The Ware Group was a covert organization of
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...
operatives within the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
government in the 1930s, run first by
Harold Ware
Harold or "Hal" Ware (August 19, 1889 – August 14, 1935) was an American Marxist, regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture.
He was employed by a federal New Deal agency in the 1930s. He is alleged to have been a ...
(1889–1935) and then by
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...
(1901–1961) after Ware's accidental death on August 13, 1935.
[
]
History
Background

Harold Ware founded this group under the auspices of
J. Peters by Summer 1933. Ware was a
Communist Party (CP) official working for the federal government in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
[
][
]
The first known meeting of the Ware Group occurred in late 1933 with eight members:
John Abt
John Jacob Abt (May 1, 1904 – August 10, 1991) was an American lawyer and politician, who spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a member of the Communist Party and the Soviet spy network " Ware Gr ...
,
Henry Collins,
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of espionage in 1948 for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjur ...
,
Victor Perlo
Victor Perlo (May 15, 1912December 1, 1999) was an American Marxist economist, government functionary, and a longtime member of the governing National Committee of the Communist Party USA.
Biography
Early years
Victor Perlo was born May 15, 19 ...
,
Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following h ...
,
Nathaniel Weyl, and
Nathan Witt.
Initially, Peters instructed that members make "exceptional money sacrifices" to the Party, study
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
theory and Party doctrine, observe "strictest secrecy," and to obtain "any government documents" available to them. (Known members later claimed that it was merely a Marxist study group.)
Known active years
By 1934, the group had grown to some 75 members, divided into cells. Members initially joined Marxist study groups and then into activities on behalf of the Party. They shared a belief that Marxist ideologies were the correct way to approach the problems of the ongoing
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. Chambers also stated that Ware could have been acting "pursuant to orders from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the United States."
[
]
The Ware group started among young lawyers and economists hired by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part ...
(AAA). This New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
agency reported to the Secretary of Agriculture but was operated independently of Department of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...
bureaucracy. All the members of the Ware Group were dues paying members of the Communist Party. J. Peters considered the Ware Group one of his major sources of income. Nathaniel Weyl felt that members of the Ware Group were acquiring "the training in the complex business of running a state that would be in high demand and short supply when the United States chose Socialism" and that "in a Communist regime they would be poised to move to the head of the table."
Ware died of injuries sustained in an automobile accident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in August 1935. J. Peters, who had introduced Whittaker Chambers to Harold Ware the year before, placed Chambers in charge of the Ware Group.
Chambers claimed that members of the group joined other "apparatuses" under his leadership.
The group may have folded as such upon Chambers' defection from the Soviet underground in 1938. Some members seemed to have joined other groups, as attested by Elizabeth Bentley, including Victor Perlo and George Silverman.
Hiss case
On July 31, 1948. Bentley testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...
) regarding those Soviet spy rings of which she was aware. She named Chambers as someone who might corroborate. On August 3, 1948, Chambers testified under subpoena before HUAC about the existence of what he called the "Ware Group".
During August 1948, the only remaining member who continued to face serious investigation was Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of espionage in 1948 for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjur ...
, who was convicted in January 1950 on two counts of perjury
Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...
.
Corroboration
In the early 1950s, two members corroborated at least some of Chambers' account:
* 1950: Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following h ...
: Testified to Congress and confirmed his membership in the Ware Group, though denied that Hiss was a member.[
]
* 1952: Nathaniel Weyl: Also testified and confirmed his membership in the group, as well as saying that Hiss had been a fellow member.[
By 1958, Stanford University professor Herbert L. Packer noted that "the others named as members of the Ware group have consistently invoked the fifth amendment when questioned about Communist affiliations."][
Packer also noted that "Hiss obliquely recognizes the fact of the Ware group's existence, but relies on the post-trial testimony of Pressman to establish that he was not a member. Indeed, that testimony was one of the grounds relied on in his motion for new trial."][
During the 1990s, two more members admitted their membership in respective memoirs:
* 1993: ]John Abt
John Jacob Abt (May 1, 1904 – August 10, 1991) was an American lawyer and politician, who spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a member of the Communist Party and the Soviet spy network " Ware Gr ...
