The Pittsburgh Press (November 4, 1944)
Dan Tobin scoffs at libel suit
Navy officers’ case called ‘ridiculous’
New York (UP) –
Daniel J. Tobin, president of the Teamsters Union, today termed “senseless and ridiculous” libel suits totaling $400,000 filed against him by two Navy officers involved in the “Battle of the Statler” and asserted that the actions “are published now for political purposes.”
Mr. Tobin said:
First, they were the ones that gave the stuff to the papers and that wasn’t until a week later. And we didn’t publish it in our magazine until two weeks later.
Now, they wait to press the suit just before election and it looks to me like politics. You can say this for me I hope they don’t withdraw the suit.
LtCdr. James H. Suddeth and Lt. Randolph Dickins Jr. charged that an article in the November issue of The International Teamster, union publication of which Mr. Tobin is editor, subjected them to “public ridicule, contempt and disgrace.”
The article falsely accused them, the suits said, of drunkenness, attacks on union members and using profane language against President Roosevelt following the President’s Sept. 23 address to the Teamsters. That last charge would make them liable to court-martial and probable dishonorable discharge, the suits added.