The Wilmington morning star., 1944-05-03
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

By wEsTBRooK PEGLER
NEW YORK. - George spelvin, American,
went to little meeting in his neighborhood
the other night and heard a $50 lecturer,
billed as an author, thinker and world trav-
eler, promise that the good old days would
never return to this, our beloved U. S. A.
and that things would be much better for
one and all in that brave new world Of the
future He was being sarcastic about h e
good old days, pointing out that 80 per cent
or some such figure, OF the American people
had lived in slums or choppers cabins. that
more than half of the population had had to
get along on an average OF two and one-thlrd
eggs and six, point, seven ounces OF meat
week and one and one-third shoes year and
all such as that, while APT families hogged
% per cent of the national income and col
trolled all but 1884 and some odd cents of
the nations wealth. Mr.. Spelvin did not take
notes on the figure but this is about the i'm.
preston that he got, the whole effect being
a pretty miserable scene and he was just
dragging himself along as he walked home
from the high school hall with his ever-loving
old lady.
Il don't know where they get all those per
cents and seven-eghths that they rattle off
so easy Mrs. Spelvin said, because, the
way 1 remember, why it seems to me people
were doing pretty good back there in the
good old days and the trouble is somebody
beats you over the head with lot of sta
tistics and the first thing you know why you
just want to set down on the curb and bawl
your eyes out you feel so sorry over how you
suffered and if you could just get your hands
on ball bat you would march right down
there to Wall street and bust couple Of
ho,l for frog i'm
body so low-down ornery mean and babies
didn't have enough milk while those rich So
ciety buns were stopping up champagne wine
down at Palm Beach at $25 a quart and
dressing up in tuxedoes and diamond rings
every night"
Il think they get the per cents and Fights
from the government" Mr.. Spelvln SAID l
think they have got department OF per cents
and eighths down there because whenever you
hear about strikes why Mrs. Perkins she pops
back that we only lost one, decimal, tWo-oh-
two man days per million workers per month
by strikes while at the same time we lost
q point four man days from malaria alone,
to say nothing of the loss because people were
so raggedy poor they were ashamed to go
out of the house"
.sWell. but you Just think back Mrs. Spell
vim said. land it certainly doesn't seem like
they could be right figures because you take
when we were young, say back around l9Uo.
and we didn't have any movies except the
nickel shows and some tWo-blt vaudeville ana
maybe we went to a show two or three times
month and nobody had any automobiles ex-
cept you were rich and then think how IL was
in the twenties after the war when so many
people were going to Florida you couldn t
rent a doghouse under $500 a month, and
practically all Pullman trade, too, except
slew of them drove down in their own cars
whereas when we were growing up, why only
the millionaires took vacations in the winter
and Miami was just trading post ana tnlrk
of how the ads used to say see America 1lrs'
and, winter and summer, people were tearing
all over the place up to the mountains anu
the lakes and California and buying eHpeh-
sive clothes to slide down hill on skies and
sleds and all those country clubs Where they
nlaved golf and got plastered so l don't see
how anybody could say it was just the mil
1ionairies that had good time AND the great
bie movie houses in every town and SVEN
cafes and meat shows to entertain the puollc
while YOU toyed with the rare Vlanos anu ca ca
otic delicacies and that expensive nooIcii we
used to get from the boots, So now can 'i1ey
sav thew were such lousy days because .ie
only reason they adveruseo 10 see n.-
firct was because so many thousands Oh Amer
io.ns were getting on the foreign steamooa1s
.nd going over to France to get steWeo. =.
&c # seems to me any way you llsule l.
don't know the per cents but an awlul a 10.
=. u Ar,srcans who certainly weren't rich were
having swell time just the same ar ana 81. II
those were such rotten days why you can ~, 5aI
me peculiar, but just loVe ., sun hacl aeain
w.. 1ke thew we're with almost everybody
Iav;no new car every year or SO anu thllih
how all those miles of swell nttle new HOUSES =,
wont I'm in the suburbs OF all the towns a.
over over the country and swell new sch0ol ana
how the college attendance went up SO ~
times as many kids got an educa'lon IMAM
when we were young. ,,d +e,, tho o,v
Why didn't you Sma,p pop asked ul
al. una! wasn't sure Mrs Spelvn said. II
met ct ] yame mas by ear because was there
}n ass but you can't argue against sta,
t list So I figured I better keep my mouth
shut"