The Wilmington morning star., 1946-06-20
Fair Enough
BY wEsTBRooK PEGLER

William Collins, the New York regional organ
izer and in a way of speaking, local general
manager of the American Federation Of
Labor, about Benjamin Pross, the bankrupt
crook who controls q stable of small racket
unions In town, and lie pretty well confirms
my bunch that this low character and his
mob, including some relatives, are just about
through. Mr.. Collins recently discussed this
dirty situation with Frank Fenton, the nation
al director of organization of the AT. of L.,
and they will meet again when Mr.. Fenton
RECEIVERS from a minor illness.
The whole Pross enterprise in unionism has
been An embarrassment to the AT. of L.,
which doesn't embarrass ea silly, and certainly
is no compliment to the efficiency of either
Mr.. Collins or Mr.. Fenton Moreover, it has
been a matter OF public knowledge for more
than two years that Pross was just a COM
mon swrndler and Of low degree, at that,
having been involved in petty larceny, bank
ruptcy, frauds, which required so much work
and ingenuity that you might say the net
return to him was hardly more than fair day
wages.
MIR. Collins offers the old, wearisome alibi
of the AFT. of L. for the passiveness of it's
high executives in the presence Of notorious
and disgraceful conditions.
He says the international union of the wine,
liquor ard distillery workers, with headquar-
! tiers in Chicago, is an autonomous outfit OPP
Grating under it's own charter, and that, under
the laws of unionism, the officials of the
parent federation cannot interfere even to re-
move a crook.
OF course this is the letter Of their law
but against that the fact has always been
conspicuous that they could use their influ-
~ .~L L;rarol;+ --,L -,~a
sites. Far from this, William Green, the presi-
dent of the AT. of L., repeatedly has given
moral and social aid and comfort to obvious
racketeers. enemies OF labor and traitors to
the union movement, by attending their social
brawls in his official robes and by other acts
Of recognition.
think Mr.. Collins and Mr.. Fenton have
in mind the aggressiveres of the Clio. or
ganizers in town who sec a chance to pick
up a batch of widowed little AT. Of L.
locals composed of workers in several
branches Of the liquor trade such as whole
sale and retail selling, boiling, rectifying, and
labelling, and employees of wholesale drug and
cosmetic houses and nonoescripts. The work
ers, in their letters to NE, have shown that
they are disguised and desperate but many
of them hesitate to 60 into the CLIO. and
associate themselves with the communists of
that group. Mr.. Collins and Mr.. Fenton could
have got rid of the Pross gang long ago by
using their influence and 1t Is quite apparent
now that il they lose their bunch OF locals.
with a large aggregate membership, the score
will be a defeat for them IN the competition
between the A.F. Of L. and the CLIO.
I forgot to tell you in the preceding essays
about Benjamin Pross's migration to a digni-
fled old estate at Lake Mahopac in Putnam
county, New York, that in addition to the
expensive alterations and the post and rail
fence that he has undertaken this spring, he
is drilling an artesian well and has announced
his intention to extend the dock on his private
shore to a large motor yacht.
The existing dock was built for small sail
boats but Mr.. Pross remarked at the time
of purchase that he was no windjammer and
would go in for power and speed.
Brother Pross first intended to build a new
house from the ground up and, with that plan
his present location. He then discovered, how
in mind, bought a tract some distance from
ever. that, Notwithstanding his status in the
politics and underworld of the governing bu-
reaucracy he could not get materials. But
he could get materials to enlarge an existing
place and thus he decided to take the old
quick estate. Land in his neighborhood is sell
ing for from 500 TO $11O a shore foot.
I expect to have a visit with Mr.. Collins
in a few days and, perhaps, after that, l
will be able to relate just what was the
process by which this gang of parasites were
permitted to acquire such great power over
thousands of v%oiceless enc generally ill-paid
workers and Pross himself was suffered to
strike a really majestic pose as an authority
on labor relations and economics and a
spokesman of the labor movement. And, while
it may seem that I have been using a six
inch gun to kill a rat, my emphasis on this
local situation has been prompted by an
ornery determination to prove by another con-
spicuous expose that our labor relations laws
and the American Federation OF Labor simply
do not protect the workers, law abiding in
dustry or the public from corrupt unionism.
Here again, as in numerous other cases
which ! have brought to light by digging for
hidden facts, a man became a power in the
union movement who, because of his past con-
victions as a criminal, had lost even the
right to vote in public elections. For the AT.
OF l.. to say that the principle of union au-
tonomy prevents it from excluding such i'm
posters and racketeers is to confess that it
is unworthy of the powers which il holds in
the national community.
This is another aspect of the larger stu
alton which Congress has refused to remedy.