Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-10-14
FAIR
ENOUGH
BY Westbrook
PegIer


w ident Roosevelt for his use
Of the word fraud" in his ora
tion 10 the teamsters in WASH
ington, l shall try TO clarity a
particularly nasty fraud perpe-
trated on loyal American mer-
chant sailors by the National
Maritime Union, which unerr-
ingly follows the Communist
party line and receives many
-fdvUrs from Mr.. Roosevelt, him.
self.
This organization has recently
held an election in which, by
its own admission. 10000 Amer
lean sailors were disqualified
because they had not been
members for six months.
That. however, is by no means
the only provision arranged b.
the political waterfront salts
who run the union to perpetu-
ate themselves in office and pro-
mote the Communist program
on American ships.
The primary qualification.
of course. is the poll tax. II Il
sailor isn't paid up, he cant
vote.
And. of course. the penalties
for nonpayment of a union poll
tax are much more painful 10
the victim than the mere denial
of the ballot TO delinquents in
the poll tax states.
TIiE man who doesn't pay his
Il union poll tax loses his
right TO earn his living and
may even be driven out of
vital war Job.
And if he persists in his re-
fusal as a decision of patriotic
principal, he may be utterly
ostracized from most lines OK
work wherever he goes in the
United States by means of The
union blacklist.
The southern poll tax delin-
quent suffers no refusal of pub
lie or private employment AMI
may take full advantage of all
public facilities.
The qualifications for office in
the National Maritime Union
were ingeniously rugged TO
make it impossible for actual,
sea-golng sailors TO dislodge
Mr.. RooSevelt'S pro-CommuniSt
and outright Communist dock
side adherents.
To be eligible for office a
sailor must have been a mem
Der of the union for at least
a year and a sailor for at least
two years.
We have seen that 10000
men carrying supplies to the
war were deprived of the vote.
Now we begin TO perceive
that practically all the wartime
recruits TO the merchant ma
rine are ineligible for office be-
cause the vast majority of the
new men have had less than
two years of sea service.
1TfESE are the people whom
Il the Communists of Mr..
Roosevelt's following in the
NMU fear most, notwithstand-
ing a tremendous propaganda
directed at them from the time
they enter training.
They are, in the main, typi-
cal young Americans and are not
reliable" from the political
standpoint of the Communists.
But they have no effective
voice in the union meetings at
the national headquarters and
they are subject to peremptory
dismissal from the union and
referral back to their draft
boards and induction into the
army if they speak against
Communism either afloat or
ashore.
Joseph Curran, the president
of the union, once boosted that
he would fire out of the organ
jzation, without trial. any one
whom he regarded as a rack
eteer," term underlined in the
constitution.
The unions minutes and its
official publication, formerly
were heavily sailed with omi-
nous notices of men dismissed
for 80 years and thus barred
from most American ships for
anti-union conduct.
Incidentally, the minutes and
the official union paper ceased
TO publish sentences imposed by
the kangaroo court in an effort
to- conceal this information from
the public.
However. through loyal Amer
lean friends who are perforce
members of the union, Nregu-
larly receive detailed informa-
ton of the hidden proceedings.
4 MOTHER qualification for
"A office requires that a candi-
date shall have been ashore not
more than six months before his
nomination, except in the case
of incumbent officers nominated
to succeed themselves. The in
cumbents don't have to go 10
sea at all and none of them does.