Bridges  Speaks  for  Himself  105

As  the  morning  ticked  off  and  the  first  actual  words  of  the  Bridges
testimony  came  over  the  wires,  managing  editors  of  the  great  daily
papers  throughout  the  nation  threw  crumpled  dummies  in  the  waste-
basket,  made  new  ones  sketching  open  pages  for  the  Angel  Island
story.  The  New  York  Times  jumped  its  order  from  six  hundred  words:
daily  to  five  full  columns.  The  radio  newscasters  shunted  other  events
to  the  background.  Bridges  was  talking.
By  official  estimate  of  a  type  sanctioned  by  general  radio  advertisers'
usage,  nearly  half  a  million  people  within  range  of  the  San  Francisco
CIO  broadcast  were  tuned  in  at  6:30  p.m.  that  night.  They  heard:

"The  government  asked  for  Harry  Bridges  as  its  witness — and  it
got  him  today.  And  having  got  him,  it  was  more  than  an  open  question
as  to  what  to  do  about  it.
"It  was  obvious,  after  the  first  few  interchanges,  that  Prosecutor
Shoemaker  had  met  his  master.  To  Shoemaker's  plodding,  methodical
questions,  Bridges  shot  back  clear,  rapid-fire,  revealing  answers  that
laid  bare  the  entire  history  of  the  struggles  between  employers  and
unions  on  the  Pacific  Coast  in  the  past  several  years.
"Time  and  again  Bridges  had  Dean  Landis  chuckling  and  the  rest
of  the  group  in  stitches  as  he  punctured  a  prosecution  point  with  biting,
mirth-tickling  wit.
"And  again  the  little  group  would  hold  its  collective  breath  as
Bridges,  in  cold,  precise  language,  ripped  aside  the  veil  of  secrecy  to
show  the  gory  details  of  employer-inspired  terrorism.
