The Augusta Courier

Bill To End Labor Union Racketeering Endorsed By President Eisenhower.

Georgia's Landrum Michigan's Griffin Authors Of Measure Passed By The House.

Congressman Phil Landrum, of Georgia's Ninth District, has successfully, along with Congressman Griffin, of Michigan's Ninth District, steered through the House of Representatives their bill designed to eliminate racketeering from the labor movement.

This bill was made possible by the support of Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans.

It is the culmination of a whole year's work and a year's devotion by Phil Landrum.

He has been the leader, and the inspiration, behind the Landrum-Griffin bill.

Would Not Compromise

His triumph is a result of the fact that he had the courage to fight and that he would not compromise. He based his fight upon principle and stayed with it from beginning to end.

The work by the authors of these bills even attracted the attention of the President of the United States and President Eisenhower went on a nationwide hook-up and endorsed passage of the Landrum-Griffin bill.

To show the purposes of the bill, we have but to look to some of the speeches made in its behalf.

Follows Constitution

Congressman Hiestand, a California Republican, said:

The bipartisan Landrum-Griffin substitute H.R. 8400 follows the traditions of our constitutional Bill of Rights by spelling out rights and insuring that those rights can be enforced. Under the Landrum-Griffin bill the labor bosses cannot make a mockery of the workingman's rights of free speech, to vote, to sue, to fair dues, and to fair rules of discipline.

This bill defends the workingman by providing salutary criminal penalties against persons who willfully violate union members' rights.

(Continued on page 2)
Georgia's Landrum,
Michigan Griffin
Authors
Of
Measure
Passed
By
The
House

Continued
from
page
1

"Why are the counterfeit liberals
against legislation which would protect
working men and women against the
power and intimidation of the labor
bosses?

Bipartisan Measure

"Can it be because of party politics?
No—because the Landrum-Griffin bill is
a bipartisan measure. Both sponsors
have clearly placed country above party
in writing this bill. They ask us to follow
suit. They have implored all Members
not to entangle this measure of
statesmanship in partisan considerations.
Thus we must look elsewhere to learn
why the counterfeit liberals are selling
out workingmen.

"I suspect the reason is that they think
labor boss financial support in the next
election is more important than a bill
of rights for the workingman. These liberals say they are pro-union, pro-labor.
By that they really mean they are pro-
labor boss, pro-labor boss campaign
money, and anti-rank and file.

"American traditions are robbed when
these so-called liberals use the word.
The hallmark of the patriot liberals during our War for Independence was
courage and sacrifice. They crusaded
against the tyranny of George III. They
did not become Benedict Arnolds and
sell out to the richest buyer.

"When the vote on the labor bill
comes, millions of Americans can tell
who are the Benedict Arnolds who have
crossed over to the labor dictators and
ignored the welfare of millions of union men and women.

Cramer of Florida

And, then, Congressman Cramer, of
Florida, had this to say about it:

"Mr. Speaker, the House Labor Committee bill would aid three times convicted labor racketeer, Johnny Dioguardi, alias Johnny Dio, in his ruthless drive to become the Hitler of the New York City Teamsters taxicab locals. The antireform, reactionary measures of this bill would weaken the Taft-Hartley Act by excluding about 70 percent of unions, including Dio's racket locals, from any financial reporting.

"Passage of such a provision by the
86th Congress which would shelter this
notorious criminal would be an outrage to the public.

"Dio, close personal friend and lieutenant of Jimmy Hoffa, has served 5
years in Sing Sing Penitentiary. Recently, he was indicted for the acid blinding of labor news reporter, Victor Riesel.
From a family marked by criminality.
Dio's brothers have been arrested for
assault, robbery, rape, and concealed
weapons. Dio himself has become expert in crushing union democracy by
manipulating phony paper locals and by
passing Negroes and Puerto Ricans from
one labor boss to another—as serfs were
shipped about in medieval times.

Blackmail Campaign

"To conduct his campaign of blackmail, extortion, hoodlumism, and persecution of even victims' families, Dio has
collected some of the Nation's meanest
criminal minds. Even Dave Beck was
disgusted. Jimmy Hoffa, though, has
been unswerving in support of Dio and
was anxious to have him and his ilk in
the Teamsters in the first place.

"Dio's thug subordinates read like a
rogues gallery.

"Samuel Zakman was Dio's front man
in getting his first union charter. Dio
would consider Zakman a really high
class criminal. Not only has he been
convicted for conspiracy, extortion, and
coercion, he was a former Communist
Party member, a commissar during the
Spanish Civil War, and Marxist trained
in brutal methods.

"Next in the gallery is Max Chester.
He has pleaded guilty to charges of extortion and conspiracy. But perhaps Dio
admires him the most for his unscrupulous ability to terrorize contracts out of
employers by helping them to visualize
their children being run over.

"A Brooklyn machine shop owner,
Paul Claude, described to the McClellan committee how Chester kept pushing him for a bigger and bigger payoff.
Claude pathetically explained how Chester's every second sentence was 'How
are your children?' This was followed
by the statement how children playing
in the streets 'get run over and things
like that.'

"Claude fearfully talked to the police.

"Replied the captain: You have got
to make a deal with them; you have
to make some kind of deal with them
because they are legitimate.

Labor Committee

"Mr. Speaker, let me break this astonishing dialog by saying that the
House Labor Committee bill would keep
the Chesters legitimate.

"Soon Chester came back to visit
Claude. Claude was terrified. Who
would not think of moving to another
part of New York to escape the mental
torture of this monster, who demanded
more and more money?

"Putting his arm around Claude
Chester said: 'You have got to pay us off
because you are mine. No matter where
you are going to move, you are mine.'

"Another notorious associate of Dio
is Tony Ducks Corallo, described by
the McClellan committee as a longtime
kingpin in the New York narcotics and
labor rackets. You might call Tony
Ducks Dio's personnel manager who
strove to add to his staff only men with
exceptional long criminal records. According to the McClellan report, Corallo,
working with Dio, brought into positions of labor trust 40 men who represented a remarkable total of 178 arrests
and 77 convictions. Naturally, this unsavory group, once installed in union
jobs, immediately turned to extortion,
bribery, and collusion with whatever
management they could blackmail or
tempt. Soon, 25 of them had racked up
additional convictions or indictments for
extortion, perjury, bribery, and forgery."