Harry Bridges' long nose was caught in a wringer last week. He had shut down the West Coast waterfront for more than 45 days. He had choked off business in faraway Hawaii, smothered the West Coast's trade with Alaska, had tied up 222 of the coast's 375 ships, costing shippers and shipowners millions of dollars a day. The strike was another dramatic show of power by U.S. labor's second most recalcitrant leader (after John Lewis). But last week Harry Bridges was hollering for help.
The plain fact was that Harry's strike was never necessary. The shipowners had offered his longshoremen wage...
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