The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-06

C0to-Tho
responsibility fer the personal views Of Mr.. PsElsr
and sften disagree with them much many Of
bis renders His articles serve the GOOD purpose o.
making people think
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1914. King Features Syndicate, Inc.
NEW YORK, Inasmuch as President
Roosevelt chose to identify himself with the
Transfers union in his recent attempt to COM
night-club comedian, perhaps you would like
to know something about this organization
and its president Daniel Tobin.
| This is very strong union Of the American
Federation Of Labor with about six hundred
thousand members, including clerical workers
and others who by no stretch of the imagi-
nation to be regarded as teamsters. Most of
| these workers were involuntary joiners who
were dragooned into the union by President
Roosevelt's machine. It is badly infested with
! gangsters and is one of the worst offenders in
| the matter Of Woodwork, the device by which
employers are compelled to pay loafers for
| doing nothing or criminals not to harm them,
| This, of course, results in a great waste of
man-power in wartime and constitutes priv
| ileged racket, preying on the whole comnnu-
nifty, IN peace or war.
| Tobin is an amusing character in his solemn
sef-appreciation. He has some of Hitlers love
pressed in October, 1912, when he appeared to
be surprised and touched by the generosity of
his general executive board in buying house
in Miami, Fla, for SIS, 900 as present to him.
Inasmuch as he is at the head of the board,
however, he should have been in on the play
and also must have had some special reason
for deciding at the last moment not to go
through with it.
One reason could have been fear that
the actual working teamsters might hold this
greed to be just too raw although, actually,
the rank and file have no influence on the
political machine which runs the union. An
other reason could have been the sad case of
Jimmy Petrillo, of the musicians union. Jimmy
caused his "boys' to give him a house cost
ing $4,000 and, following jam with Thurman
Arnold in the Department of Justice, the new
deal decided to punish him. Therefore Internal
Revenue ruled that the value Of the house
| represented income Jimmy had to dig UP
| $4,000. By this precedent, old Dan Tobin
| would have been liable for income tax on the
value of the house in Miami.
Dan turned the property back to the union
and by this clever little scheme got the free
use OF 1t for life. Other members of the ruling
| machine also were thus to be allowed to use
it when Dan wasn't lin residence and the
upshot was that the horny-handed teamsters
and the little girl clerks in warehouses all
over the country were maintaining a palace
for their ruling set.
The original resolution set aside 100000 for
the palace, fully furnished" It was to be
"maintained' by the members and this in
cluded all taxes and assessments and the
maintenance of the grounds. care-taking and
necessary servants
In turning the property back, old Dan, who,
incidentally has two sons on the union payroll
at $4,000 year each and himself draws $780,
600 and unlimited expenses, wrote:
Il am aware that the general executive
board unanimously decided to purchase suit
able home for the general president" mean
ing himself, "for the purpose of conserving
the health and strength of general President
Tobin because the board believed that the
union had great danger of serious loss should
anything happen to the health or Life of Cen
eral President Tobin''
That pomposity runs all through his writings
and this use of the third-person permits him
to pay himself the most extravagant compli-
ments.
This was the union, which was racketeering
against truck operators running merchandise
into New York in the memorable Transfers
case in which Jimmy Byrnes, the assistant
president Of the United States, as justice of
the Supreme Court, delivered the amazing ut
terly wicked dictum that highway robbery was
permissible if penetrated in the name of
| SASAA'
rally is grateful to President Roosevelt as the
man who conferred this right him and who
has resisted all efforts to abolish the racket
Incidentally Byrnes did not have the excuse
of labor dispute in this shocking affair. It
was racket pure and simple. OF the Y original
defendants twenty-seven had criminal records
and were ordinary underworld racketeers op-
Grating shakedown.
The union is vastly rich, having more than
| five million dollars in war bonds in it's treas
ury. Tobin's little monthly magazine mostly de-
voted to elf-advertising at the expense of the
members, recently criticized an unnamed Re-
publican who had died, leaving Several mil
lion dollars" because the estate included onlv
$40, 900 in war bonds. The mother of President
roosevelt left 1928, 900 and only $4,000 of it
was in war bonds but Mr. Tobin couldn't be
expected to comment on that.
OF course there is much more to be told
about the unions ruling political machine and
old Dan, himself, but this will give YOU an
idea of the company Mr.. Roosevelt selected
that night. It was as though he had decided
not only to insult the people with TRASHY
foray into night-club entertainment but to en-
phasize his contempt by addressing the ma.
ton from the feast Of a gigantic, predatory
racket