HARRY BRIDGES How The Communists Control Our Shipping

Gary Allen is a Los Angeles journalist Europe, and possibly even our own At­ eoho has covered tor A M ERI CAN OPINION lantic and Gulf ports.Yet the govern­ such affairs as the W atts insurrection, ment has been unsuccessful in five at­ the pro-Vietcong protests at Berkeley, tempts to deport the man, and many and the Delano grape strike. He is now claim that he has now become the very employed in the preparation ot film­ model of the mellowing Communist. strips on current affairs-the latest being Besides, they say, he is the gran d old Show Biz in the Streets. Mr. Allen has man of the W estcoast union movement, just finished his first book, Communist sort of a Paladinian elder statesman of Revolution in the Streets, which will be labor. published by We stern Islands in the spring. A graduate of Stanford Uni­ I versity, Gary Allen is married and the ALFRED Renton "Harry" Bridges ­ proud father of three young children. who has used the aliases Dorgan, Rossi, Dergan, and Durgan in the Commu­ • THOUGH PRESIDENT Johnson is for­ nist Party-was born in 1901 at Mel­ ever declaring that America must "build bourne, Australia, the son of a pros­ bridges of understand ing" wit h the perous real estate agent." At the age of Com munists, one does not have to look eighteen, after devouring Jack London's towa rd the Iron Curt ain to find Com­ tales of the sea (and socialism), young munist Bridges. W e have one of our 'Arry shipped out as an ordinary sea­ very own whose activities in behalf of man and soon found himself in bawd y the International Communist Conspir­ San F rancisco. Either Bridges couldn't acy have spanned the waters of three find his sea legs or he found Baghdad decades. T he fact is that H arry Bridges, by the Bay captivating. In either event, the President of the International Long­ after a few more trips to sea, he forsook shorem en's and W arehousemen's Union life on the bounding main for a liveli­ -one of the most powerful men in hood bouncing cargo on the San Fran­ America-has been identified as a Com­ cisco docks. There h e jo ined the munist in sworn testimony by some I.W .W .-affiliatd M arine T ra n sport thirty-five wit nesses, includi ng his first W orkers Union, and later became an wife. organizer for the A.F . of L.'s Interna ­ Today H arr y Bridges exerts iron­ tional Longshoremen's A ss ociation fisted control over shipping from An­ (I.L.A .) . chorage to Acap ulco to H onolulu. Be­ On e morning in October of 1933 a sides holding a razor at the throat of • The Com munist Pr ess prefers the fic tion t hat our Far East defenses, there is strong Brid ges' fat her was a " wor ker." We assume he eviden ce to suggest that through agree­ worked, bu t his business was real estate. ments with other Communist union t On January 8, 19 3 9, Bridges led a San Fran­ ci sco par ade to celebrate th e release of Tom leaders he can simultaneously tie up Moone y, the fa mous l.W.W . Commu nist and mur­ shipping throughout all of the Orient, derer .

MARCH, 1967 1 Communist Party organizer named pute on the docks soon spread to ships John Schomaker, Bridges, and a Com­ in the harbor as the Communists suc­ munist named Bruce Jones sat in a res­ ceeded in maneuvering seamen of 750 taurant sipping coffee. Schomaker, who vessels to cooperate in a strike under later left the Party, told a jury at Bridges' the auspices of the Communist-domi­ trial for fraud and conspiracy in 1950 nated Marine Workers Industrial that after some preliminary niceties he Union. asked the young Australian; "When Every Communist agency operative are you going to join the Party, Harry?" in the area was soon brought in to help Schomaker testified under oath that with Harry's strike. The International Labor Defense, to provide legal aid for the strikers; the International Workers' Aid, a Moscow agency, to organize re­ lief and feed the strikers; and even the Communist Worker's World, to help with the propaganda-all jumped into the fray to aid Comrade Harry. With these groups came a trained army of Communist propagandists, toughs , and organizers. The strike was soon spread­ ing to other ports as the Bolsheviks' dream of a General Strike began to be­ come reality. Communist-led strikers now battled police with rocks, planks, and iron pipes. The class war was on in 'Frisco and it was all Harry's show. By summer, top Communist organ­ izers like Roy Hudson, William Dunne, Jack Stachel, and even Party Chairman Earl Browder were in the Bay area throwing gasoline on the fire. On July fifth the Communists attacked police in Manning Johnson identified Bridges as a top Red. front of a union hall; the officers were "Bridges acted kind of coy for a few at last forced to defend themselves, and minutes, but finally he signed up under in the ensuing battle fifteen strikers were the name Harry Dorgan, using his wounded and two killed. By July fif­ mother's maiden name." John Scho­ teenth, on the motion of Harry Bridges, maker then described in detail to the the General Strike became official and court how on two occasions he person­ over 125,000 workers responded to the ally picked up Bridges' annually expir­ call, turning an economically thriving ing Party card and issued a current one, San Francisco into a dead city over of often seeing Bridges pay his Party night. From that time on, Harry dues, and of attending meetings with Bridges was the hero of the Commu­ Bridges and other Communist Party nist Press. officials. Benjamin Gitlow, the former Gen­ In May of 1934, Communist Harry eral Secretary of the Communist Party, Bridges was ready to move in a big way. called the San Francisco General Strike He went over the heads of his bosses of 1934 a "success beyond the wildest in the A.F. of L. and called a strike on expectations of the Party...." Jack Sta­ the San Francisco waterfront. The dis- chel, the Communist Party's top union 2 AMERICAN OPINION specialist, wrote in the issue of the Com­ VISIOns were over-running France, munist for November of 1934: "The Bridges was actively creating chaos strike proved that it is not only possible and strikes in an attempt to dis­ for Communists to organize a main rupt America 's defense preparation. struggle in the A.F. of L. union , but Then it happened. Suddenly Hitler that it is possible to win the struggle." loosed his legions on his Communist With the settling