The Wilmington morning star., 1945-03-19
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

have ascertained that the Army press-agent
who was sent from Washington to Chicago to
handle publicity in the dispute between Mont
gomery Ward and the CIO is, himself mem
Der of the CLIO.
The officer is Lieut-Col. Abe H. Raskin in
York Times.
'I am a member of the Newspaper Guild
on military leave" he writes, among other
statements about himself in answer to specific
inquiries. The Newspaper Guild is CLIO indus
trial union which, from it's beginning, has been
sprinkled with communists, but Colonel Ras-
kin adds that on several occasions he signed
petitions and otherwise supported anti-commu-
mist elements in the guild
Colonel Raskin, as reporter, specialized in
news of labor, unemployment relief and So
cial security
involved in such dispute complain that the
stories I wrote failed to do full justice to his
side.'
The union in the Ward case is the United
Mail Order, Warehouse and Retail Store En-
ployes union. The CLIO was the source and CEN
ter o. Sidney Hillnans Political Action Com
mttee The mail order union is subsidiary of
the CLIO, So plainly, President Roosevelt was
favoring a unit of his own political following
in ordering the seizure of Wards properties
on Dec. %, using the Army for this purpose.
The seizure was illegal by decision of the Unit
ed States District Court now on appeal by the
government This action followed gratuitous
and reSounding abuse OF Ward by Frank Ora
ham, of the War Labor Board who is repre-
sented as public" or impartial member and
by other bureaucrats of the Roosevelt follow
ing, all tending to justify Roosevelt and the
union. The proposition was posed that the
union among Others had subscribed to the !
vaunted no-strike pledge given shortly after
Pearl Harbor by officers of both the CLIO and
tha American 6eratiOn Of ahor n
for this promise, the Roosevelt government
undertook to prevent passage of laws which
would legally forbid strikes in industries |
and otherwise bring unions within the ordi-
nary forbiddance of racketeering and highway |
robbie ?. The pledge has been violated by more
than 5000 strikes and, in the climax of the
Ware issue, late in December, the complain
ing union itself was conducting strikes against
four Ward units in violation of that pledge.
Montgomery Ward, was not a party to the
deal between the Roosevelt government and
its political auxiliary, the CLIO, and was not
bound by the pledge. Nevertheless, the War
Labor Board insisted that Ward must grant
the union a contract providing that the COM
pany should fire all union members who be-
came delinquent in their dues or otherwise |
tell into bad standing with the union.
The executive officer of an Army unit de-
scribed as War Department representative
operating certain plants and facilities of Mont
Of Colonel Raskin's publicity releases issued
during his duty in the Army of occupation in
Chicago The colonel would seem to have had
time on his hands. He served three weeks,
then to the Pentagon building in
Washington, and his copy adds up to much
less than the normal days quota of any fairly
1imble reWrite man.
The first release is biographical sketch
of Major General Joseph Wilson Byron, his
commanding officer in the operation. It con-
sistS of 81 lines 1t may fairly be described
as objective copy, although the closing para
graph seems to me to be rather laborious
attempt to qualify the general as mass-mer-
chandiser.
1t says that General Byron had supervised
The shipment last summer of more than IA mil |
ion small books to forces overseas and the
distribution of SO 900 900 worth of athletic equip
nent He had supervised "all Army- athletics,
libraries, theatres, post exchanges and other
activities concerned with Army recreation
ant had handled sales amounting, on the aver
age, to $85, 900, 900 month The final release
ascribed to Colonel Raskin dated Jan. -, ap-
pears to me to be public relations or propa-
ganda done for his client and commanding Off
Ger, the General, and for his Commander-in-
chief, the President.
Officials of Wards had charged the Army
With ineffciency in operating it's huge proper
lies and interests Colonel Raskn replied that
actual shipments to customers were 30-35 per
cent greater during an eight-day period than
hey had been in the corresponding period
year ago. This, he wrote. was 1.-The best
answer" to the charge of inefficiency, but OBJ
viously it is not a complete answer.
Colonel Raskin writes that he took the two
year basic military training course at the
College of the City of New York He was
ordered to duty captain in November,
1912, and in less than two years he rose from
civilian to the rank of lieutenant-colonel
Another OF his duties was that of press Off
GER, attending delegation of union officials,
called by him labor leaders, who went to
France last August when the unioneers at home
and other politicians in the fourth term cam
paign took fright over the anger of the soldiers
against strikes and compulsory loafing in the
war plants. The soldier vote seemed to be in
the balance and union papers in the United
States declared that these unioneers had gone
abroad to correct the evil effects of "anti-
labor propaganda" Colonel Raskin insists,
however, that the unioneers made no speeches
to. the soldiers and did not discuss politics
even among themselves
Colonel Raskin, of course, does not write
his own orders. 1t was not he who sent CIO]
member to do job for the Army in the inter-
est Of CLIO union and against the rights Of
law-abiding company In the assignment to
France with his fellow union men, again some
body else made the selection.
The bold rise of political motivation has been
a disturbing deve1opn1e.,e m the Army, lately.
it has been decided that even the precautions
against communists in the commissioned ranks
are to be relaxed. It took three years and two
long hearings to prove that one notorious alien