Show Inside Labor Union Rackets Flourish in Election Year YearBy By Victor Riesel Theres There's big and crooked dough to be made in and out of union circles if the confidence men are arc arrogant enough enough and and a lot of them are these days Arrogant enough in fact to try and bully presidential candi candidates ales out of ot some campaign money And the take in these sundry rackets els runs all the way from the sh shysters shyster's bill to scooped up yearly early by gambling ambling syndicates The crummiest con game of all is run with some 30 fake thin dime-thin labor newspapers published published published pub pub- across country a country a few by ex convicts others by labor ex-labor editors thrown out on their eager beaver ears by union officials officials when they discovered their press men were using unions asa as asa asa a front to terrorize businessmen into paying good folding money for worthless ads Work ork on Candidates With the election campaign n in full swin swing these ersatz labor sheets published only when the editor has to produce a few copies to show the cash customers customers customers cus cus- are arc busy trying to con political candidates into paying for delivery of labor votes You can imagine the gall of one of these operators a a. Joe from Ohio who is trying to shill no less an racket ex-racket buster than Tom Dewey into falling for the vote delivery business And this is by way of warning that th there re are such sheets in New NewYork NewYork NewYork York and Indiana as well as Ohio which are trying to peddle their political snake oil to honest men in a score of states The up-to-the-minute up quacks figure fig that most labor papers are plugging for Mr Truman So the men con-men are sending their appeals for money to prominent Republicans who understandably would like to see the working workingman man toss his ballot in the Dewey pile Appeal to Republicans That's why you may get g-et a a. aletter aletter letter from an alleged labor newspaper which says We Ve know you will wish to aid and assure the election of the Warren Dewey presidential ticket et this fall It is therefore essential that these candidates have a good g labor press as you probably well know 98 of the labor publications are arc anti- anti Republican this is untrue untrue- V. V R. R For your convenience we are enclosing a contract on which you may indicate your participation participation pation in this program For the check you send in you may have as many copies of the newspapers newspapers news newt papers as you need for your distribution dis dis- Should you not desire to participate participate participate par par- directly in the distribution distribution distribution tion but wish to contribute wil will distribute the material through our own circulation channels May we suggest a minimum check of 50 which we promise you will be put to good use in assuring the election of oC the Republican Republican Republican Re Re- publican candidates Already Repudiated If you get such letters in the mail be forewarned that the same outfits have been repudiated repudiated repudiated b by A F L Land and C CIO I 0 spokes spokes- men Last spring they tried to peddle similar support for Sen Taft Taft but but after the money was received distributed few news news- papers Republican leaders have also snubbed these sheets And if youve you've gotten such letters pass them on to me for further use The bigger big money mone take lake however however how how- ever comes out of shilling a few bucks each week from factory people with the rich quick quirk This money goes for bettin betting betting bet bet- tin ting on numbers horses and in baseball pools A fascinating two month survey just rele released by bv the magazine Business Week reveals that one out of every in industry also works for a gambling ambling syn syndicate licate as an plant in agent Highly Organized It was discovered that this gambling is much more highly organized business since the war controlled completely by national syndicates And its it's big business business about about comes out of the Detroit auto factories alone an average e numbers tout in Cleveland Cleveland Cleveland Cleve Cleve- land books a week while in the Al Akron ron rubber plants the take is yearly Its It's sleazy money taken out of the working Joes Joe's pocket pocket but but it is sure taken Copyright N. N Y Y Post Corp |