MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 10, 1942.
Reynolds, Eleanor Packard
Covered Europe for 7 Years
Br Wilt Hundl.
United Press Special Correspondent
New York, (U.PJ To the average American, Benito Mussol
ini'! name calls to mind a cartoon character tattered, be
grimed and wearing an assortment of court-plasters on bis
out-thrust chin.
To Reynolds and Eleanor Packard, authors of the book,
"Balcony Empire," the leader of Italy's Fascism is more than
buffoon. They know from years of first hand experience
that he is an ambitious, treacherous figure who still must be
reckoned with in world affairs.
No two persons in America i
are better qualified than the
Packards to speak with author
ity on the rise and decline of
the fortunes of the strutting,
one-time journalist who dream
ed of becoming the Caesar of a
new Roman Empire.
During the past seven years
s United Press correspondents,
Eleanor and Reynolds Packard
have been eye-witnesses to vir
tually every bumbling step
Mussolini trod on "the road to
empire". For six months after
II Duce shouted his defiance to
the United States and led his
country Into war against Amer
ica, they were Mussolini's un
willing guests In an Italian con
centration camp.
Return on Liner
Years earlier they had tabbed
the serio-comic leader of the
new Italy as the subject for a
. book. On reaching home with
f other Americans .epatriates
board the exchange liner Drott
ingholm, they began hastily as
sembling notes accumulated
through the years and smuggled
out of Italy "under the noses of
Italian guards at the end of
their Internment.
Obtaining two months' leave
from United Press, they rented
a suite In a Manhattan sky
craDer apartment and set to
work.
The Oxford University Press
bought the uncompleted manu
script on submission of an out
line, and the Packards went to
work with the real they for
merly reserved for the opening
of a new campaign by Mussol
ini's black-shirted legions. The
publisher set a two months'
deadline for delivery of the com
pleted manuscript.
The Packards found New
York' sultry July too much for
them and donned Tahitian sar
ongs, acquired on an earlier
U.P. assignment to the South
Seas, for the task.
"Waiters and chambermaids,"
Mrs. Packard recalled laughing
ly, "never had seen such strange
garments before and were goggle-eyed
when first they an
swered calls to tha paper-littered
suite."
Finish on Time
Wrapped in their sarongs, the
Packards waded into their task.
For fortv-six days they argued
wrote, dictated, rewrote and
criticized each other's work.
Thev scent 14 to 16 hours daily
pounding their typewriters and
O mopping their brows. But when
Sent. 1 rolled 'round the job
was done 380 pages of manu
script bringing Into clear focus
the workings of Fascism in
Italy; telling how Mussolini's
ambitions for empire led him
into a ruinous alliance with
Germany.
While It took only two
months to put the story on pa
per, the Packards actually spent
nearly 15 years gathering their
material. Since 1927 they have
been foreign correspondents for
the United Press and have ac
quired In that time the intimate
knowledge of foreign affairs
and the experience in weighing.
Judging and analyzing events
which makes "Balcony Empire"
such an accurate and informa
tive book. It reflects their
unique experience as corres-
J pondents assigned to cover
every phase of Italy's aggressive
policy in the Mediterranean and
North Africa.
When Mussolini sent his le
gions Into Ethiopia In 1935.
Reynolds and Eleanar Packard
were with the Italian army.
They moved on to Spain with
the Duce's Blackshirt soldiers
and aviators who aided Franco
during the Spanish Civil War
When Mussolini, by organizing
" spontaneous " demonstrations
In Rome, laid claim to the
French protectorate of Tunisia
the Packards went to Tunisia
and saw how the Fascists were
attempting to undermine French
rule through use of a win cot
nmn.
OOna evening In Rome the
Packards got a tip that Italo
Albantan relations had taken a
bad turn. Eleanor caught what
proved to be the last plane to
Tirana at dawn next day. Two
dav later the Fascist troops in
vaded Alhania and the Packards
covered both sides of the brief
struggle for United Press
Eleanor from Tirana and Rey
lolds from Rome.
