The Wilmington morning star., 1943-09-15
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER

iiioii VI Tile ulalt Ooard winch has granted
successive half year deferments to second
front Joe Curran, the vicarious commando
and president of the National Maritime Union
Mr shepherd recently stated that comrade
Curran was performing invaluable war work
III MAINTAINING his sector of the communist
front N our Merchant Marine and he now
ADVISES me to desst from discussion of the
comrades deferments and other matters con-
corning the NMU. I had written that Curran
unlike common Americans or unouestiona bile
patriotism who come before Mr. Shepherds
board, was in the favorable position of one
who can write his own deferment The way
OF That is this Curran and his fellow party-
liners run the union absolutely and the union
applies for deferment which then is granted
by MI. Shepherd and defended by him as a
decision for the national benefit Curran's
latest oe1erment will carry him over into his
59th year and place him in the immune age
bracket where he will be free to clamor ior
second front in France without embarrass-
ment. Less fortunate clients of the same
draft board, meanwhile, will have gone to
war.
Your articles" Mr.. Shepherd writes me
and the various supporting diatribes which
have departed from the original field of legiti-
mate criticism you at first affected, to one
OF labor-baiting, could well benefit by new
change of theme and would be most helpful
This is my first intinlation that the Selec-
tive Service system was endowed with edi-
torlaI powers or any of the duties Of censor
ship and have asked Mr.. Shepherd to cite
the section of the act which gave him authori-
ty to issue official admonitions to the press.
| disagree OF course, with Mr.. Shepherd
holding instead that his removal from the
Craftsmanship of this particular board would
much better serve the morale and thought of
the nation, particularly Of the eligible men
under that boards Jurisdiction than my re-
moval from print in compliance with the un-
ions demand. 1 think the people will be, or
anyway, should be, more disturbed to realize
that the chairman of draft board believes
it to be of vital importance that this commu-
nstfront organization be held together by
comrade Curran.
While awaiting his answer I am puzzling
over some interesting inconsistencies in the
Curran case even while the communist Or
ganlzation maintains patrols at our newspaper
offices demanding the suppression of impor-
tant unpalatable truths about Curran his I'M
ion and certain obstreperous and insubordi-
nate merchant sailors of the communist front
If Curran is irreplaceable as Shepherd has
certified, and too precious to be risked in
the fighting forces and if the merchant serv-
ice is as dangerous the communist patrols
allege, then Curran was guilty of grievous
offense against the national security in taking
himself off to sea, he did recently, in the
guise of sailor bound for British, Russian
and African ports on union business.
But the fact is that comrade Curran has
measured the risks and found them neglig ible.
He didn't go to sea when the Murmansk run
was a desperate gamble. He waited until
conditions so safe that his present voy-
age may be described as pleasure cruise.
And when l say his trip is a vacation I am
not delivering my judgment, but Curran's own.
For a black line on page one of Currans
official union publication, The Pilot plainly
syas Joe Curran's column will not appear
during his vacation And the Herald Tribune
reports from Washington that more subma-
lines than merchant ships were sunk in August
and that the Canadian minister of the navy
said there sinkings by U-boats in
the last three months.
Other interesting data appears in The Pilot.
It formally admits that the sailors who joined
the communists in the patrol OF the newspaper
premises did SO under orders from union
headquarters and exuts that the turnout was
great demonstration of union discipline. The
Pilot says that all union sailors in the line
were compelled to have their tickets punched
to prove that they had marched and that
failure to turn out without a valid excuse
would be violation of union discipline. Inns
would be grounds for expulsion from the union
and exclusion from the sea at time when
there is so great a shortage OF sailors that
the war shipping administration is compelled
to turn over some 200 new American SHIPS
to other Allied nations for manning.
In the discipline of comrade Curran's union,
tie maintenance of which Mr.. Shepherd deem
ed absolutely essential to the war e11ort
any anti-comm,,nist action is anl-un1on &C
ton and any opposition to the rule OF COM
rade Curran is disruption punishable py eH-
rulsion The union is now hololng us own
kangaroo courts, supplementlng those ol the
Coast Guard and ruling men OFT the sea 1or
anv conduct which it disapproves. On the
other hand, when captains OF vessels make
charges against Individual insubordlnates IN
their crews, the union habitually defends them
and attacks the masters
In view of these facts and OF Mr. ohep-
herds decision that it is absolutely essential
that comrade Curran be kept safe ashore to
hold this organization together. suggest that
Mr. Shepherds resignation or dismissal would
be, in his own phrase, most helpful TO the
morale and thought Of the nation
-V-
The first necessary step to postwar jobs
is to make 1T possible for industry to accumu-
late sufficient 1unos to reconvert from war
economy 10 peacehme operations. The earn
ings which industry Should set aside being
taxed away.-Frederiek C. Crawford, presi-
dent National Association of Manufa ctIrers
Our men are more determined and our
planes are .oeeher Furthermore, our tech
nlque is letter. The Japanese seem to start
with s,hs,e loea IN mind and if that fails
they don't know what to do.-Marine f1ver |
~ Col~;t1