"UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES"

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25328, 30 October 1947, Page 7

" UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES "

WITNESSES REFUSE TO ANSWER ANOTHER FILM WRITER CITED FOR CONTEMPT (Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 28. The Un-American Activities Committee of the United States House of Representatives, which is investigating alleged Communist activities in Hollywood, to-day cited a second film writer for contempt of Congress after he had refused to answer the question whether he was a Communist. When the film writer, Alton Trumbo, took stand as a witness, he asked permission to read a statement,, but the committee, after scanning the document, ruled that it was' not pertinent to the inquiry. The committee’s counsel, Mr Robert Stripling, asked Trumbo if he were a Communist and a member of the Screen Writers’ Guild. Trumbo refused to answer, saying that the committee was trying to prove that he was a Communist.

The chairman (Mr Parnell Thomas) then ordered him from the witness stand..

“This is the beginning of American concentration camps,” Trumbo shouted, as he walked away escorted by Washington police. Louis Russell, a former agent oJJ the Federal Bureau of Investigation and now an investigator for the committee, said that the Communist Party had issued to Trumbo a 1944 membership card. w e A memorandum entered as evidence listed Trumbo’s alleged “Communist front” affiliations and stated that Trumbo had never denied possession of a Communist Party membership book.

Roy Brewer, an official of the Theatrical Stage Employees’ Alliance, said he had noticed great Communist infiltration into the film industry. He added that Mr Herbert Sorrell, head of the Conference of Studio Unions—with which Brewer’s organisation has been engaged in a bitter jurisdictional dispute for over two years—held a Communist Party registration card. Communists had been active in a jurisdictional strike and had tried to take over “the structure of the union movement throughout the film industry.” Another film writer, Albert Maltz, was removed from the witness stand in the afternoon session when he refused to state whether he was a Communist However, no contempt action was taken against him and the committee allowed him to read a statement which claimed that he had been brought before the committee because he had supported the New Deal. Counsel for the Motion Picture Association (Mr Paul McNutt) read to .the committee a statement denying charges made by the chairman (Mr Thomas) while the association’s*president (Mr Eric Johnston) was giving evidence yesterday. Mr Thoma? claimed that some very prominent persons, either through Mr Johnston or someone associated with him, had made contact with the committee and asked it to “lay off” or postpone its investigation. Mr McNutt called the remarks insinuation and innuendo, ?? d demanded they they be proved Mr Suff lite?. W ° Uld reply ‘° The committee raised the day’s total or Witnesses stood down to three when screen writer, Alvah Bessie, refused to say whether he was a Com: committee’s file about him alleged that he had supported Communist Party publicity and was fading contributors to American Communist publications.