The Wilmington morning star., 1944-06-05
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

| By WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK.-When the story came into our
shop about Mrs. Roosevelt taking sock at the
British Prime Minister for saying what he said
about SPAIN all of us were sitting around the
floor in the office of our editor. Mr.. Cole, which
is 4 code-word for his real name, was thinking
up ideas for stories to divert the peoples minds
from the war so that they wouldn't worry Sc
One of the girls suggested dog story but Mr..
Wood-oh. shoot! never would make good
spy because l can't keep a secret-Mr. Cole
said that well, after all, we had that one last
fall about the soldier who came all the way
home from California to Rochester to be with
his dying old airdale; and the one about the
cog upstate suspected of killing sheep which
talked his way out of jam by wagging his
tail and sitting up to beg when cornered by a
farmer with shotgun; and the one about the
woman who sat seven days and nights in her
car in parking lot waiting for her fox terrier
which turned up in the house of engine No. 3,
of the Newark fire department.
L know WHAT exclaimed Murray Davis,
the crusade editor who used to pitch for Kan
sas City, "a story about cats!''
mo gassakes, not CATS said Mr.. Trulling-
er, the rod-and-gun editor IT hate cats. They
eat birds"
Well, they eat mice, too'' Mr.. Davis re-
torted with pout and l. for one, hate mice.
I hate LaGuardia, too'
What has that got to do with it?'' Mr. Tru1-
lnger demanded with mock seriousness. Cats
don't eat LaGuardia.''
well" said Mr.: Davis, "even cat has to
draw the -"
''How about a series on communists in the
Schools" said Mr.. Woltman; and chimed in
with chow about story on the dirty, rotten,
eyes, yes know" Mr. Cole interrupted,
dirty, rotten, thieving underworld racketeers
OF the AFL, but it seems to me we had one on
that last March. But will tell you what" and
Mr.. Cole beamed on me- why don't you run
down to Washington and interview Sistie and
Buzzie, the Presidents grandchildren, on the
Churchill speech because, you never can tell
they might say he was absolutely dead right
about Spain; or one might say yes and the 9TH
er no, and maybe you could rib them into a
battle and calling each other a dirty Nazi-over
and a Bolshevik, respectively
wouldn't you have to clear through their
agent?" asked Mildred, the girl who answers
the phone when you call up and says Mr.. Cole
is out to lunch. Il think they all have agents
Their mother has, and their grandma and their
grandpa"
Literary agents and booking agents. Mil
dred said. 'They all have agents and I think
you would have to lay something on the line,
because you know Mrs Roosevelt goes around
lecturing and Mrs. Perkins and Ickes and all,
well, they don't do that for free and 1 don't
think you will find any foolish children in that
environment"
PERSONALLY" I said, Il don't get the idea,
because who gives damn what they think
about what Churchill said about -'
~ =. I.
who gives a damn what their grammar
thinks about --'
And, moreover" I said, first thing you
know you will be in jam, with the State de-
partment Glowing all over and the FBI tap
ping your phones and the Army will grab you
Mr.. Cole, and set you right out in the street
under the Presidents aggregate wartime pow
ers.'
II think it stinks,'' said Mr. Williams, the
sports columnlSt because up to now they have
pretty well kept their bazoos shut but if you
touch them off they will be sounding off all the
time and writing for the Ladies' Home Jour
nal and the syndicates and shaking hands with
the Wacs and launching boats in the news
reels"
II think So too,'' Mr.. Woltman said And,
personally, am working on comny plant
ed down in j. P Morgan's Office
THAT is what 1 Think Mr.. Davis said
ana anyway L am deVeloplng lead ABOUT
cat that had litter of Easter Dummies in an
old plug hat in a pawnshop over in Browns
ville'
WELL Mr. Cole said, chose sound like
good hot-weather IDEAS and, to me, Il sup
pose you are about to turn up three-time
loser in the Civil Liberties Union. maybe?
"But,' our editor. Mr. Cole, insisted plaintlve-
1y as the staff meeting broEe up, Il GER
tainly think the people have a right to know
what Sistie and Buzzie think about what
Churchill said about Spain. Still, l suppose it
would stand us about thousand bucks for the
pair of them