of the strike late in partners. The next day Harry Bridges' July of 1934, Communist H arry Bridges "British Imperialist War" became a holy emerged as the recognized leader of the war; in fact it became "the people's war labor movement on the Pacific Coast. against fascism," and woe be unto the He served as President of the local I.L.A. from 1934 to 1936, was elected Pacific Coast President of the I.L.A. in 1936, and soon became a member of the A.F. of 1. Executive Committee and then A.F. of L. Vice President for the State of California. A 1936-1937 wildcat strike in defiance of his superiors in the A.F. of L. finally cooked his seagull with the old Gom­ pers group, causing Bridges to form his own organization, the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Un ion (I.L.W.U.) which soon affiliated with the fledgling C.I.O. Bridges be­ came State Director of the c.I.O. in 1937, a post which he held for over a decade." A sample handful of Communist organizations with which Harry Bridges associated includes The Waterfront W orker, International Labor Defense, Th e Western Worker, American Lea­ Sehomoker testified he issued Bridges' Party eard. gue Against War and Fascism, Friends Un ion member who talked of a strike of the Soviet Union, International now that it was Mother Russia whose Workers Order, and the Congress of existence was at stake. Quicker than a Soviet-American Friendship. He turned "Liberal" can say "The Communists are his strikes on and off like a spigot, de­ mellowin g," Harry turned into a chau­ pending on Moscow's strategy of the vinist, urging speed-ups on the produc­ moment. During the time of the in­ tion lines and demanding a declaration famous H itler-Stalin Pact he was de­ of war. nouncing World' War II as a "British During the late 1930's and 1940's Har­ Imperialist War," and it was he who ry Bridges was the scourge of Westcoast coined the phrase, "The Yanks Are Not shipowners; one reason being that, re­ Coming," which became the byword of gardless of merit, rulings of the Na­ every Communist Front organization tional Labor Relation s Board had a pe­ of the period. Wh ile Hitler's Panzer di- culiar habit of being decided in his fa­ vor. It was no accident. Labor Secretary * The c.I.O., which had st aunchly defended Frances Perkins, a vigorous Bridges ad­ Brid ges' activiti es, finall y ouste d t he I.L.W.U . in 1950 for bein g dominated by t he Communists. mirer, assigned Edwin Smith to be the MARCH, 1967 3 N .L.R.B. man dealing with the improved disproportionately with those LL.W.U. President. "Bridges was sort of other workers. T he Committee says of regarded as a hero by these people," that the members' welfare serves instead David Saposs, former Chief Economist as a means whereby a Communist bu­ of the N .L.R.B. testified before the Sen­ reaucracy has established a stranglehold ate Internal Security Subcommittee: "I over a union's membership - to be util­ remember Edwin Smith devoting a lot ized for revolutionary political aims­ of time in trying to convince me that and that Communist objectives and Harry Bridges was the greates t labor I.L.W.U. resolutions or statements par­ leader in the United States." Smith, who allel. T he House Committee's investi­ is now registered with the Attorney gation further showed that Bridges' General as an agent of Communist Chi­ I.L.W.U. has consistently "acted on na, took the Fifth Amendment when questions which have military signifi­ asked if he had ever attended Commu­ cance in support of the warlike aims of nist meetings with Bridges and again the Soviet Union." when queried about his own member­ ship in the Party. II Harry Bridges' union, as you may HARRY Bridges' chief assistant is have guessed, is not an ordinary labor Louis Goldblatt, Secretary-Treasurer of organization. After thorough investiga­ the I.L.W.U., who has on three occa­ tion, the House Com mit tee on Un­ sions been identified under oath as a American Activities has concluded that member of the Communist Party. Gold­ Bridges' I.L.W.U. does not devote itself blatt, who used the alias Lewis Miller primarily to the matters of the wages in both the Young Communist Leag ue and hours and working conditions of and the senior Party, is reputed to be its 75,000 members, although, because of Bridges' "braintrust" and may succeed the Un ion's coercive position, these have him as I.L.W .U. President when "'Arry

Harry Bridges applauds Khrushchev at I.L.W.U. Hall wher.. Mr. K. came to consult the long shore leader. 4 AMERICAN OPINION Bridges toa sts Ro be rts (l.) of Ame rican-Russi a n Institute and Communist Molot ov (with co cktail) . the Commie," as he is called, decides to as a Party leader and a member of the retire. W ithin recent years the British Executive Board of the Communist govern ment expelled Goldblatt as an Party, recruited dockworkers, the sugar "international Communist agent" dur­ and pineapple workers, and even gov­ ing a British dockworkers' strike. ernment employees into the l.L.W.U., Another Bridges underling is Com­ makin g it Hawaii's largest labor union. munist Archi e Brown, who gained na­ Although increased air service and tional attention in 1959 for his role in expan sion of agriculture since its state­ the famous San Francisco riots again st hood have somewhat eased the situation, the H ouse Committee on Un -American Hawaii. is still almost completely de­ Activities. Brown again made headlines pendent upon ocean-borne commerce in 1965 when the W arren Court ruled and must import most of its needs from un-Constitutional a federal law making the Mainl and. Virtually its only prod­ it a crime for a Communist to serve as ucts, aside from touri sm, are sugar and an official of a labor union. Brown had pineapple. Since shipping, sugar, and been convicted of serving as a member pineapple are all controlled by the of the Executive Board of Local 10 of l.L.W.U., H all's success in organizing the l.L.W.U. (Bridges' home local) the Union has put the economy of Ha­ while a Party member and sentenced to waii largely in the hands of a small six months in prison . group of Communists. According to the sworn testimony of U.S. Senate Hearings, conducted to former top Communist leader Lou is investigate massive Communist activity Budenz, Bridges in 1938-under orders in that Pacific paradi se, revealed that from Moscow-sent one Jack Hall to H all had placed Communists in all of Hawaii as a Communist Part y organ ­ the most strategic positions within the izer to work under the cover of being Uni on, thereby assurin g that control of an I.L.W.U. operative. Hall, who served the large membership could be manipu- MARCH, 1967 5 nity in spite of the fact that he is under conviction of teaching and advocating the overthrow of our government ." Fol­ lowing Hall's conviction, a number of testimonial dinners were held for him which were attended by local business­ men and representatives of shipping management. Communism is not only entrenched in power but it has even be­ come respectable in H awa ii. Reverend Wi lliam S. McBirnie quotes one in­ formed citizen :

