The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-06
As PeglerS Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1947, by King Features
Syndicate. Inc,)

~
Syndicate, Inc.)
William Green and other professionals Oh
the union movement, in their appearances
before congressional committees, have maze
the irrelevant and untrue statement tAa1
there is a hidden purpose by some unloenu-
fled force to destroy our unions by leglsla-
ton ostensibly intended only to place them
under wise restraints.
No such intention has been avoWed or re-
vealed anywhere in the hearings or III a
decade and more of proceedings Leading up 10
them. The only purposes that nave oee2
stated are legitimate. They are to dlsslpate the
labor monopoly now operated by ABOUT
Inn individuals who control key unions and
have the power to blackmail the entire Amer
lean people: to put down racketeerlnS by
notorious rascals to whom Green nlnseli EdS
openly given aid and comfort many tmeS;
and to reduce to reasonable size the treasures
that unions may amass, and FORBID the use
of this enormous money power to SWING eiec-
lions.
On this last point be it remembered that
such use of money by Soulless corporations
has been wisely forbidden by law, but that
in the last two years two eminent unioneers'
Whitney, of the Railroad Tralnmen, and room
of the Transfers, announced their intentions
to spend enormously to achieve results IN
public elections. If United States Steel or
The PENNSYLVANIA Railroad had made similar
| announcements the executives would have
been hauled before federal grand Jurles III
no time. Dissenting stockholders couIo nave
gone into court to restrain them from speho-
ing their money for political obJectlVes con-
trary to their own.
The individual members o. these two and
other great unions enjoys fewer rights and
powers under law than the individual holder
of a single share of stock in a large cor
p%oratioa. The stockholder can sell out and
go his way. If the worker quits the union
he can't work. The claim of the boss union
GERS that democracy prevails IN their coun-
ellis is true. but that is merely another con-
domination of democracy. BY a process OF
years this system has placed autocratlc pow
ers in the hands of the high executives. IL
we unwind it back through the resolutions
adopted along the line we find that IN most
cases this power is technically Justlfled by
the uniformed and careless votes OF none
tary majorities in odd meetings. AS OF now
it mounts up to autocracy, with the rank ana
file denied even recourse 10 the public courts.
1t is important, too, that Green, Whitney,
Tobin and many other rulers OF vast numbers
of American workers all have held their JOBS
much longer than Franklin D. Roosevelt
would have been president OF the Unlteo
States even if he had lived to complete ms
fourth term. Having built their tight and
mighty political machines within their UNI
ions having adopted a system OF nepotsm,
patronage and work similar to that OF our
public politics, they maintain themselves IN
office until they get too old to care any more,
or die Of old age. Many OF them control
absolutely groups Of workers scattered across
the land which are numerically larger IMAM
the respective populations Of many OF our
states. They have propaganda departments
To glorify them in official journals support
ed by the members who thus are required 10
pay for the opiates used to drug them.
The individual teamster, who may be an
18-year-old girl sorting bills OF ladlng IN a
warehouse. has no more access to Dan Ioon
or power to carry a legitimate, legal grew
ance TO a conclusion in the courts than an
individual, Werkaday citizen living II Jersey
City has to challenge the power OF FRANK
Hague. Long, professional experience has
equipped the clever men in the Key JOBS 10
stall divert and obstruct until the individual
worker with the rare gumptlon to pursue MS
rights either is lost in a wilderness OF teen
nicalities. broke and unable to pay lawyers,
or fired from the Job and bounded out OF the
community.
If he still persists, however, he may find
that by the process of delay he has pernltteo
the statute of limitations to run against MS
grievance, and thus discover the courtroom
barred to him. Yet the courts will not en-
terrain his complaint until he has exhausted
all remedies within the union.
This is altogether a great WlckednesS OIL
the American union movement and NOBODY
on the union side will assert that THIS re-
view is a false or misleading presentation.
Nobody on that side will undertake to show
that William Green or the executive council
of the A. F.. of L. ever has taken the initla-
tive against any of the spectacular scoundels
who have been exposed by these essays over a
ten-year period. Or that Philip Murray, the
president of the C. 1. o., ever challenged
such conditions when he was in a position TO
do so as an executive within the A. F. OF
L.. I maintain that, as stewards Of the rights
and interests of the workers, they all had a
moral duty to fight these evils.
Now. 1t being admitted that these are
familiar evils inherent in the American
union movement, we may consider Whether
that movement deserves to live. l beleve 1t
should be maintained until, In the course OF
human progress, we evolve some natural sue
cessor. The union movement is not sacred,
however, and only an ignoramus, obllvlous
of history, would say that 1t IS the ultlmate
and permanent thing. Many studlous union
executives understand this to be so and spec
ulate on the form that progress will bring
in years to come, after they are gone: y
1 contend that a system which enables a
few men to maintain themselves III these
governing Jobs for from 20 to 40 years, many
of them cushioned with special privileges
and royal if not dictatorlal powers. Is con-
trarv to our political nature and bad for the
unions themselves. To the argument that
they become more valuable with experience
I reply that # they were hired executives, re-
! movable for cause. that theory would be good
E,1t taey aren't hired. They are elected and
reelected and more often than not by a polit-
, ical process that the nation itself has nov,
rejected after one alarming experience.
, The most effective or promising prooosa1