The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-20
As Pegler Sees 1t
By wEsTBRoOK PEGLER

7 David Stern 2 new dealer from the hour
when Roosevelt opened the rush OF the union
GERS into our modern Cherokee strip, has re-
canted and repented in a public demonstration
before the Committee on Labor OF the Mouse
of Representatives. Stern formerly owned a
newspaper in New York but Withdrew to Phll-
adelphia and Camden where he ran the phil
adelphia Record and the Post and the courier
of Camden. For years he took his BOWS ana
accepted political and commercial oene1t as
the first newspaper publisher to sign a con-
tract with the Newspaper Guild. This organl-
xation began as a guild of editorial employees
who. for a number of reasons. had often been
imposed upon by some publishers. particular
ly in times of slump. by contrast with the
workers in the mechanical trades whose
wages were fixed by contract and, IN many
cases, had the closed shop.
Last Nov. 7 the Newspaper Guild OF Phlla-
delphia and Camden struck Stern's papers
and Just about closed them. Stern ended it
on Feb. 1 when he announced that he had
sold out to. the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
Meanwhile. the guild and some of Stems
old editorial employees had ceased to praise
him and were damning him as a union-bust-
ing baron of industry. The guild was infested
with communists from its beginning, especial
ly in. New York, Philadelphia and Los Ange-
les. 1t soon went into the American FEEDER
alton Of Labor but inevitably joined the CLIO.
and its official affections, as in the case OF
Stern, have been whimsical. The editorial or
journalistic workers were swamped long ago
by the admission of other categories, includ-
ing even hustlers.
The Stern employees turned out a broad
side a few weeks ago in which they pointed
out that Stern got a million dollars worth OF
free publicity by signing the first contract
with the guild, won the friendship, mean
ing the coercive power, of the union bosses,
euphemistically known as "organlzed LABOR, -
and received IAN enormous labor clrcu-
lation.'
Moreover, the broadside correctly recalled,
this contract "helped to make him a power
in the new deal at Washington
These m m r seriously lmpugn Mr..
Stern's reasons for signing the first contract.
THE guild had as much reason then to suspect
that Stern had such practical motives for his
''progressive' course as it has now. Otner
publishers and other staff journalists per-
ceived the advantages to Stern at the time
and were Just as skeptical of his ldeallsm as
the guild is now but more honest in that
thew said so aloud whereas the unioneers pa
raded him as a ~selfless prophet OF the new
day and hung him over with political gauds
out of their property room.
Stern enjoyed a few years of importance
in this role but finally had to tell the COM
mittee on labor that he had come to atone
for the disservice he had rendered the Amerl-
d 1OC PlSoS. tS was INV
man as to employees having to do with writ
ten appeals to public opinion, an attitude
taken long ago by others who Will accept
Stern's conversion with Indifference and sus-
picion, and his economic nerve WhlAeo ike
an electrical banjo as he told the commlttee
the guild had struck him to put him out OF
business. picking a time when he was run
down financially as a consequence OF the
paper shortage. Mr.. Stern said the guild had
decided that it would be good union tactics
to strike him. rather than the Phlladelpnla
INQUIRER. because he was the weaker OF the
two. For the purpose OF killing Off a news
paper and with it the Jobs Of all hands this
has been highly successful union tacHcs' as
the record has shown in other cities during
the time of Stern's happy relations with the
guild. the CLIO, the A.F. OF L. and the local
and national party machines. From San Diego
to New York there has been a trial OF sus-
pensions Of papers employing from a few
hundred to thousands of workers, helpless IN
these situations which were struck by 1he
guild with an instinct for the lugular. Mos'
of these were strikes by small mlnorit!es.
Losing properties were simply laid away, the
workers became "displaced persons with
their family responsibilities and the New York
communists moved on to new fields OF con-
quest.
Stern said he couldn't fire anyone for rea-
sons of economy. although CLIO. unions ne
%ouently do just that and other publishers mad
fought against this control of the purse by
the guild when he was beneficiary OF all that
free publicity, that friendship OF the Whls-
pering propagandists whose habltual smear
was "fascism'' and anti-Semitism against all
opponents, that enormous labor clrculaton
and that power in the new deal at Washing
ton"
He couldn't fire anyone for anything short
of dereliction of duty.
1Lo+ woe - wild nrOyiCjOn At a Guild meet
ing in New York a Union Square agitator
reported happily that the Mirrors guild was
fighting for a clause that would make 1t I'M
possible for the paper to fire anyone Tor any
reason short of the commission OF a felony.
Then, if the paper couldn't prove the felony
by convicting the person in court the SUBJECT
would have an action for damages. Saooteurs,
l~oafers and incompetents would be protected.
The sense of this meeting was that the de-
cent newspaper workers had no intention to
make common cause with the buns and the
communists to guarantee them job security.
Stern had been offended personally by at
tacks which he regarded as Venomous. and
on that point many others who endured the
foulest abuse for years will hope his pains
aren't trivial. He was complacent, at least.
when better and more honest men spurned
the temporary'f favor that he enjoyed in friend
ly association with men whom he now tlnds
evil but only because he, in his turn, got
his. If, when others were the targets, he had
taken a stand on principle against the abuses
that his sensitive and not spectacularly cou-
rageous soul now finds intolerable he might
be an acceptable recruit to the company of
those who fought and exposed the commu-
nists from the beginning.
Stern said he had dropped more than a
million dollars in 1916 and was now retiring
Eat great personal loss"
That seems to be the real story OF his
conversion to be filed away in the same fol-
der with the yel1owed clippings telling OF his
brave alliance with the guild against the dark
and greedy forces of reaction.