Evening star., 1951-11-23
Small Rail Diner Union
Is Called Communist
By McCarran Group
By the Associated Press

By the Associated Press
The Senate Internal Security
Subcommittee said last night that
some railroad dining car workers
are in the grip of a Communist
run union, and that lit is imperi-
tive that this Communist control
be broken"
The subcommittee said the
union members could be used by
Red party leaders as "a message
channel as effective and more
secret than the United States
mails"
The subcommittee made public
a report to the Senate along with
more than $50 pages of testimony
taken at private sessions in July,
August and September during an
inquiry into the Dining Car and
Railroad Food Workers Union.
Says Party Directs Union.
The subcommittee said the poll
cies and activities of the small,
independent union, ever since its
organization in 1947, "have been
directed from the Communist
Party headquarters in New York
City"
At present the union is certi-
fed as bargaining agent for only
about 1900 dining car employees
on the Pennsylvania Railroad, but
Subcommittee Chairman McCar-
ran said it is carrying on "an
intensive membership campaign"
in an effort to establish itself on
other lines from coast to coast.
Through the union, the Senator
said in a statement accompany
ing the report, "the Communist
Party already has established the
nucleus of courier system on the
railroads for communication be-
tween its underground leaders"
Membership Not Established.
The exact membership of the
union was not established In the
hearings. Various testimony put
the number of its members as
between 1000 and 1900.
The subcommittee recon-
mended legislation to deny GER
tiflcation as a bargaining agent
to any Communist-controIled
union in the railroad industry.
A similar recommendation re-
latlng to other unions was made
by the Senate group in an earlier
report on an investigation of the
American Communications Asso-
citation, an independent union
which has been expelled from the
CIO.
Labor relations in the railroad
and airline industries are gov
erned by the Railway Labor Act,
labor relations in other industries
are subject to the Taft-Hartley
Act.
Amendment Proposed.
The subcommittee latest re-
port also proposed amendment of
the Railway Labor Act to require
officers Of railroad unions to filet
non-Communist affldavits. The
Taft Hartley Act now requires this
OF other union officers before they
may use services of the National
Labor Relations Board.
The subcommittee also called
Tor contempt of Congress cita-
tion against Solon c. Bell of Chi
cago. president Of the Dining Car
and Railroad Food Workers.
Union. who, the transcript
showed, refused to answer numer-
Gus questions at a subcommittee
hearing on September 25. Mr..
Bell could not be reached for COM
ment.
Among the questions Mr.. Bell
refused to answer was whether
he was a member of the Com
munlst Party. He said that to do
so might incriminate him.
Leader Labeled Communist.
The subcommittee said Mr.. Bell
was one of the IA union officers
. and organizers who were named
by witnesses as Communists. The
others included regional Vice
Presidents Daniel Benjamin, Osie
Long and Charles McMurray.
The testimony showed that a !
rival labor organization, the AFL
Dining Car Employees Union. rep
resents about $4,000 railroad
workers.
The subcommittee said, how
ever, that the independent union.
while small, "has a number of
dues-paying members on other
railroads and maintains a corps
OF Communists who are in the
process of organizing workers on
other railroads"
In his statement, Senator Me-
Carthy said Red control of the
union provides a potential coast
to-coaSt courier system for an
alien dominated organization
which is pledged to wreck, by
armed revolution if necessary, the