The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-14
Eai, Enough
Bv WESTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK, Nov 13-Stamford, Conn.,. re-
Gently presented spectacle in which the
mayor and the chief of police faltered in the
presence of a lawless mob which blocl.aded
factory and barred the president of the com.
pany and employees who were to have made
up the payrolls. This is only one OF many SINH
lar incidents in recent days in which the law
simply abdicated. Even governors of states
have violated their oaths of office in timid
and illegal difference to union mobs.
In Stamford the police are ordinarily eff
cient and courageous and there is no doubt
that if some orderly taxpayer, suddenly gone
berserk, should take a stand at the door of
department store and try to keep out the
manager and the employees, the nearest DO
liceman would twist his arm, throw him into
cab and book him for assault and disorderly
conduct. If the taxpayer resisted the COP
would clip him couple with the flat of his
hand and, if necessary, bend club over his
head.
This and the other lawless outbreaks here
cited. many of them in Michigan, point up
great fallacy and great danger, developed
under the Roosevelt government, which actu-
ally tolerated and even fostered anarchy and
relieved local government OF its obligation to
govern to preserve the peace and to protect
the law-abiding citizen from the lawless.
Legally, local and state government were
chief of police of Stamford still have the same
duty to maintain order against union mob
that they would be quick to execute in the
case of stick-up or safe-blower. Yet the same
police, available in force, failed when a union
mob dared them to do their duty, and the
mayor, their commander entered negotiations
with representatives OF the uprising against
law and government.
The explanation is that under IL years of
the Roosevelt storn-troop technique men
elected and sworn to administer state and
local governments have forgotten that law-en-
forcement even against union rioters is still
as much their duty as enforcement against
robbers and underworld terrorists unaffiliated
with unions They came to believe that Gre
dentials from a union constituted a special
license to organize instruction against the
whole community to win debatable demands
from individual employers. They were afraid
of bloodshed and parleyed with those who
threatened bloodshed.
Legally, of course, these credentials confer
no more privilege than a charger from the
Elks or the OAR. Nevertheless, not only pub
lie officials and the police under them, but
most Of the people have fallen into state Of
submission because they thoughtlessly believ-
ed that all union matters are, somehow, the
business of ''the guv'ment, meaning that con-
fused and ominous monster in Washington
which has diligently encouraged the idea.
Senator Joseph Ball, of Minnesota, a CO.
author Of the Ball-Burton-Hatch bill to restrain
the lawlessness Of unions, recently addressed
the subject in an article, now circulated in
pamphlet form. He is no exceptional writer
nor are his arguments new but his position
endows them with some prestige for he is
identified with that faltering, compromising
school Of political talk which employs the
words liberal and 'progressive' to disguise
many proposals intended to win votes by the
sacrifice Of fundamental human and civic
rights.
Acknowledging the national governments
responsibility in the chaotic labor relations
which have retarded reconversion, Senator
Ball wondered nevertheless whether 1--WE are
not overlooking responsibility which falls on
you and me and neighbor John, in our home
communities. refer to our responsibility as
citizens to insist on fair and impartial en-
forcement o t the laws-not federal statutes
but our own state laws and municipal ordi-
nances.
We'll over half the difficulties in the way of
a peaceful, civilized solution would disappear
It state and local laws were enforced promptly, |
vigorously and impartially,'' he wrote.
'Lawlessness breds lawlessness. II public
apathy permits the acquiescence of local Of
flclals In brazen law violation in labor dis
putes to continue, sooner or later we are likely
to have one of two alternatives-local vigi-
lante committees will take over local law en-
forcement in this field with all the abuses
that procedure develops, or we will be forced
to create federal police, always repugnant
to our concepts of local responsibility and in
dividual freedom.
what is the difference between a mob
armed with sticks and stones, blockading a
plant and beating up any individual who tries
10 enter and storm troopers charging down
the street of German ghetto and beating up
every Jew they find? What is the difference,
except in degree between the gestapo pound
ing on the door at midnight and dragging the
husband and father off to a concentration
camp, and the union COON squad pounding on
the door at midnight and beating up the hus-
band and father? In both cases, individual
rights are tranpled under and the law, which
should apply equally to all, is violated with
IMMUNITY by particular group
When the mayor and chief of police of
Stamford negotiated with the mob, the law
abdlcated. Every citizen became automati teal
iy his own law and his own policeman with
the legal right to defend himself even the
right to kill any picket who attacked him. The
citizen had right to attack the picket line
with its own weapons in similarly organized
bands. And the casualties in dead and wound
ed would have become the responsibility of
police.
The right to kill in these circumstances was
clearly stated in recent case in Bridgeport, |
IN the same county with Stamford, Conn, NOV
ing to dismiss defendant charged with homi-