The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-03
Gentle Political Humor

| Ever since this campaign started we have
been watching for gifted person blessed
with the talent of genial hunor to come along
and inject bit of fun into the proceedings
Not the kind that involves the dog Fala, but
something in the manner of Oliver Wendell
Holmes. for example, who had the knack
of clothing sound and even profound truths
in attractive habiliments
We have, at last, been rewarded for our
patience. Such piece has appeared in the
paper. It is from the pen of Richard L.
Strout and appeared in the Christian Science
Monitor. Mr. Strout harks back to the good
old days of the Conmoner and his own par
ticipation Of the Parker campaign as a paid
distributor OF handbills in Brooklyn. He says:
well, here we are again in an election.
The nation temperature is going up. and there
are some of us on our block who will be glad
to get back to the comparative quiet Of a
mere war.
1T would be silly to deny that big issues
are involved, and that some Of them may
be decided at the polls. Yet there comes a
point in the surge OF daily epithets and night
lily oratory when the individual nature rebels.
You turn to your favorite program and find
that the Dottie Dimple Breakfast Food Hour S
Is minutes has been courteously yielded to
Senator Sounder who-when he has worked
himself into full frenzy-is able to blow Grand
mother right out Of her rocking chair. People
are viewing with alarm or pointing with pride
everywhere you turn. There comes an ulti-
mate saturation point to the normal citizen.
He is prepared to take a conscientious part
in the affair but, really, is he asked to lose
his sense Of humor Cor sense of proportion)
in doing so?
"a good many OF us have decided by now
how we are going to vote In the interim,
it is necessary to remember that a Presiden-
tial election has been traditional American
form of emotional release, that lot OF us
say and do things every four years that don't
over, and that. in general, this is not a bad
sort OF arrangement as things 60.
my personal political experience began in
distributing Bryan handbills. A man paid me
Is cents for giving them out to passengers
coming out Of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
station at Beverly Road, Flatbush. did this
seriously and conscientiously, for that is my
nature. A man says, Give out handbills' and
II give out handbills. Particularly was this
true at a time when ice-cream sodas cost only
a nickel. You got big scoop then. When
people talk about "a chicken in every pot
think sadly of the days of Bryan when you
got a full scoop in every soda. I remember
some of the men didn't Like the handbills l
gave them. They threw them away. jeering.
l had already been paid my cents but that
did not absolve me from my continuing re-
sponsibility of picking up these discarded fly
sheets and passing them out again.
Bryan was campaigning that year for Park
er. Despite my efforts, my man lost the
election. But, remembering our former asso-
citation, have always retained tender re-
gard for the Commoner
ELECTION night there was a bonfire. No
radio then, thank goodness, and the papers
hawked extras The people who had tele-
phones, suppose, could exchange the news
with neighbors, but my family was among
the last to get telephone. There was the
bonfire, anyway, no matter who won."