Detroit evening times., 1945-12-25
FAIR
ENOUGH
BY Westbrook
PeeIer

any of their noncombatant SYM
path4Zers and political allies.
Fem John l.. Lewis and
Philip Murray down 10 the ig-
norant small-city chief of police
who refuses 10 preserve order
and protect the rights of law
abiding citizens, all concerned
in these instructions have
simply defied government.
None of them has dared de-
fend this fasciSm, and they IN
clude Eleanor Roosevelt and
Henry Wallace.
IN THE early days OF the CIO
Il some of its publicists, mostly
recreant lawyers and sedentaIy
eSsayists. 10 whom bloody heads
and broken legs were not inti-
mate matters, liked TO say that
this was not ordinary disorder.
but war.
1t has not been war, however,
in any sense of the word. be-
cause there has been no oppo-
Sltlon.
The bosses however militant
and brutal they may have de-
sired TO be, had no organization.
no fighters on their side and,
IN most cases. lacked even the
protection which the state owed
property according TO our laws.
The Law forbade them to inn
port the mereenaries who used
10 break strikes and night the
rioters, but the same govern
ment actively helped the union
GERS 10 shift whole STATS OF
organized and trained riot lead
ers from Ohio TO Michigan TO
Pennsylvania 10 Indiana. The
putiIc was equally helpless
Many of these were Com
munISts using methods devef-
oped in street fights in the
European revolutions after the
World War / who never had
been employed IN any of the
struck plants nor had even lived
IN the stricken American towns.
There are still IN existence
old moving picture reels taken
from the windows of beleag-
urcd plants showing some OF
the same men who are now
bloCkading Michigan automobile
works. patrolling with clubs,
"arreStIng" workers and hus-
ting them into union offices
where they were forced 10
sign applications and pay dues,
smashing windshlelds and over
turning automobiles. ies.---
4 IL this, of course, is not a
"A class war or civil war but
faSciSm and IL is ironIc that
the very FasciSts who are using
the black shirt and brown shirt
teChnlQues of Mussolini and
Hitler in their early days still
are able TO some extent 10 de-
ceive the American people with
alAA-A nHNAok HiObdAiH
We find that same Henry
Wallace. who has denounced
American industry as fasclsn,
aCquiesCent in Fascist pro-
gram as ugfy and fawfess as
HItler'S brown shirt terror In
the cities of Germany.
These Fascists are his polit-
ical supporters ana he would
have been their president OF
the United States today but for
the developments at the Chi
cago convention which ditched
hum and nominated Harry Tru-
man
The definition OF riot and un-
lawful assembly in our laws Is
simple and plain beyond even
the powers of Felix Frankfurter
10 confuse or dlstort.
All these acts are unlawful
and subject 10 punishment and
yet we find a goon leader
frankly threatening 10 call out
more panzer divisions" and
others warning mayors and the
police that they will not permit
any one 10 proceed on lawful
business through their picket
lines.
And these wretched cutters,
whether from cowardlce or Fas-
cist conviction, are submitting
TO the terror.
We even have a justice on our
Supreme Court who VIGOROUSLY
flinChed and defaulted his duty
in the great organizing riots OF
the CIO when Lewis was its
chief, and now, between Squirms
n-the-Aeers- ef-hisht-eiHbss
dareS 10 interpret our laws.
THESE are not actually prob
Il lens OF national government
and the national police power.
..-Th The- -sepeFnHfent=eioscst-to the
citizen. to which he looks for
protection and enforcement OF
his rights. Is the town or city
government oil the place Wnere
he lives.
For A long time now he has
seen that government covering
in fear of organized mobs and
today, terrorized. threatened
and helpless, he sees public Of
ficials, including even national
officers, pleading and reasoning
in conference rooms with men
who have given orders to their
mobs Of thugs TO impose fasciSm
on the United States.
Huey Long said that when
fasciSm came il would come dis
guiSed as something else.
That disguise is that vicious
and hateful word democracy
\ which has no place in the Amer