Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-10
s+op-PegIer
Drive Bares
Own Source
Columnist Merely CIines
to His Red-Boitine 4
By wEsTBROOK PEGLER


L with demands from several
unions and groups Of unions that
these dispatches be suppressed,
and I take encouragement be-
cause such expressions indicate
that their leaders at least sense
a great rising of popular resent
ment against Communists and
corruptioneers, especially among
the American workers.
The New York Newspaper
Guild, from which I resigned
when I became convinced that II
was an undertaking follower Of
the c o m m u n ist leadership,
adopted a resolution insisting
that I be dropped from the Stars
and Stripes, the weekly news
paper of the various American
Expeditionary Forces, and sent a
copy to Gen. George c. Marshall.
the chief of staff.
didn't even know I was rum
ming in the Stars and Stripes,
and / would be inclined TO agree
with the Guild if il had argued
that all controversial political
discussions are unwise editorial
selection in a paper published for
the armed forces.
DUT the Guild protests on no
u such basis, insisting only that
the opinions and observations
and the statements of proved
fact to which il objects are UNI
patriotic because they are often
sive to its own taste. and that is
quite different matter.
III these living human docu.
ments are to be withheld fro
the fighting forces on tn
ground, then the same reasons
could reasonably be used for
loading the paper with Red
propaganda and praises Of our
union racketeers and fellow
travellers.
AS a matter OF fact. these
pieces are alive with loyalty to
the United States and the
Constitution, but also with re-
sentiment against political ex-
ploitation of the war by union
criminals and brown shirts, by
the ruling administration of the
country and, of course, by the
Communist Party and its agen-
cies and fronts.
They also denounce and expose
thievery and extortion by unions
and the impressment of millions
of American workers into unions
not of their own choosing which
then presume TO speak for these
muzzled and voiceless captives.
A MOTHER such demand went
"A TO the indicator of Youngs-
town, o.. a couple OF months ago.
this one under the name of
Ralph Hazen of Truck Drivers
Union. Local PA. presumably of
the AFL. accompanied by
threat that IL these obnoxious"
revelations and discussions Of
fact be not discontinued, a cam
paign would be instituted among
locals. central bodies. joint coun-
ellis and city declarations in
northeastern Ohio, asking all
union men to boycott the paper.
OF course, IL such a campaign
could be put over, a newspaper
could be put out of business or
compelled to trade its editorial
independence for its life, and
theoretically, by use of the per-
sonalized terror inherent in
union discipline, such a boyQ
could be made to stick.
Practically, however, IL can't
be done.
THERE have been a number OF
Il other threats of this kind.
/ was dropped in Providence,
where there Is large and noisy
Fascist Italian community, and
even a street named for Musso-
lini, whose political padrones
resented utterances hostile to
the Duce, fascism and the people
OF that enemy country.
/ cannot say that the pressure
caused the result.
1t may have been only a COIN
cidence of honest editorial judg-
ment and expressions of alien
and anti-American resentment,
but the thing was in my, per-
haps. biased view unfortunate.
Now we have still another case
in which the CIO Council of Fort
Wayne, Ind, demanded twice. in
two emphatic resolutions, that
the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
throw out these dispatches and
asked that the department of
justice and the La Toilette COM
mittee Of the Senate investigate
William j. Gross, the editor of
OF the paper, which was isola.
zionist in viewpoint until De-
cember z.
Mr.. Gross replied by disclosing
that Parke Kreachbaum, the
secretary of the council, had
been active in organizations
which Attorney General Francis
Biddle mentioned in his opinion
in the Bridges case.
The objections to me included
a charge that am Red-baiter,
which 1 certainly am, but there
was no detail that Brother
kreachbaum was a member of
such organizations or that he
als0 had hnon NJ, icola 4io.S.a-