There is never a yacht party given by the "Bi g People" in business and political leadership without some of the prominent Communist labor leaders being invited. State adminis­ trators make no important announce­ ments at press conferences with­ out having one of these Communist labor leaders sitting beside them at Identified Communist Jack Hall of I.L.W.U. the meeting. . . . Many of the pres­ lated by a relative handful of Reds. A ent generation of important famili es Report of the Un ited States Senate, of the islands have stopped fighting Scope of Soviet A ctivity in the U.S., dis­ the Reds and have made their peace closed that "By 1955, Communist polit­ going so far as to extend social rec­ ical and economic control of H awaii ognition to the Red labor leaders. through Communist dominated unions was so great that the official Commu­ The I.L.W.U. has worked tenacious­ nist party went out of existence. Since ly to make its imprint on every segment 1955, Communist propaganda and other of economic, social, and political life in activities have been conducted thr ough H awaii. The Union has an intricate the unions." system for disseminating propaganda In 1953 a federal court convicted which includes not only the Union H all, under the Smith Act, for conspir­ newspapers but radio programs, motion ing to overthrow the government by pictures, education classes, and mobile force and violence. But in 1957 a deci­ libraries. As with these other projects sion of the Warren Cour t overturned the Union's daily radio programs, broad­ the convictions of H all and other Com­ cast in both English and Fil ipino, are munists on grounds that they had mere­ under the direction of Education Chair­ ly advocated overthrow of the govern­ man David Thompson, an identified ment without yet committing any overt Communist. act to that end. Thus Communists After controll ing the cork in Hawaii's Bridges and H all continue to maintain economic bottleneck, Bridges' boys next their stranglehold over the Islands. moved into politics. Rather than form As one citizen of H awaii testified be­ a third Party the I.L.W.U., working fore the Senate Internal Security Sub­ through an officially cited Communist committee: "Jack H all is probably the F ront called the Territorial Political most powerful person in this cornmu- Action Committee, supports "Liberal" 6 AMERICAN OPINION cand idates, either Republic an or Dem­ ator in 1962, and Republican H iram ocrat, whom it considers useful. On Fong re-e1ected U.S. Senator in 1964, April 5, 1948, Communists gained con­ were all supported by the Communist­ trol of the precinct level of the Demo­ dominated I.L.W.U. In the case of Re­ crat Party on Oahu , the island on which publican Fong, his Democrat opponent H onolulu is located . One month later was at first given the I.L.W.U.'s sup­ Communists took charge of the Demo­ port. But, the Union has such enormous cratic organi zation and placed mem­ power as "the swing vote" in Hawaii bers of the Communist Party in posi­ that Fong soon made his peace with the tions of impo rtance at Democratic Communists. On October 24, 1963, H eadquarters in H onolu lu. Communist Jeff Kibre, the I.L.W.U. Anti-Communist Democrats tried to representat ive in Washington, wrote a regain control of their Party by exclud­ letter to Communist Jack H all explain­ ing known Communists from member­ ing why it was in the interest of the ship, but failed in June of 1949 as the I.L.W.U. to back Fong. On June 2, Central Committee of the Territorial 1964, Jack H all, with Fong present, pub­ Democratic Party rejected a resolution licly endorsed the "Republican." which would have required that pro­ When will the Red boa constrictor spective Democrats swear they are not again put the squeeze on H awaii? Ob­ and have not been Communists. viously, when the Communists are The Communists scored another ma­ ready for it. The I.L.W.U. strike of 1949 jor victory when John Burns was elected -begun on May D ay in concert with as a Territorial Delegate to the U.S. strikes by other Communist-dominated Congress in 1956. Although not an iden­ dockworkers unions throughout the tified Communist, Burn s has worked world - lasted for six months. That closely with Jack H all for man y years. strike crippled the economy of the Burn s was elected Governor of H awaii Islands and broke the back of major in 1962 and paid off years of political debts to the Communist-dominated I.L.W .U. by appoin ting H all to the H awaii State Maritime Advisory Board. H e also appointed numerous other known Communists to positions in the state government and selected as his Administrative Assistant one Edward G. Rhorbough, who was the principal stockholder of the now defunct Com­ munist newspaper, Honolulu Record, and who has written for such Commu­ nist publications as New Masses and People's World. Bridges-backed candidates now hold the major elective offices in Hawaii. Republ ican Neal Blaisdell, supported by the I.L.W.U., has been elected Mayor of H onolulu three times. Democrat Spark Matsunaga elected U.S. Repre­ sentative in 1962, Democrat Patsy Mink elected U.S. Representative in 1964, Democrat Daniel Inou ye elected Sen- Identified Communist l ouis Goldbla" of l.l.W.U. MA RCH, 1967 7 resistance to the Uni on-Communist leader in the Communist Front Inde­ combine. Other political strikes have in­ pendent Progressive Part y and cam­ cluded the walkout of sugar work ers in paigned vigorously for Henry Wallace 1950 after Bridges was convicted of in 1948. In November of 1948, a crucial fraud and conspiracy; the twenty-four­ time in the war between the N ational­ hour dockworkers' walkout in Septem­ ists and Communists in China, Bridges