The Wilmington morning star., 1947-11-21
AS Pegler Sees It
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
(Copyright. King Features Syndicate, Inc.)

suffered any loss through the adoption OF
the Taft Hartley law, the blame must lie
with the great, greedy bosses OF the union
movement. They had the power to reform
the unions, to stop the persecution of indivl-
duals, and the harassment OF communities
by unnecessary and oppressive strikes Ihey
could have abated the robbery OF mll1ons
of workers through assessments Tor causes
in which they had no interest, Tor expen-
sive insurance and for undisguised rackets.
But, throughout the Roosevelt adn1inistra-
ton, they refused to drop their selfish poll
tics and answered every criticism and warn
ing with the monotonous cry OF labor
batter"
Actually, the only important baiters OF
labor during those years were not the Ma
tional Association of Manufacturers nor any
of the journalists or candidates. but some OF
the presidents and vice e-presidents OF unions,
Jimmy Petrillo by now has convinced him.
self that he actually does serve his 'ooys
but, few years ago, he openly smlrkeo
about his holy mission and the enormous
nroportion of Saturday night saxophonists
in his American Federation OF Musicians.
The union did nothing for them. 1t merely
nreved upon them, compelling these CLERKS
students and carpenters, men OF nunoreo
occupations, to buy membership under MIN
and pay their dues and fines and sunmlt
to his tyrannical discipline so that eney
might earn few extra dollars on week
ends go,
Jinmy's powers are really terrible. Other
union bosses have the same powers, Dut
Jinlmys are written out for him IN an
article of his constitution which permits MN
to rule absolutely by Whlm, suDJect 10 no
challenge or appeal. The cruel gangsters OF
the Hodcarriers' and the Operating Engi-
neers unions and some of the machine poll
ticians of the teamSterS exercised pratlcally
the same despotic authority but they had
to 90 in for subterfuge and terror, not that
this embarrassed those who ruled by these
methods.
Jimmy's was the only union whose found
ing fathers had had the gall to spell out
the proposition that unionism was tota-
itarian racket and it was significant that
his most alarming exceSses began after ne
hired Joseph Padway as his general counsel
| paid my respects to this parasite on the
body of American labor when he died lew
weeks ago but l have always been willing
to add that the most arrogant of the dicta-
torial profiteers in American unlonlsm was
also the cleverest shyster in union law. Pad
Way was not necessarily line lawyer,
although he did have his points. He handled
class of clients who always had great ad-
vantage under law and could pay off judg-
ments if they lost, by the painless process
of levying assessments on the faceless peo-
pie who carried the cards and did the work
This gave Padway an advantage over law
yers for the other side. l say it was slgnlfl-
cant that Jimmy really started to 90 to
town only after he hired PadWay, because
Padway was the legal adviser OF the entire
American Federation OF Labor. His ruth
less thinking directed the great A. F.. of L.
in many of It's policies throughout this time
and his guidance was that of man with
absolutely no regard for the community.
So, in the end, and in time Tor hlm to see
what he had done, the Taft-Hartley law
was adopted. Padway collapsed in the seiz-
IL, 70 hn ho1
convention of hi misguided client, the A. F.
of L., that the law meant slavery.
There is no question that Padway and
William Green John Lewis, Philip Murray,
Dan Tobin, Petrillo, Reuther and Fay, the
merciless thug now securely filed away In
prison at last, were strong men IN union
ism. The criticism of these bosses is that they
either misused their strength, meaning their
force of character as well as their follow.
ing in goons to Cypress the real workers OF
the United States, or failed to use it in the
interests of reform. Green could have been
great American by now, or Murray, or any
of the others, who had been wise and hon
est enough to say, five or six years ago.
"the union movement must make peace with
the people and the law of the United States
and serve the community in which it lives" :"
But they missed their opportunity and
now the whole lot of them are reduced to
bowling to the rank and file worker that
ne is q Save III CIldlIlS anu OlSGO4AlS 41Olll
the blows of the knout. But the worker
looks at his wrists and sees no bands and
he takes inventory and finds no wounds.
On the contrary, he is beginning to real
ize that he can now appeal to the govern
ment to protect him from his union This
is new freedom that already has stirred in
many men of the teamsters' union spirit
of revolution against Dan Tobin, president
for more than 80 years, longer reign than
most kings have enjoyed. It is daWning on
the rank and file that they have rights under
unionsm which they never even dreamed
of in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt un-
der the Wagner Act, unmitigated. The ma
jority of the union members are of such an
age that they began working under Roose-
welt and never knew any other condition
than the denial of fair trials under law, the
large arbitrary fines and assessments, the
expensive suspensions and the blast of
whistle in the mouth of some criminal rae
keteer, calling out thousand American
citizens without a strike vote.
The majority of the union workers of to-
day never realized that they actually had
rights But they believed, because they had
been raised that way, that unions were
private government unto themselves with no
responsibility to the nation or the various
states.
This is where unionism under Roosevelt
and the new deal tricked and oppressed
American labor and finally so provoked the
people, including labor, that they turned on
the bosses.
And this is where Senator Taft whatever
his future, showed honesty, force and lnteg-
rity to the chagrin of other candidates for
the republican nomination. On his western
trip, Taft was saluted with picket signs
calling him a rat. This was an organized
display of the brutal vulgarity of an element
which for so many years had enjoyed
warrant from Roosevelt to boss and abuse
not only American labor but whole areas
of homes and industry and to vilify decant
men for daring to fight back.