The Card Caper

They gathered at one man's house in October. All 40 of them sensed a kind of electric excitement in the air. It was a big caper, one that demanded meticulous planning.

They examined the map of the floor plan of a suburban Los Angeles supermarket that they had cased earlier. Each member was assigned to a particular spot: two men at the meat counter, one at canned soups, a woman with an infant at the baby-food section. Then they synchronized their watches and headed for the store, took their positions, and waited impatiently for H-hour. At last it came: sweeping through their assigned sectors, the 40 people began sticking small cards in the merchandise--on top of a ham, beneath cans of dog food, behind jars of borsch. They worked swiftly, disappeared leaving only the cards, which read: THIS HAS BEEN INSPECTED FOR YOUR TABLE BY A REAL GOOD COMMUNIST.

TCTWOTAOCMOTLBS. This sort of activity, with its resultant discomforts to retailers, has been going on for months in big and little stores all over the U.S. Sometimes the cards read: ASK THE MANAGER ABOUT OTHER CHOICE COMMUNIST GOODS FOR SALE IN THIS STORE, OR BUY ALL YOUR COMMUNIST GOODS AT THIS STORE. Very often, this "card party" tactic has its desired effect: the store removes the tainted merchandise --Polish hams, Czechoslovakian glass, Yugoslavian coat hangers, Hungarian handbags, Bulgarian hat racks, East German watches --that had been imported from Iron Curtain countries.

The card caper is the brain child of a Miami chiropractor, Jerome Harold, 36, now secretary of "the Committee to Warn of the Arrival of Communist Merchandise on the Local Business Scene." Harold organized TCTWOTAOCMOTLBS more than a year ago. "It doesn't make sense to me." says he, "that we should strengthen countries whose leaders have sworn to bury us by buying their products." Actually, the U.S. last year imported $84.6 million in Communist-made goods, but exported $133.4 million in U.S. merchandise to those countries. The U.S. State Department, moreover, condones such trade, argues that it can be used as a wedge against Iron Curtain unity.

Usually, members of TCTWOTAOCMOTLBS hold their card parties only after informing a retailer that he is selling Communist-made merchandise. If he refuses to remove it, the harassment follows. Some merchants capitulate immediately. Others hold out for a while; S. S. Kresge's 800-store five-and-ten chain and some others, after withstanding several card parties, now plan to clear their shelves of such products. But many retailers angrily refuse to give in.

The Law. The card parties are certainly a nuisance, but by no means the worst. In Phenix City and Montgomery, Ala., and in Butte, Mont., Columbus, Ga., and Greenville, S., city fathers have put through ordinances requiring retailers who carry Communist-made goods to buy a permit (up to $5,000) and to post signs in their stores proclaiming that they are "licensed to sell Communist merchandise.'' In some cases, local Chambers of Commerce privately shudder over the consequences, but feel helpless to do anything about the pressures.

Asked last week what he thought about such drives, President Kennedy told his press conference that just because some merchant has Polish ham in his shop does not brand him as unpatriotic. "I don't think it really carries on much of an effective fight against the spread of Communism," he said.

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