ber of 1952 (which spread to Pearl maneuvered a strike to delay further H arbor) after an adverse court ruling effective aid to the embattled Chiang against Bridges; a walkout in 1953 after Kai-shek. It was in those months that Jack H all's conviction under the Smith the fall of China was assured. During Act ; and, one in 1956 when the Senate the Korean "police action" Bridges even Internal Security Subcommittee arrived joined his comrades in accusing the in the Island s to conduct Hearings on Un ited States of using "bacteriological Communist activity in H awaii. warfare." H awaii was the principal staging, re­ In 1959 Harry Bridges and his famil­ plenishing, repair, and communications iar white-capped toughs were active in area for the United States during World precipitating the aforementioned San War II, and is now the headquarters F rancisco student riots. Also in 1959, for our Pacific fleet and area command. Khrushchev visited Bridges at I.L.W.U. It would require an army to keep the Headquarters in San Francisco in an state open in the event Bridges' I.L.W.U. action widely interpreted as a gesture should decide to make its move. by the Butcher of the Ukraine to dem­ onstrate his solidarity with American III Communists as personified by Harry SINCE the end of World W ar II, H ar­ Bridges. In 1964, Bridges' union hall was ry Bridges has not faltered on his com­ the site of the Founding Convention of mitment to the Kremlin. H e was a the Communist W.E.B. DuBois Club , a group in which the offspring of man y of Bridges' lieutenants participate. As late as N ovember 25, 1966, the East German Communist publication, Dem­ ocratic German Report, ran an article by Bridges indi cating that the longshore boss is still active in promoting Com­ munism wherever possible. But let's not be dogm atic or closed minded. There is another side of Bridges, the side you can read about in the bevy of paeans that have appeared in such Establishment publications as N ation and N ew Republic and Time. You see, while Bridges may be the agent of an organization which has put to death over 100 million of your fellow human beings, "Liberals" will point out that he is not all bad. For instance, his Union does have a reputation for being relatively free of racketeers. A recent issue of Tim e describes the Bridges' first wife testified he was a Communist. "new" H arry Bridges: 8 AMERICAN OPINION Government-authenticated photostat of Harry Bridges' Communist Party card under alias of "Dorgan." A ltho ugh Bridges lives in a m odest Ty pical of the eulogies heaped upon two bedroom house with his third " the "new" Bridges is this one from wi fe, N orik o, 40 , a Nisei, on a sal­ University of California President Clark ary of $14,000 a year, he nonethe­ Kerr, him self a labor-relations expert of less basks in th e welcomes he re­ high repute within Liberaldom: "T he ceives in such big businessmen's 1934 Longshoremen were sort of left­ haunts as San Francisco's Common­ overs from society. Men who couldn't wealth and Bohemian Clubs.t find other work. Now they are the aris­ tocrats of labor." The "aristocrats" owe * Harry Bridges' fi rst wife divorced him fo r fa ­ their kingly position to the favoritism thering an illegiti mate son by a New York dancer. Bridges vehemently denied the charge--th en mar­ shown Bridges by the government, ried th e dancer . The first Mrs. Bridges testif ied in which forced the shipowners to deal 195 0 that Harry threat ened to kill her if she with him unt il management finally exp osed him as a Communist. t W hile Brid ges affe cts the trappings of frugal threw in the towel after it became ap­ livin g on a comparatively small salary and in a parent they were perm anently saddled modest ho use, there is evidence that on at least two occa sions he has found a way to pay his ba r with a Communist. bill at the Bohem ian Club by w hat old Joe Ken­ N ow management has not only nedy might have refer red to (after th e third learned to live with Bridges, but they round) as "rjggi ng th e mark et." Government in­ vestiga tors recorded the foll owing conve rsation at say they like him. Stanley Powell, for a meeti ng of top Communists in 19 51 as t he Reds example, President of the giant Matson discussed bu ying the sto ck of H awaiian Pine, which Shipping Lines, offers this endorsement: produces eighty percent of the world's pineapple: Bridges-"We've just had a seven months strike. "I don't know how the guy that sat at That stock's about . .. you're liable to get it this desk thirty years ago felt about around eighteen. That stock mu st go to twenty or twen ty- on e. . . . If you're sitting on a pile Bridges, but I know it was a hell of a of dough that you're investing and want to mak e lot different from the way I feel. I ad­ some on it, this is good .. .. One of th ese days mire his ability to keep his word and I'll come aroun d and give you all th e insi de dope on sugar futures. n get his union to back him up." Some- MARCH, 1967 9 day Mr. Powell may have the privilege ty is such that he is fond of citing the of admiring the fruits of Bridges' han­ fact that he is a registered Republican. diwork from the wrong end of a firing While he rocks with the Communists squad; but until then, what the hell, he enrolls with the Republicans. Never­ let's enjoy a martini together at the Top theless people will tell you, "Why Har­ of the Mark. ry Bridges can't be a Communist; he's Bridges has a contract providing the a Republican." As Bridges once told a members of his Union with lucrative sympathetic reporter, "There are some pay, job security, retirement benefits, labels-Communism, socialism, liberal­ and virtually every conceivable fringe ism, and conservatism - that mean ~ something, but Republican and Demo­ crat-those labels don't mean anything." One recent piece of news does, how­ ever, dull Bridges' new image as a mel­ lowed Communist. On June 14, 1966, a fire destroyed the home of James Rob­ ertson, an identified Communist and long-time Vice President of Harry Bridges' I.L.W.U. The fire ignited twenty-thousand rounds of ammunition stored in the Robertson basement and destroyed a large supply of arms in­ tended, no doubt, to be used nonviolent­ ly. Not atypically, a news blackout shrouded the occurrence from public notice in San Francisco, where neither daily newspaper carried even the wire­ service account of the fire.

