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Show DIES TO PRODE u;;:o;i actions lilCAIKE Reds Control Marine Organization, Says Witness WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (AP) A complete investigation of union organization activities in the Panama Canal Zone was ordered or-dered today by the Dies committee. com-mittee. Rhea Whlteley, comaslttee counsel, coun-sel, was Instructed to make a thorough thor-ough study of the subject after a witness, Frederick C Phillips, former National Maritime union official, told the committee a man named H. A. Stoudt, whom he identified as a communist, waa an organizer for the CIO union In the canal lone. Phillips said Stoudt was appointed appoint-ed to his job through the Influence of John L. Lewis, CIO president, on the recommendation of Joseph Curan, head of the maritime union. Phillips tol dthe committee that, although only about T to 10 per cent of the organisation's membership member-ship was communist, this minority held so many strategic positions If. .was able to maintain control. Calls Ouster IUegat The witness, who said he was "illegally" expelled from the union for opposing communism, said that "American seamen do not Uke communism," but that most of them were intimidated." Those who openly opposed the communist faction, Phillips said, often lost their jobs by being "framed" or were beaten up by "the beef squad." Any member who attempted to discredit a communist official, he testified, waa widely accused of "red baiting" by the communist element. Opponents of communism, commu-nism, he said? also were called "ship owners' stooges" and "labor spies," so that they would be discredited dis-credited among the rank and file of the union. Through these methods, Phillips said, communists had gained "a great deal more control In the last few years" and were "becoming "becom-ing more of a danger all the time." Have 'Lota ef Money Communist agents "seem mostly to have a lot of money enough to buy drinks for people," Phillips said. The N. M. U. replied later today with a flat denial of Phillips' charges. Moreover, the union said, some of the witnesses heard by the Dies committee belonged to "employer-controlled groups." "We have no doubt," said the N. M. U. In a statement, "that the ship owners will produce many of their group to testify before the Dies committee. . . . The production of these witnesses Is simply a con-(Contlnuwf con-(Contlnuwf on Pan Tour) I Column Thrt PROBE ORDERED IN CANAL ZONE CethtuS ma 'Pass Oi tinuation of the campaign that the ship owners have carried on against seamen ever since the N. M. U. was formed. "No single group, communist or otherwise, domlnstes our organization. organiza-tion. We have one of the most democratic constitutions ever adopted by a trade union or any other organization. It provides complete membership control of union activities." Meanwhile, in police court, William Wil-liam C McCulstion, who preceded Phillips as a Dies committee witness wit-ness in Its investigation of un-American un-American activities, refused to waive extradition to Louisiana on a murder charge. McCulstion, who has ssid the charge was a frame-up, was arraigned ar-raigned on a warrant charging that he killed Phillip Carey in New Orleans September 17. Granted Grant-ed a 30-day continuance, McCulstion McCuls-tion was returned to Jail to await a hearing on December 5. PhllHpa Identified correspondence correspond-ence from Thomas McGowan, Boston Bos-ton agent for the Marine Firemen, Oilers and Water Tenders' union. to Moo Byne, another union official, offi-cial, in 1937,. in which McGowan expressed disappointment because a proposed waterfront meeting was not held, "because we were lined up with baseball bats watting for our friends." Chairman Dies D, Texas) of the committee directed Rhea Whitley, Whit-ley, committee counsel, to turn the correspondence ' over to the Justin department. Noting the mention of baseball bats, he commented, com-mented, "That would seem to be a very effective way of violating civil liberties." In another letter, which Phillips said was In the handwriting of McGowan and addressed to Bvne, .Whitley read. "We shall see that Brother Stewart meets with an accident before then." Whitley put In the record the newspaper clipping which quoted McGowan as saying that Dies hsd "turned stooge for American ship owners. |