Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-04-27
Youth Ethics
Undermined
By New Deal
Young Drdftees Know No
Other Government
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

taken INTO the army the
other day.
He is 18 and a very patriotic
American, but of a new and diff
ferent sort.
Young Joe Doakes was born
in 1925 and was a little less
than 8 years old when President
Roosevelt was inaugurated the
first time.
He has lived all his conscious
life under the rule of Mr.. Roose-
welt and the New Deal.
In his mind, Mr.. Roosevelt,
Mrs. Roosevelt. Henry Wallace
and Harry Hopkins are the fixed
government of his country, for
he has never known any other.
TTNCONSCIOUSLY, during
~ these years between baby
hood and young manhood, the
Doakes kid has been influenced
by the events, the methods and
the ethics that have swirled
around him.
He cant remember when it
was improper 10 toss off SOL
emn promise and break il with
hooking grin, when gang
sters were held 10 be outlaws,
when the government was scru-
pulous TO obey the laws and dis
daiHed clever tricks Upon the
people, when high personages
were careful not 10 claim spe-
cial privileges on pretense Of
public service and a citizen
could oppose a policy without
fear of personal reprisal.
He. does remember. because IL
happeped the day after Pearl
Harbor. that. after President
Roosevelt had taken a public
VOW not TO deliver lot Of coal
miners 10 John l.. Lewis. A man
named Steelman, acting in the
Presidents name in the role Of
arbitrator did for him pre-
ciscly what he had sworn he
would not do
Because his government did
that and because this is the
only government he has ever
known the Doakes kid thinks
that was pretty cute and his re-
gard for his own promises Is
affected accordingly.
LIE HAS a sense that the best
IL citizenship and the best way
10 get along IS 10 belong 10 the
crowd that is in power, for he
has seen that racketeers who
string with his government can
get away with highway robbery
and that when Congress tries TO
abolish their immunity, the
President slips the word n a
couple of his trained senator's 10
Kill the bill because it would
embarraSs tho boys.
He noted. IN his juvenile way.
that Harry Hopkins made a nice
piece Of change out Of magazine
stuff which he didn't even have
10 write. himself. at time when
the President was damning war
profiteers and. further. that AL
though Hopkins warned the
common citizens that they must
live a hard lie, Harry is living
higher and making more money
than ever before in his life.
And IL has not escaped the
DoakcS kids attention that any
one who sticks his neck out is
likely TO he handed an iron cross
by the President 10 signify that
he is a traitor or vilified by La
Guardia. Ickes or the New Deal
party press or even bounded by
the FBI.
THE DoakeS kid has heard his>
Il old man mutter that such a
way OF doing amt right. and
grumble that they didn't do that
way before 1888. but the day be-
fore 1888 is lust olden times 70
him and ne figures that his old
man is getting along.
The old gent has tried at
times, to explain that right is
right. but he hasn't a very good
command of language or logic
and goes by instinct so he hasn't
made much OF an impression.
Moreover, he is confused.
himself. and vaguely suspicious
that the government Of these
last 10 years has purposely kept
a lot Of lamp shades. tennis
balls and Indian clubs IN the air
at all times so that he couldn't
concentrate for long on any one
thing.
The kid has never known any,
thing else but the New Deal
and its moral code and he is
just one Of a whole generation
of Americans, boys and girls,
who have been so conditioned, as
the theology writer's would say.
IKE the young generation
IL that Mussolini seized 10 train
in fascism from childhood, these
Americas, who naturally look
10 their government for the
highest example, have been get
ting a course of what the navy
calls indoctrination since they
first were able 10 realize that
there was such a thing as the
government.
That is why the Doakes kid
doesn't take very seriously all
he hears about the Four Free
doms everywhere in the world.
He figures. what the hell, prom
Use them anything and appoint I,