Civilian Protective Force Urged to Guard 11,544 Strategic Spots and Seven Million Persons in New York City
SULLIVAN, JACK
Civilian Protective Force Urged to Guard 11,544 Strategic Spots and Seven Million Persons in New York City BY JACK SULLIVAN J&eefor o) Reemployment Division, New York ?ity Selective Service...
...The personnel could be recruited from tnafi portion of the male population over draft ageji and from those persons of draft age who ha<T already been classified as other than 1A by the Local Boards...
...N case of a major disaster or domestic dis-*^tur$ance, there is need for a civilian organization in this city in addition to the forces of toe State Guard and the New York City Police and Fire Departments...
...Here is a listing of the more prominent of these objectives placed in approximate order of their importance: Police Buildings___________ 103 •Fire Stations _____________ 468 Armories _________________ . 26 Radio Stations ------------ *50 Telegraph Stations -.......1,000 Telephone Exchanges______ 127 Power Stations____________*200 Bridges___________________ 58 Tunnels___________________ 3 Ferries___________________ 27 Piers_____________________ 720 Air Fields________________ 10 Subway and El Stations____*750 Private Hospitals________158 Public Hospitals___________ 26 Post Offices______________ 26 Colleges __________________ 20 Parochial Schools ________ 495 Public Schools_____________ 839 Libraries _________________ 138 Public Markets____________ 8 * Museums _________________ 30 Churches__________________2,809 * Indicates writers' guess, as no information is available...
...It is estimated that Germany is producing one billion pounds of aluminum, an increase of about 150 per cent over her production of 1938...
...Ih addition to its actual functions in case of disaster, such a civilian force by its very existence would do much to mitigate the fears of tHe population and prevent panic...
...masse...
...From that point on, Bioff was just anybody's target...
...for violations of the Anti-Trust Act—which, by the , way, was the longest court trial in history, taking two years and two months to hear evidence—disclosed that in 1931 the Aluminum Co...
...But Bioff proved too strong for tlx -Communists at that time, and the AFL won by s foot margin...
...The result was that Mr...
...Stage Employees, for complicity in extorting half a miHion dollars from motion picture producers, it wrote the climactic chapter of a long story of skullduggery and counter-skullduggery in the land of canned dreams...
...Once the force was established, it might be found advisable to increase it,-but every effort should be made to put the original 100,000 on a functioning basis before attempting any enlargement...
...This marks the beginning 7? eventual breaking-up of the purest monopw1" America—the Aluminum Company...
...made a net profit of $49,099,000...
...By this time Biof wt> busy answering subpoenas and warrants and was unable to clean up Local 683...
...The government has offered proof to show that the Aluminum Co...
...Wherever difficulty for the Communists arose in .Hollywood circles, a member of this exclusive group appeared, and things were "straightened out...
...The Aluminum Co...
...It was supposedly a "new theatre" movement for motion pictures, but to all intents and purposes it was a dud...
...Rudy Cole and Ed Gilbert assisted by forming other "split-off" unions...
...This group continued "boring from within" the I.A.T.S.E...
...It is squarely up to the producers to write their 'pew ending...
...If necessary, service in such a force could be made compulsory and the personnel assigned to it by the regular Selective Service machinery...
...Parka*____________________ 344 Prisons------------:_¦______ 30 Courts_____________.______ 38 Hotels —_________________ 326 • Other Public Buildings____.2,581 Grand Total___—_____11,554 Note:—The above list does not cover manufacturing plants, railroad stations, gas works, oil refineries, short wave broadcasting sets and many other points of importance on which information is not at present available...
...Even little Canada is xapidly catching up on American production, the Dominion's output being over 500 million pounds, an increase of 310 per cent over 1938...
...is in the unique position of competing with its customers, who are dependent upon it as their sole source of domestic supply for virgin aluminum...
...And bombing planes as offensive weapons are being made larger all the time...
...Its personnel has now scattered far and wide, but one" of its organizers has had an exceedingly interesting career...
...instead of its competitor...
...JVUEto the fact that the writer has been in a position to " observe all three rings of the Hollywood red circus from the inside at various times, part of this story will be told in the confessional first person...
