The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-06-13

with them S
ers His articles serve the gooo purpose
of making peonle Think
nv WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1945, By King Features synd1cate
NEW YORK-As one OF our most enthusl-
astic red-baiters, I have come TO tne conclu-
s;or +b.t the only way to deal with the COM
.,.nists and their fellow travellers in o r
aa,,o+rv is to treat them just as we have
| tra.ted our relatively few Nazis, which IS to
1 rough We ought to spot them, shun
Them discriminate against them IN every pos
chic wav and drive them out OF every Job
that thew now hold in the public service and
in the unions The object OF that policy would
not he to inflict personal hardship on the IN
dividuals, although that woulo De dill lheioent-
al result but to destroy the prestige and lntlu-
ence which they were permitted to acquire
during IL years OF the New Deal
| Tho arrest of five men, including reserve
lieutenant of the Navy, and woman, on
charges of stealing, possessing and transmitting
secret information from the files OF the State
and Navy departments, strongly lnolcates mat
the attitude of the national government has
changed since President Truman was sworn
! in. On the basis of past performances II seems
to me probable that these people would not have
been arrested under the old policy The record
recalls that President Roosevelt turned Earl
Rrowder out of prison where he was serving
a term imposed Under our laws with t n
exclamation that this was done to promote
unity. We don't, or shouldn't administer JUS
tice with any such purpose ana, moreover,
Providers release promoted disunlty rather
than Unity.
# will be remembered, also, that an order for
deportation against Browders wife was cir
cumvented by orders from the White House
last wear and that she was then permitted to
| Mt
enter the United States. And the communists
were favored again when the Army and Navy
both had to abandon their practise OF lnvesti-
eating applicants for appointive commissions
| in the services and dissipate their files on
SUSPECTED individuals. Thereafter, as to the
army at least, wobbly policy was announc-
ed whereby communist might get a COM
mission if at the same time ne were loyal
to the United States. This was like saying
that protesting prostitute could get COM
mission as an Army nurse if she were OF
good characer No communist can be loyal
| to the United States because his political faith
commits him to the overthrow of our govern
ment by instruction and violent revolution.
| In providers case it was suggested that
the pardon was a gesture OF friendship to
Soviet Russia But this was pretty Harsh
thing to say about Russia because it was based
on the assumption that he was Russla's sub
denied this and he has lately been repUdiated
by the international communist organization
and his own group in New York. If he was
Russia's agent then Russia was violating not
only our privacy but her treaty with Us And
if he wasn't, then he was just an individual
American with a criminal record of two con-
victions, and our relations with Russia could
not have been affected by anything we did
to him.
On two occasions lately I have discussed
the editorial policy of Golfers Weekly maya
zine which permits that old American publlca-
ton to run as pure reading matter articles
by individuals who have long been associated
with Communists, without calling the readers
attention to their records. Then, on h
same day that the arrests were made IN the
case of the stolen documents, Golfers came
out with story by a naturalized native
of Manchuria calling himself Gayn, which is
an alias, who is of the accused. The piece
was called Terror in Japan and intro
ductory heading said Here, from official
sources is a detailed report of what hap
pened' when, for 10 days last spring, Japan
got furious foretaste of disaster''
The standard justification of such editorial
policy is familiar to all of us who have par
ticipated in the interesting work of batting
Reds during the last 10 years. 1t is that free
press has an obligation to present all sides
of all important questions. That is G o d
American reasoning, but let ask whether
those who invoke it in defense of the publica
tc4l of the work of pro-communists would be
equally tolerant if some American magazine
should publish pro-Nazi material by the Amer
lean traitor, Robert Best, but without identi.
flying him Nazi.
In this vein, let me relate a conversation
that had few days ago with an influential
executive of national radio system which
has been using a notorious propaganda OF
communist policy a news interpreter He
said his broadcaster was just liberal and not
a communist and added, ''You know, lot
of these people think you are Fascist
But neither you nor any of those people
has ever found my name on the roster OF
any Fascist organization or found me in as
sociation with any Fascists' l said. ION the
other hand, this fellow is a member of many
communist fronts and associates with commu
nists all the time
think anyone who joined or associated with
members of Fritz Kuhn's German Nazi bUnd
deserves to be summed, suspected and barred
from all positions in our government and in
the unions And because their philosophy and
methods have been the same as those of the
Nazis, l maintain that should similarly
make total outcasts of all communists and
H. would include Henry Wallace and l insist
that he would deserve his treatment because
his desire for friendly understanding and CO.
operation with Russia does not justify him
in making public appearances with American
,cfc 11,o of