IV THE OBVIOUS question is: Why has the government allowed Harry Bridges to Bridges' Marxist attorney, Vincent Hallinan. jeopardize our national security in view benefit. In return, he has stopped fla­ of the mountains of evidence that he grant featherbedding and allows the has been a top Communist since the shipowners to install all the labor sav­ early Thirties? ing equipment they want. The automa­ Following the Westcoast General tion permits the owners to unload more Strike of 1934, there was a clamor to rapidly, thereby saving on dock charges deport the alien Bridges because of his which can run $2,500 a day. While labor flagrant Communist activities. At that costs are still artificially high, the own­ time the Immigration and Naturaliza­ ers feel they are coming out ahead. It's tion Service was under the Department good business for Bridges too, since it of Labor, headed by Leftist Frances solidifies his control over shipping. Be­ Perkins. Although deportation action sides, he doesn't own the docks. The was initiated in 1937, Madam Perkins shipowners, not having done their dragged her feet for over two years un­ homework on Communist strategy, til public opinion forced her to act. And don 't realize that Communists have a act she did, with all the fury of an angry reason for doing what they do. bunny rabbit! Bridges' current wave of respectabili- It was announced that Bridges would 10 AMERICAN OPINION be called to appear at a Hearing* to be A letter to the Department of Labor held by the Immigration Service. written at this time by R. P. Bonham, Madam Perkins, reportedly after con­ of the Department's Westcoast office, sultation with Eleanor Roosevelt, se­ indicates just how powerful Commu­ lected Dean James M. Landis] of the nist Bridges' friends were. Mr. Bonham Harvard Law School to preside over the wrote: Hearing. Congressman Martin Dies, Chairman of the Special Committee on I believe it is proper that I ac­ Uri-American Activities, commented on quaint the central office with the the selection of Landis to hear the fact that when I interviewed Mr. Bridges affair: Bridges some time ago on another matter, he boasted that he had seen Those in the know in Washington the central office files relating to realized the Bridges Hearings were himself and also that he had an ex­ a joke. Mrs. Perkins turned over cellent "intelligence" organization of Heaven and Earth to keep Bridges his own that kept him well informed from being deported and she de­ of what was going on. fended him all the way through from behind the scenes. It was an open The central office documents in ques­ secret that she had personally guar­ tion "disappeared" from the files of the anteed him that he would not be de­ Department of Labor the following ported. When Landis was picked to month. serve as the Hearing officer, it be­ Despite all that Frances Perkins came obvious to everyone concerned could do, and despite the destruction of that the whole show was a farce evidence, the Hearing finally got under staged to assuage public opinion. way in San Francisco in 1939. Dean Landis was authorized to issue passes Reader's Digest editor Eugene Lyons wrote of Frances Perkins that she "seemed to live in dread of criticism from the Left. She could take lambast­ ings from the manufacturers' association and enjoy it, but reprimands from the New Republic or the New Masses hurt her deeply." Although never a Party member, she was putty in their hands and Congressman Dies described her as the very embodiment of the terms, "Communist sympathizer" and "fellow traveler ."