...Civilian Protective Force Urged to Guard 11,544 Strategic Spots and Seven Million Persons in New York City BY JACK SULLIVAN J&eefor o) Reemployment Division, New York ?ity Selective Service Headquarters...
...And in those two years it accomplished a great deal...
...Suitable arrangements can be made in every community to provide a headquarters for each Company without cost...
...It is no longer a secret that the first "researph" on BiofTs past was done by Attorney Carey McWilliams, now State Immigration and Housing Director Hr tie State of California and a Communist Party line follower of long standing...
...Bodle is by no means a 'Stalinist whirling dervish, bot i careful check on his associates and contacts reveals that ke is not unfriendly to the tovarischi, either...
...An cities are vulnerable to panic and disorganization, and New York City is particularly si;ufrMsr city of 7V4 million people is actually the nucleus of an industrial community crossing tl^el states and affecting the lives of more than 15 million people in the Greater New Yjjrif aftteU The network of public utility and transportation facilities which operate in the service of 'this-large group is both complex and delicate...
...In his column of November 28, 1939, Westbrook 'Pegler gave McWilliams credit for vital information oi» BiofTs past...
...Structure •¦•HE proper agency to create a Civilian Pro-* tective Force is the Municipal Government...
...During time of trouble, the sight of these men in their uniform, going about their business of keeping order, would be a most reassuring sight and would do much for morale...
...And it's anybody's guess who will win...
...For a time all was confusion...
...In 1934 the German company threatened to break the cartel unless it was permitted to produce unlimited quantities for domestic use in Germany...
...The evidence disclosed in the United States District Court in New York, when the government undertook to sue the Aluminum Co...
...Other thin these six headquarters and their respertire staffs, no budget would be necessary for this organization...
...Duke became a director of the Aluminum Co...
...That he was vulnerable has been well established...
...iNow that we realize that national defense cannot continue as a spare-time hobby, and as we begin to step up the speed and volume of 'defense production, we find that there is not enough aluminum for the aircraft industry and 'other'.armament industries—and for the pots and pans in the kitchens...
...It would jnarely mean that the police, fire and private utility groups, together with whatever armed guardsmen are available, would be free to concentrate their energies on this particular' problem, secure in the knowledge that law and order will prevail throughout the rest of the city...
...The other members agreed to this, on the condition that the German company would purchase one pound aluminum from the cartel for every pound that it exported to other markets...
...of America, the sole domestic producer of aluminum, combined with other world producers, including the German Aluminum Co., to curtail production, fix minimum world prices, and divide world markets...
...the Wt&* Aluminum Company, 15 per cent, and man Aluminum Company...
...ganiting and training...
...11'riE reason we have fallen behind in alu-* minum production is that the Aluminum Company of America, popularly known as Alcoa, the sole domestic producer, has pursued a policy for 50 years of maintaining high prices and low production capacity...
...discovered in 1924 that James B. Duke, of the Duke Power Co.,"was preparing to build a large plant to compete with the Aluminum Co...
...where all the trouble hid started, and moved into Local 683, the Laboratory Worker...
...At this juncture enter Robert Muir, former supervisor on the San Francisco WPA Federal Writers' Project whom I met there as a fellow Communist Party member...
...the "Wjff Aluminum Company, 21.36 per cent...
...A light or medium bombing plane ¦contains from 6,000 to 10,000 pounds of the metal...
...Others wQl follow.—Ed...
...Panic, fire, earthquake,, flood, epidemic, bombing, invasion, insurrection and political disturbances will all require the use of such a force...
...of them...
...But, as stated previously, it is squarely up to the producers either to clean house or to throw open front, side and back gates to the Hitler-Stalin forces...
...Thei story can end^in one of just two ways: either the Communists take control of the motion picture industry with the producers eating/out of their hands, not daring to make pictures which offend them, noC daring to hire any whom "the Communists cam not control, not daring to fire saboteurs, or—and this isay sound as fantastic as the first ending— the Communists get kicked out of every studio in Hollywood tm...
