The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-24


respo visibility for the personal views Of Mr. Pasler,
and often disagree with them - much - many Of
his readers His articles serve the sooo psFpose OF
making people think
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright 1914, By king Features Syndicate)
NEW YORK, Mrs. Roosevelt's preaching and
her personal performances have been so In
consistent that often turn from her current
writings to her autobiography, dated 1887, not
with any hope of reconciling the two attitudes
but lust to marvel, which is one of my hob
pies.
There are many arguments in favor OF
year of national SERVICE Mrs. R. wrote on
Aug. 26, 1914 There would be the advantage
that young men from all the different groups
which make up the citizenship OF the nation,
would be thrown together, they would know
each other, and the differences in background
and environment would melt away
Mrs. Roosevelt has something there, al
though those Americans who went to public
schools all know that children from "all the
different groups are thrown together in the
classrooms and in the school yard. In our
school, there were Negro boys and girls and
there were sons and daughters of immigrant
Germans, Scandinavians and Irish and old
sock Americans. We were thrown togeNer"
and knew each other very well.
But, neither Mrs. Roosevelt nor her husband
ever set foot in public school and, when she
had young ones, she saw to it that neither
did they. Mrs. Roosevelt took her Jimmy to
Groton where, certainly all the different
groups are not thrown together, and she
speaks Of taking Elliot there, after he had
year at Buckley which seems to be a
pre-prep school of the Groton social climate
and tradition, and, again, OF sending young
Franklin to Buckley and Johnny to Miss
Hewitts's" and Anna to Miss Chapin's," and
so forth.
Did she send her children to these cloisters
to meet "all the different groups?" or to
make sure they wouldn't be contaminated by
contact with "a]l the different groups?"
In another recent writing Mrs Roosevelt
proposed that all young American girls, as
well as the boys, should put in year of COM
pulsory service in which they would get some
training useful in case OF war and learn the
meaning of citizenship in democracy The
meaning Of this will suggest itself to the
parents of young daughters and so, Of course,
will the difference between the raising of her
own daughter and the course which she now
advocates for other peoples daughters.
Mrs. Roosevelts constant emphasis on ''cti-
Zenship' seems to suggest that she thinks we
are not as good citizens as we might be, but
with a strong implication that she and her
husband, who were kept aloof from the lower
classes, nevertheless by some innate superior
y,
emplary citizens Yet the citizenship of the
United States will seem to many of us to
have been fairly good down to now, although
we may have made some spectacular mis-
takes at the polls, as Mrs. R. might agree
we have.
In the economic field Mrs. Roosevelt again
seems inconsistent There were fortunes on
both sides of the family and nobody seems
ever to have worked at useful toll.
INV grandfather Hall never on on oed in b11ci.
ness" she wrote. HE lived on what his father
and mother gave him. Her father with the
consent OF an indulgent mother and two ador-
ing sisters, took part of his inheritance and
went around the world And later he be-
came hopeless rumpot and actually had to
be put in confinement
When Roosevelt was assistant secretary of
the Navy, in 1914 on $500 a year, she took
with her to Washington -four servants and
nurse and governess." And, before that.
Wnen Roosevelt was only a state senator in
Albany at about $1,000 a year, where the
legislators of "all the different groups" lived
III cheap hotels and rooming houses, they took
house and Il brought three servants, be-
sizes the nurses
| 1t was not until the entire family had en-
]oyed every advantage, luxury and pleasure,
including town houses and country estates,
| yachts pony carts and European travel, that
OF other people to 5000 a year. But even
| then, there was still more than a million of
the old family fortune left. So, with no income
at all she and her husband could spend at
least $1,000 week out of capital, just to
enjoy luxurious life, and pay no tax at all.
There has never been an offer to give the
fortune away.
| On the racial question, too, Mrs. R. reveals
a contrast. She opposes discrimination in hir-
ing and yet, in her early life story, she tells
o. time in Washington when two white SER
wants quit and II decided it would be much
simpler if I took colored servants, which
would obviate my having to go to New York
to find new white ones. completely stated
my house with colored servants
| That might sound like discrimination and it
certainly doesn't abide by the arbitrary check
er-board rule which the gracious lady lays
down for other employers and workers OF to-
day.
But, as 1 say, am only marveling.