The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-12-27
Fair Enough
Bv WESTBROOK PEGLER

Downright. 1945, BY King Features Syndicate
NEW YORK, Dec. 26.-Almost imperceptibly
the public is gaining in the great struggle to
diminish the powers and abate the feroclty OF
the unions.
As hitherto noted, President Truman mas
M de several observations in the last lew
months which never could have been expected
from his predecessor, the most important pe-
ing his recognition of the public" as an ele-
ment with rights and interests in the vast
brawls deliberately inflicted on the nation by
few men with no public responsibility.
Last week. again, he timorously suggested
that if the books of employing industries Should
be examined in 'fsct-finding" inquiries, then,
it followed that the books of the unions also
should be inspected.
Mr.. Truman seems to have been unprepared
to pursue the subject, a state OF mind that
can be easily understood when 1t Is considered
that he is only one man and neither giant
nor runt but just George Spelvin who, & year
ago, had no hope but rather fear that he
might suddenly be called on to know all the
answers to such 4 mass Of historic problems,
including issues Of peace or war in dis
organized world
On further questioning, the President re.
piled that he saw no relation between wages
and consumer prices on one hand and union
! "dues" on the other The question, as put, ex-
cluded important facts and considerations, Tor
dues" amount to a gross income tax OF ten
per cent of the workers wages, as they have
been known to, or even two or three per cent,
obviously that money is not wages but IN extra
mpost never handled or even seen by the
worker, which must be paid in the end by the
consumer who buys the ton Of coal, the ticket
to the movies the suit of clothes, or the phono-
graph record.
Such collections by unions, whether they be
called "dues' or whatever else, do represent
an increase in the cost of living to the general
public and, of course it is concern Of the
national government that unions should not be
allowed to smass treasures of literally billions
of dollars, subject to neither scrutiny nor regu-
laton, to be spent or boarded strictly according
to the personal whims or political purposes Of
this small group of ruthless bosses.
II all employed workers in the United States
were enrolled in unions and each person were
taxed, say, three per cent of his earnings, the
total rakeoH here would exceed by one-half
the legal payroll tax for national Social Securi-
ty. surely no petty amount as Congress rec
ognized in refusing to raise the rate. And
if the Social Security fund disappears into a
bottomless pit, 1t least we have in the treasury
l. O. US from '.self' to "self' whereas up to
ILLS Wiling we uO AlOL hIlOW oIlO have IO legal
right to know what happens to union collections.
incidentally, the government figures recently
released indicating that union collections were
no more than some three hundred million
year may be ignored as untrue and deliberately
rugged. Congress did provide in the revenue
act that the unions must make international
returns with 4 view to learning approximately
how much they were draining off the wages
and industry of the milton. But the Treasury
first gave these favored protegees Of the
Roosevelt government a long postponement
Of the date of filing and then 50 modified the
law itself as to permit the unions to conceal
most Of their revenues The Treasury's enter
pretation' of the plain intent of Congress per-
mitted the central unions to file for all their
little component sub-groups and without parti-
culars or the possibility of punishment Of local
dictators and racketeers for falsifying returns
under oath. The result was defeat Of the pur-
pose Of the law and the false and misleading
statement of recent date minimizing the loot.
And moreover, even this congressional act
came at a time when the gangsters Of the
Hodcarriers and Operating Engineers unions,
tive Of the most rapacious rackets in the sordid
history Of American graft, had just about
completed their harvest in the vast war-con-
struction projects, the factories, barracks,
flying fields, reservoirs and, literally, whole
new cities, and this colossal graft was not
even included in the intent Of the law.
I doubt that Mr.. Truman spoke with know
ledge Of the facts when he hedged and ques-
toned any connection between union dues"
and wages and prices.
Jimmy Petrillo, by personal decree and by
virtue of powers conferred on his racket by the
Roosevelt government, boldly announced that
he was now collecting a sales tax on phono-
graph records to be used as he might see fit.
John L. Lewis decided to collect ten cents a
ton on coal. Other unions collect sales taxes on
other consumer goods and Mr.. Truman proba-
bly, would admit, upon particular discussion,
that these sales taxes do not increase con-
sumers' prices, although technically they
might not be called "dues.'