The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-10-06
Bv WESTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK-A publicity release of the
United States Maritime Commission announces
that among other ''illustrous names in labor
history" assigned to new liberty ships of the
merchant marine is that of Arthur NJ Hud
dell late president of the international Union
of Operating Engineers.
HuddeIl died in Sibley hospital, Washing
ton, D. c. on June l, 1881 The coroner's
report said cerebral hemorrhage and pneu-
monia were the causes OF his death which
occurred 10 days after he had been struck
over the heart by bullet fired by an uniden-
titled man while lunching at a restaurant
near the headquarters of the racket 1t would
be incorrect to say that he was shot for the
bullet was stopped by notebook in his pocket
and did not enter his body. That the hemor-
rhage and pneumonia were caused by the
shock of the shooting is speculative posi-
bility, but there is question that Frank
Langdon, the editor OF the unions official
publication, shot in the head and lost an
eye. Langdon nowadays refuses to discuss
the shooting, saying I'VE want to let it die"
John Possehl, vice president, who was
lunching with HuddeI and Langdon, not
hit and became president on Huddelfs death
and held the job until his death from natural
causes in September, 1940 Then the mob
rallied again and elected William E. Maloney
of Chicago. whose selfless altruism in the
service of the working stiff and in the main
tenance of labors gains under the new deal
underworld communist axis has yielded him
a stable of race horses, villa in the winter
ing place of the criminal scum of unionism
in Miami Beach and a large farm near Chi
cago. Possehl Maloney's man in the
presidency in a rivalry with Joe Fay, the
New Jersey thug and oldtime bootlegger In
fact, Fay later was thrown out of the racket
by Possehl, with Maoney's support but sub
sequently made peace and is not only
an International vice president again but
contractor in a large way of business.
The police work in the Huddell case hardly
could have been worse. The file in the Wash
ington police department contains incomplete
and unsigned date, including statement at
trlbuted to the wife of one of the union Of
flclals in which she said her husband con-
splred in her presence to bump off Huddell
so that another member of the mob could
get his job. In the end nobody was punished
or even tried and the union became even
more aggressively a racket of racketeers
which, during the long depression thrved on
public make-work projects and since the war
began, has shaken down workers and con-
tractors and always, in the end, the people
of the United States, who eventually pay the
costs, in all sections Of the country.
Although on the surface of things Huddell
might appear to have been martyr the
ously embarrassed by any fairly alert devils
advocate for the union was a racket even
| then and there were plots and counter-plos
OF shooting and some of the members in
Washington complained that favorites of the
union bosses received preferred treatment in
the division of the available work One state
ment in the files taken in connection with
another plot not long after Huddells death,
quotes working stiff as saying that they
had starved him long enough and caused one
OF MS children to die from undernourishment."
Inns man was arrested and indicted but died
in jail before he could be brought to trial.
The christening of the S. S. Arthur M. Hud-
dell, naturally, will be made an important
occasion by his successors, particularly by
brother Maloney, who is prominent mem
Der OF Ed Kelly's Chicago chapter of the
party OF humanity and brother Fay who is
very influential in the Frank Hague chapter
IN New Jersey but in Washington, as we'll.
| 1t might be more fitting to name ship
after Dennis Bruce Zeigler, of Chicago. who
was murdered near his home Feb, IA,
1888 after long fight against brother Maloney
for clean unionism and after he had given
information to the United States Treasury
| concerning the income of certain of the Chi
| cago racketeers
| The murder occurred about "a hours after
Zelgler reported to an agent of the govern
ment that two union officials including one
OF those against whom he had given 1nfor-
nation to the Treasury had chased h i m
through the streets and that one of them
had yelled: Il will kill you yet
However, William Green, the president of
the American Federation of Labor and
strong and admiring supporter of brother Ma
loney, had regulated Zeigler as an enemy
OF labor for appealing to him for help against
Maloney's mob Thus to name a ship for
this genuine labor martyr would be an I'M
piled criticism of brothers Green and Maloney
and a disavowal of racketeerng generally
and so, the whole, impolitic at this time.