...these government-built and ^JJ**^ plants will be operated by the Reynolds Company...
...Onee the basic organization' of a civilian force was -set up and functioning, it would be comparatively simple to have that "organization enroll volunteers in the spot at the time for this street patrol work...
...From Hollywood he went to Spain in late 1937, and, as he stated to me, it was on "special party business...
...They were active in their respective Guilds, they were spreading gossip about TliaR and other AFL leaders who were shades less black than Willie, and they were always ready to "receive" the proletarian tovarischi...
...For over a year Bodle h* been creeping up towards the top in influence...
...In smaller communities, the protection of transportation, communication and other utilities can possibly be handled by the existing law and order forces, .^^lerely to provide a custodial force for these vital facilities in the New York City^area would require the services of more than 100,000 men...
...The evidence further disclosed that in" 1934, after Hitler came to power in Germany, the German company used the cartel to tie the hands of every other world producer, while Germany doubled and finally tripled its own plant capacity...
...then later he was said to foe living in obscurity] in Mexico City at the time Trotsky's home was machine-gunned...
...These high rates of profit are of special significance in view of the fact that aluminum and aluminum alloys constitute over 80 per cent of the weight of a military plane, including its engine...
...insisted last fall that there was no shortage of aluminum for national defense and civilian needs...
...This protected world markets from German competition andMt »b> fied the monopolistic objective of the alnmino" cartel...
...Attorney Charles Katz, who sues anybody who calls him a red, even while speaking at all manner of Communist front meetings, was the guiding force in the U.S.T.G...
...Because of this monopoly's policy of maintaining high prices and restricting production, the plant capacity which is now needed for our national defense is lacking and must be built with government funds...
...With our present production of aluminum we could not even build 30,000 warplanes—our goal is something like 80,000 planes...
...Aluminum Company Held Up Production of Vital Plane Material to Safeguard Monopoly By Irving B. Altman Editor of Dynamic America ^HJCKJSNS are coming home to roost—the Communists on the labor front, and the Monopolists on the industrial front...
...This article is another in The New Leader1...
...Movie Studio Staffs Seen Controlled by Communists Unless Producers Clean House By Rena Vale New Leader's West Coast Correspondent tjOLLYWOOD.—When the F*ederal Grand Jury of New .** York last month indicted Willie Bioff, Hollywood czar of the AFL International Alliance of Theatrical...
...To the technical worker in Hollywood, it was just more of the same old row between the producers and the unions...
...trip" cards...
...It is necessary for a permit man *> work 18 months in studios before he is eligible to join the onion, and then only if he has proven himself capable of swallowing Communist Party line in large doses...
...By using great care in the selection of group leaders, in constituting such a force, much of the responsibility and authority for carrying ^out this program could be delegated to the *group leaders...
...The cartel arrangement made it possjbts fjs, the aluminum monopoly to divide the w»n« market about as follows (based on prodnrti* quotas) : _jj Aluminum, Ltd., 28.5 per cent...
...That was William Colfax Miller, cohort of Katherine Burke, who also frisked around the fringes of the Film and Photo League...
...The government contends that if due allowances were made for overhead and other costs, except income and profit taxes, the profits on these commodities would still range from 60 to 180 per cent...
...Although such a force is to be kept as a civilian group, the military structure and nomenclature should be used, because they are simple, functional and already understood by a fair proportion of the persons who would belong to such a force...
...Guild account and tbul obtained a seat beside Aubrey Blair, AFL representathre it Hollywood, at conference tables...
...Objectives to Be Covered •yjIE number of strategic objectives within * New York City .which would be of importance in case of disaster, invasion or insurrection are countless...
...Alcoa headed off this threat of competition by paying $29,000,000 for one of Dukes undeveloped-power-sites...
...It is for *his purpose that a Civilian Protective Organization is needed...
...During 1939 the Aluminum Co...
...And he fought for the union "take" in Hollywood 'With all he had...
...thelMy Aluminum Company, 15.42 per cent...
...Also, k« got the AFL Screen Cartoon...
...If the Communists gain control of the Hollywood motion picture industry, and well they might, Bodle should be awarded the Order of Lenin medal.' *' * »'»...¦ JN reality, this is oriy one ring of Hollywood's red circus...
