The Wilmington morning star., 1946-11-19
as Pegler Sees 1t
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

Copyright, BY King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
NEW YORK, Nov. 10 In planning legisla-
tive reforms to lberate Labor and the rest
OF the community from thewestraints and pain
full practices imposed by the new deal in the
guise OF progress, laymen are better able to
state grievances than to laws. BY
education, mostly through the newspapers, in
the era OF the Labor Relations Board, the
people who voted out the majority of the
CLOS selected friends and elected its select
ed enemies, were equipped, at last, to reject
as evils many conditions which were glibly
called labor gains These bad practices
had become so general that the Roosevelt
Supreme Court, in some plainly outrageous
cases, had the effrontery to bless them as in
%evitable, if not necessarily good, events in on:
progress toward a painted canvas mirage call
ed the more abundant life.
For example, the court held that a union,
because it was a union, was justified in pub
fishing absolute lies about a laW-abiding COM
pany with the avoWed intention OF running that
company's business. 1t held again that If a
stickup man held a union card and acted in
the capacity of a union man he automatically
became an employe of his victim in a highway
robbery. And, in the course Of his opinion,
Justice James Byrnes, now our Secretary OF
State, took comfort from the practice Of the
musicians union in an old shakedown whereby
an employer had to pay full wages to half a
dozen or more nameleSS and theoretical 1lddl-
ers and hornists who performed no work and
didn't even show up. He referred to this as
the standby principle and said it was legal
and good. The unions and their lawyers, who
include some of the c~leverest shysters in the
history Of the profession, were delighted by
these victories but they were actually cheering
over nasty little acts of torment which finally
turned the vote overwhelmingly against them
and all their unions. The fools had learned
nothing from the examples Of the Anti-Saloon
League and the stock swindlers of the era of
wonderful nonsense.
l was one of those who analysed the Byrnes
opinion and argued, without challenge from
their side, because they knew l was right,
that i a stickup man with a Transfers card
could levy a tax of 50 On a truck crossing an
imaginary line between the jurisdictions of two
locals, he could, with equal right, tax the own
er of the truck SO, 900. The amount Of the
shake-down was up to the conscience of the
local union, which might be nothing but a pack
Of common criminals. The result that the
majority of the court invited was absolute
strangulation of interstate m by au-
thority Of a law whose protested purpose was
to facilitate such commerce. A more appro-
pirate name for the standby principle would
be the shake-down principle or the racket prin-
ciple for it is nothing but a'method of black
mail. 1t is known, also, as feather-bedding
where, again, it is blackmail. If the employer
doesn't pay for work that is not needed and
not performed, the union will make it impos-
sible for him to get men to perform work
that he does need, even at prices which are
entirely satisfactory TO men who would like
to do that work.
Then we began to see more and more fla
grant invasions of the field of public taxation
by unions. Some Of the needle and meat trades
long ago had imposed sales taxes on clothing
and poultry through the sale Of union tags to
manufacturers, or professors. II the suit or
the fat hen didn't bear a union tag the I'M
ions concerned would make it practically i'm
possible Cor these firms to operate. Well, it
was a small item. and, anyway, they passed
Che cost along to the consumer, so they didn't
struggle. Constitutional, political and economic
principles meant nothing to them, anyway,
and, as always, in the view Of the unions,
anything that favored their interests
was democracy" q
But when Jimmy Petril1o came along de-
handing a sales tax on records and musical
performances and John L.. Lewis demanded
ten cents a ton on coal for their union treas
urles and without even a pretense OF an obi
cation to divide it among their subjects, the
people realized that actually they were being
taxed for these private trea suries. Meanwhile,
they had seen that unions were collecting in
come taxes and political assessments from
AASA AIAAOA NO4AoCAlt anu Lldt
these taxes had first priority. They came
ahead Of all public taxes, and ahead of the
workers obligation to his family, his church
and his country. And, unlike the public taxing
authorities, the unions gave their subjects no
deduction for family dependencies. These in
come taxes applied to their entire earnings.
Occasionally, during this time, big bust
ness'' was berated for retarding technical pro-
gress by buying up and shelving patents on
new processes. This was held to be unpatri.
otto and anti-social but the very person who
abhorred it loudest defended make-work,
Woodwork, bogus, teather-bedding and stand.
by, all of which had the same purpose Of re-
tarding progress by making it too expensive.
If a gadget came into the market whereby
one man could do the work Of two, the
unions still demanded the wages of two men
for one mans work.
Under the new deal, the National Maritime
Union, which has been a reasonably consistent
follower of the communist party line, grew