* While the Hearing was in a sense a trial, it was not conducted by a court, but by the Immigration Service itself. t Landis, an important "Liberal," went on to hold high Government position. During the Ken­ nedy Administration he was indicted, as he so quaintly expressed it , for "forgetting" to pay his income tax-for four years . Landis was given a suspended sentence; perhaps because the court felt the former Dean of the Harvard Law School did not fully comprehend the compelling intricacies of our Internal Revenue Code. J. R. Robertson's arsenal was burned. MARCH, 1967 11 At Immigrat ion Hearing in 193 9: Communist Bridges at defense tab le, Judge La ndis at right of the flag. , "as he saw fit" and he saw fit to issue booklet of the period by E. E. Ward, them to Donald Stewart, Ella Winter, published by Modern Age Books and other well known Stalinists-thus which specialized in Stalinoid literature, assisting in turning the stage show into gloated: an uproarious shouting match. Each of the government's witnesses T ime and again Bridges had Dean against Bridges was assailed in the Landis chuckling. .. . By this time Communist and "Liberal" Press as a Landis and Bridges were chatting as despicable, immoral, and psychopathic two men would before a fireside. .. . liar. The terms renegade, labor spy for T hat drew Landis and Bridges off the the Hearst Press, Red baiter, stool subject of th e Soviet Union. Com ­ pigeon, and others of a more vicious rade Bridges then explained to th e nature were hurled at Benjamin Git­ Harvard professor bou/ much better low, former Secretary of the Commu­ off Soviet sailors are than th eir fel­ nist Party; Joseph Zack, .a form er top low workers in other lands and also Communist official; Howard Rush­ described th e beauties of civil liber­ more, a former employee of the Daily ties under Stalin. W orker; Na t H onig, once a close friend and confident of Communist Party As Ward describes it, the trial pro­ Chairman Wi lliam Z. Foster; and H ar­ vided a "gigantic sounding board . . . ry Lundeberg, Secretary of the Sailors [and] Bridges literally embraced the Union of the Pacific. These were all oppo rtunity with a wrestlers clutch.'?" former Communists who testified un­ T he verdict surprised nobody, least of der oath that they had worked with Bridges inside the Party. T he Commu­ II} A ppearing as a character witness in behalf of Communist Bridges was Senator Wa yne Mor se of nist smears against these men were ac­ Oregon. This was before he was kicked in the cepted at face value by Landis. A Leftist head by a horse. 12 AMERICAN OPINION all Bridges. Landis, as if on cue, de­ was signed simply "Eleanor." scribed the testimony of the former Bridges appealed to the Supreme Communists as "a morass of prevarica­ Court, which ruled that he had not re­ tion." To Bridges, on the other hand, ceived a fair Hearing on the question Dean Landis paid the warmest of com­ of his membership in the Communist pliments for his "fighting apologia" Party. Incredibly, Chief Justice Murphy from the witness stand. The Dean also declared that there "was not the slightest voiced the "Liberal's" most cherished evidence introduced to show that either platitude, hoary with age even in 1940, Bridges or the Communist party serious­ that the Communists were mellowing ly threatens to uproot the government and had forsaken their goal of violent by force of violence. . . . The Bridges conquest of the world. The Bolshevik case," the Chief Justice stated, "would Press oooed its praises of Bridges and stand forever as a monument to man's Landis while Madam Perkins cooed intolerance of man." Mr. Justice Wil­ that the Landis decision was "flawless," liam O. Douglas, for his part, main­ and that the kindly Harry was the vic­ tained that Bridges' Communist activi­ tim of "stool pigeons" and was "inno­ ies were mainly with the Party's "legit­ cent of any Red taint. " imate objectives." He did not say what Congress became so incensed at the those are. handling of the Bridges case that it After this "vindication" by the Su­ threatened to impeach Secretary of La­ preme Court, Harry Bridges moved bor Perkins, but settled instead for re­ quickly to take out citizenship papers. moving the Immigration Service from His friends inside the federal govern ­ the Labor Department and putting it ment had apparently assured him that under the Justice Department, where in the Justice Department would not con­ 1941 another attempt was made to de­ test his naturalization. Stanley John­ port Bridges. This time the F .B.I. did ston, the Chief Naturalization Exam- the investigating (producing thirty-two new witnesses) and the Hearing officer, Judge Charles Sears, ruled that Bridges was a Communist and that the Party advocated the violent overthrow of the government. In 1942 the Board of Im­ migration Appeals, stuffed with "Lib­ erals" appointed by FD.R., reversed Judge Sears' decision. Attorney General Francis Biddle then overruled the Ap­ peals Board and ordered Bridges de­ ported. An American Legion official active in seeking the deportation of Bridges described to me how at this time a close friend of his in the Immigration Ser­ vice telephoned him to victoriously an­ nounce that Bridge s was on his way to Australia that afternoon. Several hours later the official called back to say the whole thing was off. A letter had come from the White House ordering that the deportation be held up. The letter Judge Sears held Bridges · to be a Communist. MARCH, 1967 13 iner in the San Francisco District, was Boyd, it seems, was an anti-Communist. approached by a Washington emissary It was during the next few years that who inquired what his attitude would most of the cases against Communists be if Bridges tried for citizenship. John ­ were tried, largely because of the un­ ston told the emissary that the files of heralded efforts of Mr. Boyd.* the San Francisco Office of Immigra­ In 1949 the government indicted Har­ tion showed Bridges to be a Commu­ ry Bridges and the two witnesses who nist and that therefore he felt honor had testified at his naturalization that bound to "present all pertinent facts to Bridges was not a Communist. One of the court, call all available witnesses, those indicted was James Robertson , the and strongly oppose Bridges' admission man whose basement arsenal recently to citizenship." After the interview with burned. Bridges and his cohorts were the man from Washington, Johnston charged with criminal conspiracy and was informed privately by the District perjury. Again the government put all Director that by taking this stand he new witnesses on the stand and under "certainly had not done [himself] any oath ten of them identified Harry good." Within days Johnston was re­ Bridges as a member of the Communist moved from his key position under or­ Party. One of the first of these wit­ ders from Washington and demoted. nesses was John Schomaker, who had The government did not contest Har­ issued to Bridges his original card in ry