Dun'i Skullduggery
The outbreak of World War
n found the Packards again in
Rome, where they stayed until
the entry of the United States
Into the war. In their book they
trace the course of diplomatic
skullduggery Mussolini followed
during Italy's non-belligerent
cerind and thev show the way
the Fascists mismanaged their
military campaigns. Reynolds
was the only American corres-
pondent who got to Albania to
V Italian front during
Italo-Greek war. He tells how
have to fight that war and how
unprepared they were because
they had believed that they
could bluff the Greeks.
The book is full of behind-
the-scenes stories of Italian mil- j
itary failures in North and East
Africa, of Mussolini's political
juggling in the Balkans. It ex
plains why Hitler has not al
lowed the Duce to realize his
claims to French territory, of
Italy's place in the Italo-Russian
war and what the Fascist! bad
hoped to get out of it.
How is morale on the home
front in Italy? The Packards
will tell you it is very bad and
that resentment against the
Fascists Is rapidly growing
among the tightly rationed Ital
ians. What are the chances of
an anti-Fascist revolution? "Bal
cony Empire" contends that
Italian patience is worn thin
and relates how near Italy came
to an army revolt in December
1940, when the Duce brusquely
dismissed Italy's leading gener
al, Marshal Badoglio.
HARD TO ENLIST
McKeesport, Pa. (U.R) Pa
trolman Thomas Flaherty, Jr.,!
is still determined to get Into
this war some wav and eight
mnnth. nl kaina TV,uffari houem't ' I
tea zed him.
First, Flaherty tried to, Join I
the navy arr spent $160 on his
teeth and for X-ray examina
tions.
"Eight navy doctors said I
was physically fit and just when
I was ready to take the oath,
they rejected me because of need
ed college schooling, he re
lated.
"After I passed the navy
physical test, the marines said I
had flat feet. The army request
ed that I wait until they called '
me."
Flaherty Is head of his own;
welding company, so he offered
his complete welding outfit val
ued at $3,000 to any branch of j
the service. But no response.
Finally, Flaherty offered his
Irish terrier to the war program
the dog was rejected because;!
it was three inches too short of , I
the required height.
But now Flaherty has discov-j
ered that welding courses are
not available in the long voca
tional war program. So he is
keeping his fingers crossed, hop-1
ing to become a supervisor ol ;
welding classes.
CALIFORNIA INAUGURAL
WITHOUT FESTIVITIES
Sacramento, Dec. 10 (U.R)
Governor-elect Earl Warren to
day promised a very simple
inauguration in January "witn-
out frills or festivities or an
Inaugural ball.
Warren said it was not in
keeping with the times to ask
oeople to come to the capital
by automobile or public trans
portation. He said tne govern
ment is trying to discourage
such things and the state ad
ministration would cooperate.
BRUCE CABOT IN ARMY
Cams Blanding. Fla., Dec. 10 1
CU.PJ Movie Star Bruce Cabot
was sworn into the army as a
private today and will be sent
n Miami Beach for training In !
the air corps. The actor volun-1
teered for service and asked tor i
duty in the air corps.
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III I
f I i,i n W
MONTGOMERY WARD'S
SEeiFJO
STAT
EGaEHT
TO NATIONAL WAR LABOR BOARD
i
The Following Statement Was Submitted To The National War Labor Board At It Meeting
In ' Washington On December 8, 1942
The War Labor Board, on November 5, 1942,
issued an order that Ward "incorporate" in a
contract with a C. I. O. union at Chicago:
1. A clause establishing a form of closed
shop called "maintenance of membership," to
gether with a check-off of union dues from wages.
2. A clause providing for compulsory arbi
tration on any qustions the union wishes to raise.
3. A clause guaranteeing in these uncertain
times present wage and working conditions for
a year.
Wards rejected this order of the Board for
these reasons:
1. The Board was without authority. Con
gress, the only law-making authority under the
Constitution, has not empowered the Board to
order any employer to do any of the things which
the Board demanded of Wards.
2. The order violated the fundamental prin
ciples of liberty. Liberty requires that an em
ployee be free to join or to resign from a union
without jeopardizing his livelihood. Liberty re
quires that an employer be free to employ the
person best suited for the work.
3. The order was, in itself, illegal. The
order required Wards; First, to interfere with
the choice of its employee to resign from the
union; Second, to give support to the union by
a check-off of union dues, and Third, to discrim
inate against employees if they resigned their
membership in the union all in direct violation
of the National Labor Relations Act.
