The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-07-18
San Francisco Strike Key Held
 By Formerly Obscure Seaman
Australian Attains Leadership By
 Sudden Rise
By PHILIP J. SINNOTT TEA Service Stan Correspondent

A NEA Service Stan Correspondent
 San Francisco-Four months ago. Harry Bridges was unknown except among his fellow-workmen. Today he is the outstanding figure in a city of 1,300,0 900 which writhes in the strangling chains of gen. eral strike.
 Bridges is slight, dark man who came here 10 years ago as seaman from Australia, where he was born. He became a dock worker, and worked his way to leadership of minority faction in the International Longshoremen's s association. Named to the strike committee in the present emer- gency, Bridges quickly became dominant, and was chosen head of the joint board when other mari- a time unions came to the aid of the longshoremen.
 An Able Organizer.
 Bridges is bitterly uncompro- missing, but the strikers trust implicitly to his honesty and cour- age. His discipline and control over his men has been remark able. He organizes his pickets like a field general, and has even suc- ceeded for the most part in keep ing his men away from saloons
 When troops were called to the waterfront after the shooting of two men, it was Bridges strategy to wothdraw all pickets from the area, leaving the guardsmen with nothing to do. "We can't fight ma. chine guns and bayonets," was the word from strike headquarters with the added implication "and fgurthermore we're not going to try"
 Quiet, though at times very argumentative, Bridges displays an adroit evasiveness in battles of wits with reporters seeking to pin him down. But before a crowd of workmen his statements are blunt and direct, and his strident voice carries compelling conviction. When teamsters met to vote on sympathy strike, they heard pleas from leaders of 30 years standing against a premature strike. The men shouted for Bridges. He came to the hall with a following of his longshoremen. And the teamsters cheered and voted to strike the next morning.
 Killings Aided Strike.
 Bridges, is freely accused of, be- ing a Communist, but strike lead CTS deny this. His tactics have from the start apparently been aimed at bringing on a general strike, and if this is true, he has worked toward his objective with almost perfect success. The killing of two men in the rioting of. July played directly into his hands, and was one of the most compell- ing causes of the wide support given the strike movement.
 Nearly 10000 marched in the solemn procession that escorted the bodies of Harry Sperry, striking longshoreman, and Nick Bordoise, unemployed cook. War Veterans Sperry's casket was fiag-draped. Flowers filled the funeral cars. A band played dirges, and many crafts were represented in the coretge that traversed long lines of respectful bystandens.
 FH4 s... ts,,, ,.,. C., Hiring Hall Question.
 The principal battle wages a. round the question of a long, shoremen's hiring hall.
 The hiring hall corresponds to an employment agency, where men would gather for work, and em- ployers would look for men. Ship arrivals are such that jobs and hours are irregular.
 For IA years, stevedores have been largely hired lon the street." they congregated along the em- barcadero at a. m. and remained until hired or until they gave up for 8 day. Employers agreed to a hiring hall, but eacr side de- mands control. Employers insist ''union controp' means "closed shop" Unionists see discrimination against union men. Thus far, the maritime unions have been> ada ment against arbitratingfi hiring hall control.
 Charges of .Communistic activity fly in connection with the strike effort. They become nebulous when trailed down. A group of young Communists joined other organiza- tions in carrying banners in an early strike protest parade. At a protest mass meeting in the civic center, persons distributing radi- cal literature were elected by strikers. Sam Darcy, Communist candidate for mayor, was one of the speakers at the funeral service last week. But when men started circulating Communistic literature along the line of the funeral pro- cession for Sperry and Bordoise, strikers forcibly seized the liter atufe