Canwell Committee
The Interim Committee on Un-American Activities or Joint Legislative Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, most commonly known as the Canwell Committee, was a special investigative committee of the Washington State Legislature which in 1948 investigated the influence of the Communist Party USA in the state of Washington. Named after its chairman, Albert F. Canwell, the committee concentrated on communist influence in the Washington Commonwealth Federation and its relationship to the state Democratic Party, and the alleged Communist Party membership of faculty members at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The Canwell Committee is remembered as one of a number of state-level investigative committees patterned after the House Committee on Un-American Activities of the United States Congress. The committee ultimately published two printed volumes collecting the testimony of witnesses before it. The committee was terminated by the Washington legislature in 1949, following the electoral defeat of its chairman and several of its members in the 1948 elections.
Background
Becoming a state only in 1889, Washington was a relative latecomer to the United States. Although the Republican Party would control the state government for the next four decades, a frontier radicalism was prevalent in the region. During the pre-World War I progressive era, local lumber workers joined the Industrial Workers of the World, leading to a successful 1917 lumber strike, the 1916 Everett massacre and the 1919 Centralia massacre. Although the Socialist Party of Washington was disbanded in 1909 following a decision of the national executive committee of the Socialist Party of America, many socialists continued to live and work in the state. Seattle was the site of a 1919 general strike which reinforced the national view of the state, particularly its labor movement, as radical. The Farmer–Labor Party received significant support from Washington voters in the 1920 election, as did progressive presidential candidate Robert M. La Follette's 1924 campaign. The state's national reputation for a left-of-center political climate was demonstrated by a quip by then-Postmaster General, James Farley, that the United States consisted of "forty-seven states and the Soviet of Washington."The Communist Party first appeared on a statewide ballot in 1928 and five years later, Seattle mayor John F. Dore denounced local political candidates, Marion Zioncheck and John C. Stevenson, as communists. In 1935, a number of local groups – including the Commonwealth Builders, local chapters of the Workers Alliance of America, trade unions, technocrats and local Townsend clubs – banded together to form the Washington Commonwealth Federation, described as a "triple alliance of Liberals, Labor and Farm". The organization endorsed Democratic and independent candidates in statewide and municipal elections, including Hugh De Lacy, a professor at the University of Washington. Although communists were officially banned from membership in the WCF, De Lacy's endorsement by the organization later fuelled concerns about communists at the university.
There began to be tensions among left-leaning organizations and individuals during the late 1930s. A rivalry between top leaders Dave Beck and Harry Bridges became marred in anti-communist rhetoric in 1937, with Beck labelling Bridges "Red Harry". The same year, the Washington Pension Union was established by state senator James T. Sullivan, a member of the WCF, as a campaigning group when the issue of raising pensions was ignored by the Democratic governor and legislature. Governor Clarence D. Martin also angered the WCF for his role in the 1939 dismissal of Charles H. Fisher, president of the Western Washington College of Education, for charges advanced by conservative reporter Frank Ira Sefrit that included allowing members of "subversive organizations" to speak on campus.
Concerns amongst Democrats about the communist influences on their party were growing. In winter 1939, the University of Washington received similar criticisms to Fisher, particularly for inviting Harold Laski, a British Marxist, to speak on campus. Although no further action was taken, state senator Joseph Drumheller threatened to investigate the university. The Democratic attorney general, Smith Troy, asked the secretary of state to refuse the nominations of Communist Party candidates, a decision which was only overturned by the Washington Supreme Court. In 1940, following his resignation as president of the WPU, Sullivan joined with Drumheller in a Senate investigatory committee to determine whether the WPU's vice president, state senator Lenus Westman, was a communist. The 1946 state elections saw Republicans position themselves as running against the communist-aligned Democrats, particularly a group of legislators affiliated with the WCF. In an illustration of the Republican sweep, De Lacy was replaced by a former leader of the American Legion, Homer Jones, as voters elected a Republican senator and Republican-controlled state legislature. Following the election, state Democrats, led by Troy, Drumheller, Beck and state senator Earl Coe, vowed to investigate their party to expel any suspected communists.
