The Wilmington morning star., 1946-06-01
Fair Enough
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features Syndicate. Inc

VNAS"s " AAAnS 1Sotu1C Sy uulCdLc. 1uCsJ
The last few days have brought the newt
able penalty Of the Roosevelt program of
fostering rich and ruthless private associ-
ations called labor unions without the slight
est restraint on the powers thus conferred on
the union bosses.
In outline, this menacing situation was fore
seen 10 years ago but those who earnestly
predicted a day when the undisciplined giants
OF political unionism would threaten the nation
with anarchy and civil commotion were
howled down with the cry of labor batter"
Congressman Hatton Summers, of Dallas, the
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, once
said: Il am afraid of these men. 1t is danger
Gus to give them this terrible power without
responsibility
Mr.. Summers, who is now quitting Congress
to stump the country, speaking wherever he
can find an audience. is only one OF many
whose studious and conscientious criticism of
the Wagner Act and the Roosevelt alliance
with reckless adventures of the labor move
ment was sneered at but never even con-
sidered in detail, much less refuted.
am another who analysed the law, itself.
the cynical and almost flippant Supreme Court
decisions, the union constitutions and the
character Of the union bosses, starting nv
gentle demurrers at a time when most Of our
people carelessly believed that this power
would never be abused. The career of the
crusader is not a happy one and we who
stood out for equal justice under law which
was all we asked have felt the full strength
Of a ruthless and unprlncipled enemy. Foul
personal scandals were concoted and the
dirty papers of the unions and the left wing
belabored us with lies and malicious bio
graphical sketches by bitter mediocritics who
had never even met the subjects of their
essays. And all the while. John Lewis, Whit
DN1y & %L> 49, "a
and H;llman of the CLIO. were massing their
hundreds Of millions for their political con-
quest of the very nation itself, always in the
name Of the poor working man.
At this writing, for the first time, I have a
feeling that the fight is lost. President Tru-
man mutfed his ma gnificent chance when, in
stead OF asking for honest, constitutional laws
to subordinate the unions to the authority of
the national government, he proposed an I'M
workable perversion of the draft l a W and
further resort to the arbitrary seizure of prop
erty and money belonging to innocent victims
of laWless unionism.
The draft law never was intended to
dragon free American Workmen into forced
labor IN the mines, on the railroads or any,
where else and it cannot be made to do so.
If, to assume the fantastic, 300, 900 miners
were drafted to dig coal, and all 300, 900 should
go fishing, the government simply would not
have the power or facilities to court martial
them all and inflict the usual military punish
ments for INSTRUMENTATION, disobedience of Or
ders and mutiny. So the law and the govern
ment would be Knocked and the Army, already
suffering from some faults of its own and
from the communist conspiracy, would be dis
credited not only among Americans but in
the eyes OF the world.
The practice Of seizing factories whose own
pTS arc rot nyvnp opr1cn1 ~ vrrcna ~ooroJ,
because some unioneer has violated a con-
tract and called a strike is another monstrosi-
ty that Mr.. Truman inherited. Its unfairness
is not even disputed and yet President Tru-
man, obviously as a bow to the horsepower
OF the union bosses, would not only take the
properties but confiscate all profits earned
under government operation.
Yet, IN the outcry of the big unioneers
against the Truman plan. only the draft pro-
posal is condemned as fascism, which it GER
tainly is. The other proposal is pure fascisrn.
too, but inoffensive to a group who have been
promoting their own program of fascism all
these years.
Mr.. Summers recently said he thought there
was no more than an even chance to save
the American form of government. l was a
little less pessin1istic at the time but TODAY
I am not confident that the unions would ohev
any laws that Congress might pass, however
oil dLA SoAoItot1Olldl. "A year ago new laws
might have commanded their obedience. Now
the bosses seldom bother to deal with the
Department of Labor or settle their troubles
with the Labor Relations Board. Instead thew
go straight to the White House and tell the
President what they will accept and what I
they will do otherwise.
1hey decided they would not obey the in
come TAX law requiring international returns
anu Herr! Morgenthau, as Secretary of the Il
treasury, obligingly decided that they need
only make a gesture of obedience without
complying. They have defiantly flouted the
id" against political contributions h law
against embargoes on interstate M
ana lnJunctlonS of the federal courts. Their
haolt is entirely lawless and with hundreds
OF millions to spend in elections to preserve E
tnelr power through mental national legis-
lators they may now be on the point of buv-
ing out the national government and IMPOSING '
their fascism without p~retense.
Meanwhile, another ominous sign. Summers
ana others are quitting Congress. The paw is
poor, the work is hard, the abuse more than
sel1-respect or even patriotism can stand
Despair sets in and the unions with their tax.
ing powers are planning to elect men who
would guarantee their position above and out.
side the government. WV i
L am strongly of the opinion that it is un- ;
wise TO create by statute a situation which :
places 1ull control CT the armed forces in the :