The Wilmington morning star., 1944-01-15
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER


a states attorney. county prosecutor,
named John E. w. Waymen decided that vice
must go and to that end, closed up the South
Side area known as the Line, where i'm
propriety had been rife for years and years
under political license and by common con-
sent.
Now" Mr.. Wayman said in effect brush
ing his hands and turning to other matters,
vice is gone Which was reasonably true,
although for some time after there were tap
pings on the panes along dark streets at
night, possibly mere echoes of long past or
the work Of ghosts. But Mr.. Wsyman neg
lected to say where vice had gone and the
honest citizen was left to find out soon that it
had moved into the apartment just across the
hall from his own, or the house next door,
Vice went everywhere in Chicago and has
never been efficiently segregated from that
day to this.
And now that the dice are warm, I should
like to make the point that the dissolution OF
the communist party by decision of its ma
tional committee, announced by Earl
Browder, the general secretary of the party,
presents a parallel in our politics. Mr.. Brow
der has invited his following to move into the
Democratic and Republican parties, disguised
as respectable capitalists, and to join the
church in manner of speaking and boiler
hallelujah but to remain communists just
what they were by night although they talked
Of groceries and leaky sinks and the care and
feeding of children with their unsuspecting
neighbors across the back-porch ratings dur
ing the day.
This is not altogether a new device of the
communists. For years many of them have
refused to live within the stockade Of the
communist party, pretending to be nothing
more sporty than liberals dealers but
committing communism on the quiet in uni
versities, government bureaus and unions of
the CLIO. A few were caught by the flycops
Of the Dies committee but most of the sus-
poets were acquitted by friends in power and
the complaining officers denounced as political
prigs who would give girl bad name for
smoking a cigaret showing a little bit of
leg. These part time, amateur, communists
Joined youth movements, consumers and
shoppers groups and leagues, councils and
congresses against fascism and for democracy
which were, in fact, political dives or cess
pools OF communism but, if picked up in
raid, the defense was always that they were
just studying art. But, at least, the more
hardened and abandoned communists were
easily identified by their sullen and defiant
contempt of the American form of govern
ment and could always be found where they
belonged, which is to say, in the party. A
light hung outside the door and the color of
the light was red
Now, however, all Of them including the
worst, are scattered all over town, commun-
lists still but preaching free enterprise &C.
cording to Instructions; and their talk is to
be cleansed of such profanities as rationale
cation of the banks, railroads, coal and steel
1T is mn considered Judgment Mr. Brow
der said, that the American people are so
ill-prepared, subjectively, for any deep going
change in the direction of socialism, that
postwar plans with such an aim would not
unite the nation, but further divide it." And
I'VE frankly declare that we are ready to
cooperate in making this capitalism work eff
fectlvely in the postwar period"
Perhaps my view is uncharitable, but one
is made skeptcal by past performances and
remembers that Mr.. Browder up to certain
point, at which Hitler attacked Russia, was
flercely opposed to this war for that capital
lstlc system which he now embraces and to
the whole program of the United States to
defend herself And the communist party, as
such, has become such a miserable sum
Stunned even by its rich and gamey patrons
OF hereditary wealth, that there would seem
to be very practical reasons why the COM
rades have decided to abandon the old sway
backed dump and scatter.