Hearings regarding the communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session. Public law 601 (section 121, subsection Q (1947)

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COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY 485 Civil Rights." This paiiiphlt't c.-ilk'd upon civil rights, labor, religious, racial, and other organizations and individuals to attend a Congress on Civil Rights in I>etroit on April 27-28, 1940, to formulate and agree upon a national program to defeat the offensive and reactionary and Fascist forces and to assure the maxiiHum ututication of effort to advance that program. The summons contained a partial list of sponsors. This list included the name of Ring W. Lardner, Jr. The Civil Rights Congress is the successor to the International Labor Defense, legal arm of the Communist Party. ;"). The American Friends of Spanish Democracy and the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were a part of the Comnnniist Party program to provide aid and assistance to the Spanish Loyalists in response to instructions received from the Conmiunist International at the Seventh Communist Internatitmal Congress held in 1035 in Moscow. The American Friends of Spanish Democracy was cited as a Communist front by the Special Committee on Un-American Activities in the report of March 29, 1944, and by the Committee on Un-American Activities in the rei>orts of June 12, 1947, and September 2, 1947, The Daily Worker of April 8, 1939, page 4, states that Ring Lardner, Jr., was affiliated with this organization as a signer of a petition to lift the arms embargo which the American Friends of Spanish Democracy sponsored. His affiliation with the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is shown by the New Masses of April 2, 1940. page 21, which lists him as a signer of a letter which that organization sent to the President of the United States. The Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was cited as a Comnnmist front by the Special Committee on Un-American Activities in the report of March 29, 1944, and as "under Communist control" by Professor John Dewey, chairman of the Committee for Cultural Freedom, April 1940. 6. The League of American Writers was affiliated with the International Union of Revolutionary Writers, with headquarters in Moscow, and has been jiledged to the defense of the Soviet Union and the "Use of art as an instrument of the class struggle." The Special Committee on Un-American Activities cited it as a Conmuuiist front in the reports of January 3, 1940, June 25, 1942. and March 29, 1944. It was also cited by former Attorney General Francis Biddle in these words: "The overt activities of the League of American Writei"s in the last 2 years leave little doubt of its Communist control" (Congressional Recoi-d, September 24. 1942, page 7686). Ring Lardner, Jr., according to the Daily Worker of Septenibei' 14, 1942, page 7. and People's Woi'ld of September 23, 1942, page 5, was a signei* of a statement of tlie League of American Writers in behalf of a second front. He was also affiliated with the Hollywood ci)ai)ter of the league of American Writers as a signer of the cable sent to Leon Blum, President Roosevelt, and Secretary Hull for supplies to Loyalist Spain, as shown bv the New Masses of Mai-ch 29, 1938, page 21. 7. The Writers Congress was sponsored by the Hollywood Writers Mobilization which is the successor to the Hollywood bi-anch of the League of American Writers. The program of the Writers Congress, 1943, lists Ring Lardner, Jr., as the chairman of the panel on minority groujis. 8. Tlie Oi)en Letter to American Liberals was a denunciation of the efforts made to defend Leon Trotsky and a reaffirmation of faith in the Soviet Union. It also defended the Moscow triiils which were characterized by forced confessions and \v'ere staged as political deuionstrati(»ns rather than trials, in our sense of the term. The Open Letter to American Liberals, of which Ring Lardner, Jr., was a signer, according to Soviet Russia Toda.v, March 1937, pages 14 and 15. was cited as a Communist-front pro.iect by the Special Committee on Un-American Activities in the rei)oi-t of June 25, 1942. Soviet Russia Today was formerly the publication of the Friends of the Soviet Union and has l)een cited as a Communist-front publication by the Special Committee on LTn-Ameriean Activities on June 25, 1942, and March 29. 1944. and by the Committee on Un-American Activities on June 12. 1947, and Seiiteinl)er 2. 1947. 9. The Progressive (^itizens of America has been described as an "allege<lly liberal organization which believes in cooperating with Communists" l)y the Committee on Un-American Activities in its report of June 12, 1947. It was formed by the pro-Communist group of the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions ^vhich dissolved because of the issue of communism. According to the Daily Worker of May 16, 1947, jiage 11, a manuscript by Ring Lardner, Jr.. was sold at auction for the benefit of the literature divi.-;ion <if the Progressive (^itizens of America.