RULES ADOPTED BY THE 83D CONGRESS House Resolution 5, January 3, 1953 RULE X STANDING COMMITTEES 1. There shall be elected by the House, at the commencement of each Congress, the following standing committees: (q) Committee on Un-American Activities, to consist of nine members. RULE XI * POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMITTEES 17. Committee on Un-American Activities. (a) Un-American Activities. (b) The Committee on Un-American Activities, as a whole or by subcommittee, is authorized to make from time to time, investigations of (1) the extent, character, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States, (2) the diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American propaganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution, and (3) all other questions in relation thereto that would aid Congress in any necessary remedial legislation. The Committee on Un-American Activities shall report to the House (or to the Clerk of the House if the House is not in session) the results of any such investigation together with such recommendations as it deems advisable. For the purpose of any such investigation, the Committee on Un-American Activities, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized to sit and act at such times and places within the United States, whether or not the House is sitting, has recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, to require the attendance of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents, and to take such testimony, as it deems necessary. Subpenas may be issued under the signature of the chairman of the committee or any subcommittee, or by any member designated by such chairman, and may be served by any person designated by any such chairman or member. INVESTIGATION OF COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN-PART 1 (Detroit-Education) FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1954 UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES, The subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met, pursuant to recess, at 10:05 in room 1786, Hotel Fort Shelby, Hon. Kit Clardy (acting chairman), presiding. Committee member present: Representative Kit Clardy. Staff members present: Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., counsel; Donald T. Appell and W. Jackson Jones, investigators. Mr. CLARDY. The hearing will resume. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. KLEIN. I do. Mr. CLARDY. Be seated. TESTIMONY OF LAWRENCE R. KLEIN Mr.TAVENNER. What is your name, please, sir? Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Klein, it is the practice of the committee to advise every witness that they have the right to consult counsel during the course of testimony if they so desire. I note that you do not have counsel with you, so I assume you are willing to proceed without counsel. Mr. KLEIN. Yes. Mr. TAVENNER. When and where were you born, Mr. Klein? Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, what your formal educational training has been? Mr. KLEIN. I have high-school graduation, 2 years at Los Angeles City College, 2 years at University of California, Berkeley, with a batchelor of arts; and approximately 2 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, doctor of philosophy. Mr. TAVENNER. When did you receive your master's degree- Released by the committee. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you receive a master's degree in Los Angeles? Mr. KLEIN. I did not receive a master's degree anywhere. Los Angeles was one of the California junior colleges and gave some degree which is not well recognized. I forget the name of it. Mr. TAVENNER. When did you receive your bachelor of arts degree from the University of California? Mr. KLEIN. In 1942, the spring of 1942. Mr. TAVENNER. When did you receive your doctor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mr. KLEIN. The fall of 1944. Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, the nature of your employment since the fall of 1944? Mr. KLEIN. I worked as a research assistant at the Cowles Commission for Research and Economics at the University of Chicago directly after I left Massachusetts Tech. Part of that time, one of those years, I was a fellow of the Social Science Research Council. That must have been the academic year 1945-46. Then I left the Cowles Commission in June 1947 and went as a consultant to the Canadian Government for the summer months, and in the fall of 1947 I was a fellow of the Social Science Research Council again and traveled for a year, and then in the fall of 1948 I was a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and I held that for 2 years, but in the fall of 1949 I also was a research associate of the survey research center of the University of Michigan. Mr. TAVENNER. What was your employment in the fall of 1949? Mr. KLEIN. I had a joint appointment during that year. I was partially employed by the National Bureau of Economic Research, continuing from previously, and partially by the survey research center of the University of Michigan. Mr. TAVENNER. How long did you remain so employed? Mr. KLEIN. Well, I have continued the University of Michigan appointment which currently runs, and the national bureau appointment terminated a year later. That would be the fall of 1950, and at the University of Michigan I took on added duties in lecturing on economics, which I hold now. