Near Thing

In August 1950, Russian-born Ben Gold, president of the Red-dominated International Fur and Leather Workers Union, publicly renounced his 30-year membership in the Communist Party. Soon after, he signed the non-Communist oath, which the Taft-Hartley Act requires of all labor leaders whose unions want the all-important services of the National Labor Relations Board. Last week a federal grand jury in Washington, convinced by the Justice Department that Gold's conversion was no more than skin-deep, indicted him on the charge that he had perjured himself by signing the NLRB affidavit. Had the grand jury delayed one more day the statute of limitations would have rendered 55-year-old Ben Gold immune to prosecution.

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