Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-29
Harold Ross
100 Pct. Right
But Ia c+Iess
Editor Wrote Correctly
on American Habits
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

Vie latest tSCdI)due vi lldfOlu
= Ross.ethe well-known editor.
Is one which points up the
hypocrisy of those who insist that
TO qualify as a good American
one must love crowds, noise and
litter.
Mr.. Ross recently was de-
nounced as un-American and no
democrat because he wrote
shfill and frightened protest
against a plan 10 build public
picnic grounds and park ada
cent to his more or less rural
retreat on the Merritt parkway
at Stamford. Conn.
In panic he said this park
would attract hordes of persons
from the Bronx and Harlem who
would shout and yell and leave
their trash scattered about, and
he was quite right on both
counts. as nobody can deny.
A park which does not attract
crowds IS n failure and all eX-
perience shows that crowds at
play are noisy and have no con-
science about their hard-boiled
eggshells. waxed paper wrap
pings and all such debris.
No one has challenged his
assumptions. but Mr.. Ross,
nevertheless, has been fearlessly
rebuked in print and on the air
for abhorring such conditions,
as though. 10 rate American
citizenship. he should profess TO
enjoy them.
NOV. OF course, the fact Is
~ we'll known that almost
everyone who-ean.= including
even Communists, likes to get
away from crowds. especially in
summer and al least pretend 10
enjoy the leafy quiet Of the
country.
Artists and writer's. who as a
group. lean to the left and pro-
fess 10 love humanity in the
mass. have established many
country cells known as colonies
and the history of such places is
that when the arty people, as
distinguished from artists, and
the futilitarians, who don't
exactly write but always are
going TO write some day, begin
10 move in, the original settlers
turn their quaint little houses
. back 10 the mortgage holders
and move on.
One popularity Of city people
in the mass when they 60 out
10 the country for peace and
quiet is that they will insist on
bringing along with them
amusements which decountrify
the country.
They demand horrible music
far into the night, they want TO
dance. not on the green but in
dumps which have achieved q
degree OF unsightliness the like
of which the world has never
known and. in pursuit of their
own kind OF happiness, they
have no respect for the peace
of such as Mr.. Ross and his
numerous and offended kind.
I HAVE in mind a lady. the
i wife OF famous Lincolnlan
lover of the great common peo-
pie. who so freely loved her
privacy on her hundred-odd
acres. that she once came
charging out of her private swim
ming lake. attired only in the
spray which she kicked up. 10
/ chase away coupe of town
boys who had strayed onto her
estate 10 pick wild flowers.
Another individual. an intel
! lectual of a sort who certainly
would not confess that he has
anything against the people. was
/ so upset by the intrlisionS OF
casual droppers-in on Saturdays
and Sundays that he seriously
thought of lacking up scores OF
/ little signs on the trees for
miles about reading Maybe
they don't want to see you"
do you think they are running
roadhouse ?" Why don't YOU
let them alone7" and so forth.
For that matter. one of the
SevereSt critics of Mr.. Ross in
this embarrassing affair is HIM
self. So touchy about his pri-
vacy and quiet in his own
country estate that he has cm-
ployed patrol 10 keep the peo-
I pie at bay. he has pleaded with
his occasional biographers not 10
publish the location Of his re-
+ treat.
TT IS to be Surmsed, therefore,
L that a descent Of. say. 1000
residents OF the Bronx. Harlem,
or Park Avenue or Palm Beach,
for that matter, Sunday or any
other day, would put him into
/ panic and 10 flight. attended by
his bodyguards and with his
short wave screaming to Edgar
! Hoover 10 turn out the FBI.
Police experience proves that
Mr.. Ross correctly anticipated
the probable conduct of the
crowds which would have been
attracted 10 the park close by
his home, for the poor cops have
a miserable time enforcing the
merest outline of decency on
Sundays at beaches lying close