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

1446 COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Walter. Jim Tracy; yes. Mr. Ashe. I don't know whether at that time he was a member of any union or whether he was merely assigned by the party to infil- trate into the railroad brotherhoods by making contact with rank-and- file railroad workers. I have no knowledge as to whether he was actually a railroad worker himself or not. In the case of Jeff Kibre, 1 have seen his name periodically in local newspapers in connection with fishermen's union activity. Mr. Walter. Do you know whether or not the rank and file of these several unions are aware of the fact that their leaders are members of the Communist Party ? Mr. Ashe. In the case of the fishermen's union, I think they would be singularly stupid if they didn't know. Mr. Walter. Mr. Ashe, in your judgment, should the Congress enact a law making membership in the Communist Party illegal ? Mr. Ashe. I didn't get the question, sir. Mr. Walter. Do you believe that the Congress of the United States should enact legislation making it illegal to be a member of the Com- munist Party? Mr. Ashe. I certainly do. Mr. Walter. Have you given very much thought to this question ? Mr. Ashe. I have given a very great deal of thought to it because, having been a Communist, I think I have a little bit different under- standing of the Communist Party and the Communist conspiracy than many non-Communists, anti-Communists who have felt that the Com- munist Party should not be outlawed. I think that two immediate courses of action should be taken against the Communist Party. First, 1 think that they should be denied the use of the mails. I think there Is something fundamentally wrong in this country, when we are fighting an enemy in Korea, which enemy has allies in our own midst and which party, the Communist Party, is virtually, in effect, being subsidized by the United States Government in the form of second- class mailing privileges. I think this is an outrage. I know that if the second-class mailing privileges were taken away from the Com- munist Party, it would strike a body blow from which it would be almost impossible for it to recover. The rank and file Communist Party members, and I have known them for years—I know their mental capacity—would be unable to follow the Communist Party line if it were not disseminated to them in newspapers that are going freely through the mails to them. I think that there is a funda- mental contradiction here in this country when, on one hand, we consider the Communists a subversive organization, yet on the other hand we permit them not only the use of the mails but give them special mailing privileges, mind you, second-class mailing privileges, which amount to permitting their subversive literature to go through the mails at practically no cost to them. It is a real subsidy to them, and that is what our United States Government is doing, I regret to say. In the second place, I think that the Communist Party should be outlawed on the basis—and I would like to consult my notes here, because I would to make this very clear—on the basis that the Com- munist Party in fact is a subversive, conspiratorial—is a conspira- torial agent of a foreign government. I think we should end once and for all that it is a legitimate American political party with legiti-