The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-28
BY PEGLER

dlSc1pl1ned n SeH-lndulgent brats
who were determined not to mil
their weight in the boat and want.
ed the world to drop everything
and sit down and bawl with them
A kick in the pants and a clo,t
over the scalp were more like their
needing, but all of us were more
or less goofy then, so they enjoyed
a very tolerant public whose SYM.
pathy and attempts to understano
only encouraged them to eat mors
live goldfish out of the hotel foun,
tains and whine all the louder
The sensitive young things M
whom Fitzgerald wrote and with
whom he ran to fires, not only be-.
cause he could exploit them as
material for profit in print but be-.
cause he found them congenial
were fond of a belief that they had
been betrayed by some impersonal
mass-rouge called their elders who
had wantonly and just for the hell
of it caused an awful war and The
ensuing upsetment and that thev,
most of all, were the victims Of
this villainy. Some were veterans
of the war, but more were of the
group who came of age Just after
the peace, but We wee not tax.
ing polls in those days, so we new.
er knew how many they were all
told and many insist, if we like,
that the noise they made was far
out of proportion to their mum.
bers. After all, there are now liv.
ing among us millions of men and
women in their high 40s and late
30s who were members of that
age group and who settled down
to work and the responsibilities of
life and do not concede that they
ever lost their souls.
One In Particular
Of that group or cult of juvenile
crying-drunks I have in mind one
in particular who obviously seized
upon F..tzgerald's writing as an ex-
cuse to run his fingers through his
pretty, wavy hair and flout every
ordinance of morality, responsible.
ity, responsibility and manhood. A
youth of wealth and high social
position, he had Joined up for the
war in the spirit of a Summer to
drive an officers car, and after
ward wrote to exhaustion of the
horror of it all, the establishment
of his generation, the lack of op-
%portunity for the likes of him In
a world disordered by guilty man
agement, collecting, over the
course of about Is years, three
wives, a pile of debts the size Of
a haystack and a cigaret cough
which gave him occasion to beat
himself delicately on the wishbone
and say,
"Gas-the war. you know"
The persons of that age in the
European countries did suffer from
confusion and lack of opportunity,
and the despair of their elders is
a much different proposition. Here,
after a very brief pause, life
picked up and opportunity not
merely beckoned but just about
ganged the young. As to the kind
of opportunity, whether to serve
mankind in some large, permanent
altruistic way or merely to pros
per economically and pursue In
reasonable security and comfort
the devious but inevitable pain
from the cradle to the grave 1t
IS not pertinent to ask in a dis
cussion of Fitzgerald's lost gener'
alton. He dealt with a group VINO
were not noticeably concerned with
noble service but merely petulant,
because no one had invented a
gin that didn't cause hangover-an'
other grievous failure OF the WICK
ed and shiftless elders.
At this distance from fltz'
gerald's day there are signs thal'
just as saloon society is exagsel'
ated and overpublic.zed at present
so then the number, importance
and plight of his subjects were
vastly magnified. Where are they
now, those flappers, male and le.
male, whose problem never was
hunger or lack of a job, or rather
luxurious comforts, but Just d
yearning and churning sucn as
every youth is troubled by, Du.
in their great self-pity thought all
this was something new? They are
not next door, because there were
not enough of them to proVlos
neighbors for us all, even discount
ing the morality of almost '"'
decades.
Whoever sees one now or Know
of one who wouldn't have been d
malingering flop and wilmer Al
any generation?
At this point it may be Observer
that today any legitimate, con-
scientious effort to regard youtl
as a section of society and to give
special encouragement and aid Il
certain to be exploited by a rela,
lively small element of youth WIN
will turn pro, so to speak, anu
either sit down on the curb anu
quit cold or hop up on a laoaei,
box and damn the only system
under which they RI permitted ~
do so. The majority are mlnalns
their business, preserving tneL
self-respect and their individually
as the majority did when ocoN
Fitzgerald's few yer gnawlng sLa
in silver slabs and shifting aOo"
the sham and tinsel of it all.
MESSERSCHMITT DOWNtD