and  those  I  didn't  like  I  didn't  like.  This  is  why  your  preliminary 
remarks  in  most  of  my  talks  with  your  investigator  made  it  possible 
for  me  to  feel  that  there  wasn't  any  reason  not  to  testify  because  this 
was  going  to  be  used  not  in  a  retaliatory  or  destructive  means  but  as 
a  constructive  means  for  essentially  national  protection  and,  in  the 
long  run,  protection  of  the  very  people  I  may  be  talking  about. 

I  hope  I  have  answered  a  few  of  your  questions. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Yes. 

If  there  is  anything  else  that  you  want  to  say  in  regard  to  your  leav- 
ing the  Communist  Party,  you  are  perfectly  free  to  say  it,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  you  have  covered  the  subject  very  fully,  I  think. 

Mr.  Haddock.  I  think  I  have  covered  it  pretty  well,  my  Communist 
experience,  which  is  in  the  past. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  I  think  now  that  will  be  all. 

(Whereupon,  at  4:  52  p.  m.  the  hearing  was  adjourned.) 


INVESTIGATION  OF  COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE 
STATE  OF  CALIFOKNIA-Part  2 


MONDAY,  APRIL   12,   1954 

United  States  House  of  Representatives, 
Subcommittee  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities, 

Washington^  D.  G. 
executive  session^ 

The  subcommittee  of  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  met, 
pursuant  to  call,  at  11 :  20  a.  m.,  in  room  225,  Old  House  Office  Build- 
ing, the  Honorable  Donald  L.  Jackson  (acting  chairman),  presiding. 

Committee  members  present:  Representatives  Donald  L,  Jackson, 
Gordon  H.  Scherer,  Francis  E.  Walter  (appearance  noted  in  tran- 
script) ,  and  Clyde  Doyle. 

Staff  members  present:  Frank  S.  Tavenner,  Jr.,  counsel;  Thomas 
W.  Beale,  Sr.,  chief  clerk;  Dolores  Anderson,  reporter. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Will  you  raise  your  right  hand  to  be  sworn,  please  ? 

In  the  testimony  you  are  about  to  give  before  this  subcommittee, 
do  you  solemnly  swear  to  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing 
but  the  truth,  so  help  you  God  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  I  do. 

TESTIMONY  OF  FRANCES  BTJRKE 

Mr.  Jackson.  Let  the  record  show  that  the  chairman  has  appointed 
a  subcommittee,  consisting  of  Messrs.  Scherer,  Doyle,  and  Jackson, 
with  Jackson  as  acting  chairman,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  this 
testimony. 

Proceed  please,  Mr.  Counsel. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Will  you  state  your  name  please  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  Frances  Burke,  B-u-r-k-e. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Are  you  accompanied  by  counsel  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  No,  sir. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  It  is  the  practice  of  the  committee  to  advise  all 
witnesses  that  they  are  entitled  to  have  counsel  present  with  them, 
if  they  desire,  and  that  they  have  the  right  to  consult  counsel  at 
all  times.     Do  you  desire  counsel  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  Well,  I  didn't  know  what  I  was  called  for  or  what  it 
was  all  about,  or  anything,  when  I  came. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  That  is  a  matter  that  is  up  to  you,  as  to  whether 
you  desire  to  have  counsel  with  you  or  not. 

Mr.  Scherer.  Perhaps  after  she  listens  to  some  of  your  questions, 
if  she  then  decides  she  wants  counsel,  of  course  she  can  do  so. 

^  Released  by  the  committee. 

4619 


4620       COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Mr.  Jackson.  Yes.  Tell  the  Chair  so,  if  at  any  time  during  the 
course  of  the  interrogation  it  is  your  desire  to  suspend  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  counsel.     Please  don't  hesitate  to  so  state. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  Have  you  been  known  by  any  name,  other  than 
your  present  name  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  I  am  afraid  I  will  have  to  decline  to  answer  ques- 
tions on  the  ground  it  might  tend  to  incriminate  me.  I  don't  know 
what  it  is  going  to  lead  to  and  possibly  what  it  could  lead  to,  and 
I  am  afraid  of  that.  If  that  comes  under  the  ground  of  wanting 
to  have  counsel,  I  presume  I  would  like  to  know^ — if  such  questions 
would — if  I  answer  such  questions  if  it  would  lead  to  having  to 
answer  questions  which  would  tend  to  incriminate  me. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Mr.  Counsel,  I  believe  under  the  circumstances,  the 
indecision  of  the  witness  relative  to  the  questions,  that  it  is  probably 
the  best  thing  to  do  to  extend  the  subpena  to  a  date  when  it  will  be 
possible  for  the  w^itness  to  be  back  with  counsel. 

