The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-22

ions expressed in this ar,icra
are those of the author ana
may not always HARMONIC
with its position.-The Editor
NEW YORK, Jan. 21.-Tbfs i
going to be n of those dull, naq.
ging pieces, so if you have any-
thing better to do suppose YOU skin
it while I mutter away. It is an
answer to the main points Of =
letter from a man who signs him,
self Ray Glore, and says he lives
in Cincinnati, and is a union car.
peter. The problem in aswer;ns
letters in print is to give the Let.
ter writer room to state his case
and reserve space for the renlv.
This requires condensation, he.
cause people do run on when thew
take pen in hand and give me nv
needings, and l am not exactly
terse myself, as you may note
from the fact that I have been bah.
bling all this time without gojng
into my act.
Well, this man says l have been
pointing to a boil on the neck Of
the A. F. of L. and yelling, 'see,
he is rotten through and through"
and insist that the grating and
racketeering have occurred most
ly in two cities-Chicago and New
York-and, as far as he recalls.
in only three others-Cleveland,
Miami and Los Angeles.
New York and Chicago, he says,
are politically rotten and wink at
grating and racketeering, but are
not the United States nor repre-
sentative of the U. S. A. He claims
that there r thousands of locals
and central labor bodies w h O S e
leaders handle their affairs to the
complete satisfaction of the mem.
bers and the general public, and
then he says I have created an
impression that ''all unions and all
union men are, if not actually
crooked, at least shady charac-
ters." Then he wants me to tell
him how the A. F. of L. can con-
stitutionally rid itself of two of its
high political bosses who are, in
his opinion and mine, big slobs.
discover men who could c e a
house if elected to office and line
up enough honest, capable local
leaders to do the job at the next
general convention. He wants me
to do that when the bulk of the
A. F. of L. press, and it has many
publications, has met all dis
closures by defending or excusirg
the accused and denouncing the
accuser.
Well, so here we go:
First, I haven't said the A. F.
of L. was rotten through and
through. I said it had become a
front for a rogues' gallery of
crooks, including many who are
crooks no less for their lack of
criminal records, and l have
proved, and the recent New Or
leans convention substantiated my
proof, that the national organiza-
ton can't or won't do anything
about it. I say it a but it won't.
The A. F. of l.. says it would
like to but can't, which is a hell
of a confession, says I.
Next, the five cities mentioned
are by no means all. 1 add Jersey
City, Trenton and Newark, and.
for that matter, practically all of
New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pitts
burgh, Dayton, Boston and my cor
respondents home town of Cincin-
natl, as well as upstate New York,
which is a lot more territory than
he allows. But I am writing strict
ly by ear at the moment, and not
from my mountainous file, and i
am a little embarrassed by tn
lack of a definition of the term
"racketeering," because I h a
a feeling that some practices
which 1 call racketeering are to
him legitimate union methods. But
as to Cincinnati, for example, how
did it come that the delegation
named to try to intimidate the edi-
tor Of the Cincinnati Post with
threats of a boycott for printing
this stuff included representatives
of three of the most notorious
racket unions in the country? And
how much protest did Mr.. Glore
make against the rise to power in
Cincinnati of the crooked, double
crossing renegade cop Jack Demp-
sey, who later went to St. Louis
as treasurer, no less, Of the iron
workers and remains there today
as such? Do you suppose ou3
friend doesn't know of the rottenf
ness, including dynamiting, in Dayi
ton, close by? 1 am not impugning}
his sincerity, but 1 can't believed
he doesn't know, SO l will JUST
assume he didn't canvass the sit3
uation very carefully.
Why argue whether New York;
and Chicago are politically rotten3
1 claim Tom Dewey has m a d q
Manhattan clean, and that Brook
lyn is improving under the Messrs,{
ODWyer and Amen. AS to tt d
other boroughs I just don't know.l
Chicago, of course, is simply teri
rlbie, and the difference is that
the people of New York are no4
complacent, whereas the people off
Chicago have abandoned hope.
l would like to snap this off witH
a Gn nnliA- c1~-lc --- .-A.4 klnN