The Wilmington morning star., 1947-07-09
As Pegler Sees 1t
Bv PEGLER

NEW YORK, July 8.-Most union publica-
tons are much less honest In their dealings
with their members than the Pattern Makers
Journal, even though the Journal has had the
unWise effrontery to tell the rank and lie
that there is an issue OF lie and death III
the new provision which forblds unions to
use their money to pay for campaign litera-
ture and other political propaganda. The pat
tern makers are not men who cut paper
dolls into dress patterns. They are an arls-
~tocratic trade of great skill who make wooden
facsimiles of ships propellers and mockups.
There are only about 5000 of them in the
country. Because they are so few, they have
no political influence in the A.. F. OF A'
which is too bad because they are cleaner
and more dignified thar any other A. F. of L.
union in the country. l doubt that they are
so stupid as to believe the propaganda fHeo
at them in their journal.
The International Tt amster for years has
been a personal publicity organ for Dan
Tobin, the president. There are times when
you might think Tobin was Gods understudy.
l just took down a number at random. 1t is
the Nov, 1914, issue. This is the table Of con
tents:
'Truth about the Statler brawl; naval Off
GERS drunk, witnesses say; Roosevelt and
Tobin to broadcast; Dewey would kill social
security; picture Of Dewey crashing a picket
line, COuSCIlpLlOu Is eSoC44I1ol W pCoSC, o'O'-
helped business-into bankruptcy; New Jersey
ALL unions unanimous for Roosevelt"
The Statler brawl occurred at drunken
rout given for Roosevelt by Tobin in the
1914 campaign. 1t was described appalllngly
by Merriman Smith, the U. P.'s White House
man, in his book two years later but was
not described at all by the press at the
time. Smith told US that some OF the team
sters were disgustingly drunk but we find
Mr.. Tobin's personal organ withholding thai
fact from the 900, 900 members of the union
who are compelled to pay for the paper.
Roosevelt and Tobin to broadcast needs
no emphasis, but Dewey would kill social
security was a deliberate lie intended to
deceive the members and to enhance IoDln's
personal position with Roosevelt.
The picket line which Dewey crashed was
planted by a union which for years has been
dominated by communists and Dewey was
merely keeping a routine engagement: On the
other hand. Tobin, himself, had published a
general order in the guise of an editorial
entitled "Go through those picket lines" This
was a service to his chief, Roosevelt, when
Roosevelt was annoyed by strikes in the war
industries. The political quality of the otner
two titles needs no elaboration.
The teamsters seem to be the dumbest OF
all our people.
Throughout the war the Pilot. of the Ma
LO06l MdTlL1IQe OIllOu U LAC ~. !. o, S"ANN
many pictures, seldom fewer than five, OF Joe
Curran, its president who then followed the
line of the communists. The Pilot was his
own paper and Curran could DO no wrong
It formerly reported outra geous penalties
against American seafaring men, some OF
whom were set on the beach for w years
for petty alterations with other sailors, usual
ly Negroes, the sort of friction that constant
ly occurs in close quarters under tension. The
union yuac 90 Martial To Negroes that if came
to be known among sailors as a colored mems
and communists union in which a non-com-
munist white man must watch his step very
carefully. These court-martial penalties were
so outrageous that presently the Pilot STOP
ped printing them.
In New York, Trade Union Service, Inc,
owns Is union papers, published by and 1or
Is separate c. I. o. unions whose pohcles
seldom conflict with those of the Leading
spokesman for the communist movement. The
statement of ownership required by law mas
revealed that the stockholders are Corllss
Lamont, the son of Thomas Lamont, OF }. r.
Morgan and Co.; James Waterman Wise, the
son of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, FREDERICK
Vanderbilt Field and William Osgood f1eld.
All these have been cited many times by Inc
Dies committee and its successor, the new
permanent committee on un-Amerlcan actlV-
tiles. Corliss Lamont seems to be on excellent
terms with his father, whose position thus
seems to me to have been ambiguous ana
mysterious for several years. The FIELDS
represent Vanderbilt money, a tired fortune
left from the enormous and more or less
ill gotten money of a decadent ana pathetlc
family, noted more for its casual marriages
and shocking divorces in the last forty years
than for any other activity.
The fifteen union papers publlshed by La
mont's son and his associates sell them for
e.a~a Yiolyo1 h. TX oapfc and in most OF
these unions the members are, directly or IN
directly, compelled to receive this propaganoa
as an obligation of membership. thus, the
published propaganda is a penalty ln1lcted
on these workers by the union policy OF the
Roosevelt government and this is a condltlon
which the Pattern Makers League would now
defend and in the future maintain.
A few weeks ago, I quoted a fulsome tribute
from Dave Beck to Dave Beck, who, in the
northwest is Dan Tobin's satrap over the team
sters and, in the country at large, is Tooln,s
rival. $780,.
One of Beck's group tried to kill off Tobln's
national publication during the war, ostensloly
as a patriotic gesture to save paper. Iooln
continued it because this was a fine medium
for his own propaganda and the mailing hst
remains an up-to-date roster of the member
ship and record of their addresses. AS a paper
it is of course. substandard, paid for by the
rank and file. Of course it never prints a
word of disrespect for old Dan and up to this
time Beck has been likewise immune. How
ever, now that Beck's rivalry for the presi-
dency is coming into the open it may be
necessary for old Dan to find some fault
with his former protege. Meanwhile, however,
Beck's own paper, the Washington Teamster,
has been building him up and there is no
apparent limit to the fellows gall, or to the
impositions that the rank and file will, or
must, submit to.
OF course, some private publishers, CAPT
talists. have extolled themselves and as
surned o~racular qualities and angelic virtues
in print. The difference, however, is that they
do this either with their own money Or with
borrowed or promoted money. That is private