The Wilmington morning star., 1947-01-09
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Incl

QuITy WHICH 1aSLeQ ABOUT tulee years, oPSSioA
agents of the Treasury were able to present
information to the federal grand jury in New
ark. N. j., indicating that Joe Fay, the plug
ugly gangSter boss of the operating engineers
union of the American Federation OF LABOR,
had concealed income of $197, 900 in 1910, l941
and 1912.
On Dec. 10, the grand jury indicted Fay,
charging that he had evaded taxes OF Sl3|,o4o.
On Dec. 10, the Associated Press reported
from Newark that the case was assigned to
Judge Thomas F.. Meaney and that Edgar
H. Rossbach, the United States district attor-
ney, had announced that the trial was set
to begin about Jan. 6.
Fay, though a rough, brutal hoodlum and
a drunkard, is also one of the most audaclous
and resourceful political racketeers in the
new deal-underWorld axis. He is a henchman
of Frank Hague the Jersey boss, and an init
mate social and political companion OF most
of the influential judges, public prosecutors
and other officials Of the Hague machine IN
Newark and Jersey City. He has lived in
Newark for years and is a member OF the
biggest social club Of Hague politicians. His
influence is so strong that the average harm
less citizen, drawn FOR jury duty, might be
put in fear Of ruinous reprisals OF one KIND
or another, including physical violence.
Judge Meaney, named to hold the trial, is
an old, intimate friend and political protege
of Fay's friend, Hague. He owes his appoint
ment to Hague, an appointment which aroused
strong objections in the United States Senate
before he could be confirmed. Altogether, the
objections to Meaney's confirmation were
such as to justify the most attentive scrutiny
of his conduct of the Fay trial if he should
fail to disqualiey himself. Certainly Meaney
could not impair public confidence in the hon
esty of the trial and the court if he should
decide to let the Fay case go to some other
judge, preferably a man from some other
state.
Mr.. Rossbach, the district attorney, also
is a member of the Hague political group. 1t
will be up to him to present the case against
Fay and, Of course, to take any precautions
that he believes necessary and wise, to pre-
vent tampering and to exclude from the box
jurors who have relations with Fay or might
be sensitive to temptation or pressure. The
possible ramifications of influence are inf
mite. A juror might be in debt to a bank con-
trolled by the machine. He might have a rela-
tive in the employ of Fay or the machine
He might be a contractor or closely related to
a contractor who could be ruined by union
trouble from Fay.
Such are possibilities that a prosecutor is
supposed to explore carefully in selecting a
jury.
In this case, the Judge, the prosecutor and
the defendant all are members of a notorious
political organization. The defendant is a des-
pSIdLo, IulIlIeSS anu powerful pOlltICldH WHO
has been fighting FOR three years to keep out
of prison. And he is known to have the SYM
pathy of a circle of cynical and powerful old
gang politicians who say they feel he has
been punished enough by his worries and the
expense OF his previous trial in New York
and the appeals.
In New York county, Fay was convicted
in the state court Of extortion and conspiracy
through a shakedown of contractors who built
the De1eWaro an11edurt This uyar a S300 000
600 job financed largely by federal money.
Notwithstanding this fact and the obvious in
terest OF the federal government in such ex-
%tortions, adding to the taxpayers cost, sue
cessive attorneys general in Washington took
no action. He was tried in New York by Dis
trict Attorney Frank S. Hogan who encount-
cred political influence Immediately. and ma
neuvers to bring the case before a favorable
judge. In the end, Governor Tom Dewey set
tied that by causing the state attorney gen
eral to assign a judge from upstate.
Fay and James Bove were convicted after
a trial in which Hogan had to contend with
the reticence of contra ctors who may have
been afraid Of union trouble on future jobs
or may merely have reckoned that the eXtor-
ton cost them nothing irasmuch as the ex-
pense Of Fay's graft and Bove's vas passed
along to the common man. As a group, the
contractors did not distinguish themselves as
courageous and conscientious citizens. Nor are
they. Bove has given up and gone of to prls-
On to serve his New York term but he is
still under indictment in the federal court in
New York on a charge of failure to pay income
taxes OF $194, 900 on his share of the extorted
money. He was a vice president of the Hold
Carriers and Common Laborers Union, which,
like Fay's operating engineers, has been no.
toriously infested with thieving gangsters. Re-
Gently, the national office of the Hod-Carriers'
union announced that it had hired a public
relations COUNSEL to decontaminate its reputa-
ton. That, however, is merely a venture into
propaganda. The only reforms that have been
wrought were accomplished by initiative news
paper reporting and Mr.. Hogan and his staff.
After losing all his appeals in New York,
Fay appealed again to the Supreme Court of
the United States on the ground that the blue
ribbon jury which convicted him was illegally
selected. A favorable decision would have the
effect of a prison break by some of the most
ruthless criminals in captivity, convicted by
blue ribbon juries.
The parallel between the situation of Judge
Meaney in the Fay case and that Of Justice
Hugo Black of the Supreme Court in his spec
tacular fight with Justice Robert Jackson, last
summer. is not complete, but there are points
Of similarity. Justice Jackson accused Justice
Black OF questionable ethics in failing to dis
qualify himself in a case in which a ~litigant
was represented by a former law partner of
Justice Black. Though no such interest is
known to exist between Fay and Judge Mean
ey, their political kinship and common loyalty
to Fay's patron, Mayor Hague, are plain.