A Moral Certainty

Said Harry Bridges, as he folded his lean frame into the familiar San Francisco witness chair last week: "I'm not a pacifist. I'm against aggression ... I will continue to speak out against war and if I haven't got that right, I may as well go to jail right now."

Said the U.S. prosecutor: "Harry Bridges is a dangerous enemy to our society and a threat to our national security. He is a source of comfort to our enemy. He is the enemy." By urging his longshoremen to oppose U.S. action in Korea, Bridges had lost his right to freedom, argued the Government. Bridges was out on $25,000 bail while waiting for an appeals court to rule on his five-year sentence for perjury (TIME, April 17). The Government asked that his bail be revoked and Bridges jailed.

Said Federal Judge George B. Harris, who had presided over Bridges' perjury trial: "I'm satisfied to a moral certainty and beyond reasonable doubt that Harry Bridges was and is a member of the Communist Party . . . I'm also led to believe he is probably one of the most potent figures in the Communist Party in America today ... As such, his allegiance cannot be to the United States of America ... I revoke the bail."

Harry Bridges winked at his dark-haired wife, told her not to cry, walked jauntily down the corridor to jail.

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