The Wilmington morning star., 1947-09-18
AS Pegler Sees 1t
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

dicate, Inc.)
NEW YORK, Sept. II The b~artenders'
union, of Phoenix, Arizona, dissents from
nv eulogy of the late Pearl Bergoft, of
New York. who used to break strike on a
grand scale. 1 wrote that Mr.. Bergoff was
= fine strikebreaker and I intended to say
that he was a better American than the
sedentary goons of the union movement
who stunned the combat picket-lines and
even hired rats to terrorize peaceful Amer
leans in the night, especially women LETT
alone with their children.
Bereoff was not the kline who sat in
Washington directing a reign of terror as
the protege of a smirking Fauntleroy in the
White House who never in his life had
shown a masculine belly for a fight except
to swear at his nurse-governess.
Bergoff was a pink = haired, pugnacious
little fellow who learned strikebreaking by
hand and became a magnate in this often
laudable trade only by exceptional ability,
strict honesty and nerve.
In some cases, he performed valuable
public services. Unfortunately, just when
there was the greatest public need of his
fine talents, the whole might of the new
deal was arrayed against him on the side
of Roosevelt's political unioneers in remote
command of the violent instructions. Some
| governors shirked their sworn duty, ex-
planning that resistance would cause blood
| shed. A few years later, Adolf Hitler blam-
ed the Poles for resisting his invincible le-
giors and thus causing the war.
Primarily, the see of the ~bartenders' I'M
ion is the underworld Of thuggery, robbery
and prostitution. Many of the ancients of
the trade were agents and managers of
clients engaged in these sinful arts. That
was inevitable because public drinking re-
sorts lave ever been a twilight zone be-
tween the licit and the illicit. We have
IDao told 1xyoo m cIoL Norar Nv Window
tious journalists, that some of our modern
saloons are infested with purity and wholly
owned by total abstainers who reek of
charity, chastity and the simple virtues of
the domesticated husband. We may hope
this is true without quite believing that a
little stained glass and clerical collar would
convert a night club into a house of wor-
ship.
In later years, the bartenders' union has
widened it's embrace to include many foot
sore and disillusioned young women who
handle the blue-plate specials and sizzling
platterS for 15-cent tips and put UP with
impudence from the cooks and managers.
Most of them come from somewhere else.
Many a one pays parkage for a child in a
day nursery. Whether desertion is an occu-
pational hazard or hopping tables in lunch
rooms is the natural occupation of girls
who have learned the sad way that there
amt no good in men is not for decision
here. They are, these mattresses, on the
whole, an overWorked and pessimistic lot
and a union could be good for them. But
only recently a sad young woman wrote
me from California in a way to arouse
skepticism. She was working in a California
town for small pay and a scale of tips that
persuaded her that chivalry was dead. The
union gave her the alternative of joining
and paying her initiation fee and her first
dues, or being fired. She joined and paid
and then was fired anyway. AS a union
member in good standing, she was sub
ject to the locals rules. The rule was that
the newest member automatically went to
the bottom of the list. Jobs were scarce in
town. The girl who CHANGED to be on top of
the list and got the job was a dimpled
dumping on social terms with the business
agent. My correspondents room rent was
paid for one week in advance. Beyond that
her future was shapeless.
The family history of the bartenders' I'm
ion is not absolutely bad wherein it differs
from the great audacious rackets charter
ed to Joe Moreschi, president of the hod-
carriers, and Bill Maloney, president of the
operating engineers. Its late president, Mr..
Flore, was a sickly and frightened fellow
who dared not 60 near Chicago for years
to interfere with a racket run by some of
his own subordinates under the political
patronage Of Mayor Ed Kelly. Mr.. Kelly is
a fine man. Like the late Tom Pendergast,
OF Kansas City, he goes to church regular
ly. They had more important traits in COM
mon and Kelly still has.
"Pegler made no bones of saying that
Bergoff was in. the strike-breaking bust
ness" this editorial says. No bones what
ever. That was the point of the story. He
was a professional strikebreaker and one
Of the best that ever lived "He often had
as many as 10, 900 finks under his banner"
Yes, that is right. And if Bergoff had
been free to serve the public no unioneer
would have sent those gangs of Z%oot-suit
rats to raid the homes of American work.
men in Butte in 1916, to chase the mothers
dow the streets with their children and
to demoliSh the furniture and iceboxes with
axes and smash the windows.
Bergoff would have loved that job. He
would have killed four or five right there
and telephoned the coroner.
Again, the editorial says, when times
got tight and a big-business sucker was a
little hard to find, Bergoff deliber ately
manufactured a little labor trouble threw
a few stink bombs, beat up a few work.
men or set a few fires in order that Bergoff
and his Shiny rats might move in. Bergoff's
crews weren't trained workmen. They were
the very dregs of industry"
l earnestly doubt that Mr.. Bergoff did
foment fictitious union troubles in dull
liz L Woo Oil CIAASoA, ooIWOA Iiy OoS1-
ness man. His big clients had done bust
ness with him for years.
But certainly the officials of this bar
tenders local will admit that union rats
make a regular practice of planting pickets
and pulling off the jobs hundreds of work.
ers who need their wages, in order to
shake down employers. l hope these boys
aren't going to tell me they don't know
that. 1 guess they must hav heard Of my
old friend, Benny Pross, who runs the Ii
quor unions here in New York.
And, on the matter of crews who aren't
trained worknen, I recall the picket line
that marched in front of the Edgewater
Reach hotel in ChicaPn for almost sly