The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-03
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY PEGLER

in Congress to abate the evils of our fascist
unionism are no better than tail-board quack-
cry. and you can't cure a cancer with salve.
Congress has not recognized the fact that
American unionism is a law and a domain
unto itself, and therefore hostile to the host
which it corrupts and devours.
This is the basic wrong and it can't be
corrected by such palliatives as the open shop,
the forbiddance of jurisdictional strikes and
laws to make the boss unioneers tell how
much money they take in and what they do
with it.
Under the Wagner Act and the union pro-
gram of the Roosevelt government, which
President Truman inherited, unions have pow
ers of discipline, punishment and taxation that
are not possessed by any branch OF the gov
eminent, national, state or local. Some of
these powers are pure fascism and there is
no doubt that if any national administration
ever tried to enforce the same laws, and i'm
pose corresponding punishments and taxes on
the people, we would have bloody revolution.
1t is repetition, of course, to point out that
the constitution of the Musicians Union
makes Jimmy Petrillo an absolute dictator.
He can suspend that constitution at will and
make up new laws and improvise punishments
as he sees fit. He can impose fines up to
S., 600 on individuals for any acts which he
disapproves, even though they are not for
hidden by the union constitution. If he thinks
a S., 600 fine isn't enough to break and drive
out a member he can raise it to $4,000 and
the public courts will sr.tain him by refusing
to look into the case at all, because it is
a private. internal affair of the union.
True, Jimmy says he does not exercise this
extreme power, but that is not the point.
The point is that he does possess this power.
He can exercise it.
No public court has authority TO improvise
crimes and the punishments to fit those
crimes. Hitler's peoples courts did. And we
all thought that was terrible. Yet, our own
national government compels American citi-
zens to join Petrillo's union and submit to
this condition.
Most of us by now have heard OF the De
Nile case. Cecil B. De Mile, of Hollywood,
refused 10 pay a political assessment Of ST
to oppose a referendum proposition on the
ballot in a public election.
De Mile personally favored the amendment.
He wouldn't pay 10 help defeat his own princi-
Piles. Therefore he was outlaWed and ruled
off the air. The assessment was not voted
by the full membership of the union. but that
makes no real difference. Even if SO per cent
had voted for it, no one man should be COM
PEELED to pay money to Illustrate his own
convictions at the public polls. Moreover, the
assessment might have been 81, 1000 or $l0.-
600 per member. No public law forbids such
assessments, in principle, SO any group Of
union bosses who want to defeat or elect a
candidate for president or governor here have
the authority to levy an ~overpoWering politi-
cal slush fund from citizens Of the opposition.
In the great unions of the garment industry
in the East, American citizens have often re-
celved written orders from headquarters to
turn out for political rallies for left-Wing can
didates. If they don't attend they are fined
81. The fine might as well be $50 Or $500,
once the validity of this coercion is conceded.
| n. $3.50 J.1-I -.I-
candidates and thus membership in a strong,
closed-shop union. ostensibly only a bargain
ing agent for wages, entails political sub
mission. Some OF the same unions had the
practiced effrontery to order American citi-
zens to contribute a days pay for under
ground work and relief in certain areas
Of continental Europe from which the union
bosses came.
1t is beside the point that all wage-earners,
through their income taxes and contributions
to the Red Cross and religious groups. al
ready were doing their bit for relief in Eu-
rope. The vital fact here is that if an Ameri-
can citizen must join a union or 60 hungry
and there is no doubt that he must-he
must still be allowed to decide what charities
he will support and not be compelled to let
some little gang of unassimilate dcontinental
higa-binders take his money out of his pay
envelope by force. He might have better uses
for a days wages in his own family.
Under our fascist unionism, in Boston, of
all places, an American workman with a
family was fired out of the Transfers Union
because he dared exercise his civic right 10
monwealth. Several member Of railroad
testify in favor of a proposed law in a legis-
lative hearing in the very capitol of the com
monWealth. Several member of railroad
unions have been similarly punished for sup
porting legislative proposals which the fascist
bosses opposed. The only remedy is to write
laws which absolutely forbid union bosses,
and even overwhelming majorities of union
memberships, to intrude in fields outside the
strictly limited legitimate purposes of labor
unions. Their business is collective bargaining
for wages and hours and the improvement of
working conditions. Beyond that they must
not go.
No law thus far proposed would deny un-
ions the right to levy fines Of outrageous
amounts. A few days ago, the Associated
Press reported from Hollywood that seven
movie employees had been fined $40. 300 each,
Or two years pay, for crossing a picket line.
II the victims decide to appeal they must
each post SIC, 300 before their appeals will be
heard. How many Americans have $40, 800 to
put up as a prior condition to the exercise
OF their right of appeal? How many public
courts would fine any working citizen $40. 300
for any offense? Yet there is absolutely no
limit in public law on the amount that any
union may fine a citizen. There is no limit
on initiation fees and one local of the Moving
Picture Employees Union, under Browne and
Bioff, the rackettters, actually charged S., 600
These are some of the things that have got
to stop and no law or bill in Congress or any
at them. ~
Editorial Comment