Bridges' naturalization. Pat Farrelly, the Communist Party. Bridges' first an inspector in the Department of Im­ wife then produced his Party card and migration, wrote to Attorney General membership book, explaining that he Tom Clark shortly after the granting had kept it underneath a loose tile in of citizenship to Bridges and stated that their bathroom and that it was issued he had definite proof of Bridges' Com­ in the name of Dorgan, Bridges' munist Party membership which had mother's maiden name. Manning John­ been withheld from the Naturalization son, a former top Communist labor of­ Court and that he [Farrelly] would ficial and member of the National Com­ turn over the evidence to any author­ mittee of the Communist Party, testified ized representative of the Department. at this trial that he had heard Bridges Farrelly received a reply-not from the address a Communist National Com­ office of the Attorney General, but from mittee in 1936, and that in 1938 he had the Deputy Commissioner of Immigra­ voted to re-elect Bridges (under the tion and Naturalization (the accused) alias of Rossi) to the National Com­ stating that "all the pertinent evidence mittee of the Communist Party, U.S.A. in the Bridges case was made known to This election was confirmed by Paul the judge before Bridges was natural­ Crouch who had also been a top opera­ ized." If so, it was done in the Judge's tive and officer in the Communist Par­ chambers and not in court. And, if ty. the evidence was presented, why was On December 12, 1949, the case Bridges given citizenship? Farrelly, of threatened to involve Eleanor Roosevelt. course, was never contacted for his evi­ In cross examining witness Kermit Kro­ dence. lek, the defense (mind you, the de­ It was not until after the 1948 Presi­ fense) brought up a letter to his brother- dential elections that a change of atti­ * The Immigration Service Officer who provided tude occurred within important seg­ this information also reports that a few months af­ ments of official Washington. In 1948 a ter Eisenhower's election the point was made to the various government agencies that it was no longer man named John Boyd was appointed politically expedient to go after the Communists Assistant to the Attorney General and and such prosecutions came to an untimely halt. 14 AMERICAN OPINION Identified Communist Harry Bridges beams over news that he is free on a technicality. in-law from Eleanor Roosevelt con­ the self-professed Marxist whose sons demni ng Krolek for his "t reachery" in helped to found the Communist W .E.B. disclosing to the F.B.I. that Bridges was D uBois Club-had to hastily call for a a Communist. The prosecutor, an am­ recess. H allinan, in 1952 a candidate for bitious and politically active Democrat, President of the Un ited States on the dropped the issue like a hot potato. The ticket of the Communist Front Inde­ full story is that K rolek had defected pendent Progressive Party, was ordered from the Party and been questioned by to jail on charges of contempt of court the F. B.I. H is brother-in-law, Mervyn resulting from his antics in trying to Rathborne, who was still in the Party shake the government's case. (but later defected and testified against The court convicted Bridges on two Bridges) , called on him within a few counts- that he committed perjury days of the time he had given the in­ when at his naturalization H earing he formation to the F.B.I. and read Krolek swore that he had never been a mem ber the riot act for being a "stool pigeon." of the Communist Party , and that he Krolek denied that he had talked to the conspired with his co-defendants to F .B.I., whereupon Rathborne produced deny his Party membership. After the a photostat of the F .B.I. report of their verdict was rendered, co-defendant conversation with Krolek. Rathb orne Henry Schmidt shouted, "If Franklin told Kro lek he had gotten the report D .Roosevelt was still alive, we wouldn't from Elean or Roosevelt. be here!" So tigh t was the government's case Naturally Bridges appealed the deci­ against Bridges that one day the Com­ sion to the Supreme Court-and again, munist leader lost control on the wit­ as it has a peculiar habit of doing, the ness stand and shouted: "W here are Court saved the kindly Communists they getting all these que stions?" from our uri-American internal security Bridges' attorney- Vincent Hallinan, laws; anyway that 's the way Nation MARCH,I967 15 magazine tells the story. The Supreme because of logistics." Court ruled that the statute of limita­ The Communists' theory is that you tions had expired before the government don't have to kill the whole body in indic ted Bridges. Some involved in the order to execute the victim ; you can case at the time believe the government throttle him at the throat. And that deliberately let the statute of limitations throat is transportation. As Lenin com­ expire; others say the prosecution manded his revolut ionaries: thought the government was on firm ground since Cong ress had extended . .. find that particular link in the statute of limitations on criminal the chain which one mu st grasp acts which had occurred during war­ with all one's might to hold the time. The Supreme Court ruled that whole chain. For the Communist that Congress did not mean this type of case particular link today is the transport -which was odd, since Congress had indust ry whereby a comparative in­ not written any such limitations into significant number of Communists the law. "Liberals" prattle that Bridges operating within a mass t rade union was cleared by the Supreme Court. This movement in a strategic industry is absurd since Bridges escaped jail like the t ransport indu stry hope to and/ or deportation on an obviously be able, at the appropriate time, to manufactured technicality. immobilize the workers in the entire In 1955, the government made yet an­ industry, paralyze it, and thereby other attempt to deport Harry Bridges; paralyze the econom y. Grievances this time in a civil action involving can always be claimed as justification fraud , in which there is no statute of for violation of contracts. limitations. Five former Com munists swore that they knew Bridges in the In testimony before the Senate In­ Party, but Judge Louis Goodman ruled terna l Security Subcommittee, former in favor of Bridges. Goodm an, like Communist John Lautner disclosed Landis, held that former Communists that after 1945 the Communist Party were unrel iable witnesses. Significantly, had decided to concentrate its infiltra­ the governmen t made no appeal, giving tion policies on transportation. Could up all attempts to deport 'Arry the anything be more expedient than for Commie. H arry Bridges to keep his bargains with the shipowners so long as he has his V hand s around their throats while await­ ANY STUDY of Communist strategy ing "the appropriate time"? for controlling the sea lanes of the The Senate Internal Security Sub­ world discloses why the Communist committee recently investigated