TESTIMONY OF RONALD REAGAN
Mr. STRIPLING: As a member of the
board of directors, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and as an active
member, have you at any time observed or noted within the organization a clique
of either Communists or Fascists who were attempting to exert influence or
pressure on the guild?
Mr. REAGAN: Well, sir, my
testimony must be very similar to that of Mr. (George) Murphy and Mr. (Robert)
Montgomery. There has been a small group within the Screen Actors Guild which
has consistently opposed the policy of the guild board and officers of the
guild, as evidenced by the vote on various issues. That small clique referred
to has been suspected of more or less following the tactics that we associate
with the Communist Party.
Mr. STRIPLING: Would you refer to
them as a disruptive influence within the guild?
Mr. REAGAN: I would say that at
times they have attempted to be a disruptive influence.
Mr. STRIPLING: You have no
knowledge yourself as to whether or not any of them are members of the
Communist Party?
Mr. REAGAN: No, sir; I have no
investigative force, or anything, and I do not know.
Mr. STRIPLING: Has it ever been
reported to you that certain members of the guild were Communists?
Mr. REAGAN: Yes, sir; I have
heard different discussions and some of them tagged as Communists. . . .
Mr. STRIPLING: Would you say that
this clique has attempted to dominate the guild?
Mr. REAGAN: Well, sir, by
attempting to put their own particular views on various issues, I guess in
regard to that you would have to say that our side was attempting to dominate,
too, because we were fighting just as hard to put over our views, in which we
sincerely believed, and I think, we were proven correct by the figures—Mr.
Murphy gave the figures—and those figures were always approximately the same,
an average of 90 percent or better of the Screen Actors Guild voted in favor of
those matters now guild policy.
Mr. STRIPLING: Mr. Reagan, there
has been testimony to the effect here that numerous Communist-front
organizations have been set up in Hollywood. Have you ever been solicited to
join any of those organizations or any organization which you considered to be
a Communist-front organization?
Mr. REAGAN: Well, sir, I have
received literature from an organization called the Committee for a Far-Eastern
Democratic Policy. I don’t know whether it is Communist or not. I only know
that I didn’t like their views and as a result I didn’t want to have anything
to do with them.
Mr. STRIPLING: Were you ever
solicited to sponsor the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee?
Mr. REAGAN: No, sir; I was never
solicited to do that, but I found myself misled into being a sponsor on another
occasion for a function that was held under the auspices of the Joint
Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee.
Mr. STRIPLING: Did you knowingly
give your name as a sponsor?
Mr. REAGAN: Not knowingly. Could
I explain what that occasion was?
Mr. STRIPLING: Yes sir.
Mr. REAGAN: I was called several
weeks ago. There happened at the time in Hollywood to be a financial drive on
to raise money to build a badly needed hospital in a certain section of town,
called the All Nations Hospital. I think the purpose of the building is so
obvious by the title that it has the support of most of the people of
Hollywood—or, of Los Angeles, I should say. Certainly of most of the doctors,
because it is very badly needed.
Some time ago I was called to the
telephone. A woman introduced herself by name. Knowing that I didn’t know her I
didn’t make any particular note of her name and I couldn’t give it now. She
told me that there would be a recital held at which Paul Robeson would sing and
she said that all the money for the tickets would go to the hospital and asked
if she could use my name as one of the sponsors. I hesitated for a moment
because I don’t think that Mr. Robeson’s and my political views coincide at all
and then I thought I was being a little stupid because, I thought, here is an
occasion where Mr. Robeson is perhaps appearing as an artist and certainly the
object, raising money, is above any political consideration, it is a hospital
supported by everyone. I have contributed money myself. So I felt a little bit
as if I had been stuffy for a minute and I said, certainly, you can use my
name.
I left town for a couple of weeks
and when I returned I was handed a newspaper story that said that this recital
was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles under the auspices of the
Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. The principal speaker was Emil Lustig,
Robert Burman took up a collection, and the remnants of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade were paraded to the platform. I did not in the newspaper story see one
word about the hospital. I called the newspaper and said I am not accustomed to
writing to editors, but would like to explain my position, and he laughed and
said, “You needn’t bother, you are about the fiftieth person that has called
with the same idea, including most of the legitimate doctors who had also been
listed as sponsors of that affair.”
