The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-21
As Pegler Sees 1t
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
by King Features Syndicate, Inc

Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, 1nc.)
We have seen a sharp revolt against COM
munism in the United States in the last few
months, but it will come to nothing because
that Supreme Court of ours is against us.
Several unions of the CLIO. have made sounds
and motions as of indignant patriots suddenly
aroused and throwing the traitors out. l think
this is all a fake except in the Connecticut
area of the mine. mill and smelter workers
where a bunch of Catholics, the most pug
nacious of them being gentlemen OF irish
parentage have been running a beautiful fight
and enjoying it heartily. The other rebellions
seem to me to be barneys, as We call mock
cries in the prizefight business, and [ think
the idea is to take some of the neat OFT
the public Indignation which was expressed
in the elections returns last fall, and cool OFT
Congress also.
President Truman bluntly recognized COM
munism as an i n t e irrational conspiracy
against free governments in his message on
the situation in Greece and the Balkans, but
when he tries to put up some defenses on the
home front the Supreme Court will blast them
down. Lewis Schwellenbach, the Secretary OF
Labor, belatedly announced his conclusion
that the communist party should be outlaWed
and that communists should be barred from
office in unions and public office, too. But we
can't do that either. If We can some COM
mllllStS OuL o. le SOVcl IN oSSoooS |HNJ
are communists, and they say they aren't
that court will say we had no right to and
make us hire them back. If we actually fire
them for that but state some other reason
Just for a stall, they can say we are Just
dam liars, like those yaps who went running
to the government yelling that an employer
refused to hire them because they were union
people, and not only made the companies hire
them but collected back pay from the time
when they applied for work.
The controlling decision here is the one that
was given in the Harry Bridges deportation
or habeas corpus case. 1t is a terrible fix
we are in, but any way you slice 1t this de-
cision means a person isn't a communist I'M
less he admits it and, as SchWellenbach dis
covered the other day, lone Of the first things
a communist learns is to deny that he is
one" Bright fellow. that SchWellenbach A
little slow but bright.
and little wonder because most OF them are
the ~craziest gibberish that ever smeared up
good white paper and you can drive yourself
nuts seeing how those mental contortionists
prove that what is amt and vice versa. But
this is one that everybody ought to read be-
cause then we would all know just where
we stand.
Not to review all the steps in the case.
we find it up in the Supreme Court on an
appeal which was to decide whether Bridges
had been a member of, Or affiliated with,
any group that believes in, teaches and SO
forth, the overthrow Of this government by
force or violence. Congress had passed a law
providing that an alien who has been a mem
Der or affiliate of any such outfit since his
entry might be deported. Bridges had lost
the decision after a long inquiry by Judge
Charles B. Sears, Of New York, who is not
one of your panoplied political ambulance
chasers Of the new deal, ivy league, but one
Of the greatest judges in the country, % years
on the bench with II years of appellate work.
Judge Sears found that the communist par
ty was an organization of the prescribed type,
that the Marine Workers Industrial union was
ditto, that the M.W.I.U. was affiliated with
the party, that Bridges had been "affiliated'
with both and that he had been not merely
an affiliate but a member of the communist
party in the United States.
Francis Biddle. the Attorney General at that
time. agreed with Judge Sears and ordered
Bridges deported.
Well, Bridges lost again in the federal dis
trict court and the United States circuit court
of appeals on this habeas corpus thing and
finally up ne goes to the Supreme Court. So
there the boys sharpened their little hair
~splitters, and what do you know?
They decided that 'affiliate'' is a word Of
such subtle meaning that they don't know
exactly what it does mean themselves except
mat IL QlQn I mean blluSes. ne olu I al
%filiate." He just "cooperated" in lawful &C
%tivities, but not in unlawful activities OF for
unlawful detectives.
incidentally, the hearings had taken three
months and run up a record of 1890 printed
pages, so you see what is going to happen
in contested cases where even President Tru-
man thinks somebody is a and
we try to fire him out of a government job
or, if he is an alien, try to deport him.
and he says: prove it."
Another funny thing about this case was
that they gave Bridges a hearing In an ad-
ministrative proceeding whereas right along,
as a matter of routine, when a regular -Anerl-
can citizen who never caused any trouble and
did his stuff in the war and all like that
comes up asking for justice in similar clrcum-
stances, they say, don't bother us, can't you
see we are busy. The rule is that they don't
have to give you a hearing if the labor re-
lations gang gives you a rotten deal abso-
lutely contrary to the facts. They can but
they don't have to and, as the late Chief
Justice Stone wrote in the minority opinion,
usually they tell you to be absent and shut up.
If you want the legal language of it, Chief
Justice Stone wrote 1--WE cannot rightly re-
1ject the administrative finding here (you
know, Judge Sears report and recommen-
dations) and accept, as we do almost each
week, the findings of administrative agencies
which rest on the tenuous support of evidence
far less persuasive than the present record
presents"
Justice Frank Murphy really did tear his
shirt. He got so emotional that he wrote a
separate opinion in favor of Bridges, way up
in high c. He even said there was no evil
dence that the communist party seriously
and immineatly threatens to uproot the gov
eminent by force and violence"
Incidentally all of them seemed to think
that force and violence are solely physical,
but : guess the boys don't get around much
and don't know the terrible force of the pres
sure and coercion that the communists exert
all the time or understand the violence"
done to the American system OF government,
which doesn't always necessarily involve
bloodshed although often it does.