Jurisdictional disputes in the motion-picture Industry : hearings before a special subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first-session, pursuant to H. Res. 111 (1948)

MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 1551 existence ; whether it was before or after March 12, when the '45 strike started. Mr. LE\Tr. I will give yon the date in just a moment. I have it here in this statement. Mr. Owens. Inasmuch as you have been stopped there for a moment, I was quite interested in something you said where you used the word "isolationist" and the antonym of that was "prowar." Does that mean the anti-isolationist is prowar? Mr. Levy. No, sir; I am just reading the pamphlet. I am not expressing any personal opinion except reading the pamphlet. Mr. Ow^ENS. You are vouching for it, of course ? Mr. Levy. I am vouching for the historical facts stated here, not the terminology of an international or political nature. [Reading.] This letter was published everywhere in the official Communist press and it constituted a criticism of the past "line" and demanded a change back to the program of Marx and Lenin which had been abandoned during the war. On June 6, 1945, the Hollywood Democratic Committee became the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. The names of those persons of the recently dissolved Hollywood Democratic Committee who are now supporting the present Communist-inspired strike in the Hollywood studios are John Cromwell, Norval Crutcher, John Green, Irving Pichel, Gloria Stuart, Frank Tuttle. E, Y. Harburg, Edward Dmytryk, Ira Gershwin, Rev. Clayton Russell. All of the above are members of the Executive Board of the Hollywood Democratic Committee (official literature of organization). Labor's Non-Pabtisan League YANKS are not COMING TO FIGHT STALIN-HITLEB This Communist-controlled organization came into existence before the war started. Up until the Stalin-Hitler pact it supported President Roosevelt and the New Deal, supported the United Front against Hitler and was for "collective security" against nazism. But wlien the Stalin-Hitler pact was made and the Communist Party changed from anti-Hitlerism to isolation, the Labor's Non-Partisan League changed also, opposed our entry into the war, opposed aid to England and adopted the slogan "The Yanks Are Not Coming." Herbert K. Sorrell was State president of the organization during this latter period, opposed the third term for President Roosevelt and Sorrell denounced him as leading us into war ( People's World, May 2, 1940) . I want to say something about Mr. Sorrell's supporting President Roosevelt. I understand there was one instance when, not following the Communist Party line, he did at that time support the reelection of President Roosevelt, notwithstanding the fact that it was the Communist Party line to oppose him. Regarding the Communist character of Labor's Non-Partisan League, Vierllng Kersey, superintendent of Los Angeles schools, stated through the public press that : "In 1938, Superintendent Kersey said, he requested an opinion of County Counsel J. H. O'Connor on the right of California Lnbor's Non-Partisan League to use school facilities as a meeting place under the so-called California Civic Center law * * * O'CoTinor ruled at that time that the California Labor's Non-Partisan League was affiliated with the Communist Party." (Los Angeles Examiner, September 7, 1944.)