The Wilmington morning star., 1945-06-22

with them as much as many Of his read
ers. His articles serve the good purpose
| Of making people Think
BY WEsTBRooK PEGLER
| Copyright, 1945, by King Features Syndicate)
NEW YORK.-In 1941, when the American
people were edging into war production on
voluntary and patriotics terms, the question:
was raised whether they would have to join
| the unions in order to qualify for such Jobs
and keep them.
In 1912, the problem became more pres
sing Paul McNutt selected a long list of
occupations which were "non-deferrable"
and this meant that men of military age must
quit their present jobs and go into war pro-
duction. still with protection against the
demands of the professional, political union
GERS of the Roosevelt adherence, or go to war |
| So it went through 1943 and 1914, with
Jimmy Byrnes joining in the campaign |
| of compulsion whose effect was that GeorgeI
Spelvin, American, had to join a union and
pay the union a fee for his job and a tax i
on his income, or join up to fight. So the
draft law, adopted to raise forces for the |
war, was now being used in brazen defiance
of the expressed will of Congress and the
| understanding of the nation. 1t was being
used to swell the ranks and the treasures
of unions which frankly took part in politics |
| on Roosevelt's side and levied arbitrary
political assessments on these new members
to be used in the fourth term campaign and
the minor campaigns against certain con-
gressmen and senators. The draft law said
nothing about any purpose of Congress to
draft men and women into the unions and
to raise political funds Or provide graft for
| individual unioneers and not even Senator
Robert Wagner himself the titular author of
the evil act which bears his name, would
have had the effrontery to offer such a pro-
posal.
Nevertheless, the Roosevelt government /
and the unions got away with it and thous- \
ands of millions of dollars were poured into i
the treasures of organizations which not
only pay no taxes but received a special and |
obviously illegal permission from the Treas II
ury to ignore new congressional act re-
quiring them tc file so-called International
returns Moreover, American men being
courageous individuals, as the generals and
the war correspondents have said, it seems
fair to assume that some were sent to die
for their refusal to submit to this imposition
while others drew deferments and remained
at home to draw good wages on condition
that they assist in this corruption of the
ballot.
We have now come to another development
perhaps the decisive issue.
The European war is over and armies OF
men from the fields of that victory, as well
as the growing number of DISCHARGED vet-|
Grams of the Pacific, are starting out in CIV
vies with their lapel buttons proudly shown,
to encounter again the barriers and the de-
mands OF these same unions. Employers
have been placed under legal obligations to
hire old hands back as matter of justice.
The national government has a program of
nondscrmination against Negroes and GER
tain others who feel apprehensive that they
might be victims of discrimination. Only
the unions, of all the elements in the COM
munlty, and they the most powerful, rapaci-
GUS and ruthless group among u.s. reserve
the right to say to a wounded man or a
veteran who, though unhurt, has put in years
OF perllous service at service wages, that he
can't get job at all or may have it only
on certain terms that never were understood
between him and his government when he
joined up. They are terms that the nation as
a people never agreed to and on which they
never were consulted.
The union may be totally closed group,
such as the electricians local which barred {
new members except the sons of current mem ,
bers and, in collision with other unions, may
forbid discharged veteran to work as an
electrician without joining. 1t may demand
from $780, reasonable figure according to
union custom, to $500 as an initiation fee, and
lay him Oft as soon as the tribute is paid, as ;
thousands of civilians were robbed and laid ,
off at the very time when McNutt and Byrnes
were hollerng up labor shortage and, Incl
dentally promoting the unions extortions. 1t
may look to some old record and discover that ,
he discharged service man at some time in
&,
because he rose up in meeting to ask an un-
derstandable accounting of the treasury or +
called the unions president a crook. In that II
case, the hero will be ineligible for any job Il
in any plant where closed shop contract II
prevails, anywhere in the nation which salutes II
him as q savior. II
This is heritage from the Roosevelt gov
eminent. 1t was foreseen and it was DELHI
erately arranged and preserved by political
conspiracy which resisted every effort to adopt
remedial laws and denounced as fascism
and labor batting every proposal by honest
men to relieve the war veterans of this I'M :
earned claim on their earnings and this ve--
boten against unemployment.
The unions are still supreme in their privi-
leges. They may discriminate against a dis
charged fighting man of no emphatic racial
or religious identity who happens however
to be a native, patriotic American, while the
same government which fosters these privi-
leges proceeds to compel an employer to re-
ject him and hire instead a person with no
service record whatever merely because this
applicant Identifies himself with minority.
QUOTATIONS