The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-06-28
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright 1945, by King Features Syndicate.)
NEW YORK-The Labor Relations bill in
troduced in the Senate last week is an ad-
mission by it's sponsors, Hatch, of New Mexico,
a Democrat, and Burton of Ohio, and Ball,
of Minnesota, Republicans that the Wagner
act is vicious and dangerous law and should
be made harmless by superseding legislation.
The iniquity of the Wagner act and of the
operations of the Labor Relations Board
which i. created has been notorious for years.
The bill now presented would acknowledge
these evils and, among other measures of re-
dress, would recognize the existence of an
element known as .'the public" which often
has suffered grievously from the brutal AFRO
gance of political bosses miscalled labor
leaders.
The recent distress of hundreds of thousands
of New Workers during a showdown strike in
the omnibus service in sitting weather is an
example of that responsibility But, in the
debates on the new bill, those senators who
now have become aware of the public interest
should not fail to go further back and recall
the time when a small troup of revolutionarles,
calling themselves a labor committee, pulled
the switches in the municipal power plant of
a large city in Michigan and then vanished
refusing to meet the city manager or in any
way submit to negotiation the complaints
which were used as preteXt for this Wanton
blow at an innocent community. "The public"
does exist and the three senators who offer
this new plan are wise to direct an appeal
to ''the public over the heads of the boss
unioneers of the CLIO and the American Fed
GRAFTON of Labor.
American labor in particular and the nation
in general have no more dangerous internal
enemies than the few hundred union officials
who, by their insistence on the preservation
of existing conditions would inevitably pro-
woke riots and a popular hatred of unionism
after the war Commotion then revolution, is
the communist program. Will returned sol
ders quietly submit and support labor" If
the switches are pulled again when they want
to work?
What are the evils of the Wagner system
of labor relations?
1t maintains a government bureau which
frankly does not pretend to serve the public
but does frankly regard the unions as its
clients and promotes their interests against
those of industry and the public. At the be-
ginning it was deliberately loaded with COM
munists who diligently promoted strikes and
connived at terrorism so that whole areas OF
the Nation were ruled by disciplined rowing
gangs of thugs and vandals.
The Labor Relations Board has the powers
of court but does not even put up pretense
of impartiality 1t is frankly against the en-
ployer in all cases and sits as judge While
its own agents appear as prosecutors and as
counsel for the complaining partle. -
The Wagner act drives millions of workers
into unions against their will In violation OF
its own stated purpose to let them select their
own bargaining agents. But the Wagner act
does not provide that these unions shall con-
duct free internal elections or that they shall
be accountable to their members for the thou
sands of millions of dollars which they collect
as income taxes and the license to work. The
Wagner Act and the Labor Relations Board
have never been concerned with the constitu-
tons of the unions with the result that Jimmy
PetrilIo of the musicians, for example, may
suspend his entire constitution at will and per-
secute any member to his hearts content,
and, as an example of the brutality practised
on the individual worker in utter disregard of
his rights as a man and a citizen, two rank
and-file toilers in Boston recently were eX-
PEELED from their union for life merely be-
cause they awaited themselves of their consti-
titional right to testify before committee
of the Massachusetts, legislature in favor of
bill requiring union officers to account for
union funds. BY that decree of Punishment,
these two individuals, by union law and tradi-
ton, are forever barred from all employment
in any occupation in any unionized plant.
Among the quick reactions of those union
bosses who have exploited, robbed and be-
trayed labor and imposed on the patience of
the whole nation, there mas Deen cry lndt
compulsory arbitration to prevent strikes
would be denial of the right to strike. Those
who acquire sedentary official jobs in the
union movement, at high salaries and with
no interruption of their pay, forget that the
rank and filler does not enjoy striking and
would strike only last resort. The rank
and file member knows the meaning of pay
less paydays and the ignominy of shuffling
parades around strike-bound works by orders
of some union executive council whose men,
bers, having called the strike, nevertheless
continue to draw big salaries and visit the
picket lines in automobiles only to check the
absentees so that they may be fined in auto
mobiles only to check the absentees so that
they may be fined or expelled for indiscipline.
The high officials neglect the fact that as
matters now stand, the employer is not only
compelled to arbitrate but often is compelled
to sing contracts even though he objects to
the terms They offer no reminder, either,
that while the employer may be punished for
violation of contract signed uner this COM
pulsion, no union ever is punished for viola
ton of the same contract nor can be under
the Wagner law.
The proposed federal labor relations law
offers a complete revision of the labor ad-
ministration under government but it is still
short Of some of the reforms that must be
adopted regardless of the selfish opposition oil
the boss unioneer. 1t makes no provision that
union constitutions must respect all the rights
of citizens conferred by the national Constitu-
ton. And it does not attempt to reverse the