ANNEX 12

LIBERAL LEGISLATION LEAGUE

This organization, which existed in Honolulu from August 20, 1946, to May 23, 1947, is of interest because its formation appears to have been conceived by the Territorial CIO Political Action Committee to serve as a medium for furthering the aims of CIO-PAC in nonorganized labor circles. CIO-PAC was a Communistcontrolled group. Six of its seven officers have been identified as members of the Communist Party.

The LLL was organized at a meeting held on August 20, 1946, by an organization tentatively called the Citizens Political Action Committee. Marshall McEuen opened this meeting by explaining that several people had expressed an interest in forming a citizens PAC and that he had called this meeting to discuss the formation of such an organization. He said that if a CPAC were formed it should exist independently of the CIO-PAC, as was the practice on the mainland, but that the two organizations could work closely together. At this meeting it was agreed that contact should be made with the National CPAC as soon as the local organization was formed. McEuen pointed out that the local CPAC could perform a useful service by supplying the local CIO-PAC with information concerning social injustices. The CIO-PAC, he said, would use that information to press for social improvements, but would protect the identity of its source of information.

Another meeting was held on August 27, 1946, with Marshall McEuen presiding. By a formal vote it was determined that the CPC should have no direct affiliation with the CIO-PAC. This followed McEuen's suggestion made at the previous meeting. Communists John E. Reinecke and Ah Quon McElrath, noted for their interest in political action, were present at this meeting.

At the September 3, 1946, meeting a committee of three was appointed to draft a constitution. It was determined that the organization should be an unaffiliated, nonpartisan group, with the purpose of carrying out a liberal sociallegislative program. A four-member policy committee was appointed.

The name "Liberal Legislation League" was formally adopted at the meeting of September 11, 1946, and the constitution of the organization adopted. A report was given by the chairman of the platform committee. A three-member committee was appointed to secure biographical data on candidates for the coming election. A member gave a report on a CIO-PAC meeting, stating that few candidates had committed themselves on the 1946 CIO-PAC platform. A permanent chairman, secretary, and treasurer were elected.

The object of the LLL, as stated in its constitution, was to protect, maintain, and promulgate legislation in the interest of the community.

At a meeting held September 20, 1946, a 3-member ways and means committee of the LLL was activated.

On October 11, 1946, the platform of the LLL, read at its meeting, was as follows:

(a) A Territorial FEPC.

(b) Civil-rights bill.

(c) Revision of "regressive" tax laws so that those who can pay more do so. Establishment of a tax commission to make a thorough study of taxes. (d) Upward revision of the minimum-wage law to provide for an American standard of living-a standard compatible with decency and health.

(e) Low-cost housing provided by the Government, by means of legislation assuring low-cost homes compatible with decency and health.

At an LLL meeting held November 1, 1946, donations were solicited to pay for a full-page advertisement to be placed in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on November 2, 1946. More than $200 was collected and the necessary balance pledged. An officer of the LLL agreed to underwrite payment of the bill. The advertisement presented the replies of 30 candidates to certain questions which were designed to clarify their positions on issues then current in Hawaii. Among the questions asked of candidates were those concerning the LLL's proposals for "needed" legislation on civil rights and for a Fair Employment Practices Act. Other issues covered included statehood, housing, taxation, a minimum-wage law, and child-care centers. The proposed FEPA and civil-rights legislation were highly controversial issues. The Communist Party has made capital of such issues on the mainland in order to highlight racial discrimination as one of the "diseases" of our democracy. At the November 1 meeting it was reported that all non-Caucasian candidates favored the civil-rights and FEPA bills, but that

the Caucasian candidates stated either that no racial prejudice existed in Hawaii (hence there was no need for such legislation) or flatly opposed it. At the same meeting study group chairmen were named to head committees on taxation and expenditure, health and welfare, education, industrial relations, and citizens' rights.

For 3 months after election day, 1946, the organization held no meetings. However, it conducted an analysis of election results and worked on a program to be presented to the 1947 legislature.

The next meeting of LLL was held on February 14, 1947. It was voted to accept the offer of the CIO-PAC to provide radio time for an LLL program on February 16. The script for this program was prepared by three of the most active LLL members. At this meeting an LLL member stated that he would attempt to gain the support of the American Veterans Committee, Chapter 1, of Honolulu, for the LLL's proposed legislative rules.

