The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-23
Fair Enough
nv wEsTBROOK PEGLER

!
had a big, handsome hunk Of man on the city
side named tumble John Boettiger who was
20 called because, owing to some lack of
muscular coordination with the impulse of the
will. or for the lack of the impulse itself he
| often was late on the draw when it came
time to pick up the tab for the Refreshments.
He was the best fumbler in our set and it
has long seemed pity to me that the phrase
| too little and too late'' was Identified with
the name of the poor old Neville Chamberlain
because our John deserved it first by at least
| 10 years and there were some in the little
social circle who called nickel Boettiger
| which was a rather snide insinuation that he
gave nickel tips. AS lover Of fair play, I
thought there was a note of injustice in this
for never saw him give nickel tip or any
| tip whatever.
Recently, in Seattle, tumble John appeared
at a sort of rally of some political club, re-
ported in a regional communist paper, with
demand for a 'lberal'' newspaper, which
nowadays means a more or less communist
paper, in the great Northwest There are
those who say he has been squirting down the
barrel at Marshall Field whose New York
thing is known as the Uptown Pravda,
and who is a natural bite for persons of
tumble Johns instincts and ethics.
tumble John thought it was pretty serious
thing that single "reactionary'' class owned
monopoly of the American daily press and
said IS per cent of the publishers were 'racke-
teers of journalism'' and some Of their news
| and editorial columns "a STENCIL
"Why doesn't Pegler take on this type Of
racketeer?" The old Fumbler inquired and,
answering himself said, you see, he works
for them
That takes US back to those days on the
Chicago Tribune when our old boss, Ned Beck,
picked tumble John to scramble over to Al
bany and spend not unpleasant summer on
expense account, to be sure, covering the first
campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mr..
Roosevelt was elected in the fall and our
John was sent down to Washington to do the
| White House which was not hard for him to
take because, by that time, he was showing
lot Of white eye and tossing his glossy locks
at the Presidents daughter in a romance
which, if not the sweetest was probably the
cheapest story ever told, because he was tuck
ing his feet under the White House dinner
table, night after night and for frugal fell
low boarding around, that was no negligible
saving.
Meanwhile, however, Col. Robert r. McCor-
mick, the publisher of the Tribune, had called
the turn Of many Of the policies and PERSONAL
ties Of the new deal and decided that they
were in tumble Johns own word Of the other
day, "a STENCIL would no more say that
Mr.. Mccormick strictly refrained from slant
ing the news against Roosevelt and the new
deal than I would say that Marshall Field
slants the news against communists, but
do say that whatever the slant or the angle
Of the slant, even to the horizontal, you would
find tumble John slanting in exact parallel
to the editorial policy of the paper. If McCor
mick George Browne in that combina-
ton then Tumble John certainly was his Will
lie Bioh and II Mccormick was sordid mer-
cenary, doing it for the sake of his financial
interests, our John was singing for his sup
per.
About two years ago, having nothing better
to do on night in Chicago, I went up to the
Tribune and got out tumble Johns old enve
| lopes to see whether he ever could have been
as ferocious against the new deal and the
father Of the girl he was fixing to marry, and
did marry, as I had thought he was. from
memory. My countrymen, he was more so
and, as I read his fearless denunciations of
Roosevelt's red plots against the integrity Of
our great republic I just couldn't help think
ing that the Republican party could toll hard
and come up with much less vehement and
convincing alarms against the cunning per :
fidy of this evil sham, one OF whose most
sinister conspirators was Tumble Johns cur
rent hero, Henry Wallace, the condescending
patron Of that faceless nonentity, the common
man.
Never one to deny colleague his due, I
will acknowledge that the Fumbler poured it
on Henry Wallace as I often have wished
could sock it to the highwaymen and sluggers
with whom we now find them both united in
political fellowship and a common taste for
the good things of life Mr.. Wallace, you may
recall, was out Of a job last winter, when
Eisenhower and Macarthur were hollerng for
production on the factory front but his draft
board didn't modest him while he waited for
Mr.. Big to give Jesse Jones the foot and
Wallace $4,000 year.
tumble John, toe, when he left the Tribune
after brief rest at Will Hays emergency
landing field for lame ducks, acquired not on
ly job for himself but one for Roosevelt's
girl Anna, now his wife, with the Seattle Post
1ntelligencer. She seems to have had secret
talent all the time for, although she had never
| covered SO much as arralgnment by way
of preparation, Anna became the highest-paid
unsyndicated newspaper woman on the Paci-
fic Coast and one of the best bread-winners, Of
either sex, in the journalism Of the U.S.A. 1t
was combination to warm the heart OF man
as thrifty as tumble John.
If John believes am working for Journa
listic racketeer a. present then he shouldn't
look down on me that way. Because he was
working for the same concern until, for rea-
sons that were at least mutual, if not more
so, he and Anna quit munching the bread Of
infamy.
For most of the last 20 years we have
worked for the same racketeers, if he will
have it so, and if grant the possibility that
his ideas just happened to agree with McCor-
mick's that still would leave him no less the