...note...
...Another, where all the stars and "big names" gambol, has been well covered...
...In 1939 the Alcaa realized gross profits on the principal kinds of aluminum sheet used in military aircraft of from 99 to 229 per cent...
...But to the Communists all over the country it was cause for big whoopee, Irrespective of--what his personal habits may: be, Bioff has been the strongest anti-Communist force in Hollywood.' This1 is'probably due" to the fact that he is as much of a realist as any scheming commissar...
...Yet, this obscure group provided a meeting place for various high Communist oflv cials who came from New York and even from other countries...
...until the summer of 1939...
...Churches, Settlement Houses, the Y.MjC.A., industrial organizations and city-owned or leased buildings, of which there are 4,235 throughout New York City, would all be suitable for this purpose, as such headquarters would only be used during mobilizations and in cases of actual emergency...
...In the modern air force, planes contain from 25 to .75 per cent of their total weight of aluminum...
...However, in thil iad****' the Aluminum monopoly will not operat* plants...
...But it is well to remember that underlying all the tinsel and glitter,' the "big names" who fronted for Spain and China back in Popular Front days, were also'used by the canny commissars to bring pressure on the studio unions...
...Insofar as his union career in Hollywood is concerned, Bioff is now out of the way.' But the Communist "revolution" is not over...
...He WW * fluential in organizing a number of the independent goika most powerful of which is the Screen Office Employees Gnild-W'hen the Hollywood Guild Council, a typical Soviet style "holding company" for unions not yet under Communiit control, was formed, Bodle became its attorney...
...No physical examination would be required, as it is only necessary to eliminate those persons whose age or obvious physical defects would make them unsuitable for such work...
...of America,.** supplied 93 per cent of the domestic uifP^J" tion, 7 per cent being taken care of by ^f^' To break up the aluminum bottleneck, ts» government has put up a tidy sum to ****** new plants in the Northwest which wil2**"* the power of the Grand Coulee develops*** ** the Columbia River...
...The aluminum industry is now producing about 675,000,000 pounds, but should be producing 1,500,000,000 pounds to meet present and anticipated^ requirements...
...Herbert Alexander, "peace" (of the Soviet stripe) advocate froa Los Angeles City College, and George E. Bodle, attorney to independent guilds in Hollywood...
...Sam Kalish, the "parUa* taiian" whom my unit of the Communist Party sent tola* "trade unionism" in the Newspaper Guild...
...It is to protect these facilities *hat we need a civilian organization...
...He is a law 9& ner of Lieutenant-Governor Ellis E. Patterson, fiitMil Stalinist wheel horse in the State Administration...
...of America...
...when it comes to stooping to'row'.practices, Bioff can stoop with the most agile Communist...
...There is much evidence to prove that the Aluminum monopoly during the years 1922 to 1933 took advantage of its powerful position to squeeze out independents who attempted to compete with it...
...A dozen eventualities, known and unknown, might make the existence of such an organisation a necessity...
...When the showdown finally came in Hollywood between the Katz-CIO and the Bioff-AFL crowds, it was Robert MuH-^who acted for the Nstionii Labor Relations Board...
...Communist line followers penetrated into other technical unions, principally the Studio Painters' Union, where Herb Sorrell, a faithful devotee of Stalinism, was business agent...
...A central headquarters for the entire city would be necessary and a paid staff of tan or fifteen persons would be required for this head, quarters to handle.the work of recruitinf, or...
...The third but probably the most important ring of the circus has been almost completely ignored.* Little can be said about it because actually little is'known...
...Muir came to Los Angeles in 1938 with a brand new job on the National Labor Relations Board and immediately went into conference with Communist fraction leaders in various unions, I being on...
...The company's own records show gross profits before allowances for general overhead of from 80 to over 200 per cent on many aluminum products, including • those used for national defense...
...cartoonists converted to Communism worked diligently in another corner, while the pink-tinged actors and screen writers fought their way to the top in the Screen Actors and Screen Writers Guilds...
