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2344 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Blankfort. No, sir. Mr. Tavenner. I mean you were working for the Daily Worker at that time. Mr. Blankfort. Not to my recollection did I work for the Daily Worker as late as June 6, 1936. I use the word "work." I don't feel like I worked for the Daily Worker. Mr. Tavenner. You were making contributions during this period o± time to the Daily Worker; were you not? *ff" B If NKF0RT - I don't recall any. There may have been. I have no hies, Mr. Tavenner. I don't recall any. Mr. Tavenner. Well, you saw the article at the time that it ap- peared, or shortly thereafter; did you not ? + i^ Ir ' 5 1 LA ^ F °? 1 T - * have no recollection of seeing this article before this. Ihe likelihood was that in June I may have been awav from New York. J Mr Tavenner. Later in the article appears another statement that 1 want to call to your attention. It is this: himLV P weuTe^rdea. er ^ ^ helP rGViVify ** gFe&t traditi ° n wiU find Will you tell the committee what a proletarian writer is? (Representative Francis E. Walter left the hearing room at this point.) to Mr Blankfort Well that phrase kind of tips it off to me that I diclnt write it. I may have used the phrase "proletarian writer," but I sometimes tried to qualify it because at that time there was a great discussion as to what is a proletarian writer. Is he a man who works as a member of the proletariat—that is, the working class—or is he a man who writes about the workino- class« J!J?, u T ask ™ e ,T* at T th ? u ^t then about the phrase "proletarian writer, I couldn't be certain about it. It is not qualified here. The feeling then which I shared was that a writer should participate in the deep currents of his time. I don't believe that a man can be a good writer without loving people. Now, I don't mean to say that people are limited to just a working- class people I think we are all workers. But you had to go out and you had to love these people if you were going to be a good writer. 1 ou had to feel them. I came from a closed corporation. I was brought up in a family, and I didn't know much of the world. I cer- tainly had never known a union man. Mr- Tavenner This was another of those stereotyped expressions of the Communist Party used frequently by it in referring to writers? Mr. Blankfort Mr. Tavenner, may I comment on that? Mr. Iavenner. Yes. Mr. Blankfort I think if you were to look through the periodicals of that time the New York Times, and all the periodicals—right, left and center—I think you would find that these phrases had widespread use, that many people who were not members of the Communist Party used these words. J This was the current of the time, the way Fair Deal now has become the current. One can use the word even in a sympathetic sense with- out indicating his connections. I mean, these were current words of the time.