The Wilmington morning star., 1946-05-08
Fair Enough
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, BY King Features Syndicate.

1t has given me some satisfaction to observe
of late that my own liberalism is winning
converts on the left.
This change is shown in the anger against
John l.. Lewis eor throttling production of coal,
against other unions for strikes against recon-
version and civilian production and against
Jimmy Petrillo's cultural censorship of music
on the air.
The conversion that I observe seems insin-
cere. however. Our erstWhile bigots have got
the liberal religion only because recent out
rageous conduct in the union field is a political
embarrassment tending to discredit their adj
ministration.
These powers were given these union bosses
by the Roosevelt administration, against pre-
dictions of recent developments, and no man
can be denounced for taking full advantage
of his legal rights. Lewis derives his powers
from these rights.
My contention has been that no individual
or group should have such power and that a
truly liberal government would modify the
laws which created a force of dangerous eco
nomic and political monsters.
Some years ago, in a conversation with Mr..
Lewis, I argued that the closed shop was an
abrogation Of the rights Of the individual. He
replied that the closed shop was the workers
own protection against that element who, in
industry, had been denounced by Hugh John
son as the ~chiseling 10 per cent. He assumed
e20e y 20 SShG ~ t1S W01ACIS WOulo EldulY
support unions and held that the other 10 per
cent should be compelled to do so or 20 lob
less.
But by his very insistence on the closed
shop, plus the check-otf, he revealed his own
conviction that without compulsion his MEM
bers would get away from him. That is the
Fear that prompts every demand for the closed
shop in any Of its guises, and the check-off.
These people are SO illiberal that they fatty
insist that they know. better than the so-cs1led
common man, what is best for him. They are
contemptuous Of his personal right to make
his own mistakes, if mistakes such decisions
be. and of his individual dignity.
why, after all" Mr.. Lewis said, "In some
mines we have had the check-off Of church
dues for years"
These, however. were voluntary check-ofts
If a man objected to the church check-oft he
could still be a member If he paid directly
and voluntarily. In some religious groups he
could not be punished though he paid nothing
at all.
One OF the most impressive demonstrations
OF narrowness calling itself liberalism that I
recall during this period seemed petty Of it.
self but was %grievous in its implications. Mrs.
Roosevelt refused to enter a New York theatre
because Petrillo's musicians were picketinc
the house. She remarked, as I recall her
words, that regardless of the merits of the
dispute, she could not cross a picket line. It
happened that the unions case had no merits.
1t happened that this was one Of our worst
unions with a dictatorship written into the first
page OF its constitution. But even If II had
been an ideal union, no genuine liberal could
nave taken the position that the other party to
the controversy had no right to be heard be-
fore judgment was passed against him.
That is l~ynching.
We often hear individuals denounced as red
balters and that has been my fate and pleas
ure from time to time. Yet, in the same
camp, we find David Dubinsky, of the gar
ment workers, and Dave Beck, of the team
sters In Seattle, excluding communists and de-
clolng by standards Of their own who is a
communist. Thus, in such areas a person so
aoJudged may not earn a living although he
may hold public office and no public law
denies him the right to earn his living.
l was a member of a small liberal minority
when I insisted that our most savage liberals
were fasclsts in supporting the practise of i'm
posing assessments on workers to be used as
campaign funds for the Roosevelt party. The
blgot liberals argued that unwilling contribu-
tors would be grateful when they got back
much more than they contributed, in the form
OF benefits won by their unions through gov
eminent patronage.
They did not know or would not admit that
this was exactly the way that Mussolini's I'M
ions were forced to support the fascist party
and that the Italian workers, too, were re-
Warded with illusory raises in pay which the
employers met painlessly through government
subsidies from Rome. We now see further
imitation of the fascist way in our program
Of subsidies to enable builders and others to
pay higher wages than their returns permit of.
The workers will pay these subsidies through
their taxes and give thanks for price control.
How free are we today after Is years of this
liberalism?
Millions pay compulsory income taxes to pri-
vate relationships without a vote or represen-
tation.
Lewis and Petrillo have demanded and some
other union dictators have casually assumed
the right to collect sales taxes on commodi-
ties sold the public. Unions now bargain with
the government for increases in pay, not
with the employer. So, actually, the govern
ment regulates the peoples earnings as well
as industry's profits.
Being denied profits, industry often ceases
to employ and produce and the American
standard OK living has become a standard of
queues, shortages and black markets. AS in
Germany, Americans in some sections send
food packages to relatives in the cities who
are actually hungry and regard as luxury such
"a commonplace of normal American life as
butter or even oleo, or sugar.
And, most ominous of all reforms under tba
liberalism, organized gangs openly terror;ze
neighborhoods, even as the black shirts NJ
Italy in their day. In Italy Mr.. Roosevelt called
it fascism. In our country he called tba
same thing multiple assault. multiple mali.
cious mischief and multiple disorder1v 49,