Machine guns, tear gas bombs, and clubs were a few of the hindrances wielded to prevent and disperse union meetings. The Committee declared the use of these munitions as the demise of "labor relations," based upon the companies' lack of acknowledgment toward unions and only in their best economic interests. By preventing workers from freely gathering in public spaces, employers who opposed them with the use of munitions and other forms of physical coercion denied them their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and assembly. Strikebreakers were reported to be the third form of anti-union oppression utilized by employers. The Committee reported many being convicted criminals, and the animosity of the strikers held towards these men creates "violence and bloodshed." The La Follette Committee confirmed the accounts of former strike breakers who described to them their role in promoting violence in an effort to display the wrongdoings of strikers. Private police agencies offered employers the last form of union oppression. This form of industrial coercion proved to be clear by constitutional protection as the men employed by the corporations were not held accountable to anyone but their employers. Witnesses in industrial communities revealed to the committee the abusive power of private police; their constant harassment and use of physical violence repressed the First Amendment rights of citizens. Like espionage, munitions utilization, and strikebreaking, private police agencies testified to the incompatibility of industrial tyranny over the liberties of industrial workers. On behalf of the National Labor Relations Board, the committee made preliminary investigations in California in 1936 and 1938. Paul Taylor, one of the left-liberal staff members appointed by La Follette and his Marine Corps friend, urged him to investigate the West Coast; without the necessary funding though, the committee's chairman was doubtful. With a lack in financial stability, the committee's future seemed tentative; support from the La Follette's administration, left-sided Californians, and various worker based organizing groups, however, allowed for the committees continued existence. In 1939, with an allocation of $50,000 presented by a newly appointed California senator and with the books, The Grapes of Wrath and Factories in the Field, exposing California's working conditions to the country, the La Follette Committee was given further incentive to investigate the West Coast. The results were testimonies being held in newly opened offices in the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Despite La Follette urging his investigative team to search for infringements on constitutional rights of workers rather than the political affiliations of employers, his work became deemed as a backing to Communism and became resented by those harboring anti-union ideals.