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COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY 141
varyin<r (le<iree and a lesser (U'<iree of viojilance — or realization, which 1 think is a better \vor(l — has been shown by other studios.
However, since I testified in Los An<2;eles this s])rin^, I am happy to say there has been a <j;rowin<j; awareness in the motion-picture industry of the menace of communism; that it has been fought in all the unions and the guilds, and successfully in most of them.
Mr. Smith. As an executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, what do you think about the condition there?
Mr. McCiuiNNESs. I don't think it is the whitest condition in the industry. I think we have our share of Communists in our employ.
Mr. Smith. You stated you feel it has been successfully combated in the guilds. Is that your opinion as to the Screen Writers Guild?
Mr. McCtuinness. I (qualified that by saying some of the guilds. I do not believe it has been successfully combated in the Screen Writers (xuild.
There is a group in the guild now attempting to organize and to )iresent at a forthcoming election a slate of candidates opposed to comnumism.
Mr. Smith. Mr. McGuinness, do you know who Alvah Bessie is?
Mr. McGuinness. Yes.
Mr. Smith. Who is he?
Mr. McGuinness. Alvah Bessie is a former movie critic of the New Masses who came to Hollywood, I think — yes, in the employ of Warner Bros. He was known amongst writers I knew on the Warner Bros, lot as the party's hatchet man.
Mr. Smith. Do you consider the New Masses a Communist publication?
Mr. Mc(iuiNNEss. I do.
Mr. Smith. If a studio releases a person who is suspected of comnumistic activities w^ould be be blackballed in other studios?
Mr. McGuinness. No.
Mr. Smith. AVhat would happen, in your opinion?
Mr. McGuinness. Hitherto he has usually been promptly hired and sometimes, or perhaps frequently, at an increased salary.
Mr. S3HTH. Do you think that is a bad situation in the industry?
Mr. McGuinness. I would like to answer that a little at length.
I Ijidieve there is no legal obligation on anybody to hire anybody, nor is there any legal com]:)ulsi<)n on anybody to tire anybody. I would regret that any man was deprived of his livelihood for his political opinions no matter ]\n\^ abhorrent those opinions are to me.
I think, however, there is an obligation on the Congress of the United States as greafor greater than on the citizens, who have sworn to defend this country against all its enemies, foreign or domestic, to recogiuze that we have in our midst an active tiftli column, a group of Quislings who intend to destroy our form of government in the service of a foreign ideology.
• Mr. Smith. How many writers would you think the industry would lose; that is, top-flight writers, if all the Communist writers were released?
Mr. Mc(tuinness. Among the important writers, that is, the actually to})-flight writers, somewhere between 10 and 15.
Mr. Smith. How many pictures a year do you think the studios would lose ^
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