The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-09

The Star wishes it's readers to
know that views Ind. opinions
EXPRESSED in this article are
those of the author and may not
always harmonic with its posi-
tion.-The Editor.
NEW YORK, Oct. g. My own
political childhood ended and ado
lescence set in about 1882 when l
voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt
and the repeal of prohibition. The
economic crackup, which began in
1929, did not then seem to me to
be anything worse than a few cauli-
lowered tenders and a smashed
windshield. I was still thinking of
the crash as a just come-uppance
for a lot of sWindlers in the bank
ing and promotion rackets and a
mishap to many comparatively
petty gamblers who were nickling
down dinky side bets in the mar
ket. Many OF these had run up an
original taw of 500 or $500 to $780,
900 or half a million in paper prof
its; an dit was too baC for them
but, after all, no worse than they
had a right to expect, because, in
gambling, if you don't know when
to take down you are sur to be
knocked into the creek eventually.
They were just back where they
started.
Bars in Offices
I had seen a lot of country-club
bankers and corporation boosters
around the ringside at the big
fights and following the golf tourn-
aments and sometimes had Won
dered when they ever foun| time
to put in any ticks at the mysteri-
Gus business which was yielding
them such great wealth. They
were an excited, money-proud lot
most of them rather young, too
and they had bars in their homes
and offices and vaults full of liquor
which ran up to 500 a case for
scotch and $125 for champagne. 1t
just didn't seem sound to me that
men with responsibility for the af-
fairs of companies in which the
people were investing Their money
should have saloons in their Of
fees. In my newspa experience
there had been men who would
keep a slab of toddy in the desk
and gnaw off an inch now and
again during the day, and an oc.
casional old growler with a tomato
nose who was supposed to suck up
his quart at home cory night after
work, but we never I'D any bars.
Well, so, as l say, wher we left
the road and hit that tree back in
1929 and began comb splintered
glass out of our hair I thought we
would soon have her running
again, and when Mr.. Roosevelt
came along I figured he would be
the n to do it.
Voted for Him
I even thought, in a vague way.
that he would juice up the engine
so as to save gas and get more
speed out of her and maybe
streamline the body. Anyway, 1
was for him and voted for him,
and I had a lump in my neck the
size OF an egg the day he stood on
the county-fair scaffold in front of
the capitol in Washington and said
the only thing We had to fear was
fear.
There" I thought, sis my Pres
ident. Amt he something's" I am
a little reticent about such emo
tons in print, so 1 guess I didn't
write it, but 1 thought it. l felt it.
l didn't cover the banking in
quiry in Washington, but I did fol-
low the story, and nobody took
more pleasure from the spectacle
OF those crooks getting their Jumps
from Fred Pecora. But l still
didn't realize what the boys in the
administration were UP to, and 1
doubt that many Americans did,
or do yet. The town was full of
strangers which, of course, was
natural, because tn Democrats
were closing in for Tie jobs and
the Republicans were thuc1bing it
out of town by every road. But a
lot of these strangers were not
merely strange but politically
queer and there were so many
rumple = haired, tweedy : looking
study : mugs and rather sallow,
flat-heeled females among them
talking theology stuff that. I began
to wonder, what is this, anyway
a government or colege?" One of
the male double-dornes who has
since become a very big man in
the new deal one explained to me
that economics was very much a
matter of psychology, and I asked
him why they didn't get an a1ienist
for his job, but he just thought l
was being flippant. I guess I was,
at that.
Well, what I thought was that
they were going to junk and sal
wage the busted banks and com
panies, pass some laws to prevent
the recurrence of any such fabu-
lous nonsense, send q lot of gyps
to prison, particularly lawyers who
too many to mention One doS1or