Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-15
Union Spy
Law PeriIs
Free Press
Uneasy Members Often,
Give Information
By wEsTBROOK PEGLER

I ETS see, now, where were
II we?
Oh yes, that Fort Wayne
News-Sentinel case and the
charge that all editor who buys
or accepts information on union
affairs from members of union
for publication as news is guilty
of violating the law against the
employment of antiunion spies.
Well, as 1 was saying, there
Is a lot more to that than meets
the eye.
You sink a pick into that SUBJ
ject and you will turn up one OF
the greatest deposits Of pure
skullduggery on the North
American continent.
Now suppose an American
citizen, who is strictly a square
guy and no Communist, is
showed into a union in one OF
those great roundups that the
unions conduct right along in
their competition for member
ship, money and political and
economic power.
He doesn't want to belong to
their union because, let us say.
but they surround him and a
thousand others in some small
city and make him join under a
closed shop agreement approved
by the federal or state labor
board, representing his own
government.
All right then, so along comes
an editor, or a reporter repre-
senting an editor, and gets wind
of Communist goings-on in a
union. or thievery in local, but
he can't get the straight of it
because he can't get into a y
union meeting.
Moreover, the members are
afraid to peep because they may
be expelled for violating union
discipline and thus barred for
ever from all employment in all
unioniZed occupations.
So this reporter that we are
talking about gives his solemn
promise to this union man that
he will not reveal his identity
to any one, including Senator
La Toilette.
That is common newspaper
practice, that protection of in
formants, which is part of the
duty that a free press assumes
10 justify its existence and de-
serve its freedom.
/ AM willing TO imagine that
Il our reporter gets a chit from
the desk TO pay the poor sucker
little something for his risk,
although that isn't likely 10
have been the case in Fort
Wayne and 1. personally, have
never paid any Of my thousands
OF informants a dime.
They have given me inforrna-
ton and continue TO send in
their little individual stories of
union persecution and terror
from the musicians, laborerS,
teamSters, mine workers, news
paper guild. needle trades, con-
Struction engineers, dock wallop-
erS, painters. walters and more
others than l can mention here,
and they do il because they
are being pushed around.
But suppose the paper pays
the informant for his informa-
ton and, 10 make il as bad as
We can, let's suppose the in
formant is just mercenary
squealer with no decent motives 4
or loyalty, although his Informal
ton is important and stands up
under investigation.
All right, now. is that a vio-
lation of law and can the editor
be punished?
| WELL, chums, La Toilette had
w better not try il and / don't
think he will. because, If he does
instigate prosecution and il
sticks, then we will have founded
a principle that will protect
traitors and criminals from be-
trayal to the public by the most
reliable and productive source OF
such information.
1t means nothing TO say that
the public prosecutors and the
legislative branch of the govern
ment are capable of attending to
such Investigations without as
sistance or interference from the
papers.
Only a few prosecutors have
had the courage and civic de-
cency 10 initiate prosecutions
and can cite you one sneak
holding public office who took
down information from a group
OF union members and then
rated on them to represent the
union boss as his counsel in a
civil action involving the same
nf