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you ever engage in the work of an instructor at the Samuel Adams School? Mr. KLEIN. Yes. Mr. TAVENNER. When was that? Mr. KLEIN. It must have been the fall of 1944. Mr. TAVENNER. That was in Boston, was it not? Mr. KLEIN. Yes. Mr. TAVENNER. Will you tell the committee, please, the circumstances under which you became employed as an instructor at the Samuel Adams School? Mr. KLEIN. I was first associated with a predecessor of the Samuel Adams School called the Labor School of Boston or Greater Boston, I am not sure of the exact title. I didn't teach there. I was the chairman of a series of lectures, about 1 a month or 2 a month, which ran in the spring of the year preceding the opening of the Samuel Adams School. The Samuel Adams School opened in the fall, and I think it was more or less a continuation of the other school, although on a much larger scale, and I simply continued that association and gave the course-I taught at the Samuel Adams School. Mr. TAVENNER. Was the Samuel Adams School a reorganization of the Labor School of Boston, continuing with the same organizational setup: that is, the same official directors and faculty? Mr. KLEIN. Well, I think the Samuel Adams School was much larger, so it had many new persons associated with it, had different quarters. I don't know very much about what went on at this Labor School of Boston because I went there only for the sessions that I chaired and never saw it, and I don't know what they did other nights of the week if they did anything. I went only one certain night. Now, at the Samuel Adams School it was on a much larger scale with many courses and many faculty people. But I think it must have had the same director because I was asked to teach at the Samuel Adams School as a consequence of having been associated with the Labor School in Boston. Mr. TAVENNER. What I am trying to ascertain is whether or not the operation of the Samuel Adams School was virtually the operation of the Labor School of Boston but under a different name? Mr. KLEIN. They taught much more. Mr. TAVENNER. And that the essential difference was the change in name rather than a change in management and control? Mr. KLEIN. Well, I don't think the management and control necessarily changed, but the scope changed very much, and I am sure that the Samuel Adams School being on a bigger scale required more people to manage it, so it must have had new registrars and new secretarial facilities; they had new offices. The Labor School of Boston was a very informal affair. Mr. TAVENNER. What were the circumstances under which you were employed originally at the Labor School of Boston? Mr. KLEIN. Well, as I recall, 1 day some men at MIT whom I knew-and I think they were probably people whom I knew in the teachers union at MIT-the teachers union at MIT was small, but I remember Struik was the head of it. Mr. TAVENNER. Is that Prof. Dirk Struik? Mr. KLEIN. Yes. And Levinson was in it. Mr. KLEIN. Harold, Harold Freeman. They knew me from the Teachers Union. There weren't people around MIT at the time except military students were mainly in the military, and the faculty was very much depleted. I think they wanted somebody quickly to take over the chairmanship of this course, and I was in the economics department. They knew me and I don't know which one-I suspect it was Struik, but I couldn't say for sure. Somebody asked me if I would take over this chairmanship, and I think whoever asked me to do that was somehow in contact with the Labor School. Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Levinson appeared as a witness before the Committee on Un-American Activities and admitted his former Communist Party membership. Were you aware when you were at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that Mr. Levinson was a member of the Communist Party? Mr. KLEIN. No. I knew that he was interested in economics because he was a mathematician. I took many courses in the department of mathematics and had a lot of discussions with him, and he 1 Date of Norman Levinson's testimony referred to was April 23, 1953. See Communist Methods of Infiltration, Education - Part 4, p. 1073. was interested in Marxist economics, and that is all I knew about him. I had many discussions with him on the subject, but I don't know at all about his affiliations. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you observe while at the Labor School of Boston or at the Samuel Adams School the exertion of any influence or control by the Communist Party? Mr. KLEIN. No, not anything I could identify. The only indication would be they didn't like very well the course I was teaching, and I don't know, other than an inference, I guess, on my part, that it was not traditional Marxist thinking, but I don't know of any official relationship with the Communist Party or any other organization. I simply gave my course, saw my students. I would say that the people in my class, as I recall, argued a lot, and some of them may have been Marxists, some of them may have been Communists, I don't know, and as far as the director of the school is concerned, I couldn't say. Mr. TAVENNER. You say the course was not well received by the management of the school during the period you were teaching it. Does that apply to both the Labor School of Boston and the Samuel Adams School? Mr. KLEIN. Well, at the Labor School of Boston I didn't teach; I just was chairman, and I couldn't say. Mr. TAVENNER. From whom did the criticism of originate? Mr. KLEIN. Well, there was a woman, I don't know her name, who was more or less the business manager. I think she was also the same one who did the dirty work-by "dirty work" I mean all the arranging and seating of schedules and classes and getting people there and registering students. She came to one of my lectures one night, sat in, and afterwards said something that I wasn't giving material that was sufficiently basic, and I wasn't quite sure what she meant except I was of the impression that she thought that I wasn't teaching Marxist economics, but that is only an inference. She didn't like what I was teaching. Mr. TAVENNER. Can you give her title more definitely? Mr. KLEIN. Oh, I don't know what her title would be. If I would describe it, I would say she was the business manager. Mr. TAVENNER. Were you affiliated in any manner with the Communist Party at that time other than your teaching at this school? Mr. KLEIN. I had no affiliation with the Communist Party. Mr. TAVENNER. Did you at a later date assume work in Chicago? Mr. KLEIN. Professional work? Mr. TAVENNER. Yes. Mr. KLEIN. Yes. Mr. TAVENNER. What was the nature of your professional work at that time in Chicago? Mr. KLEIN. Well, I had the task of-which problem I am still working on-of building a mathematical model of the United States economy and getting statistical estimates of this mathematical structure. Mr. TAVENNER. How long were you in Chicago engaged in that type of work? Mr. KLEIN. Well, I left Massachusetts Tech during the fall of 1944, went directly to Chicago and stayed there until June 1947. Mr. TAVENNER. During that period of time did you resume any of your work in teaching? |