...series on steps to be taken to prepare for possible wartime emergencies...
...In case of emergency, where mrKtary forces were to take control, such a force >ould be shifted to the military authorities by proclamation of the Mayor...
...Such an organization would in no way supplant existing law enforcing agencies, nor would it interfere with other disaster control institutions which are yet to be created...
...The American company has held agreeoMat1 entered into with foreign aluminum produc*1* dating back to ISfll...
...For this reason, the Communists had to get hini oufof the way...
...Under these agree**"* renewed fromvtime to time, the world annate* monopoly has succeeded in dividing the pean and American markets according.t« flW* percentages...
...Kibre and several of hit "progressives" were expelled from the I.A.T.S.E., but others from this group left Local 37...
...19.64 per .cent J" course, the American market was the Prr*** domain of the Aluminum Co...
...As estimated by the government, the net profits on such aircraft sheet would be between 61 and 181 per cent...
...has used its monopoly power to maintain a price of 17 to 20 cents per pound on aluminum...
...When the Communist Party thought everything was ready for a putsch, it launched the United Studio Technicians Guild, an amalgamation of various technical unions,-and boosted for CIO affiliation...
...Senator" LaFollette declared in a recent speech, in the "Senate that the Aluminum Co...
...ft • * C*OR the obvious purpose of discouraging competitors like the Reynolds Metals Co., which is now building two new plants in the Northwest to utilize the Grand Coulee hydro-power, the Aluminum Co...
...Later I heard of him as a member of the "disciplinary body" within the Loyalist r^nks jn Spain...
...This is probably the most important function of such an organization—preventing panic—the greatest threat to a modern city...
...In 1937 when I was in the Federal Theatre unit of the Communist Party in Los Angeles, this unit directed one of its members, Hugh Mason, to join BiofTs union in Hollywood in order to strengthen the "progressive caucus" headed by Jeff Kibre...
...The absorption of the National Guard into Federal Service emphasises this need, but such a force would be necessary even if the National Guard were available...
...From all indications, the tova-iseti have been having a merry time, slipping friends into studio jobs on "permit" cards (the studio counterpart of Currta...
...A force of 100,000 should be sought at the minimum necessary to cover the tasks assigned to this force...
...Local, and there took up life anew...
...The government points out that this is 27.12 per cent profit on its capital, plus all reinvested monopoly earnings over a period of 50 years...
...To the average American, who contacts motion pictures tonly in-air-conditioned movie houses, if he noticed the news item at all, the Bioff indictment was nothing more thap a •pop-gun noise from the film capital...
...The latter refers to the Aluminum monopoly which, in a way, has done as good a job as any agents of the Berlin-Moscow axis to slow our production of essential war supplies...
...be w» formerly the attorney for the Pacific Coast Labor Buret* which has always shown a great deal of friendliness to the despotic "liberals" with Communist leanings...
...Five Borough headquarters with staffs ranging from three to tea persons would also be necessary...
...In the paatasta the principal speakers in this "school" have been:~4lft* Seldes, editor of "In Fact...
...On a quiet street in a ramshackle old house in Hollywood the Film and Photo League was born in about 1984...
...TPHE cartel, which was called the AIli»«« * Aluminum Co., was organized in Cansda i» 1931, and headed by Arthur Davis, a broth* of the chairman of the board of the Aluminoa Co...
...In addition to covering these specific points, it might be necessary to provide a complete street patrol organization which could place and maintain on every street corner at least one individual at all times during the day and night...
...At the same time it enabled the 0«f-mans to expand their capacity until they «*¦ came the world's largest producers of aluminoa and airplanes...
...Part of the prcviar up program consists of attending a "trade union" sciot in the Hollywood American Legion Hall...
...KTOW that Bioff is out of the way, those in the know ex»eet " Attorney Bodle to do a strip tease, stripping at k* as far as very vivid red undies...
...It can therefore be seen that the motion picture capital is in for more fireworks this summer than it has ever seen in the filming of a Remarque war picture...
...Decentralization of this sort is necessary unless such an organization is to have a large, full-time and paid staff...
Vol. 24 • June 1941 • No. 25