What  is  your  feeling  regarding  this,  Mr.  Doyle  ? 

Mr.  Doyle.  You  were  subpenaed  to  be  here  this  morning  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  To  be  here  April  2. 

Mr.  DoTT.E.  And  then  given  notice  to  come  today  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  That  is  correct. 

Mr.  Doyle.  And  your  subpena  showed  you  were  to  appear  before 
this  House  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  That  is  right. 

Mr.  Doyle.  Now  you  have  had  time  to  get  legal  counsel,  haven't 
you  ?    An  opportunity  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  This  is  entirely  new  to  me — I  don't  know  the  processes 
of  the  committee. 

Mr.  Doyle.  You  had  no  idea  what  you  were  going  to  be  asked  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  That  is  correct. 

Mr.  Scherer.  Have  you  consulted  with  a  lawyer  since  being 
subpenaed  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  No,  sir 

Mr.  Doyle.  I  think  you  are  right,  Mr.  Chairman. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Very  well.  The  subpena  will  be  continued.  I  would 
very  much  like  to  have  this  witness  this  week  before  the  subcommittee 
leaves. 

(At  this  point  Representative  Francis  E.  Walter  entered  the  hearing 
room.) 

Mr.  Jackson.  Because  of  your  indecision  or  your  lack  of  knowledge, 
I  will  state  that  the  committee  is  in  possession  of  testimony  and  in- 
formation which  relates  to  alleged  activities  on  your  part  in  tjie  Com- 
munist Party.  The  committee  has  two  altei-natives — two  courses  of 
action.  In  this  instance,  first,  we  can  proceed  to  question  you  on  those 
alleged  activities  to  elicit  what  information  you  will  be  able  to  give 
the  committee,  which  will  help  it  in  its  investigations.  Secondly,  the 
committee  will  give  you  time  to  consult  with  counsel  if  you  desire. 

The  choice  is  entirely  up  to  you,  as  to  what  you  want  to  do.  Now, 
knowing  the  purpose  of  your  being  here,  what  do  you  desire  to  do? 

Mrs.  Burke.  ]\Iay  I  ask  a  question  ? 

Mr.  Jackson.  Certainly. 

Mrs.  Burke.  Is  it  permissible  to  have  counsel  present  at  the  time  of 
the  questioning  ? 


COMMUNIST  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA       4621 

Mr.  Jackson.  Oh,  yes.  You  may  have  counsel  at  your  side  during 
the  entire  interrogation.  He  can  advise  you  on  matters  of  constitu- 
tional rights  and  other  matters  where  a  counsel  is  helpful. 

Mrs.  Burke.  Well,  then,  I  think  I  would  prefer  to  have  counspil 
present. 

Mr.  Jackson.  Mr.  Scherer  ? 

Mr.  Scherer.  Where  do  you  live  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  New  York  City. 

Mr.  Scherer.  Wliat  is  your  occupation  now  ? 

Mrs.  Burke.  I  am  an  office  worker. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  That  is  why  I  made  the  suggestion  to  her  that 
possibly  she  could  consult  counsel  today  and  in  that  way  she  would 
not  lose  another  day  from  work  in  coming  back  here.  But  that  is  a 
matter  entirely  of  her  own  decision  as  to  whether  she  desires  to  consult 
counsel  here  or  someone  she  already  knows  in  New  York  City  or  some 
other  place. 

Mrs.  Burke,  Well,  I  certainly  know  no  one  here. 

Mr.  Walter.  It  isn't  absolutely  essential  that  you  have  counsel. 
You  are  not  charged  with  anything — our  questions  are  the  usual 
questions.    TNHiy  don't  you  see  how  far  you  can  get 

Mr.  Jackson.  Yes;  we  could  start.  There  is  an  uncertainty  in  the 
witness'  mind  as  to  whether  she  should  answer  questions,  however, 
in  line  with  my  previous  statement,  we  cannot  proceed  in  the  absence 
of  counsel.  I  would  like  to  get  this  matter  out  of  the  way  definitely. 
I  think  it  is  very  important  for  us  to  do  it  before  the  subcommiftppi 
leaves  for  the  coast,  as  the  witness  is  called  in  relation  to  the  San 
Diego  hearings. 

