The Wilmington morning star., 1942-12-19
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK.-The New York World-Tele-
gram thinks these dispatches are unnecessarily
apprehensive that Paul " McNutt under the
powers conferred on him by President Roose-
velt's manpoWer order, might attempt to drive
unwilling Americans into unions. In support
of this idea, the World-Telegram cites Presi-
dent Rcosevelts statement in the captive coal
mine controversy a little over year ago
when John L. Lewis was insisting that mi
nority of S per cent of the miners be com
PEELED to submit to his rule, since been de-
scrbed by his late friend Philip Murray,
president of the CIO, as despotc and Hitlerian.
The President took stand against Lewis
at that time and said:
II tell you frankly that the government of
the United States will not order nor will
Congress pass legislation, ordering a so-called
closed shop. The government will never COM
pei this per cent to join the union by a
government decree. That would be too much
like the Hitler method toward labor"
That, I submit, is an unwise citation for
a short time later the government did order
the closed shop in that very case and thus
imposed the Hitlerian condition.
Therefore, there is no reinsurance in the
Presidents quoted remark and it is reason
able to anticipate that, little by little, McNutt
will drive people into the unions if he finds
that that is the easier way in particular cases
as it was in the Lewis case. Winston Churchill
put his finger the idea in his latest speech
when he quoted from Hitler's writings to the
effect that peoples could be enslaved if the
conditions of slavery were imposed step by
step and one condition was harsh enough,
by itself, to make them fight.
Anyway the Lewis case is one absolutely
indisputable precedent proving that this gov
ernment will impose the closed shop if that
1ic fho MONTGOMERY Ward
case is similar although not identical. 1r
that case, the President, himself, ordered the
company to sign maintenance of member
Ship contract with CIO union, which means
that union membership is more in the view
of the government than manpower.
II worker decides to quit the union, Mont
pomery Ward must fire him and turn thai
much manpower into the street Moreover
although Ward signed under the compulsior
OF government order, backed by command
from the President, and thus, plainly under
duress, the company was not allowed to say
in the contract that it was submitting under
duress. Americans may think they have free
dom of contract but here is a case, one o.
many, incidentally, in which company has
been ordered to sign a contract on terms
which it objects to-
Few Americans realize that the ClO nov
is in very bad shape financially and needs
help from the government or any other quar-
ter The fact accounts in part for the C!O':
disposition to negotiate for peace with the
AFL which has been collecting hundreds o
millions of dollars of loot on government proJ
ects and is stronger and, in many OF it
component unions, more corrupt than ever
The CLOS meal ticket was John l.. Lewis
United Mine Workers which used to turn il
$50 900 right on time every month. But Lewis
pulled out of the CIO and is starting a thirt
union movement known as District so of the
United Mine Workers, which is nothing bu
another CIO District so is the private show
of Lewis brother, and it takes in anybody
in any trade who can be induced or compelled