The Wilmington morning star., 1945-01-01
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1914, by Kin@ Features syndi.

| Copyright, 1914, by Kins Features Syndcate)
! NEW YORK.-The release from prison of
George Browne and Willie Bioff is the fulfill
ment OF a routine bargain between public
prosecutors and criminals who squeal on their
partners in crime. They in their turn had
been betrayed by their old friend, Joseph
Schenck. the Hollywood moving picture mag
nate who also received lenity for this service
to the community. The six Chicago under
New Jersey mob who were sent to prison by
the testimony Of Browne and Bioff would ap-
pear to be the ultimate losers there seems
to be nobody whom they can turn in. They
lost their appeals only last week.
With these two recent developments it might
seem to the casual reader that very bad
situation in labor organization had been re-
formed
That is not So however, for men who toler-
ated these two particular crooks still are pow
erful in the American Federation of Labor and
IN the Roosevelt party and are allowed to pose
as leaders and defenders of the American
worker. And every attempt to enact federal
law correcting defects in labor administra-
ton which made possible their perfidies has
been obstructed by the Roosevelt following in
the Senate
William Green, president of the American
Federation of Labor, used the power of his
otflce to uphold Browne against group of
legitimate Workmen in an evil St. Louis case
He sat with Browne in the executive council
or cabinet Of the A. F. of L. long after Browne
had been made notorious by independent news
paper investigation. Dan Tobin, President
Roosevelt's particular friend, who was host 10
Roosevelt at the scandalous episode in Wash
lngton in October when the President made
his fhppant campaign Grafton and two young
| naval officers were beaten up, also sat with
Browne in the executive council.
l am able to say fatty that Tobin knew
Brownies union was dirty racket and that
like any Tammany OR Hague Kelly politi-
clan, he ~efrained from exposing or opposing
Browne in spirit of live and let live He let
Browne alone because he anticipated that if he
molested him, Browne would call attention to
some similar characters and evils in Tobin' S
| union of the teamsters.
Brownies general counsel for the union was
Joseph Padway who similarly serves Tobin' S
union and the Bartenders and Walters union,
| among others. Padway also is friend of
Roosevelt and has been honored by him. That
he could have been unaware of the character
of Browne and Bioff, who was, from his youth,
| common underworld bum, thief and white
SLAYER, is an assumption which belttles his
intelligence. Some lawyers discovered long ago
however, that union law is rich field of
practise and Browne, through his union, was
a juicy client. PadWay praised Browne lavish
/ d
time when Bioff, acknowledged as Brownies
personal representative, had been sent to Jail
to finish term of six months for operating
brothel. incidentally, his status in the Jail was
aristocratic and he held business conferences
with other criminals and with Hollywood bust
ness men in a special room with tub Of
bottled beer cooling in the corner
About the same time, many faithless bosses
OF california unions sending Bioff tele-
grams OF sympathy and expressions of faith
in his conduct and character. And Pathways
praise OF Browne went into the record of the
proceedings along with Brownies own praise
and defense of Bioff
Another union lawyer who was receiving
large fees at the time and who attended the
same convention without raising his voice
against the f~ghtful betrayal of labor and ex-
ploitation of the workers for loot by an under.
world gang, was Matthew Levy, of New York.
Nevertheless, two years ago. another group of
professional New Deal union operators and
politicians hand pcked Levy as a candidate
for the supreme court and had the effrontery
to present him a labor candidate. Here
again, as in the case of PadWay, to excuse
Levy's association and his failure to utter
some slight reproof to crirninality and under
world power in unionism. would be no COM
pliment to the acumen of the man. The presen-
tatlon in court of the detailed evidence on
which Browne and Bioff were convicted ard
sentenced to eight and ten years, respectively,
for extortion, had not yet occurred, it is true.
But Padway, Levy and Green all certainly
had been put on warning that there was cor
ruption in the union and the situation was one
in which any man pretending to the title of
leader or friend of American labor had
moral duty to disassociate himself if not to
take the initiative and campaign for reform.
The discouraging fact is that not single
leader or boss of the American union move
ment took the initiative any action against
these men. Green, on the contrary, selected
Browne to investigate racketee-ing. And when
finally, there could no longer be any pre-
tense that Browne was victim of punishment
without trial, the A. F. of L. did not have the
decency to throw him out of the executive
council by positive action but eased him out
by abolishing the vice-presidency which he
held.
Many remedial laws have been proposed
none of wt.h, by any stretch of the imagi-