The Daily Alaska Empire

Officers, Members, Anchorage Labor Unions Give Testimony Al Commie Activities Hearing
ANCHORAGE, Alaska. Oct. 19.- (AP)- Seven members and officers of Anchorage Labor Union locals told congressional investigators yesterday they never have been members of the Communist party.

The investigating Congressmen are Rep. Charles Kersten (R-Wisc.) and Rep. O. C. Fisher (D-Tex.) of the House Committee on Education and Labor. They were to go to Juneau today before returning to the states.

Kersten said his committee was "glad to accept" a suggestion by the Alaska Junior Chamber of Commerce that it investigate the activities and background of Harry Bridges, West Coast CIO longshoremen's union head.

The Junior Chamber wrote its request for an investigation to the House Committee on Un-American Activities and then turned it over also to the two congressmen here.

Request For Inquiry

Ralph Westover, J. C. C. Vice President, said his organization's written request for a congressional inquiry said that if any striking maritime union leader is a Communist, "he should be exposed as such. If not a communist, employers should withdraw the issue from negotiations. While the J. C. C. is not able to find any concrete evidence that striking maritime unions are under communistic domination," circumstantial evidence and the pattern of the strike make an investigation imperative.

Witnesses called at the hearing here included John Wiese, President of the CIO Westward Alaska Fisheries Council; John Montrone, business agent of the AFL painters' union; Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Edleman, a member and secretary, respectively, of the CIO Alaska Fishermen's Union; Karl Pennington, member AFL carpenters' union; Einer Huseby, former member of the carpenters' and fishermen's unions; Nels Nordn, fishermen's union member.

Wiese On Stand

Wiese was on the stand an hour and a half.

Wiese testified that he once was connected with two groups which have sometimes been described as "Communistic-dominated"-the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the King-Ramsey Counter-defense Committee.

Kersten asked Wiese:

"Would you object to communism in a union?"

"Not if they advocated good, strong labor policy," Wiese replied. "I wouldn't object if it came from Catholic, Mason, or anyone else."

"If an agent of the Soviet Union issued you instructions in connection with your union, would you follow orders," the Congressman asked the fisheries council head.

"I take orders from the executive board of the union, not from any agent of any country," he declared.

"If an agent issued orders contrary to the policy of the United States, which would you follow?"

Wiese replied: "That of the United States, of course."

Other witnesses were quizzed briefly.

The Congressional party was due to arrive by Army airplane at 3 o'clock this afternoon from Anchorage. No interested official in Juneau would say whether a hearing on communistic activities would be held before the party leaves for Seattle. The group is scheduled only for an overnight stay here.