The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-06-18
By wEsTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK.-A man in Hartford, Conn., is
pretty sore at me because, in hollering up the
big, fat salaries and expense accounts and
the pensions which some of our boss unioneers
have allowed themselves, I have, so he says,
ignored the arrogant greed of a lot of high
salaried directors of big corporations in vot-
ing themselves enormous annuities at the ex-
pense of the stockholders to tide them over
from the time of their retirement to the date
Of their demise.
agree that this constitutes a Grade-A case
of legalized looting, but would call attention
to the fact that I did hit it lick few
years ago when some avarieio0s high binders
in control of one Of our big steel companies
went into huddle and came out of it set
for the rest of their lives on guaranteed pen
sions which have to be paid off the top OF
the company's revenues and before the stock
holders interests can be considered Just that
one little flick aroused the interest of the
stockholders in a number of other companies,
and in no time at all had a package of let
tiers and company reports revealing that many
other wellpad captains Of industry. who
should have been able and willing to lay up
their social security, were voting them
selves rich for the rest of their days, come
what might. 1 put them away in a folder
labeled executive pension racket and there
1t lies because I felt that the men of big
business were suspect, anyway, and probably
would be denounced by the new deal and
moreover, that they weren't posing as friends
of the workingman and selfless servants of a
holy cause.
If you tear into their racket they will snarl
to be sure, and point to their invaluable serv-
ices to their companies and tell you how i'm
portant their early work has been in the de-
tense of this great land of ours since war
came on and the structures they had built
were readily turned into arsenals OF democ'
racy and all like that. But they will admit
that they were well paid for all they did DUR
ing the doing of it and are well paid still and
in effect that these pensions are just some
extra that they though up in their greed and
ask you what you are going to do about it.
And, apparently, you can't do anything about
it under the existing laws for you may be
sure they brought their lawyers in on the
NAV and were very sure-fOoted in their gen.
crosby to themselves.
Nevertheless. 1 think this is very inviting
subject and commend it to any colleague who
-has run out of missions. I might go down to
Washington and prowl the record myself for
glaring examples Of such SNUG and defiant
larceny as soon as Congress gets up the man
hood to PRIV the unions off our backs The
company stockholder has never been very
sympathetic figure in our country, anyway.
He seldom knows what goes on in the big
corporation in which he buys few shares or
a few hundred and if he hollers for his rights,
it can always be said, after all, he can sell
out whenever he wants to. The worker in a
union, on the other hand, has no such freedom
He can't get out because if he does he be-
comes scab and disruptionist and an enc.
my and betrayer of the working class while
old Dan'l Tobin, for example, month after
month, drools along in his monthly jour-
nal about his own magnificent virtues and
the trials of his young manhood when he got
only $25 week, all in justification of scale
of pay and perquisites and living that are a
scandal and reproach to the priesthood Of
union leadership.
| OF late, some Of the big company execu.
tves have been showing themselves with SIM
liar appreciation for the splendid progress
their firms have made during the war, when
the fact is that they had little or nothing .tc
do with these big earnings but just sat still
/ and accepted government contracts and gov
eminent money nevertheless they have voted
themselves big annuties in sentimental
self-apareciation which will continue to be
burden and a lien on the interests OF the
stockholders, subject to no revision downward
II when the war business quits and the profits
flop I don't believe I have ever expressed
any admiration for this side of the characte,
of the heavy industrialist and will salute any
reporter with the enterprise and tenacity tc
move into specific cases of such abuse, with
ruffles and flourishes added if he find
a law in the racket and compel any recipient
Of such graft or his estate to kick it back
with cnnnnn,1nd interest.