283

It should be noted that, as important as the mass mobilization of seamen
was, this victory was also the result of favorable circumstances and of the ability of
the seamen's movement to exploit those circumstances. Specifically, the movement
was able to exploit both the New Deal's need to implement its programs with
dispatch, and contradictions that existed between New Deal relief officials and the
traditional charity-based relief institutions. Well before meeting with the seamen's
sub-committee in Washington, FERA officials, with their technocratic mentality,
were undoubtedly already suspicious of the YMCA Anchorage officials. Such
traditional, charity-based officials as the latter, based in locales across the country,
were often inefficient, corrupt, and they were frequently enemies of the incipient
New Deal and its approach. But in the rush to set up the New Deal relief
machinery, FERA officials had probably seen no alternative to using the relief
structures already in place; hence the plan to lease the Anchorage and retain the
YMCA Administration.	,

However, the Baltimore seamen's criticisms of the YMCA officials must
have rung true to the federal officials, and the seamen's demands represented an
alternative relief system that FERA officials decided they could live with, at least
temporarily. More importantly, waterfront protests in Baltimore threatened chaos
at a time these New Dealers could ill afford it. They took the line of least
resistance and gave in to the seamen. It is interesting and surprising to note that
the beleaguered FERA officials were remarkably unconcerned about the possibility
that they were dealing with radicals or communists. A participant in the
Washington meeting with the seamen's sub-committee later reported, "While their
terminology and temper were obviously radical, no information was requested or
volunteered regarding their political or trade-union affiliations."'

The newly-elected Seamen's Subcommittee took up the complex task of
administering the Anchorage and distributing federal relief in a remarkably well-