Communist infiltration of Hollywood motion-picture industry : hearing before the Committee on Un-American activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-second Congress, first session (1951)

496 COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY try to point out to the committee those persons whose records have been firmly established, and then I would like to also point out to the com- mittee the names of those persons who carried the program within the conference which coincided with the Communist program, so that they can be checked, because I think that is important also. Mr. Wood. Mr. Brewer, I request that you try to talk sufficiently loud so that we can hear you up here. And I have an announcement to make. I am told we are honored this morning to have in the com- mittee room some 10 or more members of the German Parliament. I am glad to extend to them a welcome here. Proceed. Mr. Brewer. First of all, I think it is very important to recognize that in this conflict in Hollywood, as is almost always the case in a conflict in which the Communists are involved, you never get a chance to fight it out on a pure Communist and anti-Communist issue. If you did, it would be relatively simple. The real danger of Commu- nists is that they come in and exploit a disagreement, as they are doing throughout the Nation and throughout the world, and create a situa- tion which causes a violent conflict; and while they may not be the ones who fight all of the war, they are certainly the ones who direct it and who benefit from the victory. In this case we had two separate and distinct forces at work in the Conference of Studio Unions. The main group was the pro-Commu- nist group, which was under the leadership of Herbert K. Sorrell. The question of Mr. Sorrell's arrangements with the Communist Party has been one that has been under dispute for a long time, and it is a matter of which I made a very thorough study, because in my position I had to know whether Mr. Sorrell was loyal to the principles of the American Federation of Labor, which he purported to be, or whether he was an agent of the Communist Party. So far as the conclusions are concerned, they are positive in the fact that he was, or at least had been, a member of the Communist Party, and that he was working in close collaboration with them, and that every time the issue came down, for the most part he took the Communist Party position. That doesn't mean that there weren't some conflicts as this thing progressed, because there were. We made a very thorough study of them so that we knew exactly where they were. Mr. Sorrell, according to the evidence that has been presented—and there is a very complete documentation that was presented before the House Committee on Ed- ucation and Labor in connection with the investigation of this strike. There was presented in evidence at that hearing a Communist Party receipt book which was identified as a Communist Party receipt book. There was also introduced in evidence at this hearing a control card which was identified as a Communist Party record. Mr. Velde. Communst Party record for whom? Mr. Brewer. It was written in the name of Herbert Stewart. It was alleged that Herbert Stewart was the party name of Herbert K. Sor- rell. Those records were submitted to the FBI, and the FBI made an analysis of the handwriting on the control card and on the Communist Party receipt book, and they issued a report to the committee which is on page 2281 of volume 3 of those proceedings, in which they positively identified the handwriting on the Communist Party receipt book and