4. Wards operates in a highly competitive
field composed of 1,750,000 retail establish
ments. It is unfair to impose burdens upon
Wards and not upon those with whom it. is in
competition.
The imposition of the closed shop against
Wards cannot be justified by reference to the
so-called no strike agreement. Wards was not
a party to this agreement. Wards had no voice
in the selection of those who, as representatives
of industry, attended the conference in Decem
ber, 1941, which formulated this agreement.
Wards has never ratified the results of that con
ference. Furthermore, the conference itself did
not agree that the War Labor Board might
impose the closed shop principle; those acting
as representatives of industry expressly recom
mended to the President that this issue not be
considered by the Board.
The Board, in ordering a form of closed shop
at Wards, has acted contrary to these expressed
recommendations of the industry representatives.
If Wards had had the right to test the legality of
the Board's demands in a court, Wards would
. have done so, but Wards was deprived of a
remedy in the courts by the Board's complete
lack of legal authority to compel obedience of
its order.
The court will only act when legal rights
have been violated. The courts have declared
that the mere making of demands, which do not
have to be obeyed, does not, in the eyes of law,
violate any legal right. The Board's very lack
of authority thus resulted in a denial to Wards, as
it has to other employers, of a right to relief in
the courts.
The President of the United States, as well
as the Board, is wholly without Constitutional
authority to order any employer to do the things
demanded of Wards, even deep respect for the
President and his great responsibility in time of
war, Wards said in rejecting the Board's order.
"If Congress imposed closed shops, compul
sory arbitration or contracts for a year's duration
on employers, or if the President of the United
States, as commander-in-chief in time of war,
directs that Wards accept the Board's ruling,
which we earnestly believe are illegal and uneco
nomic, we will respectfully obey."
The President, on November 18, wrote the
company saying: "As commander-in-chief in
time of war . . . I . . . direct Montgomery Ward
and Company to comply, without further delay,
with the National War Labor Board' directive
order of November 5, 1942."
Wards immediately answered: "Your order
of November 18th has been received and will be
promptly obeyed."
Wards thereupon altered the general form
of its contracts with unions and incorporated,
word for word, the clauses ordered by the War
Labor Board. This document was offered to the
union. The Company has fully complied with
the President's direction and will continue to
do so.
The document, which the President has di-.
rected Wards to sign, is not a contract. The
requisite of a contract is that there be a meeting
of the minds or agreement between the partto. .
There has been no agreement between "Wards
and the union. The document, which the Presi-
dent has ordered Wards to sign, affects the rights
and liberties of Wards and of its employees.
Therefore, in order that the document itself may
be clear and state the facts, Wards informatively
included these three sentences:
"The following provisions are not voluntarily -agreed
to by the Company. In the Company's
opinion they are illegal and unsound. These
provisions are copied verbatim from the War
Labor Board's order of November 5, 1942, and
are incorporated herein, on the Company's part,
under duress and only because the President
of the United States, as commander-in-chief in
time of war, has expressly ordered that they be
included."
These three sentences are in all respect true.
They do not alter the effect of the provisions
ordered by the Board, provisions which Wards
will carry out. Nevertheless, the union has refused
to sign the offered document. Wards will be
happy to accept any improvement in the word
ing of this statement, but Wards will resist
any attempt to hide the truth by a change in its .
substance.
On January 9, 1942, the President said: "In
the future days which we seek to make secure,
we look forward to a world founded upon the four
essential human freedoms. The first is freedom
of speech and expression everywhere in the
world."
Wards feels that it is bound by the rules of
good citizenship to make sure that the single
truth about these provisions and Wards' accept
ance of them be not hidden from or misrepre
sented to its 100,000 employees, it 60,000 share
holders, and its many millions of customers. The
elimination of this statement would serve no
purpose but to conceal the truth from readers
' of the document.
Wards has cheerfully met with the union and
with its board whenever requested. Wards has
promptly obeyed the direction of the President.
Wards insists that its right to tell the truth not
be destroyed.
MONTGOMERY WARD & COMPANY
SEWELL AVERY
PRESIDENT
PAGE SEVEN
iiaio-vxrrcK oi . uc v
surprised the FasuU were toi