The Wilmington morning star., 1945-10-08
Fair.Enough
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright 1915, by King Features Syndicate


man will recommend to Congress any legal
reform to diminish the dangerous powers of
unions. Therefore it may be anticipated that
strikes will increase in number during the fall
and winter and that, by means of the jugular
strike, countless non-strikers will be thrown
out of work through the ihterrupting of public
services such as transportation, electric power
and water supply, and the production OF mate
rails such as roller-bearings, for lack of which
many other industries must quit operations
There are some in Congress who look for
ward to winter of fighting and public suffer
ing and rather grirnly welcome the prospect
as showdown believing that an element of
the nation which only recently has been dis
covering its own existence will then demand
relief and protection under law. This element
is known as the public It includes, Of
course, some union members but, on the face
of all credible statistics, it is overwhelmingly
non-union and to some extent angrily anti
union.
From the standpoint of those who have
preached reform for years, and desire peace
in the long run, such a reckless program of
strikes, however painful and costly, would
seem ultimately desirable. Every other way
has failed. Every reasonable proposal intend
ed to guarantee responsible union administra-
tion honest strike votes, peaceful arbitration,
honest union elections, freedom of membership
dividual workers has been howled down by
men who have shown themselves to be incap-
able of leading labor in manner consistent
with the public good and the rights Of their
subject members.
The late President Roosevelt created this
condition and preserved the powers of the
unioneers, but Mr.. Trumans record shows no
special affection for them. He could, if he had
the strength of personality or character, go
fhnr dc ir,r cnrooo 10
forms. To get such reforms he would only
have to ask Congress for them. The same
great ma ority in the House of Representatives
which even in Roosevelt's time voted for re.
StrlctlonS on union racketeering, expressed in
defiant highway robbery, would vote the same
way again, probably with added strength from
those docle understands who would uphold
the President Given an honest request from
Mr.. Truman, the Senate would defy the pow.
erful union lobby and Sidney Hillman, whose
political position in relation to Congress is now
comparable to that of the prohibition forces in
the last year of the Eighteenth Amendment
Like the Methodist Board of Prohibition and
Public Morals in that decisive period, Hillman
and his Political Action Committee are only
allies or supporters.
Even congressman fr m Pennsylvania,
where the coal and steel unions enjoy terroris-
tic power over candidates and, in years of
protection under the new deal, appalling cor
ruption has developed, admit privately that the
voters, including many of the union workers,
want reform.
Lately, on Labor Day. three conspicuous
spokesman of the old Roosevelt bigotry in un-
ion matters, uttered warnings ostensbly to
the workers but actually to the union bosses
which showed realization that ''the public"
is near the point Of revolt. Lewis Schellenbach
Secretary T,9h
relic La Guardia, all made speeches adopting
demands which for years had been presented
as criticism in these dispatches and consistent
~ denounced by new dealers as "reactionary''
propaganda. Among them they repudiated ar
bltrary strikes in disregard of the rights of
the public denounced the familiar thievng
type of union official and pointed out other
evils which can be corrected only by law al
though none of them could as yet summon
the honesty to advocate such laws. preferring
to leave it to confirmed and notorious rogues
to reform of their own volition.
AS winter approaches there are in prospect
shortages of coal and oil due to strikes and
the men who rule the electrical unions will not
overlook the fact that in the northern states
they have the power to pull the switches and
shut off the power that runs electric furnaces
in millions of homes and in office buildings
The personal distress of "the public thus VIC
tlmlzed in squabbles over jurisdiction, recogni.
ton or some fine legal phrase in the contract
the cost of frozen plumbing and the encourage
ment to Congress to enact remedial laws, may
be Imagined. And some members of Congress
are counting on such distress, inflicted without
mercy by overbearing and lawless individuals,
to encourage weaker members to vote for 1.-The
public when the anger of the majority of the
nation has been Enthusiastically registered.
Even In that case, however, it probably
would be mistake to look to Mr.. Truman
for any courageous initiative His character,
unknown to the people and less well known
than now even to Congress during his service
as senator, is slowly revealing itself in
somewhat juvenile humor a timidness rem
lnlscent of Warren G. Harding, and trust in
advisors who would use him. stronger man
might foresee even today winter of unneces-
sary turmoil suffering and loss and, confident
OF public support move to prevent trouble by
attacking prerogatives that no small group of
union exploiters should possess to the danger
of the whole people,
All indications suggest however, that Presi-
dent Truman will not be leader in this situa-
ton, except, perhaps in crisis when great
harm has been done and there is no other way
to restore ORDER
LET AMERICA REMEMBER
Every American should read the stories OF
that thin battalion of survivors of Japanese