Communist Putsch on the Waterfront

...It ¦was a palpable sell-out to the Communists, for no one in his right senses could hold an election in the turmoil of a dockside ruction, and the Mayor knew it...

...It was ahouted down in one local after the other...

...Warren found himself a most completely sheltered and segregated rank-and-nler, stifled in a cocoon of hush-hush which the proficient comrades had webbed around him...

...It wa* as if in the midst of a riot aomeone had proposed that the (torin be quelled by holding an election to determine whether LaGuardia should finish his term...

...The longshoremen were returning to* work...

...Heading a group opposed to Ryan's settlement was one William E. Warren, a gabby young man who was bull-headed enough to stand up to the bull-headed Joe Ryan...

...The rank-and-file and it* sentiments are something for the goofy public to he concerned with...

...They kicked out the noble Mr...

...Warren, who as a rank-and-filer felt that he should have been consulted 01 at least given something to do...

...The dock strike anil LaGuardia double-cross of the AFL crowd was having a bad effect on O'Owyer's campaign...

...This was disclosed when the Justice Department filed anti-trust suit* against...

...Olher*iauk and filers moved in...

...AH indications are that they have merely postponed it for a more opportune occasion...

...Among them Harry Bridges, who needs a stack of Bibles and a Supreme Court decision to prove that he is not a Communist...

...The government action to break up a monopoly, whose history has been traditionally anti-labor, marked th* third attempt to destroy "the extensive cartel activities of the worH's principal manufacturers of electrical equipment," according to Assistant Attorney General Wendell Berge...

...Warren was uncomfortable among the rank-and-filers of the law office of Witt and Cammer...

...The atrike was the most determined effort the Communists have made to date to capture control of the mightiest harbor in the world...

...The fart that the longshoremen refused to follow the line and were returning to work in droves didn't bother the Communists much...

...The longshoremen said Not —and the fat wa* in the fire...

...Thereupon the Mayor offered a second proposal—an election to determine whether Ryan shall remain in office...

...They deserted the field, leaving a trail of sorehead statements behind them...

...Another group of advisers will be used to attempt the reorientation of Nasi mental attitudes along democratic line...

...Indeed, it was thrown out of the window, and the dock strike was settled all the same, and in much less time than would otherwise have been the ease...

...DEAL WITH AXIS Washington <lpa)—The two richest electrical firm* in the world could not att'onl to give their employee* long-overdue- p*y raises while they were engaging in illegal profiteering cartel* with companies in Alia, Africa, South America and Australia...

...Unity is wonderful when it can he shuttled t.ack and forth across the parly line...

...for the effort to capture conti »i of New York harbor, the Commanista have not given it up...

...Mayor LaGuardia, whose heart bleeds for the rank-and-file, offered a settlement proposal...

...The real trouble was that there was a Mayoralty campaign to conduct, and an election to win...

...That was one hell of a note—a husky longshoreman, suddenly become a big ahot, and can't make a move without some slinking lawyer or pencil-pusher by his side, telling him not to talk...

...New York politic* probably had as much to do with the collapse of the Communist insurrection aa anything else...

...Little did he know that thU G>«ek hearing gifts had been appointed by the Communist Party as commissar of waterfront activities...

...ge, Westinghouse, two of their subside ai ies, and an association jointly .conti oiled by the tWo...

...Ryan went ahead with his negotiations and brought, a settlement proposal...

...A full-scaled revolt against Ryan's settlement shaped itself up inside the union, the sort, of revolt which every union leader must face occasionally even in the h**t of unions and under the most democratic of procedures...

...DENAZIFICATION OF HOLLAND • In an effort to discover whether Dutch Nazis can be made useful citizens, the Netherland» Government haa employed a group of psychologists to provide the prisoners with taak* equal to their talents or professional training...

...Joseph P. Ryan was negotiating a settlement for the union with the delicacy and regard for the proprieties of · bull in a china shop...

...The first one was that a negotiating committee from all the ILA locals participate in the conferences with the employers' association...

...There had always been rows and flareupa in his organization, but he had always managed to squelch them...

...They spat on their hands and told the assorted lawyers, pen-pushers, snd party connivers to go to hell and let Sem go to work clearing the ships, iere was a bit of shoving around and knuckle-dusting when the party-liners tried to stop them, and the result was that the comrades couldn't take it...

