The Wilmington morning star., 1946-10-17
As Pegler Sees 1t
Bv WEsTBROOK PEGLER

have noticed that public speakers usually leu
off with corny little Joe Mlllers py way OF
opening the pores of their victims. But win
your permission, 1 will let you roll your own
and get going.
{Insert Joke about man who takes secretary
out for lunch. two Irishmen, or their recent
rivals in this field of humor, two Mexlcans,
Pedro and Juan.)
In his opinion in the antitrust suit against
the A.. and P. Grocery chain, Judge Walter
C. Lindley, of the Federal District Court. said
the purpose of the Sherman Antitrust Act
was to prevent restraints OF interstate com
merce, and to afford protection from mono
polistic endeavor.
The charges were that the defendants form
ed a conspiracy to restrain interstate COM
merce in food and conspired to monopollze a
substantial part of such products In inter-
state commerce..
Inasmuch as monopoly is a word connotlng
absolute and exclusive control OF a market, l
honestly am reminded OF one, but a sam Cold
Wyn. not d Joe Miller, wherein Sam is SAID to
have remarked that some movie was colossal
in a small way. But my mission - l am a
man with a message today is not to heckle
the Department Of Justice or to analyze the
court opinion which holds, in effect, that a EEL
low car be guilty of growing big and strong
enough to bat the ears eff d little guy next
door and convicted of same, even though he
never even made a pass at the little guy ana
got big and strong by iiligent work In the
gymnasium only because he didn't want to go
through LIE a scraWny little twirp and used
his strength only to carry out the ashes and
NOV the lawns, very cheap, Cor a sort OF
milk-route OF neighborhood clients, to their
great satisfaction.
Damndest proposition you ever heard, but
Judge Llndley says it's The law and he didn't
write the law. He only tells us what it means,
which is that, in principle, Joe Louis hadn't
ought TO be so good because he makes 1t i'm
possible for the Billy COINS, ct al, to lick him
and so maintains exclusive possession of the
heavyweight championship. He ought to get the
consumption or break a leg.
1 was passing by an A. and P. store out in
the country the other day and stopped to read
a great biz sign across the window. 1t said
the A. and P's were locked up indefinitely be-
cause the truckers strike in New York made
it impossible for them 10 receive groceries.
The A. and P. was having no argument with
the Transfers and didn't employ any teams
tiers whatever. Just the same, they had to
close down. Yet they were paying the wages
of 5000 employees during this layotf.
Well" 1 said to George spelvin, American,
They can take it. Rich mugs. those Hart
fords. George and John
Don't be a fool beyond the limits set by
nature" Spelvin said. "At $40 a day, aver
age. That is $50, 900 a day. and A. and P. isn't
the US. Treasury. And if it's only Sc a day,
average, that's $48, 900 a day"
Well, then we got to thinking who was re-
straining trade here, the Hartford boys or
old Dan Tohin's teamsters in New York?
The Sherman Law originally was supposed
to forbid all conspiracies in restraint of inter
state by unions as well as by COM
panies. Then it was decided that this interfered
with laboc S right to strike, so we got another
law exempting the unions. They could restrain
interstate m to total strangulation, if
necessary, and they didn't have to explain
their reasons to anybody. 1t wasn't even neces-
sary to fake up a dispute between any COM
pany and some union. any larcenous meat
head who controlled a union with a gang of
goons could call a strike, call on other unions
to refuse to handle certain and shut
down trade in food or anything else. Even il
the workers wanted to continue working, the
union boss had the deciding word. He could
frankly ecmit that his purpose was a personal
shakedown Of $50, 900 or 500, 900 and no law
could touch him if he Just ran a resolution
through his executive council of associate
buns in the back of some saloon and they
should vote to divide it among themselves.
That's legal, no law against that.
linen along comes ola wagner WIN MS LABOR
relations fake. Wagner said we had been hav-
ing too many strikes and they retarded pro-
duction and shipment Of goods in interstate
commerce, although the unions were real
puny at the time and the only real impedi-
ment 70 was the general lack of
money among the people to buy things. So,
nyway old Wagner says we have to recog-
nize the workers rights to join unions and Sc
lect their own bargaining agents to bargain
with the soulless corporations. They will bar
gain smoothly and strikes will just about be-
come a thing of the past. That is what he
said, the old Nope, none of that, now. Keep
it on a high intellectual plane, men.
Since then. how many strikes would you say?
If you said Sc, 1000 you would sound like a union
lawyer trying to play it down.
How long have you been waiting for a new
car? Strikes. Slow-downs through conspiracies
to limit production to a fraction Of any work
er's reasonable ability, thus reducing inter-
state boycotts. Picket = lines. All
strangling interstate commerce by warrant
mind you, of Wagner's fraud, designed to ere
move impediments' to interstate inner by
the smooth and peaceful settlement Of dis
putes.
l think the Hartfords are nuts, paying wages
to the 5000 hands laid off by the
Transfers strike. Nice Fellows and good to
their help, but nuts. Because if those 5000
and their families had to rough it along with
out pay on unemployment relief. I think they
would realize that they were of
work by Wagner's law and vote for candi-
T. ~ r,.,11 rap,icn 70 fr, r. choo1o =