The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-07-18

Editors Note.-Ths Star and the News accept no
and often disagree with them as much as many of
his readers His articles the good purpose Of
making people think.
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK.-If you have no better use
for the next few minutes let me bend your
ear with an explanation of another sly and
underhanded trick of that government of this
country which Francis Biddle, the attorney
general, has called "a political party tied up
with the labor movement" The political party
is, of course, Mr.. Roosevelt's new deal which
runs the government and the labor move
ment'' is the union movement, composed of
workers. or. as he says, labor -
However, to call these unions the labor
movement is a piece of demag ogic, political
dishonesty, because Biddle knows that his
movement is governed almost entirely by die
tatorial groups and individuals, including
some of the most revolving underworld ras.
Gals unhung and anti-American communists
and that, in its entirety, it is an anti-labor
movement under our preset laws. He knows
that large proportion of the Americans con-
shutting labor" are not members of the un-
ions in the common meaning of the word but
captives driven into the fold by the govern
ment of which he is a member and that mil
lions of them have been robbed of hundreds
OF millions of dollars by crooks and licensed
union grafters who also have preyed upon
and collusively combined with employers TO
cheat the workers and the government. And
if Mr.. Roosevelt, himself, doesn't know all
this, too, and more of the same, then he
isn't one-tenth the man that he and his party
represent him to be. But he knows
In reaction to the fumes arising from the
3OO million dollar Delaware aqueduct lob and
many other government jobs of the war con-
struction on which Americans were charged
big fees for the right to work. Congress last
winter decided that henceforth the unions al
though remaining exempt from tax on their
graft and their statutory income from rental
properties, securities and the like, must at
least make what they call International
income tax returns. The idea, frankly, was
to present to the public the enormity of the
union income and warn the people, including
labor of the menacing financial power of
these over-privileged organizations and their
bosses. The unoneers hollered that this con-
gresslonal proviso was but the beginning of
campaign to expose union business affairs
to government inspection and, although some
OF Its proponents blandly denied any such
purpose, | see no excuse for such hypocrisy
and agree that this was the purpose and in
slst that it was a very good purpose, too.
Mr. Roosevelt vetoed the bill in message
that finally aroused his old friend Senator
Alben Barley of Kentucky to fighting words
and the President, himself, being thus pub
llcly stood up to and realizing that he had
ver-spoken himself, quit cold The bill then
passed over his veto.
At the time there were those who said
the Presidents real objection did II OF lie
against the tax rates which he deplored on
the ground that they favored the greedy, not
the needy which was copy desk phrase re-
flectlng the literary counsel of one of his self
less assistants and silly bit of flippancy
anyway, inasmuch as need and greed are as
often found together as greed and wealth.
The suspicion instinctively arose that Mr. R.
was actually trying to turn a trick for his old
friends, the unioneers, and might get rid of
the dingbat concerning international returns
from unions if he could throw the whole bill
back into conference and debate. However,
that hope was lost when the bill went through
over the veto and it then became necessary
for the political party tied up with the labor
movement to whip up another of its clever
little schemes having the color, through not
the odor, of legality.
That scheme has now been effected
Inc unions won nave 10 40 as congress
said they must Mr.. RS internal revenue has
ruled that the big, parent unions shall make
international returns but that the little, COM
ponent unions need not tell how much they
get or where or how or what they do with it.
If a parent union has 500 locals it just Jumps
together their total income and their total dis
bursements and that is enough.
Moreover, their filing dates even for this
general and meaningless information was post
poned from May Is to Aug. Is for their con-
venience although George Spelvin, American,
with no office help or bookeepers had to get
his return in on time or pay cash penalties.
And do you know the excuse for all this?
This will slay Mr.. Spelvin, American.
It would have been undue hardship on
the little unions to fill out returns and the
parent unions deserved the postponement of
their big money returns because they were
inexperienced and needed time for some prac-
tice swings