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matter what your problem was.

Then, of course, bedlam broke loose, because it seemed as though everybody was on strike. There didn't seem to be any reason for it except just sympathy for these lon shore workers for it, because no organization head had asked these men to go out on strike. These were good, sober, old-fashioned AF of L unions. Even the printers, who are the most conservative of all and not given to sympathetic strikes, went out briefly. It was a mass movement, partly psychological, partly accidental. There certainly was no plot. That I am sure of. It was never intended to be more than a demonstration of sympathy. Of that I am sure. I took pains to assure myself of that by inquiry, and inquiry in quarters where I was sure I wasn't being misled.

Mr. Cushing was one of the people I asked about this. I telephoned to the California Department of Labor. I got information from our own conciliators. All four of them out there then were old union men. They all belonged to some union and had carried a union card. I had them scurrying around to canvass in those trade unions, to see what their intentions were. The answer was always that this was just a demonstration, that they were going to try to put organizers in and organize the longshoremen.