Foundation
Prior to the 1947 legislative session, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in December 1946 that Republicans and a group of coalition Democrats had met to discuss an investigation into communism in the Democratic Party. House Concurrent Resolution No. 10 was quickly introduced in the Washington House of Representatives by two freshmen legislators, Albert F. Canwell and Sydney A. Stevens. The legislation – following the same structure as a 1945 California resolution establishing the Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities – was said to have been drafted by Canwell, although prosecuting attorney Charles O. Carroll later claimed that Post-Intelligencer reporter Fred Niendorff had told him that he was the author of the bill.Canwell had run for office on an anti-communist platform and upon entering office, he began coordinating with the House Committee on Un-American Activities by requesting copies of files created by its investigations into Washington residents. The bill established a Joint Legislative Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities to investigate individuals and organizations aiming to undermine the stability of American institutions, specifically "whose membership includes persons who are Communists, or any other organization known or suspected to be dominated or controlled by a foreign power." Drafted as a concurrent resolution, it granted the committee the power to hold public hearings between the adjournment of the 1947 legislative session, reporting to the 1949 legislature. The measure was introduced in the Washington State Senate by Democrat Thomas H. Bienz.
The concurrent resolution passed the House of Representatives on March 3, 1947, receiving 86 yes votes, 8 no votes and 5 abstentions. There was much reference in the debates to a peoples' march organized by the WPU that had occurred two days before. At the time the Senate was considering the resolution, in a hearing before the Senate committee on higher education, two candidates to be appointed as regents of the University of Washington denied that "subversive activities" were taught by university faculty. Their appointments were opposed by Bienz, who claimed that he had seen reports of as many as 30 professors teaching subversive activities. A few days later, a Senate committee chaired by Bienz recommended the concurrent resolution and it passed the Senate on March 8, 1947, receiving 33 yes votes, 12 no votes and 1 abstention.
The committee was made of up five Republicans and two Democrats, with a mix of representatives and senators. House Speaker Herbert M. Hamblen appointed Canwell as chair. The other Republican members were Stevens, Grant C. Sisson, R. L. Rutter Jr., and Harold G. Kimball. The two Democrats were Bienz, a supporter of the investigation, and George F. Yantis, who had been appointed by Hamblen to moderate the committee. However, Yantis died in December 1947, before the committee began its public hearings.
Public reaction
Although most politicians refused to comment on the formation of the committee, Troy publicly voiced support for its mission. The WPU and a nascent local chapter of the Progressive Citizens of America publicly opposed the committee and proposed a state referendum on the creation of the committee until the state supreme court ruled that a concurrent resolution could not be the subject of a referendum. At the University of Washington, students in the American Youth for Democracy created a committee on academic freedom to protest the Canwell Committee.First hearings
Investigations
Following the adjournment of the legislature, the Canwell Committee decided to delegate the investigation to a staff supervised by Canwell. He traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with HUAC and then opened an office in the Seattle Armory in April 1947. The committee had a staff of seven, led by the investigators William J. Houston and John W. Whipple, which carried out a five month investigation. The committee kept a low profile during this time, with the exception of a comment by Canwell on the infiltration of communists in the national defence and public schools. It had been indicated in March 1947 that the University of Washington would be a focus of the committee, prompting university president Raymond B. Allen to write the committee offering the university's full cooperation. One senior member of staff later testified that he had warned Allen at the time of this letter that there were several members of the Communist Party on the faculty.Beginning in October 1947, there were an increase in stories about communist activities appearing in the local Seattle newspapers. An international vice president of the Building Service Employees International Union, Jess Fletcher, had accused officers of the union of radicalism in January and, by October, had been subpoened by the Canwell Committee to discuss communism within the union. Reports into further allegations of communism within the union's Local No. 6 continued throughout the month, including that multiple employees had been fired.
On January 11, 1948, Canwell Committee announced that it would convene its first hearings on subversion within the WPU at the Seattle Armory. The WPU responded by bringing a claim in the King County Superior Court to prevent the hearings and filed a separate order to show cause on Stevens and Kimball, temporarily barring them from sitting on the committee. On January 31, the court ruled that a legislative committee could not function when the legislature was adjourned but, as no officers of the WPU had been subpoenaed, it could not issue an injunction. The WPU brought separate legal proceedings, seeking to prevent the Washington State Auditor from issuing payroll warrants for the committee's expenses. Russell Fluent, the state treasurer, agreed with the position and declared that his office would not pay the warrants, as the court had held that a legislative committee could not function during adjournment. In response, Canwell filed an action with the state supreme court to order payment of the committee's expenses. The court sided with Canwell, ruling that a legislative interim committee created by concurrent resolution could operate between legislative sessions. The WPU applied to the United States Supreme Court, which denied the petition to review.