Mr.  Walter.  This  witness  ? 

Mr.  Jackson.  Yes. 

Mr.  Tavenner.  What  about  Wednesday  ? 

Mr.  Jackson.  Wednesday  is  fine,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  and 
the  subpena  will  be  continued  until  10 :  30  a.  m.,  Wednesday  morning, 
which  will  give  you  an  opportunity,  Mrs.  Burke,  to  consult  with  a 
counsel  of  your  own  choice  and  be  represented. 

For  the  time  being  you  are  excused,  Mrs.  Burke,  and  directed  to 
return  to  this  committee  room  at  10 :  30  a.  m.,  on  Wednesday,  April 
14, 1954. 

Mrs.  Burke.  Yes,  sir ;  thank  you. 

(Whereupon,  at  11 :  30  a.  m.,  the  executive  hearing  was  adjourned.) 


INDEX  TO  PART  2 


INDIVIDUALS 

Page 

Ackersteiu,    Lynu 4608 

Adams,  Richard 4611 

Aderer,    Clair 4581 

Alexander,  Paul   (see  also  Alexander,  Sterling  Campbell) 4568,  4582,  4590 

Alexander,  Sterling  Campbell   {see  also  Alexander,  Paul) 4582 

Anguis,   Robert 4583 

Arabian,    Mary 4610 

Badiier,    Arthur 4583 

Baker,  Enos,  Jr 4612 

Barnes,  Carroll 457!» 