The last meeting of the LLL was held on May 23, 1947. It was decided to suspend all meetings during the summer and replace them with a study group that would plan a future LLL program. A professor at the University of Hawaii had been contacted by two representatives of the LLL and had prepared a course of reading for such study group.

Sixty-three persons have been identified with this organization. Six have been identified as Communists. However, non-Communists held nearly all the offices and committee assignments. However, this did not prevent the LLL's being used to serve the purposes for which it was conceived by CIO-PAC, acting through Marshall McEuen.

ANNEX 13

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE TERRITORY OF HAWAII

INTRODUCTORY

For the purpose of this report, the educational field of the Territory of Hawail is divided into five categories:

(a) Department of public instruction.

(b) University of Hawaii, including extension division.

(c) Adult education.

(d) Private schools, kindergarten, grade, and high.

(e) Private schools, miscellaneous.

In order that the reader may judge the extent to which education is of direct concern to pupils, parents, teachers, and employees of educational institutions in the Territory, and is therefore of indirect concern to all, certain statistics are presented below.

The following figures are approximate as of January 1, 1951 (except for the University of Hawaii, which is as of February 15, 1951):

The majority of persons included in this figure also included in the 4,054 DPI employees.

As of September 1950, there were 17 teachers' and other affiliated organizations in the Territory, including the Hawaii Education Association with a membership of approximately 3,200 teachers.

The April-May-June, 1950, issue of the Parent-Teacher News Bulletin stated that there were 130 parent-teacher associations with membership of 39,180. Because of the size of this field, and the limited time at the disposal of this commission, it was obvious at the cutset that all types of schools could not be covered, so it was decided to concentrate on surveys of the University of Hawaii and the department of public instruction. Even in this restricted field only a preliminary investigation was practicable and this report should be considered

as a survey report and evaluated accordingly. The survey was conducted through the medium of interviews on all major islands, the study of official records, and the examination of witnesses under oath.

Directives to Communist teachers

The position of the Communist Party, with reference to the schools, was recorded in an issue of The Communist, formerly the official monthly organ of the Communist Party, U. S. A. Its editor, Earl Browder, was general secretary of the party. In it were published authoritative monographs expounding the party's philosophy and giving program directions for party activity. In its May 1937, issue The Communist carried an article stating:

"Party and YCL (Young Communist League) fractions set up within classes and departments must supplement and combat by means of discussions, brochures, etc., bourgeois omissions or distortions in the regular curriculum. MarxistLeninist analysis must be injected into every class. In addition to this, serious education on immediate social problems and in Marxism-Leninism must be undertaken independently.

"A peoples movement around the schools can thus transform the latter into popular forms for progressive social action, ultimately into forms for the revolution."

Obviously such a program could not be carried out openly, as such activity would lead to an exposure of the party. Therefore, in order to accomplish the desired results, without exposure, Communist teachers are instructed in the methods to be used. Following is quoted an article entitled, "The Schools and The People's Front," which also appeared in the May 1937, issue of The Communist : "Communist teachers cannot afford to ignore this fact-that they are in contact with the children of the masses, that they are responsible for training these children. They must realize that the primary function of the school is to educate these children, and this will be true to a much greater extent in a socialist society than now. Communist teachers are, therefore, faced with a tremendous responsibility. They must consider not only their own teacher problems, but the problem of the children. They must fight for the latter. They must mobilize the other teachers in this fight. They must take advantage of their positions, without exposing themselves, to give their students to the best of their abiliy working class education.

"To enable the teachers in the party to do the latter, the party must take careful steps to see that all teacher comrades are given thorough education in the teachings of Marxism-Leninism. Only when teachers have really mastered Marxism-Leninism, will they be able skillfully to inject it into their teachings at the least risk of exposure and at the same time to conduct struggles around the schools in a truly Bolshevik manner. [In Communist terminology the word "Bolshevik" implies great approbation, since the goal of the Communist is to equal the stern revolutionary zeal of the pre-1917 Russian Communists (Bolsheviki).] Such teachers can also be used to advantage to conduct classes in Marxism-Leninism for workers generally, and many such teachers should be assigned not to school units but to factories or industrial units, where they can be of great aid in party education, in helping with leaflets, shop papers, etc. Others can play an important role in the educational activities of the YCL." This article further elaborates on the technique of disguised indoctrination, explaining the methods to be used in classes on literature, languages, history, geography, the natural sciences, and mathematics.

