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1536 COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY niittee. Did you find at any time during your membership in the Communist Party, that your career was in any way facilitated through any connections you had in the Communist Party in the studios ? Mr. Townsend. No; I have no recollection at any time where I might have obtained a position, a job, a screen-writing job because I was a Communist. As a matter of fact, I would say the reverse might be true. During the past 3 years, since I have been out of the party, I have found difficulty obtaining employment in the film industry. Mr. Jackson. You have found difficulty ? Mr. Townsend. Yes, I have. Mr. Jackson. Since you left the Communist Party ? Mr. Townsend. Yes. Mr. Jackson. You experienced difficulty in finding employment? Mr. Townsend. That's right. Mr. Jackson. That was the import of my question. There have been charges that in some instances, at least, the Communists, through their interlocking connections and associations, were able to obtain or conversely deny employment to their favorites or their enemies. Mr. Townsend. This may be true. I am saying, in my own instance,. I don't recall any example of that. Mr. Jackson. Did you say who your agent was ? Mr. Townsend. My agent is the William Morris Agency. Mr. Jackson. William Morris Agency? Mr. Townsend. Yes. Mr. Jackson. You touched on the matter of the Duclos letter and the abrupt about-face in party line that the letter caused at that time. Do you also have knowledge of the Albert Maltz articles? Mr. Townsend. Yes. Mr. Jackson. Would you explain the nature of the Maltz affair very briefly \ Mr. Townsend. Well, as I recall it now, Mr. Maltz wrote an article which appeared in the New Masses, asking for more freedom for left- wing writers and speaking of art for art's sake, and also that the Com- munists—the left wing should not blacklist or denounce non-left-wing writers, people who had once been left wing and had left. Mr. Jackson. What reception was accorded that article upon its appearance by the Communists and fellow travelers in the writing profession \ Mr. Townsend. The immediate reception locally was very good. Then the national party headquarters evidently felt that this was an error and a man, I believe, named Samuel Sillen was sent out here to correct this error, and it evidently was corrected because Mr. Maltz later wrote another article for the same magazine, the New Masses, recanting. Mr. Jackson. That was indicative, was it not, of the measure of independent thought permitted a member of the Communist Party? Mr. Townsend. I would say so; yes. Mr. Jackson. Are you presently a member of the Screen Writers' Guild? .Mr. Townsend. Yes, I am. Mr. Jackson. What can you tell the committee of the existence of two factions known, respectively, as the all-guild committee and the progressive caucus within the Screen Writers' Guild?