The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-11
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

Copyright, 1914, King Features Syndicate, Inc.
NEW YORK.-The reason why hammer
away on the subject of labor in this column
is that realize that President Roosevelt has
seduced and betrayed all of us who work for
our living, through demogogic and hypocritical
appeals to one of our better instincts
Mr.. Roosevelts method has been to deliver
labor from the power of the employers into
the power of the union bosses, SO many Of
whom are brutal, ruthless men, some of them
conspiratorial communists some underworld
gangsters, some cruel because they are igno-
rant, others cruel because they are highly
intelligent but equally heartless
It is in the union movement, itself, that
the coercion, oppression, persecution and de-
nial of civic and human rights now are in
flicted on the workers.
Mr.. Roosevelt drove millions of men and
women into unions for purposes which have
become alarmingly apparent in this campaign.
He wanted their money for his campaign
funds and the power and skill of the profess
sonal unioneer for his political organization.
His Wagner Act provided penalties against
employers who coerce men and women to
stay out of unions. But it did not forbid CO.
ercion and intimidation by union organizers,
and we saw some of the results in the great
civil war which ragged over Michigan, Ohio
and Pennsylvania when the CLIO was shaping
up under John L. Lewis, at the time one of
Mr. Roosevelt's loyal and ruthless henchmen.
This was not mere strike trouble. 1t was
civil war. Great gangs of strangers, trained,
schoo1ed and organized, would filter into a
city, sign up few local workers as the nu-
cleus of new union and then 60 into the
streets to riot, pi1lage and terrorize. In most
cases, local government W "a irresolute or
shy, either finched or Intentionally defaulted
his sworn duty. The people, American labor,
thereafter repudiated him at the polls and
then, as reward for his failure, Mr.. Roose-
welt elevated him, successfully, to the posts
of attorney-genera and justice of the Supreme
Court
So thousands of men and women Joined out
of fear and as the price Of personal safety
and peace which they were entitled to, any
way. They were not allowed to select t''bar-
gaining agents" They were forced to accept
bargaining agents. with commotion, insur-
rection, injury and death as the alternative.
Our law forbade the importation Of profess
sional strike breakers and strong arm men
across state lines by large employers but no
parallel law existed to punish those profession
al unioneers who imported terrorists to block
ade plants and cripple whole areas of industry
by tying up key, strategic works such as power
stations. Mr.. Roosevelts group in the Senate
prevented the adoption of any such law. And
the power to cripple whole areas was not re-
stricted and therefore revolutionaries, commu-
nists in the main, were handed a weapon
with which they might yet bring the whole ma
ton to its knees without the requirement of
even a pretense of a labor dispute between
an employer and the workers.
Aside from the faulty and creaky mith-Con-
nally law, we have no federal law restricting
the power of union bosses to call strikes,
sit downs or walkouts. Any business agent
can "strike job on his own decision for all
that any national law says to the contrary.
The law does not require majority vote OF
the workers, themselves. His motive may be
to extort graft from the employer or to put
the employer out Of business for the benefit
of rival business firm for price. 1t may
be to touch off communist revolution.
Mr.. Roosevelt used his influence to prevent
the passage of any law which would abolish
this power which certainly is menace to the
interests of all American labor meaning all of
us who must work to live.
There is no standard constitution for union
and conseq uently some union constitutions out
rageously violate the rights of men and women
who are forced to join them. One, for example
tary members, to buy life insurance through
the union, a percentage of the premium being
paid by the insurance company to the son OF
the unions president. Another constitution pro-
vides that the president, Jimmy Petrilo, may
suspend or revoke any part of it at will and
substitute his own DEGREES Another has been
amended to keep the union president in office
for life These are samples of the conditions
put upon the people by Mr.. Roosevelt while
he was processing to liberate them from coer-
cien and fear.
Some unions compel the members to attend
political rallies for radical candidates under
penalty of fine for failure. Many of them right
now, require the workers to contribute to his
campaign funds regardless of their political
preferences Some have sub human classiflca-
tons for large groups Of workers in the less
skilled branches so that in the voting, an
unskilled man or woman is only one-hundredth
of man or woman because it takes 100 OF
their votes to equal one vote of skilled
members.
These are reasons, stated and explained ear
nestly and without passion, why I say Mr.
Roosevelt has seduced and betrayed labor
This is what mean when I say he is not
friend of labor but an accomplice OF the union
boss in the oppression of labor.
so THEY SAY