Barroway,   Leo 4593 

Bennett,   Jack 4610 

Bensinger,   Otto 4582 

Bernhart.  Sol 4584 

Berquist,  Julia  (Whitehead) 4."i,si 

Berquiwt,  Ray  (Whitehead) 4581 

Beyrer,    Forest 4583 

Black,  Eddie 4579 

Black,  Elaine  (Mrs.  Eddie  Black;  Mrs.  Karl  Hama) 4579 

Boehm,   Jeff 4608,   4611 

Bollman 4582 

Bowman , 4582 

Bradley,   William  H 4579.  4583 

Breedon,  Wiliner 4581 

Bridges,   Harry 4581 

Bristow 4601 

Browder,  Earl 4000 

Buchanan,  David 4611 

Buchanan,  Lucia    (Mrs.  David  Buchanan) 4611 

Bunyard,  Lolita  {see  also  Gibson,  Lolita) 4597 

Burke,  Ed 4569,  4571 

Burke,  Frances  (see  also  Decker,  Frances) (testimony) __  4619-4021 

Carlson,   Evans 4600 

Carron,    Ben 4581 

Chambers,  Pat 4566,  4567,  4572,  4584 

Ching,  Peter 4601 

Conway,   William 4611,  4612 

Conway,  Mrs.  William . 4611 

Crummins,  Murray 4598,  4599 

Cutler,  Emma 4568 

Darcy,  Sam 4579,  458O 

Decker,  Dr 457O,  4571,  4583 

Decker,  Caroline 4566,  4567.  4570,  4572 

Decker,    Frances 4583 

Delgado,  Mike 4581 

Dugdale,  Mr 4611 

Dugdale,  Mrs 4611 

Edwards,  Carmen 4582 

Eisenstadt,  Mollie 4616 

Fairclough,  Frederick 4601 

Foster,  William  Z 4584 

Fuller,  Bob ■ I II__III_IIII_I     4581 

Gallagher,  Leo """""""-isse,  4587 

i 


ii  INDEX 

Page 
Gannett,  Betty 4579,4586 

Garretsou,  Jimmy 4585- 

Garrigues,  Charles  H.   (Brick) 4577 

Garrison,  Peter  J 4r)79 

Garrison,  Ruth  (Mrs.  Peter  J.  Garrison) 4579 

George,  Harrison 4585 

Gibson,  Lolita  (see  also  Bunyard,  Lolita) 4597,  4605,  4611 

Gitlow,   Benjamin 4584 

Gould,    Robert 45;)S 

Gregovich,  Lee 4582,  4590,  46U9 

Griffin,  Nathaniel 4.>72 

Guinier,    Ewart 4590 

Guiterrez,  Miguel,  Jr 4569 

Guiterrez,  Miguel,  Sr 4569 

Haddock,  Benjamin  Holmes (testimony )__  4595-4619 

Hall,  Jack 4599,  4601,  4602 

Hama,  Karl 4578,  4579 

Hamlin,  Lloyd 4603,  4605-4608,  4612-,  4613,  4617,  4618 

Hancock,  Stanley  B (testimony)—  4564-4592 

Hanoff,  Elmer   (Efim)    (Effim) 4568,4574 

Herman,    Nathan 4609 

Herman,  Millie  (Mrs.  Nathan  Herman) 4609 

Hines,  Captain 4569 

Hollingshead,    Ed 4582 

Hunnewell,  Carroll 4581,  4.582,  4.587 

Hunnewell,  Margaret  (Mrs.  Carroll  Hunnewell) 4582 

Hunt,  Harry 4612 

Hunt,  Lillian  (Mrs.  Harry  Hunt) 4009,  4612,  4613 

Hyun,  Alice 4600^ 

Jasmagy,    Clarence 4581 

Jerome,    V.    J 4591 

Jones,  Claude  L 4579,  4582 

Kahn,    Elinor 4600 

Kantor,  Solomon 4597 

Keckler,  Bessie  A.   (Mrs.  LeRoy  Keckler) 4579,4582 

Keckler,   LeRoy 4582 

Kerrigan,  Margaret  (Margie)   (Mrs.  Tony  Kerrigan) 4.582 

Kerrigan,   Tony 4582 

Kimote 4600 

Korenorlo 4606 

Kyle,    Lacey : 4579 

Lambert,    Rudy 4586 

Lambert,   Walter 4586 

Langer,  Joe 4583 

Leech,  Bert 4582 

Lee,    Margaret 4615- 

Lerner,  Ray 461-5,  4616 

Livingston,    David 4599 

Lohr,  George 4603,  4611-4613 

Lovestone,  Jay 4584 

Lydick,  John 4577,  4582 

Lym,    Frances 4.582 

Lym,  La  Verne 4582 

Maldonado 4.567,   4568 

McDermott,  Beatrice  (Mrs.  James  McDermott) 4582 

McDermott,    James 4582 

McElrath 4600 

McKinnon,  Clifford 4611 

Mitchell 4601 

Mitchnick,  Martin ,„_  4598,  4599,  4600- 

Morkowski,    Ray , 4608 

Nelson,  Steve 4569,  4570,  4571 

Nemi,  Mrs 4616 

Nemiso,  Jesse - 4614,  4615 

Newsome,  Cosby 4582,  4609- 

Nevi^some,  Mrs.  Cosby 4582,  460^ 


INDEX  iii 

Page 

O'Connor,  Oleta  {see  also  Yates,  Oleta  O'Connor) 4579.  4586,  4587 

Olivas,  Juan 4569 

Pellman,    Matt 4579 

Perry,    Pettis 4579 

Ray,  Dorothy -- . 4567,  4568 

Reich,  William  (Bill) 4603,  4604,  4609,  4612 

Reinecke,  Dr 4599 

Richardson,  Esco  L 4583 

Richmond,  Al . ,--  4584,  4585 

Roe,  Mrs.  Grover 4582 

Rogers,  A.  C 4.577,  4582,  4607,  4608,  4613 

Rosenfield.  Nancy , 4612,  4614 

Ryan,  Adrian 4.582 

Salorcino,  Anthony . 4576 

Saunders,  Dave 4579,  4587 

