The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-29

responsibility for personal views Of Mr. Perier
-. ID. sr.,ss. s.rv. ~. ..as .
makj-x people think.
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright 1914, by King Features Syndicate
NEW YORK, - In March, 1912, the United
States Supreme Court handed down a deci-
sion so ominous that even one Of the lawyers
for the defense, who thereby unexpectedly,
wen his case was shocked and Disguised This
was the opinion written by Justice James
Byrnes, the faithful South Carolina machine
politician of the new DEAL the hand-shaker
and congressional fixer for President Roose-
welt, in the notorious transfers case.
Roosevelt had elevated Byrnes from the
Senate to the Supreme bench in the process
of packing the court with his political bench
men. In this opinion, Byrnes came through
so violently for the thugs and extortioners of
the new deals underworld subsidiary, mas
querading as the chosen representatives of
free labor, that the court, ever since, has
been put to the necessity of wheedling lex
planatory'' propaganda out of its theological
and political friends to take the curse off the
most violent affront to common decency, hon
esty and morals ever offered by an agency OF
the American government.
In this case, Thurman Arnold, himself a
new dealer with reservations or eccentricities,
in the role of assistant attorney general, pro-
secuted local 807 of the Transfers Union of
the American Federation of Labor, and 70 in
dividuals, under the Anti Racketeering law.
This is New York local. This law was passed
in 1888 after a senatorial investigation of rack
eteering, then scourge on commerce and a
tax on the cost of living of millions of citizens,
in which gangs were the most conspicuous Of
Tending. Gangs were the most conspicuous
only because the public did not realize that
1niOnS hriOpn6c After ho
first draft had passed the Senate, however,
William Green, the president of the A. F. of J..
and Joe Padqay, its general counsel protest
ed that it might restrict the legitimate activ-
tiles of labor Plainly it did not restrict any
legitimate union activity for it forbad only
the COLLECTION of money or attempts to collect
money by force and violence threats to
use such force. Obviously such conduct is not
a legitimate activity of any element of the
community. union has no more right to prey
on commerce in this way than, say, the Ca
pone gang.
Nevertheless, at the request, amounting to a
political command of Green and Padway, and
with the blessing of the new deal, the bill was
amended by the Department Of Justice to ex-
cept from the criminal classification the pay.
ment of wages by an employer to an EN-.
ployee.
OF the u original individual defendants in
this case, q had criminal records. For ex-
ample, one had a police history extending
over 10 years, including one charge of grand
larceny, two charges of burglary and one each
of robbery and felonious assault. Shortly after
Byrnes decision this defendant was arrested
again on a charge of atrocious assault and
rape Another had been convicted Of forgery
al d., after the Byrnes decision, went to prison
for robbery. Another had been, convicted once
of carrying gun and twice for larceny al.
together they were not a pleasant crew.
Nevertheless, the new deal Supreme Court
in Byrnes opinion, held that there men were
within their rights, as union men, in extortng
from the owners of lover the road'' trucks
entering New York from other states, 50. az for
each large truck and $8.41 for each small
truck. These amounts represented the local
New York unions scale for a whole days
work of driver. The trucks approaching the
city were manned by union drivers, members
of the same International or parent union
but members of other locals outside the city.
They were not overworked they were, in the
main, regular, reliable, trusted drivers who
could have delivered their trucks into New
York without excessive hours of strain.
Byrnes admitted that the evidence proved
that the defendants. including the convicted
criminals among them, did use violence and
threats" and, in several cases, refused to
work for the money when asked to do So.''
In other words, they were stick-up men, as
Chief Justice Stone pointed out in his contemp-
tuous dissent, and not bona fide. employees.
For 'justifica alton, Byrnes held that ANY per-
son who attempts to obtain the payment of
wages" was exempt from the racketeering act.
And he insisted that, even though the employer
rejects the attempt the CANISTER still has
legal right to use force in a transaction
amount to extortion or, as Justice Stone called
1t, robbery, if he is member OF union.
The defendants, he said, ARE entitled to
immunity, if their objective is to become bona
fide employees and on that construction he
stood even though he admitted as heretofore
stated, that Elm several cases the defendants
refused to work for the money" in which it
was plain that they did not want to become
bona fde employees.
Byrnes left the court to become Roosevelt's
assistant president" His decision and opinion
have plagued him ever since for he is not Of
the Wagner, Frankfurter or La Guardia type.
And the unioneers, careful of their selection,
showed their appreciation when Sidney Hill
man turned him down for the vice-presidential
nomination in Chicago. The President, too, in
Dictated a certain opinion of a man so intel
1ectually cooperative when he refused to insist
on this reward for faithful helper. The poor
fellow is political derelict today
The primary, principal political beneficiary
of this opinion was Dan Tobin, the president
of the Teamsters' union, who was Roosevelt's
official host at a dinner in Washington at
which the President delivered his ribald speech
to a nation whose twelve million sons are
under arms at war. This was one of old Dams