The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-03-03

ed by the worried utteranceS OF
such Spokesman as President Will
liam Green of the American Fed
GRAFTON of Labor and Philip Muir
ray, head of the Congress of In
dustrial Organizations, who GER
tainly aren't generally regarded as
bad characters, even though there's
considerable complaint of dangers
involved in their respective groups
jurisdictional rivalries.
This class OF observers OF the
situation. evidently are especially
suspicious Of the justice depart
ment's Federal Bureau of Investi-
CATION, under Chief J. Edgar
Hoover
They maintain that the F'BI was
the perpetrator Of many abuses
during the 1924 period and cite
quite a few pretty high authorities
who said so. Senators Tom Walsh.
George w. Norris, William e.
Borah. Henry F. Ashurst, Burton
K. Wheeler and Smith w. Brook
hart investigated the bureau and
made congressional reports which
denounced it as outright "lawless."
Charles Evans Hughes said its do
ings "savored of the worst prac-
tees Of tyranny" Harlan F. Stone
accused it Of violating constitu-
tional safeguards" Felix Frank
furter declared II had struck at
the foundation Of American free
institutions" They're on the fed
eral supreme bench today, Hughes
as chief justice, and he never was
considered very radical, either.
Hoover Not Head
]. Edgar Hoover wasn't head Of
the bureau then, but he was con-
nected with it.
No charge is made now that the
FBI at present is like what 1t was
when Harry NJ Daugherty was at
torney general and William Burns
was his boss detective. The point
is made, though, that that showed
what sort Of an outfit the bureaus
capable of degenerating into If a
sharp eye isn't kept on it.
What particularly got under Ia
boris hide was the announcement,
directly after President Roosevelt's
limited emergency proclamation,
that the FBI had begun to check
up on defense industry's workers,
with view to spotting saboteurs,
Communists and miscellaneous
fifth columnists among them. Why,
demands labor's leadership, didn't
Sleuth Hoover also begin checking
up on the. workers employers :?
Quite a few Of the employing con-
Germs, it's emphasized, have since
been exposed as alien-owned or
controlled, through patents and in
other fashions - and controlled by
Nazis or Fascists.
Labor's contention is that the
check-up's real result, if it goes
the limit, will be to keep the work.
ers under employerdoms subjec-
ton by branding 'em as traitors II
they stand pat for fair pay and
conditions, and strike for 'em;
however legitimately.
It isn't assumed that that was
the limited emergency declara-
tons original intention, but that's
how labors afraid it will be manip-
ulated, unless it's strictly regu-
lated.
Respect Civil Rights
One hundred per cent respect OF
civil rights is what labors insist
ing on.
Well, the justice department has
a civil rights section.
Compared with the FBI, how
ever, it's a mere pewee, with next
TO no funds to operate on. The
FIJI, on the opposite hand. has al
most as much money as was blown
In on the whole justice department
In 1918. Furthermore, it doesn't
want the CRS-ection interfering
with its Investigations by raising
civil rights objections to them.
And, being enormously more con-
sequential than the CRS, II