The Wilmington morning star., 1946-02-11
Fair Enough
Bv wEsTBROOK PEGLER
copyright, 1916, BY King Features Syndicate

Bv WESTBROOK PEGLER
fconvr;eht 1916. By King Features Syndicate.)
AS the great fight continues the similarity
of the tercoristc methods OF the unions tol
those of the revived Ku Klux Klan OF the
192Vs and the Brown oalrts Oh Aoolpn Hltler
becomes more alarming.
In Chicago, an orderly, respectable citizen,
the father Of three small children and the owner
of his home. is picketed by means of form
letters to his neighbors, describing him as a
Ouisline who is stabbing his fellow workers
j., the back because he has refused to quit
his lob. The neighbors are exhorted to perse-
cute him.
According to the dictum Of Jusice Felix
Frankfurter. of the Supreme Court, IN suit
known as the Cafeteria case, this is faar con-
duct or "give and take" as he called 1t. IL Is,
however, all give and no take because tne
unfortunate individual has no means OF nght-
inq back, His children are smeared and ter
rorized in the neighborhood and he is called
a traitor because that is what Qulslng was.
It will be remembered that the modern Ku
Klux similarly terrorized individuals VINO were
helpless against tricky, cruel and dlshonest
enemies. Decent citizens were summed by
their neighbors who bowed to the unseen
force and businessmen saw their patronage
fall away 10 nothing under the silent boycott.
In Germany, Hitler Strecher and the Brown
Shirts also prosecuted children Of the Jews
who were told in print and on the radio that
their parents were low creatures, no better
than beasts. This terrorism of children was the
lowest form OF persecution in crimes OF the
klan and the most despicable crime of Hitler
ism until the war and the institution of the
great torture camps.
Yet, we find Felix Fraakfurter of all persons,
alrily condoning the formula OF all such perse-
cution in his flippant observation that a union
has right to call a loyal American citizen
fascist, even though there is not the slightest
ground for calling him fascist. II it is fair
to lie about a man and smear and terrify his
children in a dispute between a union and
an uaoffending victim, if it is fair as he held,
to organize a boycott and even to resort to
absolutely false statements about him, then,
obviously, Mr.. Frankfurter is inviting other
malignant organizations to terrorize and boy
colt Americans because they are Jews,
Negroes Catholics Unions have no written
or implied monopoly on the power Of perse-
cution.
The principal power Of the Ku Klux and of
the Brown Shirts in Germany was the power
OF the boycott. Frankfurter, nevertheless in
not only this Cafeteria case but the so-called
Carpenters case, as well, has held that the
boycott is legal and reasonable weapon even
though 1t is based on absolute, admitted lies
against the victims.
No protest against Frankfurter's dictum ever
was heard from that side of the great Ameri-
can controversy which calls itself the liberal
and progressive element. In actual fact it is
terroristic, totalitarian element which re-
Gently, again, has been using mob power
to prevent law-abiding Americans from going
to their work. 1t has even picketed the homes
Of individuals, far from any factory under
strike. and by logical extension, may picket
churches and synagogues and beat up the
faithful on their way to worship.
The coin fell with the other side up when
Senator Bilbo, of Mississippi, in reply to a
New York woman who had written him an
offensive and provocative letter, addressed
her as Dear Dago," and Congressman Ran
kin, also of Mississippi, goaded to anger by
outrageous attacks on his character, addressed
to one who had villified him an insulting word
that is generally excluded from the respect
able American daily press If the unioneers
in the Cafeteria case were right in calling
their victim fascist, If the union in Chicago
is right in calling a decent citizen Quisling
and melting his neighbors to persecute him,
then by Frankfurter's own reasoning, Bilbo
and Rankin also are right and the totalitarian
liberals and progressives, far from abusing
them, should uphold them. Bilbo and Rankin
are appealing to prejudice and arousing hatred,
man because Of his race or religion than to
persecute him for his political beliefs or his
resistance to coercion.
In the Cafeteria case there was not even the
shadow of dispute between labor and manage
ment The owners work in their lunchroom and
the trouble began when a union, which had
no members in the shop, demanded that the
owners quit doing their own work and hire
union members, in which case they would
have gone broke.
These sinister, menacing conditions, all in
viting the most savage cruelties against the
weak and unoffending individuals, have been
created knowingly by women and men who
nevertheless have the vicious effrontery to
pirate on minority rights" and organize
leagues against defamation. In the process,
the greatest, most loyal, most pathetic but
ultimately, the most powerful and ferocious
minority Of them all, the outraged American
CITIZEN has been tried so grievously that the
only question is whether he is finally and
completely licked or merely gathering him
self for some tragic retaliation according to
the Frankfurter law.
It is an evil, un-Amercan law, in any case.