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 2369 California in Los Angeles on April 18, 1940, in order to induce students to stage a peace strike, according to the People's World for April 19, 1940. 11. The American Youth for Democracy according to the official statements of its leaders was formerly the Young Communist League. On April 17, 1947, the Committee on Un-American Activities issued a report on the American Youth for Democracy in which it called upon the Governors or legislatures of the various States and the administrative heads of the colleges and universities "to thoroughly expose the Communist connections of the American Youth for Democracy as well as the inimical objectives of the Communist Party in America." The Congressional Record of March 24, 1947, contains a statement made by the Honorable J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in which he spoke of the American Youth for Democracy as the organization "which conceals the evils and the corruption of American communism. This name is but a new one for the former Young Communist League. It reflects all the sinister purposes of the Communist Party of the United States. It employs the same techni(pies and has the same objectives, namely the conversion of our haven of liberty and freedom to worship as we choose to a godless, totalitarian state where the adversaries of democracy can do as they please." The American Youth for Democracy was cited as a Communist front by the Special Committee on UnAmerican Activities in the report of March 29, 1944, and it was cited as subversive by Attorney General Tom Clark in a report released December 5, 1947. The People's World for December 1, 1944. lists Herbert K. Sorrell as a sponsor of the American Youth for Democracy. 12. The People's Educational .Center in Los Angeles was Communist directed. It was started in the fall of 1943 with a loan of $1,000 from the Writers School of the League of American Writers and it received a rather complete Communist library from the Los Angeles Workers' School. The People's Educational Center has been cited as a Communist front organization by the Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities of the California legislature and records show that numerous members of the faculty and staff of the People's Educational Center were card-holding members of the Communist Party, among them Carl Winters, Eva Shafran, Mildred Raskin, and P>ruce Minton. A booklet announcing the curriculum for the winter of 1947, listed Herbert K. Sorrell as a member of the advisory board of the People's Educatioiial Center. A catalog for the 1947 fall term listed Herbert Sorrell as a member of the Center's board of trustees. 13. At the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow in 1935, George Dimitroff, general secretary, called upon all affiliated Communist Parties to make the greatest efforts in behalf of the compaign of the Spanish Communists. A number of projects wei-e organized by the Communists in resi)onse to this request, and among them was the United Spanish Aid Committee. An official letterhead of the (»rganization carried the naine of Herbert K. Sorrell as a sponsor of the west coast branch of the United Spanish Aid Committee. 14. The Motion Picture Democratic Committee was cited as a Communist front by the Committee on Un-American Activities in the report of September 2. 1947, and also by the California Committee on Un-American Activities. Melvyn Douglas and Philip Dunne resigned from its executive board because of its Communist control. Official stationery of the organization lists Herbert K. Sorrell as a member of the executive board of the Motion Picture Democratic Committee. If). The Holloywood Democratic Committee was the successor to the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League which was organized by Isaac Romaine, alias V. J. Jerome, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League dissolved during the time of the StalinHitler pact. Official literature of this organization listed Herbert K. Sorrell as a member of the executive board of the Hollywood Democratic Committee. 16. The Labor's Non-Partisan League was the Communist-controlled predecessor of the CIO Political Action Committee. Earl Browder. then secretary of the Communist Pai-ty, said in May 1937, that the league must become "the main stream heading to class political action, just as the CIO is now the main stream for organized labor," and instructed the Conmuinists to work closel.v for the organizati'ii. Tl'o leag^'p was descrilied as affilia*^ed with the CommuTiist Party bv the Los Angeles County Council (J. H. o'ConiKir). Herbert K. Sorrell was State president of Labor's Non-Partisan League in California in 1940, according to People's World for May 2, 1940. 17. The Los Angeles Times for March 8. 1947, reported that a mass meeting welcoming Herbert K. Sorrell would be held in the Olympic Auditorium on March 9, 1947, and would feature Philip M. Connelly, who was lending his