The Wilmington morning star., 1947-09-03
AS Pegler Sees It
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
E YORK, Sept. 2. The Taft-Hartley
law, adopted by the legislative body of the
American government. is represented by the
union politicians. gangsters and communists
and their parasites as a law to enslave labor.
1t should not be necessary to explain tina
the law is, on the contrary. an act of emanci
patton but, as to most citizens. it is neces
sary but futile. For all our spending on public
and private education. the American is. in
a phrase attributed to the late Harry Hopkins,
just too damned dumb. I do not recall thai
Hopkins ever repudiated this highly intelligent
estimate. Probably he did, because all edi-
torial writer's, all union bosses and all Roose-
velts know that whoever did say this said a
mouthful, but undertand how sensitive the
citizen is, and therefore flatter him outrage
ously all the time.
Roosevelt long ago organized a n d subsi-
died, both politica ally and financially. the par
ty auxiliaries whose powers would be i'm
paired by honest enforcement of the new law.
1t may be noted here that the Truman gov
eminent will not enforce it honestly or with
any other purpose nor in any other manner
except to discredit it. Having said that it
couldn't be enforced, both during the debates
and in the veto, Humans party would dis
credit themselves by proving that it can work.
This being the case. we may look for a
6SLS "a Wv " III SolCSI il lIS L4SAl
zenith Amendment and the Volstead Act. BY
melting and directing rebellion, probably at
some sacrifice of life, the Truman faction
and the unions would prepare for a time
when they should say TO the people that this
evil act only caused crime and disrespect for
all law and, therefore, must be repealed. The
mortality in riots would not embarrass the
feelings of any Well-trained politician. People
are born to die and We spent a certain
number Of lives teaching havseeds not to blow
out the gas. poisoning alcohol in government
la laboratories during prohibition and organizing
the CLIO. in the thirties. 1t is the wear
and tear of progress and experience on the
human race.
That such an old windbag as William Green,
the president of the A. F. and L.. could con-
tinue to do business as one of our two chief
'leaders" Of labor, calling on the oppressed
people and God to undo this awful thing is
proof that Hopkins was right. There is no
need on this day to review Green's conduct
in a long list of cases involving the rights
of the dumb, stupid citizen in conflict with
the powers and privileges of t h e political
unioneers. Invariably the citizen has been
licked, often with the penalty of ostracism
and joblessness. and the gangster colleagues
of Mr.. Green have been vindicated and re-
warded. All the favors from the government
have been directed to the union bosses and
their powers over the individual have been
made stronger. Today. even under the new
law, he has no guarantee that the union will
be compelled to respect the human rights
which the best minds Of the republic wrote
into the Constitution. Unions are the only au-
which have powers over the involuntary
member that are not possessed by the gov
eminent, itself. He may quit his church or
fraternity Or the volunteer fire department.
He never has to join in the first place. But
during the time of Roosevelt his right not
to 1Oin and his riOhf to unit a uniOn wore
destroyed by fire. gas, gun-shot and the tire
iron and chain. But so many Of the present
crop "' citizens were %prattling children then,
growing up to be the babbling adults OF today.
that few have the intelligence to know that
something important was taken away from
them by force and intimidation.
While so many of the present generation Of
voters were at war. many of them wasting
important years leering at Wacs and grading
golf-courses for Washington lawyers and new
deal columnlsts of the rank OF major Or better
in quaint far places Of the world, Roosevelt
was forging more letters at home in collision
with the Greens and Phil Murrays and the
John L. Lewises. A fetter is a poetic hand
cuff. Roosevelt found his political auxiliaries
unwilling to manufacture guns, jeeps and a
great many items of modish junk unless thew
were promised inflationary wages by which
to command the dumb gratitude of their sub
iects. SO he gave them absolute control of
the millions of American civilians engaged in
those lackadaisical pursuits generally known
as 'the wah effawt'' in which any man who
did one hours work in less than half a day
was subject to expulsion as a traitor to the
working class and a fascist undermining the
bright new world for which 'our brave boys"
were picking up cigarette butts in Alabama
and many young ladies were sacrificing their
sense of propriety if nothing more precious,
'everywhah in the world" He inflated wages
to millions of buns in factories and ship
yards. thus providing millions in dues and
fees for the boss-bums, and he established
the principle that work done or time wasted
by loafing after 5 p.m.. or on Saturdays, Sun
days or legal holidays was half again or
twice as precious.
The most naive and yet the most convincing
item Of the idiots creed by which the Greens,
Murrsvs. and LeWises and, of course Truman
and all his party, are melting the bovine re-
sentiment of the dumb American whom Hop
kins knew so well. is the proposition that the
Taft-Hartley law is bad because the National
Association of Manufacturers wanted it Or
even wrote it. In the first place, the NAM.
was not unanimous and the more cynical and
mighty members were we'll content to let
matters go along as they were gong under
the Wagner Act. If they have to pay a half
wit $23 a day to lay 200 brick or click an
electric button in a factory. and premium
rates for overtime. that is all right with them.
It was all right with them throughout the
war. All they do is scale their prices Accord
ingly and this means only that the dollar
buys less and that the dull. dumb disciple of
Harry Hopkins has to pay just so much more
for steak and new cars or more likely, do
without steaks or new cars. The NAM. didn't