Canwell Committee

Rep. Albert F. Canwell as he appeared at the 1948 Canwell Committee hearings.

The Interim Committee on Un-American Activities, most commonly known as the Canwell Committee, (1947-1949) was a special investigative committee of the Washington State Legislature which in 1948 investigated the influence of the Communist Party USA in Washington state. Named after its chairman, Albert F. Canwell, the committee concentrated upon communist influence in the Washington Commonwealth Federation and its relationship to the Democratic Party in Washington, as well alleged Communist Party membership of certain 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 (HUAC) 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 elections of 1948.

Institutional history

Background

Becoming a state only in November 1889, Washington was a relative latecomer into the United States of America. As was the case in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and the Dakota Territory, an indigenous frontier radicalism was prevalent in the state, making the Socialist Party of Washington one of the largest state affiliates of the Socialist Party of America on a per capita basis of the pre-World War I progressive era. Seattle had been the site of a General Strike in February 1919 which had captivated the attention of the nation.

Although the Socialist Party of Washington was shattered organizationally by the Socialist-Communist split of 1919, strong radical sentiment remained among many in the state. Washington had proven hospitable to the Farmer-Labor Party in the election of 1920 and to the independent campaign of Robert M. LaFollette in 1924 and this tendency only deepened with the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The state's continued left-of-center political climate provided fodder for Postmaster General James Farley to jest about the USA consisting of "forty-seven states and the Soviet of Washington."^[1]

In 1935 there emerged an organization of liberals and social democratic supporters of the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the Commonwealth Builders. Launched by up-and-coming radio political commentator Howard Costigan the group was expanded at a 1936 convention to form the Washington Commonwealth Federation (WCF), attempting to replicate the growing success of the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation of Canada.

Although initially opposed by the Communist Party USA, with the emergence of the Comintern's tactic of the Popular Front — mandating efforts by communists around the world to engage in common efforts with liberals and social democrats against the growing global menace of fascism — the WCF came to be seen as an ideal target for communist participation and control. Executive Secretary Costigan was won over as a secret member of the Communist Party late in 1936 and communists began dedicated activity in the organization.

Establishment

The Interim Committee on Un-American Activities of the Washington State Legislature was established on the last day of the 1947 legislative session.^[2] The resolution which created the committee directed it to "investigate the activities of groups and organizations whose membership includes persons who are Communists, or any other organization known or suspected to be dominated or controlled by a foreign power."^[3]

The Interim Committee included members of both the Washington House of Representatives and the State Senate.^[2] Five of the seven members of the committee were members of the Republican Party and of the two Democrats named, one was a member of the American Legion of decidedly conservative bent.^[4] Only one liberal Democrat, Representative George F. Yantis, was appointed by Speaker of the House Herb Hamblen as a partial ideological counterbalance but Yantis died in December 1947, before the committee began to conduct its public hearings.^[4]

The Interim Committee was immediately known as the Canwell Committee after the name of its chairman, first term Representative Albert F. Canwell.^[2] By occupation Canwell was a deputy sheriff from Spokane, located in the more conservative Eastern part of the state.^[2] Canwell had personally been concerned with the matter of communism in Washington since a prominent 1934 waterfront strike and he dove into his job with prosecutorial zeal, first obtaining files of people and groups of interest in the state from friendly members of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in Washington, D.C.^[2]

Footnotes

Further reading

• Albert F. Canwell and Timothy Frederick, Albert F. Canwell: An Oral History, Olympia, WA: Washington State Oral History Program, Office of the Secretary of State, 1997.
• Melvin Rader, False Witness. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1969.

Publications

• Albert F. Canwell, et al., First Report, Un-American Activities in Washington State, 1948. Olympia, WA: The Committee, 1948.
• Albert F. Canwell, et al., Second Report, Un-American Activities in Washington State, 1948. Olympia, WA: The Committee, 1948.

External links

• James Gregory (general editor), "Special Section: Canwell Hearings" Communism in Washington State: History and Memory, University of Washington, 2009-2012. Including complete, digitized transcripts of the hearings, historical photographs, documents and essays.
• Susan Gilmore, "The Cold War And Albert Canwell: The 1948 Anti-Communist Hearings Earned The Freshman Legislator An Instant Reputation — And Shattered Lives," Seattle Times, Aug. 2, 1998.
• Nancy Wick, "Seeing Red: Fifty Years Ago, a Hearing on "Un-American" Activities Tore the UW Campus Apart, Setting a Precedent for Faculty Firings across Academe," Columns, December 1997.

Archives

• Register of Richard Gladstein Papers 1930-1969. At the California Library for Social Studies and Research.
• Albrt M. Ottenheimer Papers. 1935-1980. 32 linear ft. (60 containers, 1 package) At the Unvesity of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives.
• Finding aids at the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections:
  • Ted Astley Papers . 1920-1994. 1.42 cubic ft. (2 boxes and 3 photographs).
  • John S. Daschbach Papers.1936-1957. 3.78 cubic ft. (9 boxes).
  • Garland O. Ethel Papers. 1913-1980. 13.00 cubic ft. (13 boxes).
  • Ralph H Gundlach Papers. 1918-1974. 1.47 cubic ft. (4 boxes).
  • Washington Committee for Academic Freedom Records. 1947-1948. .84 cubic ft. (2 boxes).
  • Howard Costigan Papers.1933-1989. 6 Cubic ft. (6 boxes and 1 package).
  • Thomas C. Rabbit Papers. 1943-1961. .42 Cubic ft. (1 box).
  • Charles M. Gates Papers. 1881-1963. 24.84 cubic ft.
  • Melvin Jacobs Papers. 1918-1974 78.23 cubic ft.
  • John Caughlan Papers. 1933-1999. 54.44 cubic feet (85 boxes, 3 oversize folders and 2 vertical files).