The Wilmington morning star., 1944-11-17

| ers Hi sarticles serve the good purpose
| of making people thlnk)
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright 1914, by King Features Syndicate)
NEW YORK - This presidential campaign
evoked a lot of talk about prejudice against
inur1igran as such, but it seemed to me
that the talk far exceeded the prejudice, it.
self However, it should be plain to anyone
who knows our history and native termpera-
ment, that if this aggravating and often in
sulting propaganda continues. we are likely
to have a revival, with variations. Of the old
know nothing movement in our politics.
| The most dangerous irritation Of the toll
Grant and generous native American occurs
when he is accused Of Hilerian racisrn and
bigotry because he has been alarmed by the
asgressiveness a dsproportionate political
influence of men and women who came to
this country for asylum from persecution and.
from their arrival, back before the first World
war, took to the soap-box to preach revolution
and the substitution of European theories Of
government for the one which saved their
lives.
The political detectives Of most Of these
pushful persons lie off to the left, extending
as far as communism. 1t has not been reas-
surfing to find President Roosevelt more con-
cans who were fighting in France while they
were hollering revolution in broken English
around Union square in 1918 and whose
sons today are fighting abroad to preserve
this country from communism as well as fas-
cism So Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt, too.
by their favoritism and their special cncern
fer the privileges Of the foreign-born, tend
to aggravate the situation to bitterness.
After all, this is our country, not the pro-
perty of every unfortunate or merely disagree
able European who wants to come here. Our
present roster Of citizens retain the right to
establish qualifications for immigration and.
if the situation seems appropriate, to shut of
immigration altogether until further notice.
| The prospective immigrant, the European
who merely desires to come here, has abb
solutely no rights in the matter 50 no right
has been violated If he is denied adnaittance
Every other country has more or less SINH
lar rules and in most OF them, the quallfica-
tions and laws governing naturalization are
much more exclusive than ours.
Russia, in particular, is extremely choosey
and, no American admitted to Russia. wheth-
e1 as a visitor or an immigrant, would be
allowed to get up on a soap-box outside the
Kremlin and preach the American capitalistic
and two-party system. They would Just take
him out and shoot him. Yet that is the system
which the most intimate political associates
of Sidney Hillrnan and many Of The close
partisans Of the President and Mrs. Roosevelt
would like to establish here.
So it isn't fascism or racism to suggest
that, until things settle down and we are able
to adjust our differences between ourselves,
the plush rope be stretched across the bat
terry and the Golden Gate, supporting polite
sign reading: Full Up" 1t isn't even nativ'
ism to suggest this because the present roster
of Americans who would have the right to
make the decision includes millions OF inn
-, ,,v,I4 ir0 10
| speak.
A good reason to consider this idea seri-
ously and without hatred. but certainly with
skepticism, is that Europe has been crazy
for the last decade or two, the time varying
with the geographical area. The Italians have
| lost their wits, the Spaniards, too are divided
between fascism and communism, neither OF
which we want to import, and the French,
who migrate in small numbers, anyway, Just
don't know where they at
| incidentally, however, while they are execut-
| ing individual Frenchmen and degrading wo-
men by shaving their heads, in some OF the
latter cases without any form of trial that
Americans would recognize as justice. dc
Gaule has readmitted to France the chief
of the communist conspiracy against the re-
public and there has been no word OF thu
execution of any communist who slit the throat
of France in 1910, while Hitler and Stain
were allies; and for that very reason.
1t is not un-American to propose that we
select our immigrants with an eye to our
own benefit with preference for, say, car
penters or common laborers or mechanics.
although Of course, our craft union politicians
would set up howl against that We have
barred certain Asiatic races for many years
and will continue to bar some OF them Tor
years to come
Yet, those who are so angrily concerned
over the rights of the forelng-born never 3D.
ject to that discrimination but would cry olgo-
try if we should decide to admit Immigrants
from. some areas of Europe and exclude ap-
plicants from others, even though WOODROW
Wilson and William Allen White, two OF the
favorite prophets of this propagano enlpila
tically urged such discrimination. AND De-
l;eve the most clamorous of them would agree
just now, that the Germans should pc en-
tlrely excluded until at least a generation o!
them have had some treatment Tor 1oeoloslcal
Decentralization. BY that time, presumably
they would be good communists ana accept
able
It is no refutation Of all this to point ~.
that some immigrants have fought IN tliis
country's wars and have contributed 10 tne
building of the nation The fact remains tnd1
any mass or quota immigration today or SOON
after the war undoubtedly would orlng US
communists and fascists and more coIal1luli
lists than fascists. In Europe, when tnls elios'
most of the fascists will turn to conlllluii slI
or turn back to it, having been comm lilS'S