Bridges  at  first  waved  them  away,  complaining  that  he  was  busy  with
waterfront  negotiations,  but  they  kept  reading  to  him,  laughingly
slapping  each  other  on  the  back,  demanding  his  attention.  Gladstein
read:

"  'That  Bridges'  aims  are  energetically  radical  may  be  admitted  but
the  proof  fails  to  establish  that  the  methods  he  seeks  to  employ  to  realize
them  are  other  than  those  that  the  framework  of  democratic  and
•constitutional  Government  permits.' J:

Grossman  broke  in,  "The  Dean  seemed  to  like  your  statement  on
your  political  opinions.  Listen  to  what  he  says:

c  'It  was  given  not  only  without  reserve,  but  vigorously  as  dogma
and  faiths  of  which  the  man  was  proud  and  which  represented  in  his
mind  the  aims  of  his  existence.
"  'It  was  a  fighting  apologia  that  refused  to  temper  itself  to  the
winds  of  caution.  It  was  an  avowal  of  sympathy  with  many  of  the
objectives  that  the  Communist  Party  at  times  has  embraced,  an  expres-
sion of  disbelief  that  the  methods  they  wished  to  employ  were  as
revolutionary  as  they  generally  seem,  but  it  was  unequivocal  in  its  dis-
trust of  tactics  other  than  those  that  are  generally  included  within
the  concept  of  democratic  methods.' '


Eplogue  231

Gladstein  read  Landis'  remarks  on  Bridges'  relations  with  the  Com-
munist Party:

"  'They  are,  in  general,  his  well-defined  opposition  toward  "red-
baiting" ;  his  acceptance  of  aid  and  assistance  in  his  industrial  struggles
from  the  Communist  Party — indeed,  his  solicitation  of  that  aid ;  his  ex-
pressed disinclination  to  disavow  that  help ;  his  association  with  persons
admittedly  Communists,  an  association  that  derives  primarily  from  his
requests  for  and  acceptance  of  such  aid.