With reference to the relationship between Communist teachers and rural community activities, The Communist (May 1937) directs:

"In rural communities, teachers who are among the few educated people, are looked up to with tremendous respect. They are in a position to become community leaders.

"As a means of mobilizing the people in the villages and countryside, steps should be taken to try to send Communist teachers into rural communities where they could become active in all community organizations.

"The party should work actively within parent-teachers' association and all similar organizations."

Department of Public Instruction

Available information indicates the presence of subversive activity by a Dublic school teacher in Hawaii as early as 1935. This evidence concerns John

72723-57-pt. 41A, 1- 5

Ernest Reinecke, then a teacher employed by the department of public instruction at Honokaa, island of Hawaii. He subsequently attained considerable prominence when he and his wife, Aiko T. Reinecke, were suspended from public teaching positions and later, after a hearing before the commissioners of public instruction, were dismissed.

The actions of Reinecke in connection with the Communist Party and with various front organizations are covered elsewhere. His activities while a public-school teacher received wide publicity in later years through the medium of public hearings of his dismissal case and the press and are a matter of official record. This commission, therefore, has not attempted to record in its report all information developed during those hearings. It suffices to say that the evidence at hand clearly establishes Reinecke to have been an important Communist Party leader in the Territory of Hawaii for more than a decade, and further establishes that Mrs. Reinecke shared her husband's communistie views and activities.

Reinecke was first employed by the Territory of Hawaii on September 1, 1927. During the period 1927-29 he was assigned as a teacher to Konawaena School on the island of Hawaii. During 1929-30 he was at Leilehua School on the island of Oahu. He was granted special leave from September 1, 1930, to August 31, 1931, and during that time he attended Yenching University in China. Reinecke returned to Honolulu in July 1931, and was assigned to Honokaa Junior High School, where he remained until the end of the 1935 school year. Evidence introduced at his dismissal hearings established that Reinecke had, during 1935, corresponded with one Samuel Weinman, author of the pamphlet Hawaii, a Story of Imperialist Plunder. A letter dated May 29, 1935, addressed to "Dear Comrade Reinecke," signed, "S. Weinman" (Government exhibit No. 39), indicated that Reinecke had been collaborating with Weinman. In that letter Reinecke was asked to furnish "specific information concerning Hawaii" because it was needed by "another comrade." Some of the "pressing questions" to which answers were desired "at once" were:

"What is the condition of the peasantry? How many are there; how many acres each holding? ***

"You say the group has been studying the situation in Hawaii. What exactly have they been studying, and can we have copies of their collective studies for use here? * * *

"Has the group formulated their ideas as to what is the next step in Hawaii?

"From here it seems to us that it is time to do more than study. Isn't it time that struggles were developed under the leadership of the CP group?

The following passages from the same letter may be relevant to the fact that a formal Communist Party organization was established in Hawaii about 2 or 3 years later:

"I received your letter, which I read with a great deal of interest. I expect to make a practical use of your list of contacts. Thanks * * *

"We have discussed linking the Hawaiian movement to the one in the United States. We plan to do something definite about it shortly * * *

"It would be well if you could get this letter into the hands of the CP group and have them communicate with us directly, telling us what we can do specifically to aid them."

The pamphlet Hawaii, A Story of Imperialist Plunder, which Reinecke admitted he had read, was published in 1934 by International Pamphlets, 799 Broadway, New York, N. Y. A publishers' note on the back cover of the pamphlet states that it was prepared under the direction of Labor Research Association, whose address was determined to be 80 East 11th Street, New York, N. Y. Weinman's address, as shown on his letter to Reinecke, was room 634, 80 East 11th Street, New York City.

