The Wilmington morning star., 1944-03-01
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

KANSAS CITY, - There is no excuse 1o1
anyone to believe that President Roosevelt
has learned lesson from his fracas with
dear Alben Barley. There was no indication
of reform in his telegram. He just realized
an old servant who then blew the job and
threatened to picket the premises The original
insult to Congress was written with deliberate
intent, and with obvious pride in the cheap
and sneering flippancy about need and greed
and its meaning was not altered by the Presi-
dents wheedling mash-note to a man whose
sense of honor was less alert when he was
being elected Senator from Kentucky by WPA
money in a hard contest He meant to insult
Congress and he did, nor was this the first
time, a recent similar instance being his
charge of fraud in the controversy over the
soldiers vote
Before that he had threatened to take action
himself if Congress failed to pass law to his
liking by certain deadline and before that
he had, by stealth, attempted to impose a
$25 900 limitation on the salaries of civilians
unconnected with the war effort or any public
project, after Congress, knowing that this
would lose, not gain money for the Treasury,
and for other reasons, had deliberately and
pointedly refused to comply with suggestion
first tossed off by Mrs. Roosevelt, who may
or may not have known that it had been an
article in the platform of the Communist par
ty. Of course he wanted to insult Congress.
What other regard would he have for body
which early in his rule, delivered itself into
| a condition of helpleSsness, servility and mock
cry by handing him, without restriction, bill
lions of dollars in the naive belief that he
would hold himself above politics in it's dis
tribution? What other regard would he have
for man who would not only accept the sort
of election help that Barley received from
money voted to relieve human misery but Of
fer the cynical justification that, after ALL this
was politics?
The return of manhood and civic decency to
Congress has been slow, and, to the credit Of
the House of Representatives it must be &C
knowledged that the blush of reviving self
respect first tinted the frog-belly pallor of the
national legislature there. For it was in the
House that a number of bills were passed in
defiance of the White House and the entire
Fascist movement in Washington two years
ago, only to be strangled in the Senate Com
nittee on education and Labor, which would
have brought within the rule of law the ter
rorists, brothel-keepers. gangsters and COM
munists of President Roosevelts following in
the union movement. But the House, too had
been bad enough and had earned over a
number of years of miserable and corrupt be-
trayal of the whole American concept of gov
eminent that contempt which Mr. Roosevelt
revealed in the take law days when Tom
my the Cork, Jimmy the Eaglet and other
White House walking delegates, in staggering
impudence, stalked the halls giving orders to
men elected by the people,
This rebellion against the new deal and
pointedly against the sneering arrogance OF
the Treasury in its assumption of the power
to make, not merely recommend or request
taxes has been long overdue but its effect
will be lost if any important section of Con-
gress permits itself to be seduced again by
the back-slapping which has followed. The
whole history of the Roosevelt administration
stands against any hope that the dominating
personality and his theological advisers and
coaches have the slightest respect for the Con.
stitutional status of the legislature.
Mr.. Roosevelt gave orders to Congress too
long to be able to change now and restore to
the men who always before touched their
caps to him in return for handouts and poll
tical backing, the rights, duties and preroga-
tives which their oath their citizenship and
their self-respect lay upon them. He Just
doesn't think that way.