The Wilmington morning star., 1947-12-02
AS Pegler Sees It
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1947, King Features
Syndicate, Inc.)
Mrs. Villa Mitchell,
n

magazine of the teamsters' union, you
write about the poverty and anxiety of
mother of four children, between 8 and IS,
whose husband, union driver, works II
or IL hours a day for about $55 week.
assume that Mr.. Mitchelps take-home pay
is much less. You said you were little
better off than some other teamsters' fam
lilies because your rent was only $3.50
month and the average pay of the others,
on the word of the union, itself, was only
$50.
! This is a queer advertisement for un-
ion whose high-salarled royal group, cour-
! tiers, mobiles, and intrigants, some OF them
fat and pompous and others lean and hun
cry, are always boasting of their price
less services to the men who drive these
box cars over the icy highways -
- the likes of MIR. Mitchell. If they have
done so much to earn their enormous pay
and lavish expenses and the loyal attach
ment of the little people, as Mrs. Roose-
velt called all you Mitchells again, recent
| ly, that service doesn't show in your own
report on the financial condition of your
family. You don't need union these days
to get your pay up to $55 week for five
days of II or II hours.
I will quote from your report on the
teamsters and contribute some discussion
| later.
"My husband hasn't had a raise Tor
more than 18 months and prices were go
| ing up all the time. We have what you
would call five meatless days week. On
the other two days, we have steak or roast;
The rest of the time it's cold cuts ano
months. We use only margarine. The chill
dren come first so if there is any money
to buy clothes, they get it. My husband
| hasn't bought an overcoat in four years.
My winter coat is three years old In the
last three years l have bought three
dresses, We have been lucky that none of
us has been really sick, | try to doctor
the children but I call a doctor whenever
| | get worried Outside of an auto ride to
Maysville; KY, occasionally, we don't
have much recreation. We haven't gone to
movie or show for long time. We
have had to turn in our war bonds and
get a loan for a frigidaire so we could
| keep food cold and my husband needs the
car to get to work. My husband will
have to get a good raise soon or we will
60 under. We used to be able to get enough
food with our money. That was before they
took off price controls. Prices will have to
be controlled again and wages will have
to be made high enough so everyone can
at least live without worry
| You tempt me to wander off in an argu-
ment on price control but I will Just lay
it down and continue. Price controls no
longer controlled prices. The black mar
ket had taken over and there was no meat
at all. YOU will remember if you think
back, at ceiling prices and the black mar
ket prices were awful Then, President
Truman himself, just about election time,
wiped out most of the controls IN vain
grab for votes and thereafter Congress, not
the National Association of Manufacturers,
repealed the O.P.A., and it was Congress
Also not the N. A. NJ, that passed the
Taft Hartley law not once but twice. Your
union bosses in the International Teamsters
| and other publications will tell you that the
N. A. M. passed the Taft-Har|ley law but
| it was Congress that passed it, twice.
When you write that wages will have
to be made high enough so everyone can
at least live without worry, Mrs. Mitchell,
YOU are speaking of a job for your hus-
bands union, not Congress. What else is
the union for What kind of union is this
whose members have to put in II or IL
hours day and still can't show their
children butter in 18 months.
Cincinnati-that is where old Brockey
Farrell. the fifth president, who died
/ in October, ran an absolute dlctatocsnlp
over eleven teamsters' unions Tor z4-yeafs
by Tobin's appointment and IN all TN al
time wouldn't let the men hold union meet
ings and refused to account Tor millohs 9ns
of dollars in union money. And, finally,
when some of the boys got their nerve up
and sued in court, the upshot OF it all
was that the issue never was tried, the
facts never were revealed, and TOUR law
yers got $4,000 apiece of your money by
court order. Money that belonged to these
little Cincinnati locals, collected from the
miserable wages of men like MIR. Mitchell.
Money that might have been spent or
meat and butter for the table and clothing.
And one of the lawyers who got $4,000 was
Joe Padway, the general counsel OF the
American Federation of Labor and for the
teamsters' International
| That was a hot one on you rank and
| filers, wasn't it Your boys take their lives
in their hands to sue this grating old goat
and gambling house bum who was placed
over those thousands of family men, and
the details never came out to embarrass
him or the king who appointed him.
When the settlement was announced in
the royal court circular OF old king Dams
kingdom of almost one million subjects
with treasury of $17,0o0000 the old boy
pay $4,000 to his greedy pal, Joe Padway,
did he Nope. What you poor faceless nom
entities of the rank and file don't know
won't hurt you If they tell you such things
you might get to figuring how much butter
and meat that would buy.
cent publications. They say they give you
an accounting and you may be stupid
enough to believe them. But when you read
that attorney fees" were $68,755 for the
year 1947, do you ask for details? Do you
demand to know how much Padway got
from his old friend, Dan Tobin? Do YOU
know how much of it was spent to frus-
trate rank and files suing for their rights?
| Too much was spent even by Tobin's
own standards, because old Dan said in
his report to the teamsters' convention in
October that "the time is coming when we
may have to set up our own legal depart
ment,. employ two or three brilliant law
yers by the year who will travel through
the country and help our unions and local
1ouyvorc ~ -o~o'