The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-07-06
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK.-In my learned discussion of
the republican platform and other matters,
written in Chicago ON the night of Tom Dew
eys acceptance, I ventured to say that the
communists of President Roosevelts political
auxiliary. the CLIO, had observed the results
of General Spaatzs bombardment of the Ger
man ballbearing factories and had resolved
to use the same plan against American in
dustry after the war to create the effect of
a general strike within this country
I was slightly mistaken here in that did
not realize that a practice strike, testing out
this plan, already was under way in the Tim
Ken Roller Bearing works in Canton, Ohio,
where between 5000 and 10000 men and wom-
en-, many At them landlocked native Ameri-
cans from Kentucky, West Virginia and Ten
nessee, with the average quota of sons and
brothers away fighting in the war, are out
IN protest over a grievance childish that
kindergarten teacher would laugh it off.
William Umstatd the president of Timken
says the struck plants are the source of 80 per
cent of the tapered roller bearings manufac-
tured IN this country. These bearings are vital
to all forms of roller equipment including
Jeeps, trucks, tanks, amphibious vehicles, mo-
torlzed guns, airplane motors and the engines
and other machinery used in ships of the
Navy and Merchant Marine Stop the produc-
ton of such bearings and you stop the pro-
duction of steel and cause idleness in prac-
tcally all the steel plants because the motor
ana vehicle factories have no use for STEEL
You also stop coal and iron mining because
the steel plants have no need for coal or iron,
You lay up ships and trains and lay off their
crews. The motor and vehicle workers are
laid off, too for lack of Materials And, in
. hJ-o
the communist unioneer is to enjoy to the
full the power which Mr.. Roosevelt has placed
IN his hands, the discharged soldier can't get
job and consequently can't buy furniture or
clvllan clothes or homes or anything else.
With SO great portion of heavy industry
shut down by the strike of not more than
l3,OOO workers in key industry, money ceases
to circulate, people get confused and fall to
fighting troops refuse to fire on civilians riot
ing with or against the communists and, fl
nally, In the communist plan, comes chaos
and the long-desired revolution of the Ameri
cans against themselves.
In this practice strike at Thinker in Canton
| the union concerned is the Steel Workers
Union, the home organization of Phillip Muir
ray, president of the CLIO, who, personally,
gave, on behalf of that organization the no.
torlous pledge to refrain from strikes in war
industries. In return for this pledge, which
has been violated thousands of times by un.
ions OF both the CLIO and the AFI, Mr.. Roose-
welt undertook to maintain, uninpaired by
law, the powers and privileges of the commu-
hlsts and the racketeers of unionism. M
Roosevelt for once at least has kept prom
Use and by virtue of that promise, Murray S
| steel-Workers have been able to choke off pro-
duction of tapered bearings for uses.
General Spaatz attacked the German bear
lngs plants as heroic measure. The United
States lost go big ships in the first aerial bonn
bardment of SchWeinfurt, our greatest single
loss up to that time. The campaign contin-
ued nevertheless There, and other centers
where the vital bearings were manufactured
thousands of young American fliers were lost
but the results were observed in the absence
of fighter opposition in France, in the pres
ence of horse-drawn military vehicles on the
German side, in the disappearance of Ger
man bombing fleets, and in the enfeeblement
of the German strength on and under the sea-
Now the same plan is being tested in the
United States for future use against the in
ternal peace of the country and the economic
recovery of the people from the war.
The grievance in Canton concerned the Sc
niority of a woman worker who had taken
80 days off for her honeymoon. On her re-
turn there was a misunderstanding as to
whether she should retain her seniority or be
regarded as a new employee, and whether
she should return to the same machine that
she had operated before, or be assigned to
another exactly like it in different location
in the same plant. That was all.
The regional director of the union is T. w.
Abel, who enjoys deferment in the draft
as an essential war worker because of his
| union activities, granted by the presidential
board of appealA