The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-20
As PeglerS Sees 1t
By TBR PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features Syndicate

NOOPSA " y mig ICatulC III
AS I was saying, Frank Murphy. of our
his separate opinion in the Harry Bridges
deportation case. Boy, did he give us MAN.
my!"
You know what he said? You could better
} play it on a horn than read it.
The majority opinion was raw enough and
it wasn't such a big majority at that be-
cause Jackson took a walk and Roberts and
Frankfurter dissented with the late Chief
Justice Stone. But they didn't say Congress
had no constitutional right to pass a law to
deport alien member of organizations which
advocate the violent overthrow of OUR govern
ment, and Murphy wanted to say that and
he did.
THE record in this case,'' he said to start
off, will stand forever as a monument OF
mans intolerance of man. Seldom in the his
tory of this nation has there been such a
concentrated and relentless crusade 10 deport
an individual because he dared to exercise
the freedom that belongs to him as a human
being and that is guaranteed to him by the
constitution" He said there was not the slight
est evidence to show that the communist
party seriously and imminently threatens to
uproot the government by force or violence"
Reading that and having read Earl Brow.
der and Stain you wonder when the guy is
going to cut out the Glowing and get serious.
L oNPpOSS Will AN ~ IAN go =
serious or imminent he means you can't put
a fellow in jail or under a peace bond for
threatening to kill you but have to wait until
he outs with his gun and draws a bead. Wait
until all the preparation work is done and
the strikes and riots and vandalism have put
US on our back and then. when they actually
come at us with atom bombs, call out the
police. Just what Murphy would hold in the
actual presence of such hostilities l try 10
conjecture from his bashfulness in the violent
anarchy of the CLIO. under communist di-
rection in Michigan when he was governor.
Old Red ran an awful fever against power
full economic and social forces which for
more than a decade had combined with
public and private agencies to deport Har-
ny Bridges, the boss of the ports on our Pa
cific coast. The idea seemed to be that pow
erful" forces, though patriotic and legal in
their composition and methods, have no right
to try to make the government enforce the
law against an alien, which is all that they
did in this case. They thought Bridges was
a communist and they certainly weren't just
picking OH a fellow without any justification
at all because two federal courts, a noted
examiner and the Encouragement all agreed
with them. Weak forces couldn't have done
this and, if it comes to a question Of power
well Bridges had an organization behind him
thai was even stronger. That really was an
organization. You ought to see some of the
campaign literature that was turned out on
his behalf.
Louis Francis Budenz, the backslid bolo who
used to be managing editor Of tn e Daily
Worker in New York and as red as a fire
engine before he got religion and came up
bowling 'hallelujah.' writes in his book,
This Is My Story thai in 1910 and l941,
Sin the battle around Harry Bridges, the COM
munists were enabled to enroll thousands of
people who were completely ignorant of the
red manipulation of their thinking. Why do
l know? Because | was very close to the
publicity end OF Bridges defense as the arti-
cles in the Daily Worker will show
You can have my undivided share Of
Budenz.
But don't get wrought up about Murphy.
We can't get rid of him unless Truman might
bait him off the court with some enticement
as Roosevelt did with Jimmy Byrnes and you
only run up your blood pressure when you
thing that you just can't do anything about.
This opposition Red wrote, has been as
persistent as it has been undaunted by tempo.
rary setbacks." See the kind of guy you are
dealing with, and him on the Supreme Court.
at that? What's wrong with persistency and
dauntlessness anyway? That Army OF ours
now was a little on the persistent and daunt.
less side and W. thought pretty well of them
for that, and a dam good thing for Red Muir
ply they were, too, Or those nazis would have
given them what we gave their boss
ldeologians.
And what is the duty of public agencies
anyway. if not to try to have the law on
people who seem to deserve some treatment,
as Bridges certainly seemed to? The cops are
a public agncy and if they get an idea that
some fellow is fixing to blow a safe and
their evidence is good enough to stand up
fall the way to the Supreme Court, / think
it would be very nice to put him under glass
and give him a trial. But Red, he doesn't
think so. Well. difference of opinion, l guess.
Then he says, industrial and farming or
CARNATIONS, veterans groups and city police
departments all joined in an unremitting ef-
turn. What's wrong with that? Where is the
law that says industrial and farming organi-
cations mustn't engage in works which they
deem to be patriotic? Aren't veterans Ameri-
can citizens and how come they are louses
if they organize to protect the good old sacred
Iheritage but communists can organize to de-
stroy it provided they aim to blow it up
some day but not right now because then the
danger would be Imminent as our friend
says? l am not saying Bridges was fixing to
blow it up. l am saying the communists are
and as soon as they can, and if that time
isn't soon that isn't their fault
1 think l might tell you some more about
this decision and other decisions of the feder-
al courts lately which not only make 1t i'm
possible to protect ourselves from commu-
|nists within our country, provided they say
thew aren't communists, but make it tough
for anyone outside of Congress, where they
7 have congressional immunity. to spot a com
, munist and warn the public, provided he says
he isn't. We are in a fix, l tell you.
~ Incidentally, Bridges and some friends OF