: Wrote in his memoirs that the Ware Group was a Communist Party unit and that he had been a member.
* 1994: Hope Hale Davis: Acknowledged in her memoir that the Ware Group was a CPUSA unit and that she had known most of the people Chambers had named as fellow Communists and unit members.[
]
Members
Alleged members of the Ware Group included:
* J. Peters
* Harold Ware
Harold or "Hal" Ware (August 19, 1889 – August 14, 1935) was an American Marxist, regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture.
He was employed by a federal New Deal agency in the 1930s. He is alleged to have been a ...
* Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...
* John Abt
John Jacob Abt (May 1, 1904 – August 10, 1991) was an American lawyer and politician, who spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a member of the Communist Party and the Soviet spy network " Ware Gr ...
* Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following h ...
* George Silverman
* Victor Perlo
Victor Perlo (May 15, 1912December 1, 1999) was an American Marxist economist, government functionary, and a longtime member of the governing National Committee of the Communist Party USA.
Biography
Early years
Victor Perlo was born May 15, 19 ...
* Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of espionage in 1948 for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjur ...
* Charles Kramer
* Nathan Witt
* Henry Collins
* Marion Bachrach
* John Herrmann
John Theodore Herrmann (November 9, 1900 – April 9, 1959) was a writer in the 1920s and 1930s and is alleged to have introduced Whittaker Chambers to Alger Hiss.
Biography
Herrmann was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1900. He lived in Paris in ...
* Nathaniel Weyl
* Donald Hiss
* Hope Hale Davis
Harry Dexter White
Harry Dexter White (October 29, 1892 – August 16, 1948) was an American government official in the United States Department of the Treasury. Working closely with the secretary of the treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., he helped set American financia ...
, then Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the United States Department of the Treasury, was also allegedly affiliated with the group.
Legacy
In 1958, Packer recommended "...Inquiry should also extend to the loose ends. Each of the persons named by Chambers as a member of the Ware group should be required to tell what he knows."[
Such inquiry has not occurred to date, though in 2011 Thomas L. Sakmyster's book ''Red Conspirator'' about J. Peters included extensive discussion about the Ware Group.][
]
See also
* Harold Ware
Harold or "Hal" Ware (August 19, 1889 – August 14, 1935) was an American Marxist, regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture.
He was employed by a federal New Deal agency in the 1930s. He is alleged to have been a ...
* J. Peters
* Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...
* Nathan Witt
* John Abt
John Jacob Abt (May 1, 1904 – August 10, 1991) was an American lawyer and politician, who spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a member of the Communist Party and the Soviet spy network " Ware Gr ...
* Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following h ...
* Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of espionage in 1948 for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjur ...
* George Silverman
* Victor Perlo
Victor Perlo (May 15, 1912December 1, 1999) was an American Marxist economist, government functionary, and a longtime member of the governing National Committee of the Communist Party USA.
Biography
Early years
Victor Perlo was born May 15, 19 ...
* Hope Hale Davis
* Elizabeth Bentley
References
Sources
*
*
* {{cite book , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DZJrQThbfv8C&pg=PA76
, first = Thomas L.
, last =Sakmyster
, author-link =Thomas L. Sakmyster
, title = Red Conspirator: J. Peters and the American Communist Underground
, publisher = University of Illinois Press
, date = 2011
, pages = 75–92, 94–97, 104, 119, 131, 138, 146, 175, isbn = 9780252035982
Further reading
* Caballero, Raymond. ''McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
Espionage in the United States
Activists from New York City
Members of the Communist Party USA
Lawyers who have represented the United States government
American civil servants
American spies for the Soviet Union
Communist Party USA