page_title: Lawrence Milner
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: Lawrence Milner / Events
caption_attribution_description: English: Pacific Coast marine labor leader confers with CIO head. Washington, D.C., July 7. Harry Bridges, who led the 1934 and 1936 marine strikes on the Pacific Coast, John L. Lewis, C.I.O. Head, and other maritime labor leaders to plan for a coordinated unionization drive in the industry. Following the meeting Lewis said the C.I.O. would cooperate toward reaching an understanding on a "uniform policy for the entire maritime industry," 7/6/37
context_page_description: Major Lawrence Milner was a retired major in the Oregon National Guard, who served for four years as an undercover G-2 agent in the Portland Communist Party, lied under oath while testifying, and "brought the state of Oregon into the plot" against Australian-born longshoremen union leader Harry Bridges in what TIME magazine called "the most important deportation hearing of the decade."
context_section_description: In April 1939, deportation procedure for Bridges started. In mid-July 1939, hearings were taking place in a US Immigration office on Angel Island, California, for the deportation of Bridges. Immigration Commissioner James Houghteling oversaw; Dean James M. ("Chink") Landis of Harvard Law School and Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins served as examiners. The Bridges defense team included Carol Weiss King and Nathan Greene of the International Juridical Association (IJA).
  Lawrence A. Milner was a retired major in the Oregon National Guard who found his skills in "military intelligence used in labor espionage." At least one source lists him as a member of the Oregon State Police.) When the hearing opened, some sources said that Milner impressed listeners with his "military bearing and appearance." while others described him as "middle-aged, hawk nosed, bland."
  On July 12, 1939, "Under cross-examination Major Lawrence Milner of the Oregon national guard, who testified Monday [July 10, 1939] that Bridges attended Communist party meetings in Seattle in 1936 and 1937, denied that he had worked with local police or had discussed the case of Bridges with Seattle or Portland immigration authorities. Maj. Milner said the Communist ideal was 'to make this country a Soviet America'." 
  On July 13, 1939, the San Francisco Examiner reported as a highlight that Bridges had taken the CPUSA name of "Rossi", as in Angelo Joseph Rossi, mayor of San Francisco.  John Lewis Leech, formerly "one of the highest leaders of the party" in Los Angeles, testified for the government that Bridges, working with the Communist Party, had helped formulate and plan the party's "red tactics" in the waterfront strike of 1936-37.  
  Newspapers covered the story (with Milner mentioned) from all over the United States:  Honolulu, Hawaii; Paterson, New Jersey; Eugene, Oregon Marshall, Michigan; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; Hackensack, New Jersey;  and Santa Cruz, California. 
  On July 14, 1939, the San Francisco Examiner reported that the day's highlight came when Bridges' defense team called for perjury charges against Milner, after Milner admitted to perjury, i.e., that he had lied under oath.
  TIME reported, "Major Lawrence Milner (retired) of the Oregon National Guard testified that he had been with Bridges to Communist Party meetings in Portland, seen him pay Party dues, knew that he avoided Communists in public, and they him, to keep his interest secret.  Witness Milner admitted having committed perjury at a Communist Party trial but said he only did so in the line of his undercover duty."  Upon cross-examination, Leech testified that "four times... he was offered money to identify Bridges as a Red."
  On July 15, 1939, the San Francisco Examiner reported that Leech remained firm in his testimony that Bridges was indeed a member of the party and that together they had attended inner circle Communist meetings. "Defense tactics, as in the case of Major Lawrence Milner, the Oregon National Guard secret service agent who was the Government's first witness, concentrated on trying to break down Leech's reputation", to little avail. By Friday, July 14, 1939, government attorney Tom Shoemaker got Leech to specify three communist meetings with Bridges and "big shots of the Communist Party." Examiner Landis denied Tom Mooney attendance to the Bridges' deportation hearing.  Witnesses included Elaine Black, Ida Rothstein, Harry Jackson, Louise Todd, James Garrison, Catherine Key,  and Myrtle Child. Government attorney Aubrey Grossman, "youngest of the trio of defense attorneys", described Leech's record of arrests. Grossman alleged Leech had been a labor "scab", which Leech denied. Examiner Landis announced he expected to make his decision and a summary of his findings within two weeks after the case concluded."
  In sum, TIME magazine pronounced the entire event as "the most important deportation hearing of the decade."
  The deportation hearings found that Bridges did not qualify for deportation because he was not currently—as the Alien Act of 1918 required—a me
caption: Harry Bridges (undated), head of the CIO-affiliated International Longshore and Warehouse Union in 1937, was the target of Milner's undercover efforts
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