The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-30

r those OF the auu1or diio
may not always harmonic
with its position.-The Editor.
All told I have received, l sup
pose, a thousand letters from IN
dividual little people who have
been kicked around, deprived OF
their right to work, robbed ana
cheated by labor unions under the
authority and protection Of Pres
ident Roosevelt's labor policy. The
people are unorganized, afraid and
in many cases, desperate, and it
seems very unlikely that they will
vote for Mr.. Roosevelt in Novem-
Der, although as yet Mr.. Willk1e
has offered them no reason to hope
that he will give them any relief.
Mr., Willkje is on a spot, because
if he should blast the crooks and
dlctators of the union movement
and promise to break their brutal
power over the little people every
labor faker in the country would
Immediately damn him as an enc
my of labor with a capital L.
The citizens who are Individual
victims of the labor skates can
only hope that Mr.. Willkie has
some mental reservations and in
tends, if elected, to proceed against
the thieves and takers. That seems
to be their only hope, because MIR.
Roosevelt is playing ball with the
boss unioneerS.
Not Mentioned
Aside from M very coy refer.
ence to the rare, occasional scoun.
drel in union leadership the presi.
dent has never mentioned this op-
preston of American citizens by
unofficial but harsh and arrogant
dictators, many of them crooks Of
the meanest sort. 1t may be OBJ
served that even that mild con.
demnation was not gratuitous. II
was wrung out of him.
The disclosures which have beer
made in the last year-with nc
help, incidentally, from his musco-
vite labor relations board-finally
became so scandalous and the facts
were so authentic that Mr.. Roose-
welt had to take some notice OF
them. That is Mr.. Roosevelt's way.
He took no action to compel state,
county and municipal employees to
pay federal income taxes until
their outrageous exemption h ad
been shown up in print for about a
year, and he was dead sure that
the people who would personally
resent a change were lastly out
numbered by those who would ap-
prove it.
I am an utter novice in politics,
but in my dumb, instructive way,
l figure that the big national boss
es of various unions are merely
touting when they assure MI. Roos-
evelt that 1.-The labor vote" will
support him. l just don't believe
they a speak for their members,
many of whom, I am certain, do
fiercely resent their prctentions to
leadership. During the last years
incalculable numbers of little peo-
pie have been driven into unions
against their will, harassed and
prosecuted, and without gaining a
dollar beyond the amount which
was promptly snatched back by
the thieves representing the unions
Hate Official
Nobody can tell me that people
who have been the victims of this
kind of doing feel loyal to the union
movement or kindly toward any
candidate who builds up the pres
tige of the boss unioneers by COM
plimenting them in public. These
little people might not have been
quite SO resentful if the unions
had been comradely or half-decent
to them. AS it is, they hate their
unions ad hate the business agent
and the local and International Of
flc!als who treat them as if they
were serfs-as, in fact, they are.
If you are a worker earning so
little money that the internal rev.
enue doesn't even ask you to file
an income tax return, and some
union then makes you pay SIS,
cash, to join and from So to $40
a month in dues and buy 81 worth
Of tickets every three months, you
are not going to cheer for unionism
You r going to be sore, and the
little woman is going to figure
that money in terms of milk and
food and clothing which the chill
dren deserved but didn't get.
l don't want to hear any hing
about the rarity of the union sco,m-
drel. l know better. The thief . ID
extortioner is more common than
rare, but that question aside, the
damned spot that will not out is
the fact that more of the high union
GERS, from Will Green on down
through his executive council, has
made a concerted move to kick
out the crooks or relieve the op
preston of the little people by The
union politicians.
In fact, they have a gang man
IN the executive council itself, the
same being George Browne, and
nobody in the American Federation
OF Labor has the character, hon
esty or courage to look him in the
eye and tell him to get the he'll
out. .
Many Mothers, Children