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a union out of them. They're a bunch of racketeers.”

I said, “There's no evidence of racketeering among these men.”

“Well, they're a bunch of Communists then.”

I said, “Well, that isn't the impression that the conciliators have of them. What makes you think that?”

“Oh, they just are a bunch of racketeers, a bunch of Communists.”

That may have been the reason, or it may have been something else, but I was prompted to have Bridges looked up. So I telephoned out to Brnie Marsh, who was one of our conciliators, and asked him to get a report on Bridges, and see what was known about him, since he was appearing out of nowhere. None of us had ever heard about him. I wanted to see if anyone had heard about him, to see first if the San Francisco police had ever heard about him since Joe Ryan said they were all racketeors. Joe Ryan didn't mention Bridges by name in this accusation. I don't think he had ever heard of him. He just said they all were racketeers. That meant mainly that they hadn't knuckled under to the International Longshoremen's Union, which was small and ineffective.

I also telephoned Paul Scharrenberg and asked Scharrenberg what he knew about this man Bridges.