The Wilmington morning star., 1944-08-12
Fair Enough

\ Fair Enough
Editors Note.-rhs Star and the News accept ne
responsibility for the rsona views Of MI. Puger
and often disagree with them much ~ many Of
his readers. His articles the good purpose of
making peUpe think.
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK, Aug. 1.-THE way it began,
why this fellow was a kind of sidehin farmer
down there where the government has been
| improving people and when the war come he
went into a cotton factory and got to be a
real good operator and he was making top
money for the kind of job he was doing
Then the government come in and built lot
| OF model homes SO the people would feel i'm
proved and they assigned him to a house
| suitable for man and wife and two kids and
the rent was $18 month because he was
under privileged He liked the place good
and they planted little patch and seme flow
ers and everything was going just fine.
| So anyway, one day the War Labor board
came along and pretty soon the manager of
| this factory he got long letter and lot of
figures like life insurance policy, and he
was ordered to raise wages five cents an hour
up to SO much, but he is busy making
cNth for the war he don't read it very close
so this fellow who is getting improved, why
his pay goes up $11.2O month, too Well he
and the old Indy felt pretty good about this
although there il q little more bite off the top
for income tax and Social security but they
say, well, after all, if the government gives
you swell house and gets you raise with
out you even ask for it, why yor are louise if
you squawk about donating little more so
they can, carry on the good work.
| But then comes the first of the month and
the rent goes up from $l8 month to $25 and
they figured it was just mistake because it
is the law that rents are frozen and Old Sam
certainly wouldn't be the one to violate his
own laws and set people bad example So he
| takes the notice down to the government i'm
provement people and the housing fellow ex-
plains that the rent freeze only goes for pri-
vate profiteers but they raise his rent ST a
month because his raise in pay puts him in a
higher bracket and you pay rent according to
what you earn. So here Old Sam gives him a
raise of $11 20 but grabs back seven bucks for
the hike in the rent and a couple of bucks
more for taxes and this fellow figures his
raise finally comes to less than a dime a day.
He wasn't improved enough to understand
why the same house should cost the same guy
more money when they give him an argument
that he got raise in pay he hollered back
that the way he figures, the raise is just a
little over two bucks, cash money so far as
he was concerned
He said he was sick AID tired of regimen
tation so he went out in the country and bought
him little old swayback dog-run house and
then he told the guy living there he would have
to get out because he wanted to move in right
away
So this other fellow refused to 60 because
he was essential in the same factory so they
called on the OPA and the OPA says, yes, you
have to give him go days notice and, more
over, the roof leaks and that is strictly un-
| sanitary so he will have to single it right
away otherwise this other guy might catch
cold and that would slow down democracy's
about war on the totalitarian aggressors. Well,
this fellow figured he would want tight roof
anyway for his own self, so he went down
to get some nails and shingles and the priori-
ties said nothing doing, and if they catch him
violating the priorities, it is in the. can for
him for obstructng the war effort. Then the
OPA says it is in the can for him it he doesn't
make the house sanitary by fixing the leaks
and he is all confused when all of a sudden
the War Labor board takes another peek at
the pay rolls. The next day or so the boss
got a letter that he shouldn't have raised this
guy because the increase was only for the
dumb clucks in the low-downest brackets, but
| in the meanwhile the boss had paid out about
| $4,000 in raises to the high-bracket people
like our friend This is illegal initiation so he
can't charge it to wages and he will have ia
paw income tax on it. No kidding that is what
they have done. And furthermore they told
him he would have to reduce our friend $11 20
month, right away.
i You should have heard this fellow holler
But all they did was they just unwound the
whole business. The boss reduced his paw. Old
Sam reduced his taxes and cut back the rent
to $18 again. He kissed goodbye to his down.
payment on the dog-run house and the other
guy put a dish-pan under the leak; SO there
they are now, right back where they starte.
But from the way ne sounded, this fellow SIRE
is sick and tired of getting improved.
II V-
More and more an intelligent, constructive
liberal leadership will arise in the south which
will not owe anything directly or indirectly to
Wall Street or to outworn prejudices. - Henry
! A. Wallace