Evening star., 1954-04-13
(Continued from Page A-6.)

It was in the summer of 1899
in Pasadena that I first met my
wife. She was married to DR..
Harrison, who was a friend and
associate Of the Tolmans, Lau-
riteens and others on the Cali
fornia Institute Of Technology
faculty. learned Of her earlier
marriage to Joe ballet and Of
his death fighting in Spain. He
had been a Communist party Of
fetal, and for a year or two
during their brief marriage my
wife was a Communist party
member. When I met her ! found
in her a deep loyalty to her for
mer husband, a complete dis
engagement from any political
activity, and certain disap-
pointment and contempt that
the Communist party was not
in fact what she had once
thought it was.
Began to Change Opinion.
My own views were also evolv-
ing. Although Sidney and Bea-
trice Webb'S book on Russia,
which I had read in 1885, and
the talk that I heard at that
time had predisposed me to make
much of the economic progress
and general level of welfare in
Russia, and little of its political
tyranny, my views on this were
to change.
I read about the purge trials,
though not in full detail, and
could never find a view of them |
which was not damning to the
Soviet system. In 1888 I met
three physicists who had actu-
ally lived in Russia in the 1930s. |
All were eminent scientists, Plac-
EEK, Weisskopf and Schein; and
the first two have become close
friends. What they reported
seemed to me so solid, so unfa-
natical, so true, that it made a
great impression; and it pre-
sehted Russia, even when seen
from their limited experience, as
a land of purge and terror, of |
ludicrously bad management and |
Of a long-Suffering people.
I need to make clear that this
changing opinion of Russia,
which was to be reinforced by |
the Nazi-Soviet pact. and the
behavior of the Soviet Union in
Poland and in Finland, did not |
mean sharp break for me with
those who held to different
views. At that time I did not
fully understand-as in time I
came to underStand-how COM |
pletely the Communist Party in
this country was under the con-
troll of Russia. During and after
the Battle of France, however, |
and during the Battle of England |
the next autumn, found myself |
increasingly out of sympathy
with the policy of disengagement
and neutrality that the Com
munist press advocated.
Attended Leftist Meetings.
After our marriage in 1910 my
wife and I for about two years
had much the same circle of |
friends as I had had before
mostly physicists and university |
people. Among them the Che
valierS, in particular, showed us
many acts of kindness. We were
occasionally invited to more or
less obviously left-wing affairs,
Spanish relief parties that still |
continued; and on two occasions,
once in San Francisco and once
in Berkeley, we attended social
gatherings of apparently well-to-
do people. at which Schneider
man, an official of the Commu-
mist Party in California, at
tempted, not with success as far
as we were concerned, to ex-
plain what the Communist line
was all about.
I was asked about the Berkeley
meeting in an interview in 1946
with agents Of the FBI. I did
not then recall this meeting,
and in particular did not in any
way connect it with Chevalier,
about whom the agents were
questioning me: hence it seemed
wholly irrelevant to the matter
under discussion. Later nv wife
reminded me that the Berkeley
meeting had occurred at the
house Of the Chevaliers: and |
when I was asked about it by
the FBI in 1850 told them so. |
We saw a little of Kenneth |
May; we both liked him. 1t would |
have been not unnatural for us
to go to a housewarming for
May and his wife; neither my
wife nor remember such a
party.
Saw Steve Nelson.
Weinberg was known to me as
q graduate student; Hiskey I did
not know. Steve Nelson came. a
few times with his family to
visit; ne had befriended my wife
in Paris. at the time of her hus-
bands death in Spain in 1887. |
Neither of us has seen him since
1941 or 1912.
Because Of these associations
that have described, and the
contributions mentioned earlier,
might well have appeared at
the time as quite close to the |
Communist Party-perhaps even |
to some people as belonging to
1t. AS I have said, some of its
declared objectives seemed to me
desirable. But I never was a
member Of the Communist Party.
never accepted Communist |
dogma or theory; in fact, it never
made sense to me.
I had no clearly formulated
political views. I hate tyranny
and repression and every form of |
dictatorial control Of thought. In |
most cases I did not in those |
days know who was and who
was not a member of the Com
VraiYY1icf Do rfu Nh A,oA n,,n,. - .I-oJ |