a pro­ Conspiracy devoted such enormous ef­ posed alliance of transportation unions fort, pulling every possible string, mar­ which would put Harry Bridges in the shaling every conceivable propaganda driver's seat over all American trans­ resource, to protect and preserve Harry portation. Bridges wants a joint termi­ Bridges for both his strategic and sym­ nation date for all new contracts on the bolic values. Communists have always West, East, and Gulf Coasts. If this been especially eager to control the proposal should be effectuated, it would waterfronts and world shipping. Gen­ make possible a General Strike of all eral Dwight Eisenhower explained the American ports. Meanwhile, Bridges reason : "You will not find it difficult has sent two of his Communist orga­ to prove that battles, campaigns and nizers, Irving Velson and Steve Nelson, even wars have been won or lost merely to try to establish a foothold in the East 16 AMERICAN OPINION and Gulf ports. These efforts have thus It might be argued that Hoffa will far been relatively unsuccessful. Ap­ run the Teamsters from his cell and parently the dockworkers in those areas that, since Curran's break with Com­ have a better nose for Communists than munism was one of expediency, he do their counterparts on the Pacific might reunite out of expediency. We Coast. probably will not know until the ar­ Another segment of the proposed rival of what Lenin called "the appro­ transportation alliance involves James priate time." That the alliance has been Hoffa of the Teamsters Union, who has formalized is, however, indicated by the made it clear that he has no qualms following conclusion from a recent Re­ about working with Harry Bridges. In port of the Senate Internal Security discussing the alliance, Bridges has Subcommittee: noted that "If the teamsters and the two dock unions got together, they'd The terms of th e alliance between represent more economic power than the Teamsters' Union, the ILWU, the combined AFL-CIO. They are so the ILA and the NMU have not been concentrated, an economic squeeze can made public and are shrouded in se­ be exerted that puts any employer in a crecy . . . . It is a definite menace to pretty tough spot; and, furthermore, our national security, both econom­ puts the U.S. Government in a tough ically and militarily. spot." You'd better believe it! Still, Harry Bridges is not content Is the transportation alliance an al­ with having only the American trans­ ready accomplished fact? Doubters will port unions under Communist coor­ point to the facts that Hoffa is on his dination and domination. In 1958, the way to jail for a prolonged vacation, I.L.W.U. chief traveled to England, and that Joseph Curran of the Eastcoast France, Italy, Holland, Israel, Commu- National Maritime Union has a reputa­ tion for being anti-Communist. Re­ canted Communist Party leader Ben­ jamin Gitlow sheds some light on Cur­ ran:

The National Maritime Union was organized by the money and efforts of the Communist Party in Moscow, and was recognized as a Communist union. It's President, Joseph Cur­ ran . . . for years bolstered up the Communist Party machine in the organization. He fought those who fought th e Communists. ... But when the Communist general staff tried to maneuver Harry Bridges in­ to a position where he would become the kingpin on the waterfront of the Atlantic as well as the Pacific Coast, Curran resented the move, fought back and broke with the Commu­ nists. In this hat na one can tell we're related. MARCH,1967 17 nist Europe, and the Soviet Union to that Bridges has not yet stopped the reach agreements for concerted action shipments to Vietnam suggests that in to tie up shipping throughout the world reality the Communists are quite happ y when "the appropriate time " comes. to have us waste our blood and billions Bridges met with Communist and pro­ in that futile, no-win war while Bridges Communist union leader s including plays the role of "elder statesman" wait­ Agostine N ovella, the Communist Par­ ing for "the appropriate time ." ty labor chief who has worked diligent­ Please remember that Harry Bridges ly to try to dislodge N .A.T.O. from is exclusively the creature of the federal Italy. Novella was soon promoted to govern ment: The W agner and N orris­ head the Communist World Federation LaGu ard ia Acts assure him a coercive of Trade Unions and is now in charge monopoly and force the shipowners to of coordinating Communist-dominated negotiate with him ; the Supreme Court unions in Western Europe. has issued numerous decisions to pro­ A year later, Bridges and Jack H all tect him; and the Executive, after du­ attended the first All Pacific and Asian bious efforts at deportation, has decided Dock Workers' Trade Union Confer­ to ignore him. Longshorem an Harry ence in Japan. The Japanese Govern­ Bridges, the forgotten Communist, will ment denounced the Conference as doubtless be with us until he retires. Communist-sponsored and it was boy­ Rest assured that the Reds will go to cotted by the free trade unions of Japan. any extent to preserve their hold over The 1961 Annual Report of the House the LL.W.U., and that upon retiring Committee on Un-American Activities Bridges will appoint his successor. describes the Conference in these terms: Meanwhile, it is obvious to everyone, particularly to those business people who Its apparent purpose was to unite must deal with him, that the govern­ under Communist control and in the ment will do nothing about the situa­ service' of the Kremlin all the dock­ tion. If the govern ment tolerates workers' union s of the Pacific-Asian Bridges, why wouldn't the shipping area so that wh en the tim e came lines work with him ? They feel they these unions could coordinate strikes, have no other choice. Their he-hum sabotage and similar activities to casualness about the man who sits with assist the Kremlin in undermining the a poised scalpel at America's jugular defense of the free world. is but a product of "peaceful coexis­ tence" at the local level-working as it It might be add ed that the supposedly was designed to work by the strategists mellowed Bridge s has already boasted in- the Kremlin. To the boys in Mos­ to the House Committee on Un-Arneri­ cow there is no "new" Harry Bridges : can Activities that in the event of war He is the same Communist they have in the Far East he will do all in his had under ideological and effective dis­ power to impede shipments and supplies cipline since he joined the Communi st going to our troops and allies. The fact Party back in 1933.. •

CRACKER BARREL------• EAGLE ROCK-Qnly yeste rday Pat Brown was warning people against voti ng for actors. And now he's t elling the Demo crats t hey oug ht t o nominate Gregory Peck fo r somet hing right away.

• EAGLE ROCK-Things wouldn't be so bad if my wife didn't keep buying the lar ge economy size of everything at the superma rket. I can't get her to go for t he small expensive packages we can afford. -JACK MOFFITT 18 AMERICAN OPINION