The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-20
nv B PEGLER

ny WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK, Sept. 10 will tell
YOU a sure way to decide whether
Dan Tobin, the president of the
Transfers union, is honest in his
exhortations to union labor to klck
out the racketeers.
Wait and see whether MIR. Tobln
gets up before the National con-
vention of the American Fedora
ton of Labor in October to de-
mand the expulsion of G e o r g e
Browne, who has been sitting with
Mr.. Tobin, William Green and the
rest of them in the executive coun-
Gil of the federation. This is the
cabinet and supreme court OF the
A. F.. of L., and Browne holds a
seat as representative of the rack
ct known as the stagehands' union,
which. embraces all employees OF
the theater and movies except the
performers and musicians. 1t is
enc of the most powerful unions IN
the United States, and 1t is dom
mated by criminals with prison
records who never worked at hon
est employment, all under the au-
thority of a charter issued by the
American Federation of Labor.
Browne is a scandalous reproach
to the labor movement which Mr.
Tobin loves so well, and any clean
up which does not eliminate him
will be a fake. The fact that he
sits in the council is an indict-
ment of Tobin, Green and the 9TH
er elder statesmen of the fedora
ton who have a solemn duty to
protect the rank and file from rae
keteers and to preserve the good
name of the federation. They all
know that George Browne is a
hoodlums' man, but Green, never
theless, arose before the conven-
ton of Brownies racket in Louis
vile last June and Endorsed his
leadership.
1t is necessary to recall briefly
just here that Browne appointed
as h personal representatives,
with full powers, two notorious
criminals of the Capone mob in
Chicago. They are Willie Bioff, an
old brother keeper, and Dick Cir
celia, alias Dean, a stickup man.
Browne, of course, was thorough
ly aware of their vicious charac-
ter, having run with them for
years. Nevertheless, in that same
Louisville convention he made it
plain that to get rid of them labor
must also get rid of him.
Browne himself has no criminal
record, but his association with
has been established
and any man who knowingly e
lects criminals to represent an in
ternational union of the A. F. of L.,
with total authority to negotiate
with employers and infict arbi-
trary punishment on balky Amer
lean citizens, is morally unfit to
hold office in the federation or any
of its unions. Not all gangsters
have been convicted. Al Capone
reigned for 10 years before he went
to Jail.
It is as much Dan Tobin's duty
to clean out the council as it is
to purge his own union. And in
his speech to the Transfers con-
vention in Washington, at which
President Roosevelt also spoke as
a political guest, wherein Mr.. To-
bin denounced "unprincipled scoun-
drels" in the labor movement, he
put it up to himself to demand the
expulsion of George Browne.
Am l calling George Browne an
unprincipled scoundrel, then?
Well, I put it this way:
Bioff, being Brownies C h o S e n
agent, clothed with Brownies pow.
ers, is equal to Browne. Bioff is
ar ~unprincipled scoundrel. Things
equal to each other are equal to
the same thing.
The same axiom covers the re-
lationship between Browne a n d
Circella. Browne is, in fact, equal
to two unprincipled scoundrels.
When the A. F. of l.. holds its
convention the courage and hon.
esty of those who profess to be
high-minded leaders of labor may
be judged by their utterances and
actions regarding MIR. Browne. 2