"Millions for Defense but . . ."

The New York Times's Byron Darnton last week had an interesting story to tell. Mr. Darnton has been visiting Fort Meade, in Maryland, where the Army has nearly completed a cantonment for 30,000 soldiers. What Mr. Darnton found there he called a "fair example" of how organized labor has profited by the defense program.

Because Meade was a closed-shop job, workers had been forced to join either the A. F. of L. carpenters' union or laborers' union. At the peak, 11,800 laborers got jobs. The carpenters' union could supply only 200 of its regular members, but 8,113 carpenters had to be hired. Army men said that about 55% of them were roughwork carpenters, 35% were not fully qualified. "Sears Roebuck carpenters" arrived at the site with $5 worth of new tools and a desire to cut in on the Government bonanza. But the unions were the boys who really cut in. Their "take" in initiation fees and dues, Army men estimated, was at least $400,000.

Wrote Timesman Darnton: "The record is not blackest at Meade [but] ... a fair example. . . . According to Thurman Arnold, Assistant U. S. Attorney General, union glaziers at one camp quoted their initiation fee at $1,500. . . ."

Hardly had the Times published this story when labor got a warning. To A. F. of L.'s President William Green, Senator George Norris wrote: "I do not want Congress to have to pass legislation in regard to this which may be injurious to labor's cause, but if this continues ... I am satisfied Congress is going to be called on to take action." For good measure he also wrote C. I. O.'s President Philip Murray. Mr. Murray replied: "My condemnation runs to anything that smacks of such extortion at all times. ... I challenge you or anybody else to show me one instance where a C. I. O. union has been involved in any such vicious practice." C. I. O. initiation fees, said he, averaged $3.

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