Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., Area, Hearings, Part 2United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities
History
Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., Area, Hearings, Part 2
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities
Communism -- Washington (State) -- Seattle
Mr. VELDE. I certainly thank you for that, Mr. Dennett. That was my
impression, too. Not being in a position to know as much about it as
either of you I did get the impression that she told a very valid story.
Mr. DENNETT. I am sure she was accurate.
Mr. VELDE. I appreciate your verification of her story as to the extent
of the Communist Party in this area.
Another thing I would like to get cleared up before we go further, Mr.
Counsel and Mr. Chairman, is a matter of your identification of Harry
Lundeberg as having attended fraction meetings. I think you probably
are as anxious to get that cleared up as we are. We know that Mr.
Lundeberg has been a very faithful anti-Communist for a long time.
Would you like to make further comment on that?
Mr. DENNETT. I didn’t expect that that would come up, and I was quite
surprised at the furor it has created. I had no idea at the time that I
mentioned this that it was of such importance or that such importance
would be made of it.
I think perhaps it requires that I give you a little bit more detail of
how I had such knowledge so that you may judge for yourselves as to the
accuracy or validity of what I had to say.
Mr. VELDE. Actually, of course, back in those days about which you
were testifying there was nothing seriously wrong in the minds of most
American people with attending fraction meetings of the Communist
Party. So I agree with you. I don’t see any reason for all the furor.
But I thought possibly you would like to clear it up.
Mr. DENNETT. I certainly would, sir. Thank you for asking me.
The first I heard of the furor, a friend of mine called me on the phone
last night and asked me if I had read the morning paper which carried
the story of Mr. Lundeberg’s denial. I said I had not. So he read it
to me, and he asked me what I had to say about it then. Some of my
personal friends did. And I had to remind him, just as I just stated
to you, that I had no idea it was going to have that much importance
attached to it.
But let me give you the facts as it occurred.
You will recall in my testimony I mentioned going into the
Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, what was then the Ferry Boatmen’s
Union. It was in 1936--Well, it was in 1935, the end of 1935 when the
first strike occurred against an arbitration award.
At that time the Maritime Federation of the Pacific had been already
organized. Mr. Lundeberg was the president of it. Their headquarters
were here in Seattle. He had an office here in a building close to the
Pioneer Square. I believe it is properly called Pioneer Place. Mr.
Lundeberg held an office there as the president of the federation, and
his first and able assistant was Mr. Ernest Fox whom I have mentioned
before.
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