The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-26
AsPeglerSeesH
Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc,
By PEGLER

BY PEGLER
Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
Huey Long remarked that when fascism
should come to the United States it would
come disguished as something else. The Amer
lean Federation of Labor is thoroughly Ameri-
can. 1t is peculiarly and perversely American.
like the second Ku Klux Khan which was
Historically loyal to the flag but a front for
predatory racket and persecution.
Recently, the A. F. of L. ran a series of
advertisements warning the nation that "a free
America cannot exist without free labor
"The first step toward otalitarianism
starts with the Stacking of labor" said the
opening line Of the first installment. when
government assumes comprehensive control
over labor, the complete RECOMMENDATION of
business must follow"
Ordinarily, in debate, I give the other side
credit for sincerity, but this is impossible
in disputes with the men who run the A.. F. of
L. and composed these ads. They are not
stupid or ignorant but shrewd professionals
who know they are the ones who shackled
American labor and gladly gave the govern
ment comprehensive control" inviting the
complete RECOMMENDATION Of business"
Labor, under the A. F. of L., is shackled
by an artificial, irresponsible, private or
ganization whose own record shows the most
brutal and greedy contempt of its bosses.
William Green, John l.. Lewis, William l..
AAoISAeSOu duu ALMOST all the rest, lOc the
freedom of the individual workman.
I could recall, in detail, the proof of this
slavery under union bosses of the A. F. of L.,
but the case is in the facts that have never
been disputed. Green's only excuse has al.
ways been that the A.. F. of L. has no power
to protect the shackled individual worker from
oppression by these union bosses. It has
been shown that the A. F. of L. is concerned
solely with their interests even though they be
gangsters, and never with the rights of the
worker.
I'm America this appeal says, "evsry
one who works for a living is labor"
Yes, that is what I have said and long
before the A.. F. of L. could brin1 itself to
recognize that fact.
Yes, the man who works in a drug store
is "labor', but whose slackles does he wear
when half a dozen European conspirators in
New York whom he never saw can order him
to spend his day off picketing another drug
store to compel other American citizens to
join him in his slavery? And make an outcast
of him if he refuses? And enjoy the gov
ernment's help in this oppression?
Whose shackies does "labor' wear when
this man in the drug store has to live in a
slum because Joe Fay, the esteemed and
honored colleague of William Green, demands
S17O for a 54-hour week for dissolute political
buns of the Frank Hague organization to
snooze beside automatic compressors on con-
struction jobs, and investors therefore decide
not to put their money into new housing
Whose are the shackles and who snapped
them on the wrists of every ore WHO works
for a living when an honest citizen of decent
conscience is ordered to lay no more than 600
bricks a day when he can easily lay 1900,
while millions are desperate for homes and be-
ginning to mutter that their form of govern
ment has fallen down?
In all debates on union fascism as designed
by Roosevelt and embraced by Green has
anyone ever heard any discussion of the power
OF Green's own unions to levy income taxes
on labor" to charge the workers fees for
permission to work without admitting them
to membership? To charge a carpenter 5000
for a transfer from a local in Connecticut to
ia local in Indiana and then put him at the
bottom of the list as though he were a foreign
er in his own country? Has there ever been
any denial that, under Green's A. F. of L.,
every one who works for a living is subject
to trial and punishment, up to expulsion, on
false charges brought by criminal gangsters,
for getting up in a meeting to ask what the
grafters did with the money?
No, these phases of the shacklement of
labor" under Green never are discussed now.
They were discussed five or six years ago.
The facts were established and this condition
now is thoroughly accepted as the new
American Way"
But when did everyone who works for a
living in our country agree to this slavery?
You cannot answer because it never was
discussed.
Furthermore, not even Congress has the
power to say that the citizen must pay a
percentage of his earnings to any private,
involuntary organization and must waive his
right to a trial by jury in the public courts
en- charges involving his right to live.
AS we see, 'totalitarianism starts with the
Stacking of labor"
But the boss totalitarians are Green and
his kind.
Oh course, 'the complete augmentation OF
business must follow but Green knew that in
1887 when the union bounty-hunters were driv-
Ing the citizens into the slave compounds at
so much per head, payable out of their ex-
torted initiation fees. And he saw the regi-
mentation soon afterward when millions of
citizens were absolutely forbidden to do bust
ness with their employers but had to accept
'bargaining agents. selected by the govern
ment.
That was when the comprehensive con-
troll of labor began. The big employers rather
liked it. It made Labor relations" imperson-
al. People became work animals, counted by
hundreds or thousands, assigned here or there
by the union bosses. They could be borrow
ed" and Cleaned" like brutes from one cor
poratlon to another. The old, Italian padrone
system of the immigration days returned under
this comprehensive government control OF
labor and the Auto Workers Union of the
CLIO. cheered this compact and asked the
government to regulate profits and retail
prices in full compliance with Ben1to Musso-
'ini's original fascist plan.
Editorial Comment