Evening star., 1941-06-13
Dies Inquiry Hears
Bridges Assisted
Red Organizers
But He Was Considered
Unreliable in CIeovinq
To 'Porty Line
By CARTER BROOKE JONES.

BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Harry Bridges. spotlighted West
Coast labor leader, was described
In new evidence added to the Dies
Committee record today, as fellow
who would attend Communist meet
ings and furnish reports valuable
to party organizer, but who should
be approached with care because
he was considered more or less un-
reliable" in cleaving to the party
line
Other testimony brought out at
A brief hearing last night before
Representative StarneS. Democrat,
of Alabama, acting chairman of the
House group investiga ting un-Amer-
lean activities. related to the strike
this week at the Aluminium Co. of
America plant in Cleveland and
purported to show:
That Edward Cheyfitz, national
secretary of the c. I. o. die casters
union involved in the hastily
settled walkout, has been an active
Communist in recent years.
That a man who goes under the
alias of Paul Martin and currently
is president of the Cleveland local
OF the same union has been con-
victed six times of felonieS and
served seven years for armed rob-
berry. The committee was told that
an order had been issued revoking
his parole. and that he also had been
a member of the Communist Party.
Martins real name was not re-
vealed.
False Statements Charged.
r. B. Barker, committee investi-
gator, placed in the record informa-
ton just obtained in a telephone
conversation with Cleveland author
tiles TO the effect that Alex Balint,
regional director of the union that
called the aluminium strike, had Just
been charged in a warrant with
making false statements in his
registration as an alien last year.
Balint testified before the Dies
Committee Tuesday that he was of
Hungarian birth, had not taken
out citizenship papers and had
served an l1-month prison sentence
in his youth for an automobile theft
of which he said he was innocent.
He denied he ever had been Com
munist. Two witnesses at the same
hearing said he had been.
At uQctorJoI-ic
witness, c. B. Cowan, who said he
was communist for seven years,
but was expelled from the party in
1886, identified current newspaper
photograph Of Balint as that of a
man he knew few years ago under
. the name of Al Berry-an active
Communist.
1t was CoWan who brought Bridges
into the record, Bridges is the
subject of hearings pending in San
Francisco before referee to guide
the Attorney General in determin-
ing whether to order the labor chief
tain's deportation as an undesirable
alien.
W oAhNu ~ DS Val Cldis
Cowan said that during his labors
for the Communist Party, before
1886, he made a trip to San Fran
cisco in the interest of the Ex-Serv-
ice Mems League, a party outlet.
'T was instructed" said the wit
ness. Ito get in touch with Harry
Bridges-only in so far as my work
concerned the San Francisco Bav
region. But was warned at the
time to be very careful in my con-
facts with him, because in so far
as the party trade union apparatus
was concerned, he was then consid-
cred to be more or less unreliable
as to the party line. Nevertheless
! was to work with him, as he would
attend the meetings of the party in
that area and give reports on which
ve could base our plans for activi-
ties in that region"
Cowan said he joined the party
In 1929, when he was employed at
the Fisher Body plant in Cleveland.
He was expelled by the National
Control Commission of the party in
1886 he added. because he opposed
"the growth of a foreign bureauc-
racy" within it, feeling that this in
fuence was against the interests of
the working class in this country.
Was Regional Leader.
The man he knew as Al Berry
but whose photograph as Alex
Balint he readily identified, was an
active party workers in the early
1880, CoWan testified, and at one
time he was a regional leader of
the Young Communist League.
CoWan said he knew positively"
Cheyf1tz, the national secretary Of
the die casters, had been a Com
munist.
John Mosberger, also of Cleveland,
testified that he Joined the Com
munists in 1888 and later resigned
"over parliamentary procedure"
He mentioned various men, includ-
ing leaders in the aluminium union,
as among former fellow workers in
the Communist movement.
Commenting on the new develop
r1ents, Representative Starnes
placed in the record an informal