The Wilmington morning star., 1944-08-22
Fair Enough

| FQlr Enough
Editors Note-rh. Star and the New. accept no
responsibility the personal views Of Mr.. Pugler
and often disagree with them a. much a. many of
his readers His articles the good purpose Of
making people think
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK - From San Francisco word
comes of new wrinkle in government Rear
Adm Harold G.. Bowen has applied sane
tions' against several hundred union machin-
lists who refused to do overtime work on i'm
portant Navy jobs.
The 'sanctions' were authorized by Fred
NJ Vinson, the director of economic stabiliza-
ton, and we learn that the men will be re-
ported to their draft boards to the War Man.
power Commission and to their ration boards.
Thus, the Navy, which under our way OF
government, is supposed to have no authority
over civilians, moves to review the draft de-
ferments Of these men, to blackball them from
all work and, moreover to starve them by
shutting off their food allowances. Why else
would they be reported to their ration boards?
These "sanctions,'' meaning punishments,
are inflicted on men who are not charged
with any violation of law, much less tried
and convicted.
The selective service Law was intended to
select for the Army and Navy, not to
coerce civilians by intimidation Rationing was
adopted to apportion the supply of food heat
and gasoline. The authority of the War Man.
power Commission is vast and vague, but
even here the fact remains that an American
is supposed to be entitled to a fair trial in
a regular court on specific charges of viola
ton of law.
If these men are suspected Of any offense
deserving punishment they should be charged
r%>I tri1I @r{o i'll, - -
rights are at stake here. One of them att
least the right to a fair, individuals share
of food and heat is not subject to revocation
by any court, even during condemned muir
derer's stay in the death house.
Only few days ago, in Philadelphia four
men suspected of organizing and leading the
transportation strike were fired and certified
to their draft boards. One is above the draft
age and he not only loses his years of senior
ity with the company. certainly a valuable
right, but is blackballed entirely from all work
for the duration of the war. e.
1t has been only a few years since the
biologists Of the new deal were arguing an
grily that 4 worker had a property right in
mis- job. It was compared to a franchise.
Some of them said that if employer fired
a worker he ahould he forced to pay him a
certain cash sum in addition to his earned
pay and dismissal pay. representing the value
Of piece Of property or right, namely the
job which he had lost 1t was even argued
that man should have the right to sell his
job to another and then, in the zone of the
ridiculous, a situation was conjured in which
syndicate of smart hustlers would buy up
for cash several millions of individual jobs
and lease them back to the workers.
These actions against men who seem to
have been acting entirely within their ancient
legal right, abruptly flout the concept of a
job as personal property. Moreover, they vio-
late rights which existed long before the adop-
ton of those laws and regulations POLITICALLY
known as '1abor's gains" won under the new
DEAL
| In Philadelphia, there is question whether
the four men had violated the Smith onnally
| act. Aside from the fact that some unions
openly repudiated this law unconstitutional
and advised their members to ignore it when
it was passed over President Roosevelt's veto,
a more immediate and more important fact
cries out
If they are charged with violation of this
act, they should be tried under it and pun
ished accordingly. Instead they have been
punished summarily and there seems to be
no court to which they can appeal because
no court imposed the sentences.
The blacklist long ago was condemned by
all liberals and by the unions as vicious
weapon It makes it impossible for a man to
get job and, in the old days, men adopted
false names and moved to other regions to
start over. But today if man takes an
alias he may invite punishment for making
false statements under oath to any of the
numerous government boards with which citi-
zens must do business And anyway, he prob
ably couldn't get away with it, tenn
porarily, becaue to get job he must present
'referral' So, in the case of at least one
Of the Philadelphia men, the punishment is
an economic death-sentence without trial and
without even the allegation Of an offense
against any law.
little research in the early history of the
Nazi regime in Germany will show who was
the original author of these innovations in the
regulation of the life and work of the Ameri-
can civilian by the national government. His
name is Adolf Hitler.
-V
i ca HIIEN CAV