The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-22
Fair Enouuh
BY WEsTBRooK pFc1r

HhH r
ions expressed in this ar r?4l,
are those of the author sas
may not always harmon and
with its position. The Editna
NEW YORK, Feb. q e..
ly but irresistibly since va n'ow,
Willkie started to expouno "tnoel
which he called his "pliticaI ao rpat
last summer the r~ealizaton
been dawning on me thai i,as
at least two decades, and pas.,% %n
three decades, behind the tm
in my concept of the MiddIa W 1i.Ies
and probably of the snan t0I
almost everywhere in the 1rr eG.a
States. My mental picture has ra
manned that of an unpave1 rra!s
street, a town hall where wand a,a
ing entertainers fired up me sto,,
three or four times a wlntor
sing illustrated songs, a jocsI
weekly paper, an educational svs'
tenn which expired half : Wav
through high school. a fixed ponT.
lation composed almost entirely ~
native Americans and a two.parts
political mentality which new,
heard of social gains and usod
the word "social' only as a NOM
meaning an ice cream or Straw
berry party on the lawn of The
M. E.. church. (In the basemen,
in case of rain.)
The Hoosier remains a distirct
breed, to be sure, and WiIlks
remains a Hoosier, but the Seem
has changed since he turned b4
back on Indians. and anyone wbo
still thinks of Hoosiery in term,
of simple and honest but shrevd
rusticity is living in the past,
Corn
I doubt that Willkie himself bw
really made that mistake, and SUI.
pect that his emphasis on open.
faced, boyish political homelines
in the late campaign was some.
thing which the actors used to call
hokum or hoke and now call corn,
That was the last stand of The
great American hick-may he rs
in peace!-and Willkie was not a
hick but a slicker. And the Hoo.
siers to whom he addressed this
appeal at the Homecoming show
were slickers who had put them.
selves into costume and a MOOD,
as in some other local American
festivals the people dress up in
fur caps and fringe to recall for
a day the civilization of the little
brown jug.
A wise and honest Hoosier Jour.
nalist of my acquaintance who COY.
cred the show and favored Willke
in the campaign told me in o.
tober that his fellow Hoosiers had
corned it up so extravagantly that
far from arousing nostalgia in him,
they had cured him of his Old
longing. His Indiana was dead
and buried on the banks Of the
Wabash, and these people were
frisking about in a very depress'
ing burlesque.
WILKES own Indiana has be
come an industrial state with al
industrial population which is IT,
ban in the country. The factories
and works have spread out be.
You'd the old city lines, wn!ch
used to be the demarcation 5e'
tween soft comfort and hardy mis-
cry, sophistication and chew-tobac'
CO innocence, way up into Mich
gan and over Ohio and Hines
As of the period of which I rela!r
a mental picture and which VIII
kie revived, only to discover I0a'
after such a long time dead, Il
had reached a high state of kipp'F,
college education was largely l%'
stricted to the sons and daughts:s
of the better-off and a few re.
; markedly ambitious young ones d
the relatively poor.
). Ignorant Bore
There is no need to cite S&'
t tistics to show the extent OF ne
change in this respect. But ooE'
ously the reason why the cracker
barrel philosopher is no mort
not that he ever really WaS-5
that he would be argued oul y
: breath in an hour and would re-,
main thereafter an affected anu
ignorant bore. I say ne neVsI
really was because the few men
who actually did business as crsI q,
er-barrel philosophers were reSI.
smart humorists who worked u
dialect. -,
BY imputing to a whole area o.
population their carefully exaSS.I.
ated, professional version OF aS
local language and thought ut,
gave all these people a chance ~
!, think of themselves as salty WI"
: of the keenest intelligence. Hssa w.,
after they have been gone 10 W,
cities for years some groWnup, WV
gallus Hoosiers still con]ure tue'a
selves as cracker-barrel pnlloS
piers when they get a htlle w.
at reunions. But the effect Is pi,
ty sad. because it is so faf v"
Of date. =,
It occurs to me that the syn nv
Gated cosmic colunnlst o.
journalism might be regaFoeu M
the successor to the crachei'O"I 70.
philosopher, for I often llno ~,
peated, as original though, W. ",
in speech and in letters ~ r,rs,
editor, ideas, includlns j., s! .rJa.,
which I have seen before IN a.,
1 do not know how to squais no.
with +ho 1,ndeniable spread,