In & Out

Two of the three judges of the ninth federal circuit court of appeals found themselves in emphatic agreement. ". . . However hard and disagreeable may be the test in times of popular passion and excitement," they wrote, "it is the duty of the courts to set their faces like flint against . . . erosive subversion of the judicial process."

Setting their faces like flint, the judges forthwith ordered Longshoremen Leader Harry Bridges freed from the San Francisco jail where he had been held since Aug. 5 as a threat to U.S. security. The "erosive subversion," the court held, had been caused by the Government when it persuaded District Judge George B. Harris to revoke Bridges' bail and clap him in jail during his appeal of a five-year prison sentence for perjury. The Government had argued that Bridges, as a Communist, imperiled the U.S. war effort in Korea.

"As startling as it is novel," Appeals Court Judges William Healy and William E. Orr wrote of Judge Harris' decision. "There is no showing," they said, "that Bridges has in the present juncture committed any recognizable crime or that he has . . . sought to ... impede by [any] means the prompt loading and dispatch of ships to the Far East." The jailing of

Bridges had simply provided the Communists with another martyr's halo, they said. "A Bridges singled out and jailed by arbitrary judicial action while he is prosecuting with diligence his good-faith appeal poses to our minds a more serious menace to the nation and our Constitution than does a Bridges [free] on bail . . ."

As the judges well knew, they were indeed running counter to .popular passion. The third judge on the appeals court, Clifton Mathews, dissented tartly: "The danger here suggested is not a fanciful one. The ability of Bridges and his I.L.W.U. to paralyze Pacific Coast shipping has been demonstrated more than once." In the Senate, North Dakota's loudmouth William Langer demanded a congressional investigation of federal judges to see if any are Communists or fellow travelers. The decision was also too much for plodding, verbose F. Joseph ("Jiggs") Donohue, the special Department of Justice prosecutor who got Bridges convicted. "God help America!" he cried. "I'm going to resign tomorrow."*

Even Australia-born Harry Bridges, never at a loss for a sour remark, didn't seem to be too grateful for the workings of U.S. justice. "I'm not out of prison," he said as he stepped cockily into the San Francisco daylight. "The whole country is a prison . . ."

In Manhattan last week, by a vote of 2 to 1, the U.S. court of appeals, which had affirmed the conviction of eleven U.S. Communist leaders, revoked the Communists' bonds and ruled in effect that they must go to jail within 30 days, unless the Supreme Court grants a stay.

*He didn't. Attorney General J. Howard Mc-Grath said later that he had persuaded Jiggs to quiet down, stay on the job.

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