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COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 4251 Mr. Tavenner. Now you are at liberty to make any statement that you desire to the committee regarding your alleged participation in the Communist Party or the Communist Political Association. Mr. Schoenfeld. Well, sir, until 1944, the words '"Communist" and "communism" had absolutely no meaning to me, save that 1 knew them as any layman, but was completely disinterested, and I had always, in Washington, been connected with the New Deal and with the liberal policies of President Eoosevelt, and upon his death Mr. Stanley Roberts and I, wishing some participation in what we con- sidered the liberal cause, accepted what was told to us about the Communist Political Association and joined, after the death of Mr. Roosevelt. I joined believing what I had been told, what I had been told by Mr. Albert Maltz, John Howard Lawson, Dalton Trumbo, Henry Myers. These four gentlemen had, previous to April 1945, at various times talked to me about the Communist Political Association. They knew me to be a follower of Mr. Roosevelt's policies, and they kept explaining to me how the CPA had backed Mr. Roosevelt in the last election. They pointed out to me that the association had no candi- date of its own, since it was not a political party. They emphasized that the association believed in gradual social change and was working and would continue to work within the framework of the existing Democratic Party. Mr. Roberts and I kept discussing the pros and cons of joining, and it was only with the shock of President Roosevelt's death in April 1945 that he and I agreed that the CPA was a group where we could best function as liberals. I got in touch with Mr. Maltz, who arranged for me to attend a meeting, and Mr. Roberts and I joined at approximately the same time. Mr. Tavenner. Let me interrupt you there. How long had you known Mr. Maltz ? Mr. SciiOENFELn. "Well, Mr. Maltz, I had known personally since the Yale Drama School, where he had been a fellow student, but I had not seen him until the fall of 1944. I had not seen him at all. And because we were both screen writers, I met him at a meeting, and subsequently was invited to his house, where he then began to talk about the Communist Political Association. Mr. Tavenner. Well, in the conversations that you had with Mr. Albert Maitz, Mr. Dalton Trumbo, Mr. John Howard Law T son, and Mr. Henry Myers, were those discussions of a character which were designed to induce you to become a member of the party? Mr. Schoenfeld. Oh, yes. Mr. Tavenner. Did they solicit your membership, in the course of the conversation ? Mr. Schoenfeld. Well, it took, you see, from the early fall of 1944 until April 1945 for me to be convinced. They emphasized the way in which—how the association had a program of gradual political change. And since in Washington I had been a stanch follower of the liberal doctrines of the administration, and here I was in Hollywood with no activity, I finally believed them.