The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-10-17
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK; don't want to accuse any
one of hypocrisy today, being in one of my
patient, generous moods, but as to those
friends and neighbors over on the left who
decry the poll tax in those few states which
still have the poll tax and oppose the piece
work system and would deny the boss the
right to fire man for cause. the least that
will settle for is inconsistency
ALI unions use the poll tax and defend it
with the very arguments that are offered
in its favor by those who would preserve
it in the poll tax states of the southern
tier. They don't call it a poll tax but it
comes to the same thing because the member
who doesn't pay his dues and assessments is
not allowed to vote. Even worse than that
he is not allowed to work. The intent of that
ostracism is to starve not only the man him
self but his wife and children, as well, which
is much more cruel penalty for the mere
nonpayment OF some money than denial of
the ballot in the public elections. In the poll
tax states, the delinquent is still permitted
to earn his living. He doesn't have to 90
under cover, change his name or work at
odd jobs in the dark of the moon to get by
Another, and much worse, little foible of
some unions is the Class-B, or robot, or SUBJ
human membership. C1ass-B people are
usually the unsklled auxiliaries of skilled
trade unions whose full members want these
extra dues and this additional picket-line pow
er to serve their ends, but are careful to
provide that the lower classes can't seize
control through the ballot No state has any,
thing like Cass-B citizenship but in those
unions which l refer to a Class-B member
may have only five-hundredth one
thousandth of a vote which is really no vote
at all. His political inferiority is based on
his lnferiority in skill, which may not be &C.
tual lnferiorlty at all but arbitrary classical
ton. But imagine, if you can, the uproar that
would be raised by friends and neighbors
on the left IT anyone of prominence were to
propose that a pick-and-shovel man should
have only fraction of vote in the public
elections while a banker shoulder have
whole VOTE That would be pretty bad, but
still pick-and-shovel man would have a
Tree opportunity to advance through the
grades to some occupation of rating based
on skill which would eventually entitle him
to full vote. The Class-B union member,
however, is permanently inferior. The A-Class
closes its rolls for varying periods, rigs the
examinations so that aspirants are bound to
Hunk or, in some cases, pick relatives of
Its members for the vacancies.
suppose few of us realize that unions
themselves frequently use the piecework sys-
tenn, but they do. PieceWork is where you
get small retainer salary and a certain
bonus per unit of production, and that was
exactly the system that the CLIO used in it's
great manhunts when captives were being
driven into the union pounds by the thou
sand. The organizers got so much per head
That was one reason why they were ready
to beat peoples brains out with clubs and tire
irons in the riots. You give a couple of poor
stiffs a working over and scare 1000 others
into the union hall to join up and you are
doing all right for yourself.
They fire at will, too. In one case, down
South "a CLIO union,- canned an organizer who
called strike by fake vote, after the
strike was lost, and because it was lost The
employer and the workers took an awful
laclng through weeks of idleness and nom
production, but that was just their hard luck
Inc union, in the end, suffered a pretty Sc.
we're loss OF prestige and canned the organic
err not Tor taking the operation, but because
ne olo1' get away with it. This happens right
along. Ihey hire and fire at will and M
labor relations board ever interferes because
the employer is a union. The new deal
won clue d union for anti-labor activity. III