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He initially supported President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]], but after seeing the rise of fascism in Europe he returned to warn against the dangers of dictatorship in America. He became one of the Roosevelt administration's sharpest critics over what he saw its abuse of power. He rarely missed an opportunity to criticize Roosevelt, his wife [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] or Vice President [[Henry A. Wallace]]. His views --always expressed in vehement, shrill and colorful language--became increasingly conservative and right-wing. Pegler was especially outraged by the New Deal's support for powerful labor unions that he considered morally and politically corrupt. Pegler saw himself a populist and muckraker whose mission was to warn the nation that dangerous leaders were in power. However he was a loner, and never joined a political movement.
He initially supported President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]], but after seeing the rise of fascism in Europe he returned to warn against the dangers of dictatorship in America. He became one of the Roosevelt administration's sharpest critics over what he saw its abuse of power. He rarely missed an opportunity to criticize Roosevelt, his wife [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] or Vice President [[Henry A. Wallace]]. His views --always expressed in vehement, shrill and colorful language--became increasingly conservative and right-wing. Pegler was especially outraged by the New Deal's support for powerful labor unions that he considered morally and politically corrupt. Pegler saw himself a populist and muckraker whose mission was to warn the nation that dangerous leaders were in power. However he was a loner, and never joined a political movement.
==Union corruption==
In 1941 Pegler became the first columnist ever to win a [[Pulitzer Prize]] for reporting, for his work in exposing [[racketeering]] in Hollywood labor unions, focusing on the criminal career of [[William Morris Bioff]].
In 1941 Pegler became the first columnist ever to win a [[Pulitzer Prize]] for reporting, for his work in exposing [[racketeering]] in Hollywood labor unions, focusing on the criminal career of [[William Morris Bioff]].
In 1940, Pegler exposed the criminal past and organized crime connections of George Scalise, the president of the Building Service Employees International Union. Scalise was convicted and sent to prison. This widely reported scandal tarnished the labor movement and served to vindicate conservative critics of organized labor, who cited such corruption to support efforts to rein in union power. Scalise's career demonstrates how organized crime came to control certain unions in the 1930s and the various ways corrupt officials used the labor movement for private gain. This scandal also highlights the biased reporting on union corruption, which depicted employers simply as victims, when many of them played a much more complicit role. The real victims were workers, who found themselves forced to join a union organization that did nothing but levy a tax on their employment. For many of these workers this experience left them deeply disillusioned with the labor movement.<ref> David Witwer, "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s," ''Journal of Social History'' 2003 36(4): 917-940 in [[EBSCO]]</ref>
===Feud with Eleanor Roosevelt===
===Feud with Eleanor Roosevelt===
[[category:Conservatives]]
[[category:Conservatives]]
[[category:Corruption]]
[[category:Corruption]]
[[Category:Labor Unions]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pegler, Westbrook}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pegler, Westbrook}}