Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-05-12
PeeIer Finds
He Erred on
WiIIkie Views
COP Chief Moi Backing
Free Browder' Drive
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER

THESE dispatches have been
- guilty of an error recently
affecting Wendell Willkis, and
today's essay will try to set the
record straight.
Some weeks ago, when the
Communists were trying to pro-
mote a political pardon for Earl
Browder, their criminal leader
and erstwhile chief Of the pro-
Axis forces in this country, tney
quoted Mr.. Willkie in a display
advertisement in support Of this
campaign.
Discussing this move and
sharply recalling that until Hit
Ter attacked Stain, Browder
and his party were savagely
anti-American and pro-Axis. i
was deceived by the form of the
advertisement. as no doubt IL
was intended to deceive all read
ers of the same, into a belief
that Willkie had given state
ment for this specific purpose.
The fact is. Mr.. Willkie has
since informed me. that he made
no statement for the pardon
campaign, but that in March.
1910. in a general discussion Of
equal treatment Of all under
law. he leaned to a belief that
Browder had been punished for
his political beliefs.
Mr.. Willkie tells me that the
Communists did not misQuote
him or represent that the state
ment was made currently, but
agrees that some. seeing this
quotation. came To the conclu.
sion that Mr. Willkie had joined
the Free Browder" campaign.
THE fact Is, he states, that
Il Willkie has made no public
statement with reference TO- the
Free Browder" movement.
What il gets down TO Is that
by their quotation Of the Willkie
statement of two years ago. the
Free Browderites" have prac-
tically committed themselves 10
the immediate institution of a
Free Fritz Kuhn" movement.
A logical suggestion would be-
that under the circumstances
those lovers OF liberty. free trial
and civil liberties effect a mer-
ger and dub their movement
Free Browder and Kuhn"
Kuhn. it may be recalled, was
the leader Of the anti-American
German Bund in New York.
who was sentenced TO Sing Sing
for spending $500 OF the Bund's
money on a woman,
Declaring that he hated
| Kuhn's doctrines, Willkie said
he couldn't see convicting him
OF stealing the money which
Bund leaders testified Kuhn had
a right TO spend any way ne
/ liked"
MISLED by the tenor Of the
Al Communist advertisement,
thought Willkie had actually
joined the campaign TO get
Browder political pardon and
wrote that his suggestion that
Browder was sentenced in part
/ for his political affiliations was
"a sly misstatement and quite
expectable from man who
could say. as Willkie did, that
one of his utterances against
participation in the war was de-
liberately insincere and only
campaign oratory"
/ would like 10 withdraw The
assertion that wilkes remarks
on Browder were a sly misstate-
ment.
| think he was mistaken and
that Browder was sentenced
under the law for an act which
was the more offensive 10 the
nation whose laws he constantly
invokes because II was commit
ted in contemptuous hostility 10
this nation, in the interest OF
another.
But / concede 10 Willkie the
right 10 his opinion that this was
a political prosecution.
As TO his remark about cam
"A paign oratory," I went too
far in saying that he admitted
that the utterance in question
was deliberately insincere."
Willkie did not say so and
should not have said he did.
The occasion was his testi-
mony before the Senate foreign
relations committee in Febru-
AIRY. 1871. following his return
from England.
Senator Gerald Nye reminded
Willkie that. during his cam
paign, he had said:
"On the basis Of his (Presi-
dent Roosevelt's) past perform
ances with pledges to the people,
we may expect 10 he at war by
April. 1s41, II he Is elected"
Nye asked:
do you still agree that that
might he the case ." and Willkie
replied, ut might he. II was a
bit Of campaign oratory."
Some have said that Willkie
showed sincerity rather than IN
sincerity in this remark.
That is an attractive argu-
ment. but il seems 10 me that il
the remark. iself. was sincere.