Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-06-03
Wes+'s Reds
Muscle In on
Eas+'s Unions
Bridges Slated TO Gust
Ryan Of Longshoremen
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

nv w EN IbhoON EfGLfh
GAN FRANCISCO. June . In
aSmuch as Joe Curran, the
feroc ious, absentee second
frontier. taxed me with several
omissions from some recent re-
marks of mine about his draft
deferment l take il il is okaY 10
heat up a prominent omission
from his open letter in reply
10 me
| refer TO his conspicuous fail
ure 10 say anything about the
conspiracy cooking to move
Harry Bridges, the Australian
Communist. on to the eastern
Seaboard with his longShore-
mems union and it's man vast
ing. moCk-war union regulations
and its revolutionary control,
which almost Strangled the great
port OF San Francisco before we
got into the war on Russia S
side.
Bridges Is under an order Of
deportation but you can put thai
one up behind the clock until
YOU hear he has actually been
sent home and 1T isn't necessary
to believe any Communist and
Go propaganda about the mar
velouS job he is doing in loading
ships on the West Coast.
TIERE is a curious situation,
Il on our two coasts. In the
East. Currans organization Of
merchant sailors, the National
Maritime Union. party line
group. is supreme. but Joe
RVan's AFL union controls the
longShoremen and thus the
docks.
ON the West Coast there are
several sailors unions. hut Cur
ran hasn't got a foothold here.
The biggest is the Sailors Union
Of the Pacific, nominally Of the
AFI, but really an Independent
outfit, run by Harry Lundbcrg.
a tough guy OF the Jack London
tradition. who don't like nobody,
least of all Bridges, whom he
deteStS because Bridges is a
Stain Communist.
His union is composed or un-
licensed personnel. whereas Cur
rams Go. pro-CommuniSt outfit
is an industrial union that takes
them all in except wireless men.
Other Pacific unions are the
marine engineers. the radio
operators. heavily infested vita
revolutionary communism and
the marine cooks and stewards.
all Of the Go; the masters,
mates and pilots OF the ALL and
the marine firemen. who pay no
per capita 10 any central OUTFIT
and seem independent
60 ON both coasts, the sailors
y and longShoremen belong 20
opposite and hostile outfits. Now
Curran is trying 10 take advaa-
tage of the rotten conditions
that have existed for years and
years IN RNan'S East Coast long
Shoremen'S union and shoe them
INTO Bridges outfit.
In this connection YOU have 20
remember. indeed YOU don dare
forget for an instant. that Cur
ran and Bridges were against
this war and against our efforts
10 get ready for II until Hitler
attacked Russia.
So. lately. Ryan has got re-
ligion. so 10 speak and is tryin,;
30 tidy up his longShoremeh :
union and give the suckers a
little break.
IL charges outrageous initia-
ton fees. some rs high as 5000,
and IN one area in New York,
an tmcommonly greedy and low
grade gorilla, whom Ryan knows
all about. shakes down the poor
longje> for tickets 10 the number
racket and makes them buy
their grog from his connections.
That was the way things used
TO be- IN San Francisco and that
is why the longSboremen here
turned 10 Bridges when he came
along 10 establish hiring halls
and wipe ont the corrupt system.
copyng h,sd b. United Features sXnd Inc