Mr. STRIPLING: Would you say from
your observation that that is typical of the tactics or strategy of the
Communists, to solicit and use the names of prominent people to either raise
money or gain support?
Mr. REAGAN: I think it is in
keeping with their tactics; yes, sir.
Mr. STRIPLING: Do you think there
is anything democratic about those tactics?
Mr. REAGAN: I do not, sir.
Mr. STRIPLING: As president of
the Screen Actors Guild you are familiar with the jurisdictional strike which
has been going on in Hollywood for some time?
Mr. REAGAN: Yes, sir.
Mr. STRIPLING: Have you ever had
any conferences with any of the labor officials regarding this strike?
Mr. REAGAN: Yes, sir. . . .
Mr. STRIPLING: Do you know
whether the Communists have participated in any way in this strike?
Mr. REAGAN: Sir, the first time
that this word “Communist” was ever injected into any of the meetings
concerning the strike was at a meeting in Chicago with Mr. William Hutchinson,
president of the carpenters union, who were on strike at the time. He asked the
Screen Actors Guild to submit terms to Mr. (Richard) Walsh, for Walsh to give
in in the settling of this strike, and he told us to tell Mr. Walsh that if he
would give in on these terms he in turn would break run this Sorrell and the
other commies out—I am quoting him—and break it up. I might add that Mr. Walsh
and Mr. Sorrell were running the strike for Mr. Hutchinson in Hollywood.
Mr. STRIPLING: Mr. Reagan, what
is your feeling about what steps should be taken to rid the motion-picture
industry of any Communist influences, if they are there?
Mr. REAGAN: Well, sir . . . 99
percent of us are pretty well aware of what is going on, and I think within the
bounds of our democratic rights, and never once stepping over the rights given
us by democracy, we have done a pretty good job in our business of keeping
those people’s activities curtailed. After all, we must recognize them at
present as a political party. On that basis we have exposed their lies when we
came across them, we have opposed their propaganda, and I can certainly testify
that in the case of the Screen Actors Guild we have been eminently successful
in preventing them from, with their usual tactics, trying to run a majority of
an organization with a well organized minority.
So that fundamentally I would say
in opposing those people that the best thing to do is to make democracy work.
In the Screen Actors Guild we make it work by insuring everyone a vote and by
keeping everyone informed. I believe that, as Thomas Jefferson put it, if all
the American people know all of the facts they will never make a mistake.
Whether the party should be
outlawed, I agree with the gentlemen that preceded me that that is a matter for
the Government to decide. As a citizen I would hesitate, or not like, to see
any political party outlawed on the basis of its political ideology. We have
spent 170 years in this country on the basis that democracy is strong enough to
stand up and fight against the inroads of any ideology. However, if it is
proven that an organization is an agent of a power, a foreign power, or in any
way not a legitimate political party, and I think the Government is capable of
proving that, if the proof is there, then that is another matter. . . .
I happen to be very proud of the
industry in which I work; I happen to be very proud of the way in which we
conducted the fight. I do not believe the Communists have ever at any time been
able to use the motion-picture screen as a sounding board for their philosophy
or ideology. . . .
The CHAIRMAN: There is one thing
that you said that interested me very much. That was the quotation from
Jefferson. That is just why this committee was created by the House of
Representatives, to acquaint the American people with the facts. Once the
American people are acquainted with the facts there is no question but what the
American people will do a job, the kind of a job that they want done; that is,
to make America just as pure as we can possibly make it. We want to thank you very much
for coming here today.
Mr. REAGAN: Sir, if I might, in
regard to that, say that what I was trying to express, and didn’t do very well,
was also this other fear. I detest, I abhor their philosophy, but I detest more
than that their tactics, which are those of the fifth column, and are
dishonest, but at the same time I never as a citizen want to see our country
become urged, by either fear or resentment of this group, that we ever
compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or
resentment. I still think that democracy can do it.
