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That was nest of radicals and this man Bridges was known to have been there several times. That got around.
Then the Waterfront Employers began to say, “Ah, he's a had egg. He's, a radical. He's a Communist. That's where this fellow came from.” That was the first time he ever heard anything unfavorable about him, and it was very very lamely dragged in. There was no evidence. It was all hearsay. Nobody over did know where the police got this information that he had been to these meetings, or whether they were radical meetings, or whether they weren't. The police raided the house on one occasion and they found that they called radical literature, whatever that may be. Bridges never said anything about it at all. He never was questioned. It was nobody' business. He never said anything about this. This growl that he was a radical began to be heard from the Waterfront Employers nonetheless. This was the first time we had ever heard this. Otherwise he was just an inexplicable man who had appeared from the mist.
Whether he was ever a Communist or not, I haven't the remotest idea, even to this day. Whether he had been before he turned up in the longshore strike, or whether he because one afterwards, I haven't any idea. I know there's been testimony, and a lot of it, one way or
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