Less Trouble in N.M.U.

Joe Curran sat in his Manhattan office last week looking like a muscular mouse that had swallowed a rat. Joe had not actually swallowed the rat, but he had sent the Communists in his National Maritime Union scurrying back into their hole.

The Reds had had him on the run from the day he angrily resigned as co-chairman of the Committee for Maritime Unity. He had resigned because C.M.U., instead of bringing unity among the offshore and longshore unions, had brought more trouble.

He decided to take his case to the seamen. Under a full head of steam he sailed off to Mobile, New Orleans, Houston,

Galveston. He hit the East Coast ports. Everywhere he went he talked, dishing it out to oilers, firemen, wipers, seamen. What he said ran like this:

"How can unity be established with officers who every few months shock our union and almost lead it to destruction because they are anxious to see our union controlled by outside forces?" Joe pleaded with the men to support him and the kind of trade unionism which has one objective: more money.

The men liked Joe's line. They said to hell with C.M.U., if it was Communist-dominated.

Joe returned in triumph to New York. Harry Bridges, .Joe's onetime friend and co-chairman of C.M.U., knew he was licked. He called a secret meeting of C.M.U.'s executive board and dissolved the whole organization. "It was a smashing victory," chortled Joe.

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