Clean Sweep

Ham-handed Joe Curran, skipper of the C.I.O.'s big National Maritime Union, had won almost every tussle in his long struggle against Communist control. But it was like fighting a hydra: Joe had to wrestle the Communists and fellow travelers one by one, and every time he pinned one down, another bobbed up. Another trouble was that the Commies were so strongly entrenched that they usually got themselves re-elected to the key union jobs.

In this year's election Joe had three of his most durable foes in the ring with him at the same time. But Joe had trained for this bout by persistently pleading with the men in the ships to get rid of the Commies once & for all. When the votes were counted this week, tattooed Joe had a triple knockout. Badly beaten were Vice President Howard McKenzie and onetime Vice President Frederick ("Blackie") Myers, both Communists; and Ferdinand Christopher Smith, national secretary, a Jamaican Negro whom the Government is trying to deport as a Communist (TIME, Feb. 23). Joe's slate also ousted all left-wingers from the union's national council.

For the first time in its eleven years, the N.M.U.'s leadership was free of Communist-line henchmen.

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