The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1943-05-28
Pegler Is


Continued from Page One)
many as nine times go out again be-
cause the union slogan is keep En-
Sailing Deliver the Goods" and they
believe in fulfilling it.
s. You omit, too, the fact that our
union was born as result of kicking
out racketeers who stole the union
money and allowed no democracy.
Our constitution, which was democrat
ically adopted, is open for public
scrutiny. Our financial reports are
made public quarterly. No assess
ments are levied No strikes are
called except by referendum and none
have taken place during the war. Can
didates for union office are elected
by secret ballot, the voting being
supervised by the Honest Ballot Asso-
citation. The candidates picture and
record appears in our union paper dur
ing the campaign.
6. These are some of the things you
omitted, just as you omitted the fact
that our civilian crews" as you call
them, have to maintain with their
1913 average earnings a family ashore,
buy clothes, pay their taxes, and save
enough money to live during their I'M
employed season, since they receive
no unemployment insurance.
You omit this just as you omit the
fact that under the shipowners' con-
tracts with the War Shipping Admin
istration, they were able to give"
S1,200,000 to the United Seamen's
Service, with much fanfare, while hid
ing the fact that they were allowed
by VISA to write off this donation"
as overhead
z. You refer to my opposition to the
war. l have always been in favor of
war against fascism. When Ethiopia
was invaded, l favored blocking Fas
cisms rise. When Japan invaded
China, we seamen fought against the
delivery of scrap iron to Japan and
we were almost jailed in 1885 when
we and the longshoremen on the Pa
cific coast attempted a boycott of
shipments which we claimed then and
have seen proved now would be fired
back at our troops. / was in favor
of fighting Fascism when the puppet
Franco, with the help of Mussolini
and Hitler, used Spain as the trial
ground for this war. Many of my
shipmates died fighting in Spain.
l favored fighting Fascism when
Czechoslovakia was dismembered be-
cause the Chamberlain and appeaser
crowd were busy selling their coun-
tries down the river in the hope that
Hitler would move to the east and
leave them alone.
The unconstitutional surrender pol
icy was not arrived at until America
entered this war and until we had
suffered a Pearl Harbor and had wit
messed the Casablanca conference In
my opinion, this war did not become
a Peoples War until the Soviet Union !
was attacked and the government of |
Great Britain, under Churchill, pledg- |
ed all of it's resources to destroy the |
Fascist armies. And, even with the
efforts of President Roosevelt. Mr.. |
Churchill, and the Soviet Union, and |
other United Nations, for an about
war against Fascism, there are still
some who balk against our collective
security program, just the they baked
in the days of Spain, China and ETH
opia.
l am bringing these things to your
attention because l believe an accur-
ate reporter interested in getting the
facts would want to know them I'm
der the rules of free press, of course,
these facts would be used to answer
the attack you made upon me.
l am sending this letter to you be-
cause during a recent discussion one
of your admirers said if given the
facts you would present them Here
they are.
Yours truly,
(s) JOSEPH CURRAN,