The record of hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, 80th Congress, with reference to H. R. 1884 and H. R. 2122 (bills to curb or outlaw the Communist Party in the United States), describes the sponsors of the Weinman pamphlet as follows:

"The Labor Research Association, 80 East 11th Street, New York, N. Y., publishes monthly the Economic News, sold and distributed through Communist bookshops. The Communist press frequently quotes from it. The association occasionally issues books which are published and distributed by the International Publishers of New York, the Communist publishing house. Its releases, service, and books are consistently along the Communist Party line, and they are as a rule timed with the party's agitation and pressure moves.

The Labor Research Association also has been authoritatively described as follows:

(A) Cited as subversive and as an affiliate of the Communist Party (Attorney General's letter to the Loyalty Review Board, released December 4, 1947).

(B) A direct auxiliary of the Communist Party. Un-American Activities Report, March 29, 1944, p. 47.)

(Special Committee on

(Cali

(C) Cited as a completely Communist-controlled organization. fornia Committee on Un-American Activities Report, 1948, p. 47.)

(D) "One of the creations of the Communist Party *** founded by Robert W. Dunn, a prominent Communist." (Masachusetts House Committee on Un-American Activities Report, 1938, p. 380.)

Report No. 309 of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, dated April, 1947, states:

"Within the year 1934 the following American Communists contributed articles to the International Press Correspondence (Imprecorr), official weekly press organ of the Communist International; *** Samuel Weinman. *

International Press Correspondence was described by the same committee in a report dated January 3, 1939, as "The organ of the Communist International." The Agit-Prop (agitation and propaganda) division of the Comunist movement in the United States is of major importance to that movement. That division and its fronts operate publishing houses which issue books, pamphlets and other printed matter. It appears that Labor Research Association, International Pamphlets and International Press Correspondence were a part of this division. It follows that Weinman was a part of the Agi-Prop division of the Communist movement in the United States and that Reinecke apparently was a voluntary collaborator in its activity.

Excerpts are quoted below from Government Exhibit No. 11 of the Reinecke hearings, which received considerable publicity when introduced in evidence. The document, entitled "Section III-What Must We Do?" admittedly was written by Reinecke.

"V. The youth of Hawaii are at present scarcely aware of the economic and political movements going on throughout the world. Every effort must be bent to bring them to full class consciousness-to read understandingly and to see where they stand. Radical literature should be distributed and a bookstand established in Honolulu. Probably as soon as possible a newspaper should be established to express radical views.

"Close contacts between Hawaiian comrades and mainland centers should be established. Students going to the States should be contacted and propagandized on the mainland, so that some at least will return more than mere satisfied dentists and doctors."

Reinecke testified that he wrote the document in 1935, and the inference is that a bookstand for the distribution of radical (Communist) literature did not exist in Honolulu at that time. It may be only coincidental, but it is of interest, that the Hawaiian Book Exchange, also known as the Nuuanu Second-Hand Book Store, was established about the year 1936, and that Communist literature was available in a restricted upstairs section of this store.

Reinecke also testified at the hearings that he had made copies of New Masses available to students, and that the publication had a Marxist slant. Attorney General Francis Biddle is quoted in the Congressional Record, September 24, 1943, as referring to this publication as "Communist periodical." Other descriptions of New Masses are quoted herewith:

"Nationally circulated weekly journal of the Communist Party *** whose ownership was vested in the American Fund for Public Service (Garland Fund)." (Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Report, March 29, 1944, pp. 48 and 75; also cited in Reports, January 3, 1939, p. 80; and June 25, 1942, pp. 4 and 21.) "Until its recent merger with Mainstream, the New Masses has been the weekly journalistic voice of the Communist Party. Its first appearance was as a monthly. As the Masses, it was suppressed by the United States Government for its subversive policies." Mainstream was launched by the Communist Party in January 1947, dealing with the field of literature and creative arts. (California Committee on Un-American Activities, Reports, 1947, p. 160 and 1948, p. 340.) "Issued from Communist presses and distributed by the Communists' Progressive Book Shop in Boston, Mass." (Massachusetts House Committee on UnAmerican Activities Reports, 1938, pp. 281 and 443.)

No evidence has come to the attention of the Commission that public schoolteachers in the Territory now are imposing communistic doctrines upon students