The Wilmington morning star., 1946-12-31
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, Incl

NEW YORK, Dec. 30-Republicans in the
new Congress and other Americans, suddenly
face to face with a chance to repeal the
Wagner Act or redress some OF its lntannles,
appear to be stunned by the opportunity. It
seems like stage-fright. 9
The proposals, timidly offered and merely
as conversation, range from total repeal Of
a law which, from the beginning, has trus-
trated its own avoWed purpose OF promol1ng
interstate commerce, to a system OF regular
| judicial courts to replace the Labor Relations
Board. The first plan would return LABOR re-
lations to the states. The second would pre-
serve the federal governments authority in
this field and apparently, would make per-
manent the fascist Wage-control introduced by
the Roosevelt government. Nowadays, the ad-
ministratiye or bureaucratic arm o. the gov
! eminent decides what wages American cltl-
zens shall receive and sets up gaulelters IN
the guise of union officials to rule their lives
under autocratic powers. The new LABOR
courts also would fix wages. and this plan, as
thus far revealed, contains no promise to re-
store the citizens individual freedom o.
speech and thought, nov limited by the con-
situations of the unions and the whlrns OF the
union bosses.
In this situation, it seems to be forgotten
that, in 1941. after a long and shocking series
of disclosures by a special committee OF the
house, Howard w. Smith, of Virginia, the
chairman, presented a majority report "hlcn
catalogued the evils of the Wagner act and
the sins Of the board, in detail.
This document is a guide to the conditions
; needing correction. The program OF the new
liberals in Congress therefore need only take
them all up. one by one, and offer a remedy
FOR each.
TIE Smith committees report said the
= ,.ra had been unfair and biased IN It's con-
s,k n,J Jaoiciopc and oroSS1u nartlSAn to-
ward Go unions.
The A.. F. of L., labor's house of lords, as
il were. never has ceased to complain Of this
partialitv to the CLIO, and especially, to its
communist elements. The aggravatlon was
particularly painful up to the time Of the IN
vestigation because there were three commu-
nists in key positions in the administration OF
Wagner's law, all Roosevelt appolntees, ana
they had loaded the lower orders OF the wick
ed machine with, party members or party
liners.
How could this partially be prevented?
By selection of honest and able men, per-
haps?
That still leaves too much to the character.
of the men. 1t still leaves the law l%opsided.
The best of citizens, the wlsest and -alrest,
still couldn't give a fair administration be-
cause the Wagner Act would put them in the
position of counsel and friend of the unions,
DIOSGCQtOI VI Ll6 CIlp1OJOCc, IL JooS(' AHSJ
would be obliged to be hostile to the employ
ers and sit in judgment on them, as well.
The committe found the board guilty OF:
Elacklisting litigants before it.
Promoting boycotts against parties whose
cases it intends to adjudicate.
Denial to legitimate organizations Tivals
of the CIO) of opportunities to appear and
be defended in litigation which may destroy
them.
Requiring industry to reinstate persons who
never were employed and to pay back wages
to persons never on the payrolls and to others
who never even applied for employment.
Seeking to legalize the Infamous" anaTch-
istic sit-down strikes and persevering in this
course even when rebuked by the U. S. SUI
preme court.
The committee found that under the dis
honest pretext of Facilitating interstate COM
merce," the board had VIRTUALLY nullitied
states rights by extending the meaning OF
'interstate commerce." In several cases. Gle
vator men and the like were held to be en-
ployed in interstate commerce because some
tenant Of a building had sold a bill Of goods
to some client in another state.
The board had solicited and fomented COM
plants by union agents and individual en-
ployees so that companies could be prosecut-
ed and unions could be organized where the
workers, themselves, had indicated no desire
to be organized.
announcer Danger ana certainty a denial OF
justice lies in the fact then even when the
Circuit Court of Appeals accepts an appeal
and reviews a decision by the board, the
Wagner law compels the court to accept the
boards own version Of the facts. Appropriate
to this point, the committee said many OF the
boards lawyers were member Of the national
Lawyers Guild and recalled that A. A. Berle,
the assistant secretary Of State, had resigned
from this front because the guilds manage
ment would never take any stand which con-
flicted with the m party line. Judge
Ferdinand Pecora, of the New York Supreme
Court, the first president Of the Guild, also
citizens who had been Wronged by the board,
when they appealed to the circuit cour-, had
to be bound by a false version of the facts
which was concocted by avowed or covert
communists.
Early in the war production effort, Ieftist
lawyers in the labor board, in collision with
communist union promoters, blacklisted man.
ufacturers and tried to induce other govern
ment departments to refuse them any con-
tracts merely because they had been accused
of technical violations Of the Wagner Act.
The committee found that the chairman o.
the Labor Relations Board, in one Of those
cases where a mere accusation existed, was
willing to dispense with the usual ~pretense
OF a judicial process and virtually consider
the company guilty before being tried.'
On the basis of this investigating commit
tees revelations and it's report, the House in
March, 1910, passed a bill which would have
enacted into law II amendments to the Wag-
NOR n TIL Lii