The Case of Harry Bridges

Abstract

WHILE this is being written there is still pending before the Secretary of Labor a formal proceeding for the deporta tion of Harry Bridges, the California director of the Con gress of Industrial Organizations on the Pacific Coast and the president of the Western District of the International Longshore men's and Warehousemen's Union. Mr. Bridges is concededly one of the most important men in the labor movement of the West—in deed, of the whole country. He is bitterly disliked by many indus trial and business leaders and by many labor leaders. He has, on the other hand, the complete confidence and enthusiastic support of his own organizations and of a great many men among the rank and file, as well as among the leadership of labor in the West. He is cred ited with a large share in the general strike in San Francisco of 1934 and has been charged by his opponents with a controlling influence in most of the labor disputes in and around San Francisco during the succeeding five years. The attempt to deport a person of this prominence is bound to be of first-rate interest to all groups in the community. It is unfortu nate that the generally available accounts of the proceedings have conveyed to the public an impression of their nature which is quite incorrect and which may well falsify the public judgment of the result—whatever the final result may be. It may be said at once that whether Mr. Bridges is, as his sup-