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

(EdltorS note.-Ihe Star and the News
accept no responsibility for the personal
views of Mr.. Pegler, and often disagree
with them as much as many of his read
ers. His articles serve the good purpose
Of making people Think
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright 1914, by King Features Syndicate,)
NEW YORK, - We have just seen an alarm
ing demonstration of the fascistic phase OF
unonism in the operations of Sidney Hill
mans Political Action Committee md in the
campaign activities of other politicians of the
union movement.
Some of labor, apparently majority of the
union members, either did not realize that they
were voting for fascism or realized it and went
along, anyway, sacrificing freedom for i'm
mediate pay, as Italian labor did under Mus
solini.
On the surface it may seem inconsistent of
me to say that the Political Action Committee
is dominated by communists and then to say
that the immediate effect of this program is
fascist. The explanation is that fascism and
communism are alike in all important ele-
ments and that the communists, as they DEM
onstrated in Germany when they voted for
Hitler, are willing to go through fascism to
arrive at communism.
After all, Mussolini improvised fascism out
of communism and, like President Roosevelt,
he won the so called common man by giving
A141 NoSdt1OAS Will pay, pdDy pOuuSSS ana
other illusory benefits. To enable the employ
ers to meet these costs, he subsidized them,
too, so that the expense was met out of the
public treasury which meant that the people
paid for their own raises, through taxes, more
over, Mussiolini thus, by substituting industry,
co. control of industry, now is happening
here
Under Mussolini, the unions were not &C
tually abolished, as the anti-fascist, but pro-
Hictc in hi
would have Americans believe. Instead, he alb
sorbed them into the fascist movement as
unionism here is now almost wholly absorbed
into the Roosevelt party, and made their treas
uries available to himself for his political pur-
poses.
1t must be apparent to American labor that
in this campaign most of the union treasures
were made available to Roosevelts party. Not
My did unions contribute enormously to the
campaign in some cases by minority decisions,
in others by executive decision of the officials,
but many of them levied special political as
sessments. We discovered cases in which work.
ers were fired for refusing to pay the political
assessments or goaded and terrorized into quit
ting their Jobs.
We had one specific case in which a man
was convicted on "un-union-like activity and
dismissed by the union from an important semi
military war job because he declared that if
he had to pay dollar to Roosevelts campaign
fund he would give S. to Dewey's fund. Other
cases could have been authenticated but, as
in the courts, samples suffice to prove the
charge.
Often, in criminal prosecutions, defendant
is convicted and sentenced on only one particu-
lar count Of say, grand larceny, when dozens
could be proved, the idea being that even if he
were convicted on each separate count, the
sentences would run concurrently
we nave seen in operation many Of the meth
DDS by which the Roosevelt regime has driven
millions OF workers into the unions, including
the device called maintenance of member.
ship whereby men and women of the highest
Skill In war plants must be fired and their eff
fort substracted from the war effort if they
drop out of memberships or violate union dis
clpllne, which includes a deferential respect
for communist union official or an under
world racketeer
The unions interests come before those of
the fighting men and maintenance Of men,
hershlp'', on its face, is an admission by the
union that it cannot keep it's members on the
rolls without government coercion. Neverthe-
less, Roosevelt, in one of his most important
and persuasive speeches, called this free col
lective bargaining.''
Another trick by which men and women are
driven into the unions which. in turn, support
their great political idol, called II Duce in Italy,
is the work of Jimmy Byrnes, formerly Of the
oupreme court, VINO resigned TO become hooSe-
velt's political odd-job man.
This is how it works:
George Spelvin, American, works in an I'M
organized or non-union occupation He is, let
us say, clerk. He has earned raise and his
employer wants to reward him to help him
meet the increased cost of living. But he can't
give Spelvin raise. Then union comes along
and incidentally, the most aggressive and sue.
cessful of the office workers union is one which
consistently follows the communist party line
and whose president goes under an assumed
name and has received cordial greetings
from President Roosevelt
The union can get Spelvin that raise through
the War Labor Board if he and sufficient
number Of his fellow-workers will consent 10
join But, in that case, the employer must raise,
not only Spelvin, who has earned his increase,
but dozens or hundreds of others, regardless
of their merit or ability and including the i'm
deserving.
So, instead of ''holding the line" against in.
flation, up go the wages of all hands and up
goes the prestige of the union which naturally.
contributes generously to Roosevelt And of
course, in most cases, since American indus.
try went along wholly to war, those raises
are paid out of the workers own taxes be-
cause the Treasury has subsidized the corn
pany and is meeting the pay-rolls.
Whether the workers who voted for this svs
tenn understood what they were doing and re.
allied that this was Mussolini's wav and nnns