Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-05-14
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

DeTon tmes.)
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
CENATOR ROBERT M. LA
~ TOILETTE of Wisconsin,
the chairman of the so-called
civil liberties committee Of the
Senate, made speech last week
in which he referred to some
obvious fallacies" in the under.
standing of the reasons for
strikes in the defense industries.
These must be exposed, he
said, and I suggest that while
we are exposing fallacies we
consider also the fallacy Of Rob-
ert M. LaFollette.
Many public men. notably
Senator George w. Norris Of
Nebraska. Senator Bob Wagner
of New York. and Senator La
Toilette. get by indefinitely on
past performances or early pub
licity.
Senator Norris. who once
spoke with the most sonorous
piety about the Sanctity of cleo
tions, saying, IF we wrongfully
influence the voter we are strik-
ing at the very foundations OF
free government" was one OF
those who recently attended the
disgraceful ceremony in the cap
ital in which statue to the late
Huey Long was unveiled to mock
those very principles.
OTHER attendants at the same
" evil affront TO free govern
ment were John II. Overton OF
Louisiana. whom Huey Long
elected and whom Senator Nor
ris did not exert himself to
expel. and Allen j. Ellender. an
other member of the late dicta.
tors gang.
II is commonly understood
now that Senator Wagner was
not the actual author OF the
Labor Relations Act but merely
the sponsor of a scheme to Gre
ate a great class political group
resembling the labor front in
Germany which was sold to
Congress and the citizens as
labor's Magma Carta.
CENATOR LA TOILETTE,
~ however. has been going
along smoothly. posturing grace
fully and accepting bows, and
cannot be blamed for thinking
himself quite a master of decep-
ton.
He has been making vast pub
licity. for Senator LaFollette
through an investigation of "vio-
lations of the right of free
speech and assembly and inter-
ference with the right Of labor
to bargain collectively"
In the first place. of course.
labor unions, as he knows, are
as guilty as any employer ever
was of violations of the right Of
free speech and of the workers
parallel right not to join union.
but the senator doesn't 90 into
that.
He is serving his reputation
and promoting his career with
his political following by pre-
tending TO believe that employ
ers only are guilty of wrongs
against workers and of violence
in union troubles.
tho BLAME employers for the
l. majority of defense strikes.
of course. is to confuse the
question. because rarely do we
get to the bottom of the causes
of such strikes and, moreover.
penalties already exist for guilty
employers.
He only insists that il would
be 'lynching" to adopt laws
whereby professional, irrespon-
sible unioneers could be pun
ished equally for equal offenses.
I NOTICE in one of the reports
L OF the senator's long and ex-
pensive hearings. reference to
the Little Steel" strike at
Johnstown which will indicate
how fallacious he is.
This portion undertakes to ex-
pose as fallacy the "rumored
invasion" of Johnstown by 10000
mine workers, and the senator
obviously believes that by edi-
torializing he has reduced the
danger of that invasion to a
mere myth.
But the files will show that at
times John L. Lewis wired Presi-
dent Roosevelt warning him OF
this invasion and attempting to
disown responsibility for vio-
lence that might occur. So the
threat was not so fallacious,
after all.
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