The Wilmington morning star., 1945-10-18
Fair Enough
Nv WESTBROOK PEGLER
copyright, 1945, by King Features syndic'

| NEW YORK, OcJ 1I.-1He ~AA CIV 'Ao"oAS
along the New York waterfront has long oeen
anticipated by Joseph Ryan, the president OF
the International Longshoremen's Association
of the A. F. of L. as communist invasion
of the Atlantic coast ports. Ryan's union was
driven out of most of the West coast ports
| in 1887 and Harry Bridges took contro!' hyan,
however, maintained his position on the East
coast although, during the war, he and his
A. F. of L. friends watched with apprehension
many covert maneuvers of Bridges ClO long
shoremen to invade the Atlantic ports.
During our war with the Axis and Japan,
and an uneasy truce between Ryan and
Bridges, Bridges made many trips to the east
although he was, much Of this time, formally
adjudged to be member of a subverslve
organization and thus subject to deportation.
This status was changed recently by the ma
jority of the Roosevelt Supreme Court on the
ground that Bridges could cooperate with COM
munists for objectives legitimate to labor Or
ganizations without subscribing to their ulti-
mate purpose to overthrow the American gov.
ernnent by force and violence
Being now citizen, admitted by the courts
decision after a long contest, Bridges enjoys
the right of any citizen to join the communist
party and work for its total detectives as
well as for the purposes of the communists
which the court held to be legitimate harm.
less activities of an alien. There appears, how
ever to be no record of any avowal of com.
nunist membership and of the total purposes
of the communists on his part Nevertheless
he now has the same right that Earl Browder
or any other communist has to declare such
beliefs and purposes.
The National Maritime Union, which has
consistently followed the political line Of the
communists, is Bridges ally in the attempt to
seize control of Ryan's following and destroy
Ryan's power to resist the penetration of the
Atlantic ports.
The attitude of Joseph Curran, President OF
the NM u, was stated in letter to me in
May, 1943 His union had joined in a program
adopted by other CIO groups in which the
communist influence was strong if not actually
predominant, to oppose war assistance to
France and Britain. In the promotion of this
program these elements picketed the White
House. President Roosevelt was dnounced as
one who wanted war and the communists
were chanting 'the Yanks are not coming"
This attitude changed overnight in June,
1941, when Hitler attacked Russia ''In my
opinion Curran wrote me, "this did not be-
come a peoples war until the Soviet Union
was attacked
Sporadically, throughout the participation OF
the United States in the actual war, these
dispatches examined the facts of the conduct
of communist merchant sailors in harrassing
young American enlisted Navy men and junior
officers detailed as gun crews aboard mer.
chant ships. Their great advantage in pay
over the loyal American Navy men was en-
phasized and such publicity was loudly resent
ed by Curran while, at the same time, he was
boasting to his membership of the high rates
which he had obtained for them.
The Navy clamped down secrecy on the log.
books of the ships and official reports turned
in by the young commanding officers Of the
armed guard details, SO that the public could
not learn of outrageous and often threatening
department by communist merchant seamen,
many of them aliens. These logs should now
be available. However, like many other rec
ords which the communist wing of the Roose.
welt democratic party wants to suppress, they
may be stored in warehouses in obscure
places and presently conveniently destroyed
by fires, floods or mice
Nevertheless, on the basis of Navy intel
igence reports, it is possible to state that
INSTRUMENTATION is mild word for the defiant
and provocative conduct of many such sea-
faring communists.
Later, according to the new communist poll
cy of corrupting the patriotism of the Amer !
lean enlisted bluejacket the attitude Of the
communist merchant seamen changed. Now
they attempted to draw the Navy men into
determination by sharing their luxurious ra-
tions with them and even, in some cases,
taking up cash collections for division among
them.
All this time, Admiral Emory Land, Of the
War Shipping Administration and a group Of
new deal house pets, who enjoyed social re-
lations with the Roosevelts, were coddling
Currans union in New York and other eastern
ports Lands explanation is that he was glad
to play along with Curran's associates, whom
he openly regarded communists in the in
terests of efficiency with minimum of fric-
ton.
In September, 1943, Curran's union estab,
lshed picket lines in New York demanding the
suppression of these dispatches, because of
the disclosures. At that time, cargo vessels
were hard up for sailors but Currans union,
nevertheless, unwisely insisted that there were
$500 sailors ashore with no more important
business than picketing. The Industrial Work.
er, Trotsky communist paper, sent an old
time sailor to canvas the line and reported
that Of IL men whom he accosted five were
department store workers, two paid officials
of communist unions one employee of the
communist Daily Worker, one harbor sailor
and two were sailors who had scabbed a |
genuine strike of seamen There was one ac-
tive, legitimate merchant sailor among the
twelve
The purpose of the picket line The In
dustrial Worker said, sis direct blow to |
everything the union man holds dear. Pegler /
could not expose corruptionism if none exist
ed. Issuing cards to Union Square floozies and
calling them stewardesses; issuing cards to