The Wilmington morning star., 1946-10-01
As Pegler Sees 1t
ny WEsTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Downright by King Features Syndicate, Incl
NEW. YORK, Sept. 30-If you will permit
me. l will take a cut in the matter OF a Dig,
new biography of the late Louis u. Eranoels,
bv Alpteus Thomas Mason, a professor OF
politics at Princeton, because I see by the
reviews that it runs to 73 pages and that
it is almost too formidable for general readers
whose interest in Brandeis is not Unsuitable,
as mine certainly amt. / have already read
one such eulogy, done by Alfred Lief, in 1886,
and shovel men had been robbed by the
deis, cultivated or, l might better say, in
Cured, in incidental contacts, has created an
opinion o. which l am rather fond, that he
was a poseur and a ~strutter in a role OF lofty
humility. AS Benjamin Stolberg so nicely de-
scribed Albert Einstein, Brandeis had an "in-
stinct for modestly backing into the lime
light and if he were up for confirmation
for the Supreme Court today I should give
serious consideration to the reasons why those
who opposed him did, instead Of casting them
into hell and stoking the fire with their argu-
ments, as Brandeis' idolators do.
He did have his moment however, and
it was in enc of these that Brandeis opposed
the closed shop in these words, cited from
Mr.. Masol's study: II think there is no man
or body of men whose character will stand
absolute power and I should no more think
of giving absolute power to Unions than I
should of giving to capital monopoly power"
This is about the same thought that Hatton
Summers. of Dallas, the chairman of the Jul
dietary Commute OF the House of Represen-
tatives, now retiring from Congress in a mood
that I Judge to be disgust, expressed to me
one afternoon early in the war. A subcom-
mittee Of the Judiciary had just finished a
hearing in which it was established that some
of the tou,est racketers in our nation were
profitering ir the war construction program
by operating shakedoWns at Army and Navy
camps and air fields and colossal factories
through the closed or monopoly shop, under
the patronage and protection of the Roosevelt
government.
Electricians had been gouged for as much
as 5000 for Initiation" into a union whose
predatory interests came before those of the
nation. Carpenters. house-painters and pick
and, shovel men had ben robbed by the
same process and no defender of this dis
gushing system had the gall to suggest that
the brigands were promoting the war e.
fort' or had the slightest obligation to the
public. Inded, Roosevelt's Supreme Court, in
a decision a few months ago. held that al
though they did steal all the money, that was
a matter Of no public interest but a private
affair of each of the thousands of filthy little
local rackets implicated in the predatory
whole.
Mr.. Summers said that day that he would
be afraid to possess the powers that the
Roosevelt government had knowingly placed
in the hands of notorious rascals without
some legal responsibility. This. you will note,
was not in itself an argument against the
closed shop, although 1 believe he shared
Brandeis' conviction and mine that it is an
evil. Mr.. Summers had just LEFT a hearing in
which it hai been shown that even 'accounta-
h11tVf for 1rpino f1,dc j., raforo, of,, -,.,ol
for by the unintelligent, would do no good
because, to comply with that restriction, a
thief would only have to report that he stole
it all, giving figures in detail. That would be
an accounting.
Mr.. S%toiberg, a student of the union move
ment and an authority on its history, person
alltles and faults, sees that early Frandeis
as an anarchist who revealed himself in a
plan whereby the manufacturers and workers
In the clothing industry woulo run their own
show and settle their own arguments, subject
to no interference by the state.
That is an interesting view which would
include within its scope John L. Lewis and
other mighty men who now possess more
power than industry and, in occasional mo-
ments of alarm over indlstry's weakness.
have offered to underwrite industry with I'M
ion money and thus become employers OF
their own subjects. The scheme of labor-man-
oSSi'oHt NoiIIIHltcS, puS1eO by une united
Auto Workers, is an approach to the same
objective but stops a hair-line short off
nancial responsibility in the management OF
industry. That step further would require
them to pledge union funds to support indus
try and meet their own demands. Knowing
that these demands often are ruinous, the
union politicians generously yield these prob
lens to the sole responsibility of the directors
and stockholders.
In my conflicts of opinion with those who
approve the closed shop, I seem to have
failed TO emphasize enough the fact that we
have created a monopolistic power and have
glorified 1cen, posing as leaders of labor, who
are actually labor's masters. Indeed thew have
become masters of the community and it's
Subdivisions as we have seen in thousands of
strikes during the war and since. 1t is i'm.
possible to imagine any group of ship-owners
or truck operators tying up the port of New
York or tt~ commerce OF the CITY as unions
have done in recent weeks or a public utility
shutting off the electrical power as a union
did in Pittsburgh last week. Laws and public
opinion would forbid but neither force is effec-
tive against the arbitrary decision of a few
men commanding a union ard the workers.
themselves, are as weak as the public of
which they are a part.
I find men of apparent good will and con-
science taking the side of ~rascals merely be-
cause they will not examine their mistakes