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But the newest & biggest C.I.O. objective is not the woods but the water. Invited personally by John Lewis to Washington last week was a hand-picked group of the nation's maritime labor leaders. Purpose of the meeting was to launch a "streamlined campaign" for the complete organization of the maritime industry and allied fields—some 300,000 workers. Seated in the red-leather chairs in the United Mine Workers boardroom, the conferring labormen voted not for one big union as in steel or motors, but for coordination and expansion under unifying C.I.O. direction of various unions already in the field. Mr. Lewis wants to see tightly teamed together all oilers, wipers, firemen, deck hands, cooks, inland boatmen, stewards, engineers, masters, mates, pilots, longshoremen, warehousemen, radio operators, shipyard workers, fishermen, fish cannery workers, wholesale fish handlers. No more ambitious program has John Lewis ever launched, for not only is the maritime industry divided among innumerable present unions, not only is it divided along C.I.O.-A. F. of L. lines, but it is also subdivided by the hottest factionalism to be found anywhere in U. S. Labor.
Ignoring personal jealousies, Mr. Lewis summoned only those leaders already affiliated with C.I.O. or whom he knew to be thoroughly C.I.O.-minded—men like Joseph Curran of the insurgent East Coast seamen, Captain E. T. Pinchin of the Masters, Mates & Pilots of America, Vincent Malone of the Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders & Wipers Association, President Mervyn Rathborne of the American Radio Telegraphists. But it was clear from the start that Mr. Lewis had in mind the man who was to head his maritime drive—San Francisco's Harry Bridges, president of the Pacific Coast District of the International Longshoremen's Association.
Weeks before the Maritime Conference was called Mr. Lewis dispatched his lieutenant, John Brophy, to the West Coast to do the necessary spade work. But Mr. Lewis did not need a confidential report to learn that Harry Bridges was the most conspicuous maritime labor leader in the U. S. today. Hurtling into headlines overnight during the San Francisco general strike of 1934, this militant young Australian has risen from simply the boss of the San Francisco waterfront to the principal threat to A. F. of L. power on the Pacific Coast. Numerically his own organization is not impressive—some 22.000 members. He does not even control the Maritime Federation of the Pacific, which he helped to found in 1935. Yet so great is his prestige among the rank & file of insurgent maritime labor that he towers above both rivals and loyal allies. Nor is his power confined to the West Coast. Even tall, tattooed Joe Curran and his Atlantic Coast deck hands take orders from dour-faced Harry Bridges.
Harry Bridges' position in the new C.I.O. drive was clearly indicated last week when John Lewis closeted himself with the San Francisco leader for an hour just before the Maritime Conference assembled. Thus unofficially Harry Bridges was admitted to the C.I.O. high command, taking rank with men like Philip Murray of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, Harvey Fremming of the Oil Field, Gas Well & Refinery Workers, Charles P. Howard of the Typographical Union.