The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-10
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
1947, BY King Features Syndicate
Tuc

NAStOA A6A4NSt viz SSASeNt tSooo1 -
the Illinois Federation of Labor and an editor
of its weekly news letter, recently composed
an essay which I should like to discuss in a
sweetly reasonable spirit because I think he
has something here and that I have some
thing to top him.
Mr.. Olander was a sailor by trade so he
declares his belief that 'the union ship can
weather the storm if its crew is disciplined,
its matches are battened, its sails properly
trimmed, with steady hands at the wheel and
every man of the crew fully conscious not
only of his rights and privileges but also
of his duties and responsibilities"
We have here no spectacular blatherskite,
communist or gangster, but a mar who enjoys
the respect of his community. I fault him for
fastidious observance of autonomy in union.
ism which for all these years has deferred him
and other good men in the movement from
fighting the Mike Carrozzos, the Brownies and
Bioffs and the Joe Fays on the ground that
the internal affairs of the autonomous unions
are family matters, so to speak. Mr.. Olander
and his like know that the rank and file sub
jects of such crooks can't rebel against them,
and l think he knows, as I do, that a poor
fellow named Zlegler, who did try to start a
light In the union of operating engineers,
which is Fay's union, right there in Chicago,
where Olander lives, was murdered in sight
of his home the night after he had telephoned
the office of Internal Revenue to say that one
~ eN AAHSii " uiN dIlAOI
him and threatened to kill him. The police
were no good to Ziegler and the man to when
he telephoned for protection, a special agent
named never-mind because I believe. he is
still !. the service, had no authority to pro.
tect him even though his mortal danger arose
from the fact that he had been giving the
Treasury about this boss union
GERS income. This special agent was brave
enough all right. Having worked on the Capone
lnconle-taX case, he went into an all-night
NOPE because his superiors wouldn't let him
go out and put handouts on the big babboon.
and bring him in alone, but let his lawyer sur
render him the next day, instead. But he wasn't
a policeman SO this poor fellow was murder
ed and that is a risk that the rank-and-filer
takes in running an insurrection against the
desperadoes. I am sure Mr.. Olander knows
this, but is was a family affair.
Mr.. Olander says that if the critics of
unionism are substantially right, "then we
must readjust our attitudes accordingly be.
cause already a dozen states have enacted
restrictive laws and national restrictive laws
are impending.
Like all other unioneers, he thinks all re
%strictive laws are unwise and that is where
l top him the first time. I top him because
he admits that some unions have not shown
proper consideration for the public in the
exercise of powers conferred on them. and
because those restrictive laws were adopted in
N-ANS oS&O1o o44NS NIllA aot / IL
cess" which all the professional unioneers and
the politicians on their side so stridently ad-
mlre when 1t operates in their favor. The
people" passed those laws and, if they are
''anti-labor," as of course they aren't, that
is the peoples will.
MIR. Olander says the unions must reform
voluntarily and say they won't and he knows
they won't and that he defeated his own pro
posal by his negative attitude in the imminent
presence OF outrageous local union conditions
IN his own particular Jurisdiction all these
years. When l refer to his jurisdiction, / don't
mean that he had official powers to depose
the filthy things who abused the rank and file
and betrayed the labor movement in Chicago.
But he is a man of standing there and if he
had made himself heard against such vernair
10 or Is years ago, reform might have been
accomplished from within and the people
would not have found it necessary to impose
the reforms from without.
On this point, some of us will recall that
when Roosevelt was running his first expert.
ment in fascism, known as the N. R. A., old
Hugh Johnson justified compulsion over 90
per cent of the business and industry of the
nation, which didn't deserve compulsion, be.
cause the 'chiseling 10 per cent? would take
advantage OF any voluntary system and frus-
trate the whole scheme. 1 do not concede that
only III per cent of our unionism is unruly
and antl-social. l would say that not more
IL pei tSICI is run wisely ana CONSCIENTIOUS
ly. Joe Moreschi, the president of the hod-car.
riers, one of the worst unions in all respects,
claimed 800, 600 members, or subjects, during
the war. That is only one union, if you are
speaking or percentages, but it is, or was,
bigger than the upholsterer's, the pattern
makers, photographers, elevator construct
ors, widget-benders and a dozen other small
unions combined.
Having taken an elaborate Epworth
League windup with his admonitory going-on
about reform from within, Mr.. Olander comes
out OF his kinks and throws us a blooper.
He says the union movement has erred
in ignoring procedures upon the part of our
associates which we believe unwise."
Now, isn't that a dainty way for a Scandi-
navian bucko-mate to refer to the murder of
MIR. Ziegler and the brutalities and shake.
downs of not merely the underworld interlopers
but the old-style profe ssionals, the Fays and
Boves and Mike Boyles, and the mob actions
of the c.. I. o. terrorists?
Procedures upon the part of our as
%soclates which we believe unWise." says he.
You would think Mr.. Olander never heard of
such words as murder, vandalism, felonious
assault, extortlon, and Instruction.
Then he says, lit is time to speak cut
and you expect a below and all you hear is
a beep. And, damme, Captain Bligh, if l don't
THINK the beggar is having US on when he
says that it is the enemies of unionism who
regard the workers as a subordinate Glass;
Who is it who calls American citizens '.the
common MANI" Henry Wallace. Is he an.
enemy OF the union movement? Who refer
red to them as 'labuh'' and delivered them
by millions into the power of Sidney Hillman,
the communists, the gangsters and the Dave
Becks and Walter Reuthers? You remember
who and if you can't think Of a more top-lofty
snob off-hand we will let him do for a champion
at all weights until you do. I tell you, anyone
who bundles all the dignity, the human int
ty. and the personality of all the American
citizens who work into such rhetorical laun-
d~ry-bags as 1.-THE common man." .1abuh, .
and 1.-The Masses thinks of them effectively
as interiors.
And if you think professional unioneers
don't look upon these human beings as men,
bers of a lower order you ought to frequent
a few of their big conventions and study the