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

1452 COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY membership they can have half to two-thirds of the people in this room, and the rest of the city of Los Angeles is indifferent. Maybe a few representatives of organizations are here, but Mr. Doyle. I noticed you specified that there was a program of infiltration into unions, and you said "even to the extent of paying dues; we placed members in trade-unions and paid their dues." Would you say to us that it would be your opinion that that sort of a program is still going on ? Mr. Ashe. I don't think it is necessary now. Very few people are unemployed. I imagine the average Communist is making a pretty fair livelihood and is able to pay his own way in his trade- unions, and I imagine the party would expect him to. In those days he could not. He did not have the money. The dues, the initiation fees in some of the A. F. of L. unions were $20, $30, $50, and $100. This is a considerable sum of money for an unemployed worker to raise to get into a union, especially if he is not going to work in the trade. Mr. Doyle. Our distinguished counsel asked you about the ques- tion of force and violence. I am glad he did. I want you to help me, if you can, to get your opinion on two Federal statutes that are in existence. I am not sure that you are familiar with them. I refer to Public Law 831 of the Eighty-first Congress. We know it as the Subversive Activities Control Act; and in that, in section 2, our declaration of congressional policy states this: As a result of evidence adduced before various committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Congress hereby finds that there exists a world Communist movement which, in its origin, its development, and its present practice is a world-wide revolutionary movement whose purpose is by treachery, deceit, sabotage, terrorism, and any other means deemed neces- sary to establish a Communist totalitarian dictatorship in the countries through- out the world through the medium of a world-wide Communist organization. In your judgment was that declaration by Congress in 1950 an accurate appraisement of the condition at that time? Mr. Ashe. I think it is a very restrained statement. Mr. Doyle. What do you mean by "restrained"? Mr. Ashe. Well, I think I would have stated it a little more force- fully. Mr. Doyle. "What would you have said ? Mr. Ashe. I wouldn't want to formulate it offhand. I mean Mr. Doyle. You are not criticizing Congress, are you? Mr. Ashe. I am not criticizing Congress. I think it is a restrained, judicial statement of fact. I happen to be sort of a person that can very easily blow his top, and if I didn't have microphones here I would probably use a little more forceful language to characterize the Communist international conspiracy. That is the only point I wish to make. Mr. Doyle. Well, now, that leads me to this question: Under the statute under which this committee here today is functioning, there is this declaration: The Committee on Un-American Activities as a whole, or by subcommittee, is authorized to make from time to time investigations : (1) The extent, character, and objectives of un-American propaganda in the United States ; (2) the diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American propaganda that is in- stigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks the principles of the form of government as guaranteed by the Constitution; and, lastly, all