Saunders,  E.  L . 4579 

Schmidt,  Henry 4587 

Schneiderman,  William 4579,  4580,  4.586 

Schumacher.   John .__     4587 

Seldes,    George 4597 

Shermis,  Cecelia  (Mrs.  Harry  Shermis) , 4612 

Shermis,   Harry . 4612 

Smolen,    Morrie . 4.584 

Steinmetz,  Harry  L 4.566.  4606 

Still,  Everett  O 4579,  4.580 

Taylor,    Dan . 4583 

Thibault,    Frank 4.583 

Tito . . 4616 

Toback,  .Tames  E 4.583,  4604,  4613 

Tormey,    James , 4580 

Tosney,    Mike 4583 

Yolmer,    Rose , 4.583 

Vossbrink,  Ralph , 4602,  4617 

Wahlenmaier,  Clarence .__     4.582 

Wahlenmaier,  Vernon . 4582 

Watrous,  Rob 4610 

Weatherwax,   John 4580 

White,    Robert 4.583 

Whitehead,    Julia 4581 

Whitehead,  Ray , 4.581 

Williams,    John 4.584 

Wilson,    Bertha 4584 

Winston,  Pauline , 4582 

Worcester,  Daisy  Lee 4583 

Wosk,  David ' 4.583 

Yates 4587 

Yates,  Oleta  O'Connor  (see  also  O'Connor,  Oleta) 4579 

ORGANIZATIONS 

American  Federation  of  Labor 4.566,  4569,  4.573,  4574 

American  Lesion- 4508,  4605 

American  Newspaper  Guild 45*54 

American  Veterans'  Committee 4604-4607 

Cannery  and  Ap-riculture  Workers  Industrial  Union 4.591 

Central  Labor  Council.  AFL,  San  Diego,  Calif 4565,  4566,  4569,  4,578,  4582 

Cleaners  and  Dyers  Union,  San  Diego 4.587 

Columbia  University 4596,  4613,  4614.  4616 

Columbia  University,  New  York  School  of  Social  Work 4596,  4614 

Communist   International 4584 

Commimist  Party,  East  San  Diego  Branch 4602,  4609,  4610,  4611 

Communist  Party.  La  .Tolla  Club  (California) 4610 

Communist  Party,  Los  Angeles 4569 

Communist  Party,  Mexico 4.572 

Communist  Party,  National  City  Club   (California) 4610 

Communist  Party,  Politlabor  Committee,  California 4569 


iv  INDEX 

I'age 

Couiiminist  Tarty,  Sau  Diejj;o 4577 

Commuuist  Party,   San  Francisco 4579 

Community    Chest 4597 

Congress  of  Industrial  Organizations 4566,  4573,  4574,  4581  45S6,  4607-4t)09 

Congress  of  Industrial  Organizations,  Political  Action  Committee 4607,  4608 

Cooics  and  Waitresses'  Union,  CIO 4609 

Federal  Bureau  of  Investigation 4509 

Florence   School,    San  Diego 4596 

Friends  of  the  Soviet  Union 4590 

International  Association  of  Machinists 4574 

International    Labor   Defense 4579 

International  Longshoremen's  Association 4581 

International  Typographical  Union 4583 

Lenin  Institute,  Moscow 4590 

London  Missionary  Society 4606 

Longshoremen's  Union 4600 

Mental  Hygiene  Clinic  of  Union  County,  Plainfield,  N.  J 4597 

National  Negro  Congress 4605 

Office  of  Naval  Intelligence 4612 

Office  of  Price  Administration 4603 

People's  Bookstore,  San  Diego 4582 

Politlabor  Committee,  California 4569 

Progressive  Party 4605,  4607 

Red  International  of  Labor  Unions 4566 

San   Diego   Board   of   Education 4588 

Spanish  Refugee  Appeal 4606 

Student  Social  Service  Employees'  Union 4614,  4615 

Unemployed    Council 4587 

United  Auto  Workers 4573 

United  Cannerv,  Agricultural,  Packing  and  Allied  Workers  of  America, 

CIO 4566,  4586 

United   Jewish    Appeal 4596 

United    States   Army 4597 

University  of  Hawaii 4599 

Veterans  of  Foreign  Wars 4598,  4605 

Works    Progress   Administration 4583 

World  Congress  of  Communist  Parties  in  Moscow,  1935 4580 

Young  Communist  League,  California 4567,  4568,  4581-4583 

Young  Communist  League,  Los  Angeles 4579 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association 4598 

PUBLICATIONS 

Daily  People's  World 4569^571,  4579,  4584-4586,  4591-4593,  4604,  4610,  4612 

El   Machete 4572 

Hoy 4572 

Obrera,   Lucha 4572 

San   Diego   Sun 4586 

Santa  Cruz  Sentinel  News 4593 

Trade  Union  News 4581,  458^ 

Western  Worker 4584.  4586,  4587,  48;  >J 

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