The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-01
AS Pegler Sees It
Copyright by King Features Syndicate,
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

b1 ULSxOnOOA I0AG
Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
For more than three months, committees
Of the House and Senate in Washington heard
again the story OF the cynical, corrupt and
brutal administration Of the unions of the
United States. Claiming to be 1.-The labor
movement" these unions have been, in fact,
oppressors and betrayers of labor and enemies
Of the people. The powers conferred on the
bosses of the movement nave been used to
~terrorize and sell out the workers and to prey
upon the whole community. The facts present.
ed to these committees had been known for
years and there was no actual need to con-
sumo the time of the committee members and
the peoples money recording them once
more.
The excuse for all this was that the people
needed a refresher course in the perfidy Of an
org anized and privileged system of terror,
graft and native fascism far more dangerous
than the Ku Klux Khan of the tWenties, so
that they would be ready to accept laW to
subdue it. Many volumes of testimony have
been printed and these will be put away on
shelves and not one single individual will ever
take the time and trouble to read them
through. They are a repetition of an oft-told
record that is a disgrace to the country and
a complete disqualification of the political
takers, by mistaken courtesy called labor
leaders, who contrived the outrage or SUI
fered it to continue.
The people needed no refresher course in
this rotten phase OF the history of the Repub-
lie. 1t was all fresh In their minds when they
elected the republican Congress last fall as
a protest against those very conditions. 1t is
more important than the recent black mar.
kets and the shortages Of food and apparel,
as the returns showed in states where the
voters overwhelmingly adopted explicit laws
against the closed shop and other oppressive
customs.
There are no labor statesmen in the United
States nor any qualified spokesman for
Labor The very best of the bosses are only
union politicians, Warily OR boldly pitting their
thousands of subjects against other battalions
or against the whole of society in contests for
personal power, Importance and money. Any
boss unioneer who demands or defends the
closed shop and the check-off Of dues thereby
discredits himself by the implicit admission
that his members are not loyal followers but
subjects who would escape this thralldom if
Congress or the state legislatures would let
them and would not pay dues ii they didn't
have to
A forgotten point in connection with the
conduct of all the boss unioneers is the duty
OF every citizen 10 report to the police or the
district attorney evidence Of unlawful conduct.
In business, a man who knowingly permits a
crooked subordinate or associate to steal and
helps him to cover up his crime is chargeable
as an accomplish or accessory and may be
sent to prison. A citizen who knows that his
neisnbor has committed a holdup and fails
to report his knowledge may be prosecuted.
Recently, in the unimportant field of profess
sional sport, men have been hauled before the
governing authorities and prosecuting agencies
in the status Of suspects and have been ruled
out Of competition in disgrace merely because
they failed to report Immediately that they
had been invited to accept brides.
Compare the standards here with those of
the men who are falsely honored as statesmen
and leaders of American labor. Far from up
holding the law and the authority OF govern
meut, they have uniformly lived by the code
Of the underworld, which holds the squealer in
contempt lest squealing become general prac-
tice to the jeopardy of them all.
In all the prosecutions of gangsters and op-
orators Of the shakedown against both work
ers and employers, not one union official of
national rank has come forward to give in
formation that almost all of them possessed.
And the prosecutors, politically fearful lest
they be smeared as labor-baiters, have re-
Trained from calling them as unwilling wit
nesses. Does anyone think it possible that the
executive council of the American Federation
Of Labor, the rulers of the c. I. o., were
ignorant of the rackets conducted by Joe Fay,
OF the operating engineers, of the brazen loot
ing by the permit racketeers on the war con-
struction jobs or the treacheries of COM
munists?
The duty OF citizenship is not waived by law
in the case OF the union official. Indeed, if
these men are actually devoted to labor as a
cause, they have an additional obligation to
keep wicked men out and inform the public
authorities against crooks and traitors. They
owe a special obligation to the people whose
lives they rule to protect the name of labor
from scandal and general public enmity. But
they are not devoted to labor as a cause. They
are devoted to unionisrn as a predatory rack
ct and a political game. They and the corrupt
regime that gave them their great power
boldly placed unionism in a position of i'm.
moral and often lawless hostility to the work
ers and the people. Their own system of union
courts is as cynical and cruel as the people
courts OF Adolf Hitler. They deny the Ameri-
can citizen access to the public courts in
union disputes until all the complicated ave-
nues and blind alleys of union jurisprudence
have been explored, meanwhile prosecuting
poor petitioners for ordinary justice and de-
laying matters until the statute Of limitations
has run against them in the public courts.
And the public courts, corrupted by the new
deal. have upheld all this as justice and good,
technical law.
Every professional unioneer knows these
Aaets' Every INFORMED writer on pontlcaI
matters knows them. although many shysters
among them, processing to be liberals, never
mention such evils and attribute the great
pubic anger to some mysterious power Of the
soulless corporations.
Since the coming of the iniquitous Wagner
act, devised only to enslave labor under a
new set of bosses, the great takers have
aoloed the growth of conditions SO horrid that
'he institution OF unionism has become a hated
loppressor. 1t could have been a handsome and
Respected element Of American society and
; po1..lcs 'oaay had honest men been available.
me real enemies OF American labor are the