The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-05-11
By wEsTBROoK PEGLER


making people think.
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK-Some years ago, told Will
Green, president of the American Federation
of Labor that the proportion OF crooks to
honest men in the official roster of his outfit
was outrageously large and an indictment OF
his own presidency and stewardship OF the
interests of the rank and file worker. He said
it was nothing of the kind and promised to
turn up for him a rogues gallery OF at least
a hundred men holding official jobs in his
unions who had criminal records. lost track
of the score way back there but am sure
it has passed 100, not counting such notorious
rogues as you will find in the hodcarrlers and
operating engineers who are awful brlgands
but haven't yet been convicted.
Anyway, here, is another pin-up boy Tor
Mr.. Green's collection
Last week in Newark. N. j.. the federal
grand jury indicted II individuals and three
liquor companies on charges of running a
black market racket. Among them was Ben
jamin F. Pross, of New York, the executive
business manager of the wine, liquor and dis
tillery workers union of the ALL.
We first meet brother Pross in 1927, charg-
ed with grand larceny in Manhattan. They
gave him bargain, reducing the charge to
petty larceny, and he got go days. Another
charge of grand larceny occurs in January.
1928, which was dismissed in March
The next time we encounter brother Pross
is in July of 1929 when he gave three years
and four months in Atlanta upon his convc-
ton under the federal bankruptcy laws. It
could hardly be said, as it was said OF Willie
Bioffs venture in pandering in Chicago, that
this was just youthful prank because broth
er Pross was 20 years old and his swindle
disclosed shrewd planning He and partner
opened a furniture store in Brooklyn which
was dummy in the operation and ordered
loads OF furniture on credit from manufac-
turers and wholesalers. They showed the nNer-
chandise out the back way in the dark Of
the moon, shipped it to auction room which
they were operating, sold it and then started
through the wringer as bankrupts, for about
$4,000. Judge Fred H. Bryant, who sentenced
brother Pross, said the scheme was dishonest
from it's inception and frowned upon it Sc
verely. Brother Green's colleague d d his
time, minus the usual discounts and emerged
from Atlanta well qualified under the current
code of fitness to become a defender of the
toiler and of labor's gains.
In 1899 our friend is in again, charged with
violating the Sherman Antitrust law in pick
citing New York liquor stores to prevent the
sale of California wines bottled in California
Thurman Arnold, then chief of the antitrust
division of the Department of Justice, gave
the party. Judge John c.. Knox fined brother
Pross 500 on plea of guilty and, inasmuch
as the old judge is pretty severe on union
crooks when he can draw beads on them, it
would seem that they might not have given
him the brothers pedigree to consider Last
week, Thorn Lord, the acting district attorney
in Newark, knew that the brother had paid
the fine in the antitrust thing but didn't know
anything about the BANKRUPTCY conviction or
the petty larceny job, marked down from
grand larceny. In the Sherman act case
brother Pross could plead that he did what
he did to make it necessary to bottle the
California wine in New York and thus make
work for his subjects. But closer nvestiga-
ton could have shown that he was very closeI
to some operators in the bottling business in
the New York area who also wanted piece
of this work for themselves
So there is your pin-up boy who has sol
well learned the angles and the jargon Of the
union racket that when he was indicted the
other day he got out an official statement
that it was "absurd to contemplate that L
or anyone associaed with me, participated
or conspired in any OPA violations and sol
forth.
They do get that way. They get high-sound-
ing and speak of themselves as labor's mar
tyrs and victims of employers foul plots and
of labor-baiters. Brother Pross has set him.
self in well in the congenial company oil
the New York AFL unioneers that his picture
is printed in their publications and he onceI
even had the gall to address a message to|
labor on economic stability after victory. Hell
also has muscled into local of employees
of department stores and one of the union
papers refers to him as the boss of a local
embracing number of miscellaneous unions.
a sort of catch-all union racket like district
so of the mine workers.
In January, 1912, brother Pross pettioned
the Department OF Justice for restoration Of
his civil rights, suspended when he was sent
to Atlanta, and was turned down. In that
petition he gave as his occupation executive
business manager of the Wine, Liquor and
Distillery Workers Union''
You're .Tellin6 Me