Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-08-23
Is Emergency
Amnesty for
ExpIoi+ers?
TriaI Of Mike Boyle Given
Review BY PeeIer
By wEsTBROOK PEGLER

- the jumps over the state of
the nation. the war, and all. but
the business of viewing with
alarm is in competent hands.
and, anyway, / want TO know
whether this war emergency Is
to be used as a sort of general
amnesty for all who have been
exploiting not only the Nazi war
but the war on want as well.
Long before Hitler went crazy.
our President told us that we
were engaged in a war against
want and there was an implied
promise that there should be no
profiteering in the struggle. no
exploitation OF the great emer-
gency for private gain in wealth
or power.
Recalling President Roose-
velt's first inaugural address. I
remember that it would have
been almost heretical TO suggest
that any one could be so low as
TO impose on the situation, and
the noble mood of the people.
with greedy or ambitious mo-
tives.
Since then certain discoveries
have made me cynical, but / still
hold that wrong done in the
name of recovery and reform
should not be allowed 10 60 by
default just because we are
moving into another war.
Now / have just been going
through a book the size of a
New York City directory, con-
tanning the transcript OF an old
trial of Umbrella Mike Boyle,
the boss of the Electricians
Union in Chicago, who is so
powerful there that he can
threaten the whole city with
paralysis just on his own say-so.
LIE once raised all the bridges
IL over the Chicago River and
left them up. completely block
aiding these vital public works.
the property of the whole people.
or threatened 70 do so. l disre-
member which, 10 show his
power over a small group OF
slightly skilled men and thus
over the city.
In New York. his opposite
number. Harry Van Arsdale,
made a similar demonstration
for similar reasons only recently
when he pulled general strike
of electricians on construction
Jobs, including war construction
at the Brooklyn yard. and
BACKED out Broadway at night.
/ just hold that no one man,
nor any relatively small group
of men, should be allowed 10
possess this power 10 grab any
community by the throat and
that the national government,
which now rules us all, has a
duty TO break this power OF the
few.
This power was acquired under
cover of the idealism in which
we CROPPED in the war on want
and whenever the mists thinned
out little and some of us began
10 observe dark forms up TO
dirty work we got a few more
grenades of that idealistic gas to
obscure their doing.
Just lately this Mike Boyle
of Chicago has been blockading
the installation or certain lights
in a factory which is intended to
build airplane engines for the
army, because he doesn't APP
prove the company which manu-
featured the lights.
MOT even Van Arsdale, red-hot
~ unioneer that he is, and with
a high tolerance for crooks In
unions, can apologize for his col
league in the same international,
Umbrella Mike.
l mentioned Mike TO Van
Arsdale one day during a little
conference and Van Arsdale
turned his palms up, shrugged.
and said he would prefer not to
discuss Mike at all.
However. Van Arsdale, in tell
ing me of the recantation of two
men whom he had been con-
victed of shooting in a union
battle, clean forgot 10 mention
that the two recanting brothers
first got SIS, 900 out of the union
treasury.
So maybe il is just one OF
their ethics TO speak no evil OF
one another lest too much truth
come out and they lose their
power.
How do we know Mikes mo
tives now in disallowing the
product of one manufacturer in
favor of certain others. remem-
bering that he once got a gift Of
stock in an interested competitor
and was able TO throw "a great
deal OF work" to that company?
What is the point Of all this,
says you?
That is the very point OF II.
We all realize that such man
holds all this power over our
second greatest city and we ask
numbly, what of il?
Copyrighted by United Features synd.. Inc