The Wilmington morning star., 1947-11-12
AS Pegler Sees 1t
Ry wEsTBROOK PEGLER

! q communist, have peeH dWaie M S la,,a
af those who doubted this right never o1e naye
& ~ s,io5 5;e+,,rhed over injustice in the trlals
and even less formal mockerles co!auoSse~ LV1.sor
| hv the unions under the monstrouS ""s"eA
| Act ,, ,,,he+ner he
When Congress asks man wne.ael 79s. .ns me
is communist, the question ac'uaaS I1n;ted
| "are YOU sworn enemy OF the olA'e"
States?" 4,o \rhonas
committee on un-American acuv1tleS a ilaa
proof that the witnesses actualS 81 tie
members of the communist parry y,s,',,,r;st az ,;s
nari1, .la,rT Is commonly believed to have legal
rr;ohi to exist in the nation whose oes.ruc. o1';.
t;e,, Nv treachery and force is the parry
n,rpose for existing. Some OF our Peopie ',r
think it is just cute or amusing ,t W,
quaint American way-tnat thls - ~ shows
that it is terrible folly. Those VINO neneve
The nartv should be allowed to exist re-
marlf with ioyial condescension TOR our
fears, 'we are big and strong enough ,,op ~
keep our political health and ignore suca
little infection" That is like arguing
fhat at't # is a good thing to pick up a few w
Germs in our bodies. The bugs are sman 1ns1
9nd few but that was so in Russia IN !Si1.
II has been so in all the other countrleS
which the Moscow conspiracy mas Gull
quered. 4 ~, ,.r+v
o,d n evecute the death sentence on those
Who ioin it. If the Constitution does not
authorize this penalty we can remedy tnat;
II is our Constitution and we nave loulio
it necessary to pass certain amenuillel.a ta n'",
from time to time to accommodate ne"
needs. o.:.,,+;o, .re "to
form more perfect union, establish JustlGe,
insure domestic tranquility, provide 1or the
common defense and secure the olesslnsS
of liberty Certainly that statement can
not be distorted so as to shield the agehtS "
hostile foreign power; or forbid us 10
nrotect ~ our United tSates from schem'ng
and violence against those purposes.
We have to be our own judges as TO
whether a member of the party or 1elioW
traveller who gives evidence OF MS a. ueVoCion uI
to the party's purpose is guilty OF tnls nos
tility Conceivably, mistake mlgnt oe 1, iiaue
IN some particular case, but, after ALL our
;uctice IS a human institution and we can 90
no better than our best We try to be IAN,
but man who goes along to stckup Ju0'
for the ride always takes rlsk
During the recent hearings IN Wasnlngtoil
wa were told that the question "are you a
,,eroher of the communist party?" was an
infringement of political freedom But poh-
tics is the science of government ana the
business of this party is not government pu'
the destruction of this nation by the 1ruslra-
ton of government x,o
Occasions have arisen when the people
of free countries could not afford the luxury
of elaborate forms of justice in dealing with
emergencies, when flood threatens, we
NAV dynamite dam. When town IS ourn-
ing, we may blow up buildings IN the pain
of the fire We do not 60 to the courts an9
carry the appeals all the way to the TOP ana
study the answers to hypothetical questions
of 10000 words.
President Truman has warned us re-
peatedly in the strongest language that
President can use, without asking Congress
to declare war, that communism is is menace
to our safety We may assume that ne mas
information that the rest OF us nave not
and it is too risky to assume that ne IS re-
sorting. like Roosevelt so many times, to
alarm merely to keep himself in office.
Even if he were, that would be Just our
hard luck. Anyway, we have no rlght 10
ignore him. en-.
Now what offense are we committing
AGAINST these witnesses that is even com
parable to the prosecutions and denla!s tnat
have been inflicted on millions OF Amer,
cans by the unions with the approval ana
| assistance of the government uhoer ule
Wagner Act?
We ask them to say whether they are
| communists and the Thomas committee SITS
there with proof in the folders on the table
to convict them of perjury If they deny that
they are We have no other way to get at
! them. What should we do then? Let them
alone?
If this is so terrible, then Why didn't the
same sensitive souls who protest against this
outrage ever say word against the out
rageous conduct of the unions?
In the Roosevelt campaign OF 1914 - mil,
freedom when Sidney Hillman extorted
money from them for Roosevelts campaign
fund They were forced to belong to these
unions in order to be eligible for work even
in national defense. And to remain in good
standing they had to help elect the man who
| -, H..
sidiary. In San Francisco, man was fired
from a CLIO. union for Gun -unionlike activi-
tv," and thus chased off his job and sub.
|tracted from the total war effort" when
manpower was said to be scarce, because
he merely said that for every dollar he was
forced to give to Roosevelts fund he would
gladly give S. to Dewey's fund. "Un-union-
like activity" is anything that any gang
of union bosses say it is. The union courts
often consist of criminals who never worked
a day and never were elected. But under
the Wagner Act citizens must submit to
their whimsical law and pay the penalties
which they impose. That is still fact, only
slowly being remedied
Some distant day l will dig out Of my
great mass of papers in dead storage the
hundreds of instances of almost incredible
persecution of loyal American citizens, not
Communists under union law, by members
of Roosevelts political auxiliary. I will
show the monstrosity of union laws, some
of them written by illiterates, for the coer-
cion of free citizens. There is actually no
right of appeal in most cases even though
the goons throw family heads out of work
and hound them from town to town like
fugitive criminals Fines, humiliation and
Punishment are common. And the victims
are absolutely prevented from appealing to
the public courts for simple justice by mer-
ciless takers parading under the name of
"libera1" who now take alarm because the
people of the United States, through their
elected Congress, belatedly stir themselves
to "form more perfect union, establish
: Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide