Montana labor news., 1936-09-03
civil Rights Committee
Is Causing Woe
BY HENRY ION
Federated Press

Dciilboiicii tut LdE oliCttC hiNSSp6N
ton of violations of civil liberties
has burst upon this torried city.
Had the affair been managed by
a Belasco it could have had no more
dramatic an opening. Managers
and head men of Railway Audit
and Inspection Co., largest and one
of the most successful strikebreak-
ing agencies in the country, refused
to appear before the bar and open
their nefarious business to the pub
lie gaze.
Instead Leonard Weinberg, Balti-
more attorney, took their place. In
an oily voice he told the committee
that it had no business looking into
the practices of a company that was
engaged in the business of destroy
ing the first ten amendments to the
Constitution.
Refusal to give their documents
to the committee was based, Vein
berg claimed, on the grounds that
some of them were the result of
condolences between the company
and its clients. This is the only
honest, decent, conscientious posi-
ton we could take"
There were those in the audience
who smiled at the hollow mockery
Weinberg made of the words "Hon-
est, decent, Conscientious The
thought that a company hiring
thugs, gunner, hoodlums, spies,
gangsters, stool pigeons, and con-
victed criminals to carry on its bus
mess of ~hindering decent American
workers from legally attempting to
get a share of what is justly theirs,
could have any regard for decency,
honesty and conscience was hard to
imagine.
Weinberg also argued that sub
mission of the company's records
would endanger the personal safety
of its employees. There, perhaps,
he trod on firmer ground. Union
men, somehow, have a queer habit
of showing their resentment of stool
pigeon activities and an appre-
hended labor spy is as valuable as
secondhand chewing gum, and al
most as badly m~asticated.
There were some who feared that
the Senate committee would have
trouble obtaining its evidence from
the detective agencies.
A company specializing for years
in underground work, after all,
should be able to protect its records
from Senate Investigators, hired at
low pay and relatively inexperi-
enced in the business.
Apparently Railway Audit and
Inspection thought so too. After
subpoenas were served they cauti-
ously took from their files incrimi-
mating letters, tore them up and
threw them in the waste paper
basket.
Action of the committee investi-
gators in anticipating this move
showed, however, that Railway Au-
dit and Inspection will have to get
up earlier in the morning. It was
a tingling delight to hear the inves-
tigators relate how they methodi-
cally made arrangements to have
the w~astepaper baskets delivered to
them and how they patched the
puzzle of torn letters together.
1t was revealed, incidentally, that
the Pittsburgh R. A. & I. officers
are much better tearer-uppers than
the Atlanta agents. Papers from
Atlanta were either merely torn
across or just crumpled while those
from Pittsburgh were shredded
into little bits.
AS the hearing opened the room
was filled with all sorts of people.
The usual investigation goer that
crowds committee rooms during the
Congressional session was kept
away by the heat and ignorance of
the proceedings.
Present were officials of the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board, some
of whom have been loaned to the
LaFollette committee, as well as
stool pigeons for other detective
and strikebreaking agencies not as
yet summoned.
Wandering around the room was
the bald head and huge bulk of
Harry B. Hunt, representative of
the American Iron and Steel Insti-
tute, paying close attention to the
revelations regarding a strong arm
Of the steel industry. Also present
was w. Everett McLaine, U. S.
Steel Corporation representative
who acts as ears and eyes for the
corporation and kindly keeps news
men Informed"