The Wilmington morning star., 1943-12-17
BY WEsTBROoK PEGLER

NEW YORK. - Another thoroughly wicked
decision has come down from, the Supreme
Court, reiterating Justice FELIX Frankfurter's
earlier dictum in the memorable carpenters
case to the effect that it isl egal and lust
for private organization calling itself a labor
union to backen the reputation Of an honest
frm and damage or even destroy its business
II tnlS is done on a pretenSe that a labor
dispute exists even thought, actually, there
IS no dispute between employer and worker.
This is one Of Frankfurter's favorite ideas
and it can be said to express the mans own
morality.
The current case Is one in which a union
OF restaurant workers decided to organize
cafeteria operated entirely by the owners.
mere was no argument whichever between
the owners and any employees because there
were no employees. The New York Court of
Appeals made the obviously right and moral
decision that the union had no right to picket
the place but the United States Supreme Court
reversed this and the final result is that a
union may make false representations to the
PUBIC and use its other weapons such as the
ooycott and blacklist to wreck the business
OF an unoffending and law-abiding citizen.
IN the carpenters case, Frankfurter held
mat the carpenters union was within it's rights
IN spreading throughout the country lie
against the Anheuser Busch Brewing Co.. of
81. Louis. There was no dispute between the
union and the company The carpenters and
tne machlnlsts had agreed or & certain di-
Vision OF the work in a building operation and
tne carpenters admittedly n d deliberately
nroke their agreement, demanding some of
the work be allotted to the machinists. The
company was helpless and unoffendng in the
matter. 1t just tried to hold the carpenters
10 tnelr contract and the carpenters then de-
clareo Anheuser Busch to be unfair to or
canned labor, which was a lie intended to
oaniage It's reputation and prevent the sale
OIL us products to union people and to others
VINO could be inundated, such as saloons
and restaurants patronized by union workers.
frankturter declared that this was justifi-
ao'e as familiar union prctice and thus we
were handed the proposition that if unions
nave oeen getting away with some particular
h.ho OF dirty work for an Underlined period
u Ilne the dirty work acquires legality and
respectability. To extend the idea if union
mas mad custom of placing Iye in the soup
de cannery as a means of coercing the en-
ployer, that. too, becomes familiar union pre-
Ice olessed by the Supr eme Court of the
United States
VI course there is nowhere in any act of
congress or any debate any justification for
the contention that Congress ever intended
10 grant any organization special right to
tell lies about any innocent citizen. Morally
that is rotten thing to do and not even Con-
gress has any right to confer such privilege
on any organization o, persoa, but the two
cases cited, plus Jimmy Byrnes' utterly Gym
ical opinion written in the teamsters' case
granting unions a right to commit highway
robbery, have defiantly imputed such intent
to the lawmakers on the hill And the law
makers, incidentally, have taken these insult
ing imputations lying down for no law has
been passed repudiating them. although there
has been long opportunity to do SO.
It is no answer to say that Congress is
much too busy with problems of the war.
cti1 carrvino 49,
life, too, in this country and the Conduct Of
the unions is one of the most urgent dangers
to the liberties of the people at home and to
those of the soldiers and sailors on the;r
| return. ~
| The effect OF this queer attitude in tho s,,-
preme Court is simply tna- the peonle ~
the United States are exposed to willful e and ID
wanton wrongdoing by political element al.
lied to the new deal party With no chance
! Of redress and wlthou' aAy -eeai protection, :