"These Ferrets"

The C.I.O.'s United Furniture Workers of America were in an uproar. Hassock-shaped Morris Muster, overstuffed (215 lbs.) U.F.W.A. president, had quit in disgust after nine years in the union. Two days later a Southern district president followed him out. Said Muster, 20,000 members were in open revolt. Their reason: U.F.W.A. had been taken over by its Communist faction; the new executive board was dominated by Stalinists.

Cried ex-President Muster as he packed up and left: "I created a strong union and behind my back these ferrets got in. . . . When they become officers or board members of a union they cease to be good trade unionists and become emissaries of Uncle Joe Stalin."

Members of the Executive Board were quick to reply. Huffed their spokesman: "Shameful Red baiting ... the ranting and raving and distortion of facts by a bogey-ridden mind."

But the story earnest Morris Muster told was a classic example from the handbook of Communist tactics. The first move had come, said he, as soon as the U.F.W.A. was born, in a 1937 merger of A.F.L., C.I.O. and independent unions. Communist-picked switchboard operators and secretaries were slipped in; they became the basis of an efficient espionage system. A sympathetic secretary-treasurer and educational director were maneuvered into office to give Communists access to union finances and membership rolls, control of union newspapers.

Then they went after the locals. Said Muster: "According to the Commies every man has his price. It's either money, liquor, power or a woman." Whatever the fee, the Communists energetically paid, moved promptly into local offices.

Though Muster believed they had never amounted to more than 2% of the U.F.W.A.'s 42,000 membership, Party-liners and hangers-on were well enough entrenched by last month's convention to run the locals in New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. With that core of sure-fire delegates they had rammed through their own slate of officers, headed by Secretary-Treasurer Max Perlow, long-time veteran of New York Communist-front organizations.

Last week, while both sides were putting their cases to C.I.O. Boss Phil Murray, Morris Muster went off fishing. His parting word: "I'm singing a song of warning. ... I hope my little sacrifice will be a bellwether move."

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