Mr. STENHOUSE. Well, as far as I remember, there were possibly 2 or 3 of the group who were at the Bendix plant. I am not sure now. It is hard to differentiate.
Mr. MOULDER. You say you were interested in the same things that they were interested in, that is, getting people interested in elections and going to the polls to vote.
Mr. MOULDER. Do you recall whether or not at that time the Communist Party had candidates for whom you could cast a ballot?
Mr. STENHOUSE. We weren’t interested in it. We were voting Democratic. I was a Democrat.
Mr. MOULDER. The point I was trying to make, if you were interested in that party why did you join the Democratic Party? I don’t understand why you affiliated yourself with a party that had no candidates for whom you could vote.
Mr. STENHOUSE. I didn’t deliberately go out to affiliate myself with it. Somebody who was interested in it also, as a Democrat--and these things that were part of the war effort--suggested that I go to one of these meetings. And he had become a person I had some respect for because of his apparent adherence to the things that the majority of the American people were doing at that time. I accepted the idea and went to the meetings.
Mr. MOULDER. Were they Communist Party organization meetings?
Mr. MOULDER. Are you talking about Communist Party meetings?
Mr. STENHOUSE. No. I am talking about union meetings and how it came about that somebody invited me to go.
Mr. MOULDER. I am referring to the Communist Party meetings.
Mr. STENHOUSE. There were many meetings at that time, Mr. Chairman--union meetings; many union meetings I attended. I was very much impressed with the union.
Mr. MOULDER. Were the union meetings you attended Communist Party meetings?
Mr. STENHOUSE. I think we have got at cross purposes someway here.
I was trying to explain how it came about that somebody invited me to go to one of these discussion group meetings, and it was through the association with somebody whom I had some regard for in his union activity that I accepted an invitation.
Mr. MOULDER. Was the discussion group meeting a Communist Party meeting or merely affiliated with the Communist Party?
Mr. STENHOUSE. I am as confused as you are about that.