The Wilmington morning star., 1942-12-01
BY wEsTBROOK PEGLER

| making people tnlnkI.
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK, Nov. 30.-AH but a very small
minority of the American people live in total
ignorance of the conduct and the character
of the men who constitute the ruthless, brutal
and mighty sub-government of their country
which calls itself the Labor Movement and
carries on it's extortions and ferocities under
the patronage of the New Deal Party. Efforts
to spread enlightenment are denounced as
disruptiveness and papers which publish such
information have been threatened with boy
colt and destruction through the box office.
If this writer, for example, were to say that
one of the main groups had plotted to kill
the president OF. another, that charge would
be howled down as a vicious scandal and a
crime against one of the social gains of
the New Deal.
! It q with hope Of relieving this igno-
rance among the American people and warn
ing them in all solemnity of the dangerous
character of this subgovernment that these
dispatches today discuss a speech by Phil
Murray, the president of the CIO, to the
Q16TdICLy VI CIlc Il1G1 SOAASCAA-
ton of that. organization in Boston on Thurs
day, Nov. IL.
In that speech, President Murray charged
that John l.. Lewis, ex-president OF the CIO
and dictator Of the United Mine. Workers,
and his agents drove him, Murray, to a sick
bed and that while he was seriously ill of
heart trouble, one of Lewis subordinates told
his followers in a meeting to kill Murray.
This is the language that Mr.. Murray used
in a speech printed in the proceedings of
the CIO convention, minus few words which
are eliminated in the interests of compact
ness but without altering his meaning:
II told John L. Lewis that he would make
me 60 through my garden OF Gethsemane.
felt that he would, believed that he would,
I knew that he would He and his agents
drove me to a sick bed. While was lying
on my sick bed his director of organizations
of district so tof the United Mine Workers)
told his followers in a meeting, in the pres
ence Of men who are in this hall, You have
got to keep after this fellow Murray until
you kill him; he has got to be gotten out
of the way I could tell story to this con-
vention that would startle the nation but
am not going to do it."
kill Murray.
That is the order which the incumbent presi-
dent of the CIO attributes to subordinate
of his rival, John l.. Lewis, who, until a
few years ago, was praised to the very SKIES
as holy and consecrated man of the union
movement and furiously defended against the
slightest doubt by the very same men who
now sat by in Boston and nodded amen to
Murray's charge. They knew the character
of Lewis then as well as they know it now,
but then they were running with Lewis ana
building their power on money which Lewis
was wrestling from the coal miners and their
families to build himself dictatorship over
all labor in the United States. Through the
application Of this power he might have had
dictatorship over the national government.
Was it any matter of high principel, OF
patriotism or labor's interest that caused TINS
break between Lewis and his old cohortist?
Not at all. They broke over matter OF
loot and rivalry for power.
Lewis built the CIO with money taken from
the coal miners but in the presidential cam
paign of 1910 he made false move When,
a bitter and defeated rival OF President Roose-
welt, he promised to resign the presidency
of the CIO if Wendell Willkie were beaten.
He did resign the presidency OF the ClO,
but kept the presidency OF the Mine workers
and control of its vast treasury and income.
And the members of his family amphfled
their own great aggregate personal income
from various subsidiaries of his empire. He
promised to support his old comrade. PM
Murray but his ambition easily got the petter
of his pledge and Lewis demanded that the
CIO pay back to the Mine WORKERS union
more than a million dollars which ne mad
poured into the CIO when it was building.
The CIO, which has comparatively little re-
liable income without the $4,000 a month
formerly received as per capita dues from
the Mine Workers, wouldn't pay the bill. The
CIO said Lewis had given the money and
Lewis said it had been only loan and
took his miners union out OF the Clo, Wnlch
thus lost $4,000 month.
| Lewis is now trying to create third big
union under the charter of district OF the
Mine Workers. which contains few miners,
| if any, and has been gathering IN construction
workers. farmers and all others who can be
coerced or induced to join
| In this Boston speech, President Murray
compared himself with Jesus Christ and Lewis
| to Peter in these words: You remember
where Peter in the course OF conversation
with Christ said he would never deny Him
and Christ said he would, he knew ne would
It is recorded that Peter not only denied
Christ but in his desperation to have the
public know that Christ did not exist, rushed
to the home of harlot and, standing in
the middle of that den of lnlqulty, denied
| the existence of Christ