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COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY 103
think the ardent Soviet Government has changed in any respect from the original Marxian commmiism?
Mr. Menjou. I think they were requested. I don't know who made the request. It was somebody from the Government some 4 or 5 years ago that requested they relax their attitude toward religion. The Conmiunist Party itself will never relax it. They are anti-God. They are atheistic, the party itself. The Russian people are deeply, dee])ly religious people, and their cry for religion is very great. They have been permitted to go to church, yes, but I think that everybody has been watched very carefully. Father Brown, who was the only Catholic priest permitted in Russia for many years, had a small group of people coming to his church. The government itself has never i"elaxed its attitude toward religion at all.
It is still there in the Red Square that "religion is the opiate ofthe masses and the Communist Party itself." They have relaxed nothing, nothing. They allow a few more people to go to church, but they watch everybody. The secret police watch the people so carefully that they have complete control over there. They have complete control. The Russian people are completely enslaved.
Mr, Vishinsky is enslaved. Mr. Molotov is enslaved. They are all frightened to death. Mr. Stalin would just as soon kill them as look at them. He killed all his close friends. There is excellent evidence that he poisoned Lenin, Gorky, and that he also executed the pharmacist, the head of the NKVD at the time, who was the witness. He acted very much like Mr. Capone. He committed the murders and then killed the witnesses.
Mr. McDowELi.. ]\Ir. Chairman, in addition to being a great American, here is one of the greatest American patriots I have ever met.
The Chairman. Mr. Vail.
Mr. Vail. Mr. Menjou, do you think there is justification for the action of this committee in its instituting an investigation of Communist activities in Hollywood?
Mr. Mexjou. Do I think so? Certainly.
Mr. Vail,. In the daily papers in the past few days I noticed a statement that was signed by a number of prominent Hollywood actors and actresses deploring the investigation and describing it as a smear. What is your impression of the people who were signatoi*y to that statement ?
Mr. Mexjou. I am just as shocked and amazed — which I believe were their words — as they said they were shocked and amazed. I don't believe any of them has ever made a serious study of the subject. I believe they are innocent dupes; that is my impression of them, innocent dupes.
I guarantee not one of them could name four men on the Politburo ; I guarantee not one of them could name a date or an action against Russia or a violation of the antiaggression pacts which Mr. Stalin violated. If these people will only read and read and read and read, they will wake up. I have all the sympathy in the world for them ; I am sorry for them.
Mr. Vail. I have no more questions.
The Chairmax. Mr. Nixon.
Mr. Nixox. Mr. Menjou, from what you have said to charge a person with being a Communist is a very serious thing ?