The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-09-27

reeponsioihty Tor the personal views Of ME- Pexler
snd OFTEN disagree with them much . many Of
his readers. His articles the good purpose Of
making people think.
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1914, King Features Syndicate. Inc
Now and again the criticism is made of
these dispatches that they are not specific
but general in their condemnation of oppres
sion OF the individual worker by the union
system which Mr.. Roosevelt built up as
political auxiliary of his party General charg
es are protested, but on the other hand, spe-
cl11c cases when they are presented in detail
| are mlnimized as trifling irregularities. pain
ful to the individual victim but inevitable in
system embracing millions OF workers.
At the risk of evoking the latter answer,
should like to present, nevertheless, the case
OF an American worker on the San Francisco
docks as he told it to me during INV brief
visit there with Governor Dewey's Campaign
party 1t is one that could be multiplied by
| thousands and l would point out moreover
tina. the denial of political freedom and free,
dom OF speech inherent in this case affects
millions OF American citizens.
The man identified himself as l.. K. HYDE
until recently clerk employed to check car.
goes gong into ships bound for the war in the
Pacific. He was drawing $139.30 for a seven
day week for work which would not tax the
intelligence of an eighth grade alumnus nor
the strength of girl
Mr. Hyde was member of the Ship Clerks
Association, a subsidiary of the Longshore.
mems Union of the CLIO, whose president is
Harry Bridges, the Australian communist Aft
er a long and expensive investigation and
hearing, paid for by the loyal American people
through their taxes, deportation order was
issued against bridges, but it has been sus.
pended and in time, if President Roosevelt
should be reelected, it will be cancelled and
like the Russian communist wife of Earl
BroWder, who also was ordered out of the
country, Bridges will be allowed to 60 to
CANADA and 're-enter'' and presently to ac-
qure citizenship.
incidentally, Mr. Hyde, like many other
Americans, has been compelled to pay two
assessments of one dollar each for defense
fund for Bridges, although Bridges defense
was conducted by the communists employing
the services of their own legal experts and
there would appear to have been only negli-
gible expenses. Similar Defense funds, col
lected in all unions under communist control
ostensibly in the behalf of various prosecuted
individual comrades, have become Communist
party funds.
On September H. Mr.. Hyde received letter
from the executive committee of his local or
derlng him to appear at the next meeting
and answer charges of "un-unionlike conduct
on the job There was attached copy of
letter from the business agent to the sec
rotary which said two fellow workers on the
dock had heard Mr.. Hyde make several
statements regarding unions and their activi-
ties which we do not consider proper from
anyone seeking membership" Mr.. Hyde was
not full member but probationer working
under permit from a union governed by
communist on vital war job, in defense of
his own country.
Mr. hyde appeared and was charged with
having declared his intention to give S. to
Iom Dewey's campaign fund because he had
received two notices of assessments of one
dollar each for Mr.. Roosevelt's campaign fund,
collected by Sidney Hl]man's Political Action
committee, the current guise of the commu-
INST party. These contributions to Mr. Roose-
vets campaign fund were compulsory All
workers failing to contribute to the fourth
Term campaign were subject to dismissal from
their vital war jobs at a time when Paul
McNutt the war nanpoWer commissioner has
issued an illegal order freezing men az wom-
en- to their jobs and forbidding them to trans
Ter without permission of the Roosevelt gov
eminent:
Mr Hyde's defense seems to have been dis
pirited and desultory. He merely said he was
opposed to the collection of compulsory pay.
ments to President Roosevelt's campaign fund
and added Nobody is going to tell me how
to vote. My people have been in this country
since 1885,"
AT that, one of the union officials said: Oh
so you think you better than are,
and Mr.. Hyde made no answer.
A few days LATER after he had worked three|
hours, business agent put him off the job
an cancelled his union permit. This means
he cannot work in any other war job under
ClC control because man dismissed for ''un-
unionlike conduct in one CLIO union is in
| eligible for membership, even temporary
status under permit, in another. In many
shops he would be barred from employment
in his old profession, that of reporter, by ex-
| elusive contracts between the publishers and
the Newspaper Guild, of which Mrs. Eleanor
Roosevelt is a member.
So this is just petty Ease, painful to the
individual who thus is subtracted from the in
sufficient sum of civilian war manpower be-
cause he exercised right he thought his
American ancestors had bequeathed him in
the Constitution, to speak freely, though not
obstreperously, and to indicate his preference
| in an election of a president of the United
States. But, of course, such trivial individual
cases are inevitable in a system embracing
| millions.
| I can't see military establishment of less
than two million for five, eight, or 10 years
We will need three or four millions for the inn
mediate future until peace plan is establish
| ed. Sen Elmer Thomas O) of Oklahoma,
member subcommittee on Army and Navy
| appropriations
Brickering over postwar rights should not be
permitted to delay the arn1istice or sully the
victory Lst's finish this terrible business as
/