...They left the field, tore and grousing, but they definitely did not burn their Bridges behind them...

...He wa* supported by one Sam Barone, who represented the so-called Italian element among the workers...

...Among them Joe Curraji'i Maritime Union...

...In preparation for th* experiment, 007 Dutch Nazis have been put to work constructing a settlement (prison camp) to house some 40,000 inmate* in Dulndorp uear_The Hague...

...The comrades also showed up in force along the quayside to enforce their dictates on the rank-and-file...

...The Justice Department filed suits earlier this year charging GE ami Westinghouse with conspiring with enemy German, Japanese and Italian industrial intreests...

...the commissars more ahead on a different premise...

...It is more than likely.that it came at an inopportune time for them, but once it was on, they moved in with all the forces at their command to take over not only the atrike, but also the AFL longshoremen's union, and with it the last hindrance to dominance over shipping on the Kast Coast...

...Harry Bridges flew in from the West Coast to direct the battle, and the flint of Witt and Cammer, attorney*, supplied rank-and file sentiment by the case load...

...The chief complaint was about the size of the slingload, a complaint relatively trivial But it wasn't trivial, for it touched on* a powder keg of resentments that the dock workers had accumulated over many years...

...The AFL leaders had endorsed O'Dwyer despite the fact that he was running with the support of the Communists and their American Labor Party...

...It was sabotaged by the Communists...

...In fact, he offered two aettlement proposals...

...The strike had petered out...

...As life-long president of the International Longshoremen'* Association, he had nothing to worry about and no one to consult...

...This was accepted by the union and also by the AFL Central Trades and Labor Council...

...As Warren relates it, he was approached by one John Steuben, who represented himself a* an AFL man, ·" official of the AFL Hotel and Restaurant Worker* Local 144, who offered him help...

...Every time he wanted to put his own two cents in with a reporter, there was always someone to head him off and to say that what he said wasn't what he meant to say, and that what he meant to say was really what he hadn't said...

...It wa* hi* way of working oh* hi* resentment and frustration against the trade union element* that had opposed him for another term...

...The prisoner*, who will be segregated according to th* severity of their cater., will not be beaten or mauled in Nazi fashion, though iron dis ciplin* and hard work will prevail...

...It was at this point that the Communists moved in...

...Curran'a Maritime Union was on hand with its own squads, and all the party cells were told to mobilize the comrades to come and carry spears in the big show...

...In no time Warren found himself in en office and headquarters generously outfitted with lawyers, publicity agent» and other genuine rank-and-filers...

...1.aGuardia, who is very smart, outsmarted himself once again...

...If l.iidiiurdia could do them dirt, wouldn't O'Dwyer if he came into office with the aid of the Communieti...

...The Communists announced thet for the sake of unity they were recalling the "rank-and-file" strike of longshoremen...

...Warren, resenting such treatment, is now labeled a "traitor" in the Communist press...

...Suddenly, with fhe campaign in full lilt, the AFL boye woke up to the fact that mayor* »ometimet have a habit of playing along with the comrade...

...The Communists had always tried to capitalize on these rows, and had even made deal* with the shadiest characters along the docksides in order to fight him, but that didn't distrurb him either...

...My own impression is that it wa* political vengeance he sought more than the payment of debt...

...It was in the cause of uifity, of course, that they had originally injected themselves into the strike...

...The comrades therefore decided to call the whole thing oft...

...This demagogic proposal outraged every bona fide union man in town...

...The strike started originally »< a normal dockaide beef...

...And all the time the longshoie-men, the rank-and-file, didn't know from nothin' and resented the outsiders' intrusion in what was strictly a private fight...

...Cab, gab, gab—he had never heard so much gab going on as in this office which he was supposed to run...

...Bridge* and the Maritime comrades assured all and sundry that Ryan was through, for even if he "forced" the longshoremen to return to work, the CIO seamen would shut off steam on the ships and the winches would not operate...

...People think that he made hi* demagogic play in order to pay oft* political debt* to Michael Quill and Joe Curran and the rest of the Communist front...

...In view of what finally happened on the waterfront, his settlement plan was not the wisest he could have proposed...