The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-06-28
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

| making people tnAhA'
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
CHICAGO-Humbled by years Of frustra-
ton and political and personal humiliation at|
the hands of the Roosevelts, husband and wife,
Harry Hopkins, Ickes Hillman, Leon Hender-
son, the Hagues and Kellys and kindred al
truistic toilers for the uplift Of the common
man, the Republicans gathered now in Chi.
| cago to nominate Tom Dewey present al
strange appearance in the accustomed politics
OF the land.
| They are entirely American, with attach
ment to neither bundism nor communism nor
more than stately and respectful acquaint-
ance with Winston Churchill and the royal
refugees from Europe. And yet there is among
them an apologize attitude as though to say
that, while they are truly American, they I'M
fortunately were born that way and venture
| to hope their peculiarly will not be held
against them.
This is the first national party convention
at which total enthusiasm for tn e United
| States has created sense of embarrassment
| in those so minded, and every word that Re-
publicans utter is weighed first lest it be con-
strued to mean that they would rate an Iowa
farmer or a Chicago machinist or salesman
above an Arab, or a Pole. a Sicilia1 or a
Frenchman or a refugee from Germany or
Spain.
| In private conversation and subject to re-
pudiation should the subject be treacherously
accused of the crime of Americanism, first
degree, the Republican will confide a distaste
| for excessive eastern-seabo ardism and then
try to explain, inoffensively, what he means
by that Decentralization e n s the
hoodlums who police the politics and rackets
| of a stewing and crime-harried Latin district
| in New York whose representative in Con-
gress, Vito Marcantonio, is La Guardia's pro-
tege and speaks the language Of the COM
muniSts
| It means Sidney Hillman and the Political
Action Committee Of the CLIO, the political ef-
fort Of the communists in the fourth term
campaign, which keeps in telephone touch
with the White House, and the Farm Security
Administration which has superseded not only
in the public consciousness, but in practical
fact, the National Committee Of the Demo-
cratic party. Eastern seaboardism means per-
sonal and political SANDER against Americans
who display the reckless unwisdom to declare
and govern themselves strictly by the oath
that every American soldier takes on joining
the colors, subject to neither discount nor
mental reservation.
i The myth mas been established in their
minds as fact, that American labor, meaning
all the millions Of Americans who earn their
living by work and pay taxes, is held in
Il
GERS of both big houses, and that labor will
punish at the polls any party which dares
to promise that it will drive criminals and
communists out Of the unions, and restrict
/ their private taxing powers.
| The Republicans are, in this way, an over
civilized aggregation come to nominate their
man, but it must be said that they shrink
from whole-hearted fight only from the ma
tural distaste of the well-behaved and law
abiding citizen for brawl in the spit and
dri2pings of bar-room floor. They all talk
| flight in confidence, reviewing the scandals Of
! the air mail cancellation, the unblushing per-
sonal graft of the greedy bleeding hearts,
high and low, and the union rackets. But
they think, or hope they can win by keeping
acrimony and scandal out of a fight with a
notorious opponent who wades in swinging a
mud bucket in one hand and slop-jar in the
other. So far, they lack confidence that in a
rough low-down campaign they could handle
| themselves successfully.
! Possibly when the two nominations are in
and the contest warns up, the Republicans
will commonize their language and talk
| straight to the common man to convince him
that the phrase 1--WE planned it that way
i American man may take job nor any en-
ployer give one except through and by con-
sent of the Presidents own job service or
the union halls, and on the governments own
terms.
Thus far, they are handcuffed and muzzled
by their respect for the office Of the President
and fearful that straight Americanism will be
exploited as revival Of the indecencies of
the latter-day Ku Klux Khan.
Thus, on Sunday afternoon in the Stevens
hotel the polite, patriotic and bewildered work
ers of Governor Bricker's candidacy fell back
when threatened by an organized mob come
to listen to Gerald Smith, the ersatz Huey
Long. Smith was told that the room leading
to his hall was Brokers private property and
! no thoroughfare, but his crowd crashed through
by force. Smith breaches America iirstism, an
. assembled job composed of Coughlinism and
other deleterious ingredients. The Bricker
;. people, gentle, genteel and unprepared fell
Z back as the mob all wearing Bricker's badges
4 crashed through and Mrs. Robert Biethtler,
the wife of major-general commanding a
/, division in the south Pacific, telephoned for
> cops who presently arrived too late. Bricker
: disowned Smith and his meeting but the situa-
= ton called for half-doze1 reasonably ath-
letic friends of an American candidate with
a belly for a fight and was met, instead.
, with good manners and worried looks
s .V
e SO THEY SAY