National Affairs: Last Corner

Closed for the third week was the lovely, troublous port of San Francisco, a vital artery of Pacific Coast commerce. Longshoreman Harry Bridges and water front employers were at outs. Coastal businessmen and inland farmers suffered, drummed denunciations at durable Mr. Bridges.

For all the costly, disputatious confusion, the immediate issue between Harry Bridges and the employers was notably narrow. Normally employed on the San Francisco water front are some 1,300 clerks and checkers—key workers, because they are the ones who keep tabs on cargo, representing shippers and shipowners at the loading point. All but 2% of these vital ciphers are Bridges’ men. To bring the 2% into the union, the 98% struck. Whereupon their bosses closed the port, last week rejected all offers of compromise. They hoped to preserve the principle of free hiring in one last corner of Mr. Bridges’ water front.