The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-25
AS Pegler Sees It
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1s47, BY King Features Syndicate,

| By WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1s47, BY King Features Syndicate
Inc.).
NEW YORK, Aug "a. - He probably has
other plans, but, if not, Irving Mccain, the
lawyer for the congressional labor subcom
nittee, could get awful rich before snowfall
just by letting patriots shake the hand thai
popped Joe Padway on the snoot, for a dol
lar shake. There was a spiritual somewhat
in that pop. I might compare it to the sensa.
tlon that the baseball clients used to fee]
when the big Babe would pivot with sweet
grace on those canary ankles of his and the
ball would take off, unmistakably labeled a
home run before it had quite come loose
from the stick. I am hoping that the movies
were present at the committee hearings in
Los Angeles to catch the happy event with
sound.
I am not one to indorse the pop on the
snoot as regular repartee between counsel in
legislative hearings and before the bar, but
you wouldn't object too grimly, would you if
la fellow enjoyed this particular one this once?
would be willing to pay a small fine for
the pleasure.
They were having a go-around in connec-
ton with the union rackets in the movie in
dustry which Padway certainly should know
all about, for ne worked long time hand in
glove with three of the foulest verrnin in the
whole American Federation of Labor -
George Browne, Willie B;of and George
Scallse. Brown was an ideal labor leader to
this believing old fourflusher who has fatten-
ed on the toll and the sufferings of American
labor for Is years.
Browne was an ideal the dirty, theving
grog-head, and Willie Bioff, the old macksrel,
who naturally drifted into the Union business
from a reeking brothe} that he used to run
over on Halstead street, Chicago was mag.
nificent dynamo of human energy There was
nothing offensive about Willie that you can
discover in the record of old Padway's ora
tions to the underworld mob at their annual
conventions. But his dream prince was George
Scalise, also bargaining agent and traffic
manager for prostitutes in his earlier days
and also in the fulfillment of his career, a
client and dear personal friend of Joe Pad
way.
This was after Browne, Bioff and Scalise
had been promoted by the Capone mob to the
control OF the moving picture and building
service unions, and Browne had been boosted
into the executive council of the American
Federation of Labor itself There Browne
sat in the company of william Green. the
President, and old blubber-head Dan Tobin
the president of the teamsters, and old mush-
mouth Joe PadWay, who pretended they didn't
know a thing wrong about their rodent friend
and refused to lift hand or say a word to
convict him or the others even after it had
were monstrous crooks. The general executive
body of the American Federation of Labor is
comparable to the cabinet OF the United
States, and Pathways role was roughly equiv
alent to that Of the Attorney General. How
ever, there was this difference, that until I
started asking questions and digging up the
answers myself, he swung heavy prestige
in the U. S. A. He used to be referred to as
a 'Iabor spokesman, when he was actually
only the spokesman for the union bosses and
was drawing an enormous income for it.
When I caught Padway on the petition to
President Roosevelt for a full pardon for
Scalise he said he just thought man who
had committed boyish error - Scalise was
prostituting a girl tour with a carnival
when he was only 1S - that who had
erred as a boy shouldn't be penalized all the
rest of his life. That was Pathways story to
me- and although he admitted that he had
received fee of 81 900, he insisted that it was
legitimate pay from the union for drawing
up constitution. Scalise had the first and
last word about everything in the union, as
PadWay certainly smart enough to know,
Then looked up the constitution of the build
ing service union and discovered that it was
just the standard lodge-meeting trash and
yellow-dog stuff that all the union highbind-
ers use. Padway then said, oh, yes, but the
new constitutional provisions which he had
drawn up for the 81 900 had never been en-
bodied in the constitution.
After Scalise blew up and governor Tom
Dewey sent him to prison there was a scram-
BILE for the office records and out of the files
came a letter on the letterhead of Joseph
A. Padway, general counsel, American Fede-
ration of Labor, Tower Bldg, Washington, D.
C.. addressed to Scalise, president, and sa-
luting him as Dear George" it was dated
January 81, 1910, a few days after the ex-
pose, and it sympathized with Scalise and
abhorred Pegler.
vi +1na ,;I L
maintained in this labor movement for the
good you have done and the good you will
do. Remember, I am with you 100 per cent
You certainly count on me to help you
and 1 will consider it a privilege to do so.
With my esteem and good wishes, am your
friend (signed) Joe''
Padway certainly knows the angles of the
union laws, and he must have made millions
IN union law practice, but 1 have never
heard OF him representing any individual
American worker against a union boss or
racketeer. He has been a BOSNIAN all the
way
Since I divested him of that phoney char
acter OF spokesman for American labor, Joe
has been more cautious about shooting off his
louo mouth, but l guess he forgot himself
again. While l didn't suggest that Padway be
popped on the snoot want to shake the hand
that did it.
~, After the popping, Padway said that if
IAeSahn would step outside he would be 'torn
70 70 pleces' by the men he, Padway, had the
honor to represent
mat is in line with PadWay's concept of
manhood, the employment of goons to handle
issues OF personal honor. He was born abroad
ana ne seems never to have acquired the
american idea III these things But daresay
tnat II Mccain had stepped outside he nioht
have been torn to pieces at that by American
working stlffs in wild stfugsle for tn honorj
OF buying him 4 drink.