The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-21
Fair Enough
Nv wEsTBRooK PEGLER
right. 1945 BY King Features syndics


New York. Nov. 20. - Mrs. Eugene Meyer,
known to her public as Agnes Meyer, for
some time has seemed to sense that the Re-
publicans need an Eleanor Roosevelt OF their
own and to be more than half willing to ac-
cept the nomination.
The latest symptom of this lady's frame of
mind was revealed last week When she de-
nounced 'reactionary" elements IN the Amerl-
can Red Cross because there has been appre-
hension lest the CLIO. and the A. F. OF L.
pollute this idealistic organization with the
same sordid politics and moral corruption that
gave us the Political Action commute, the
political union assessment for campaign pur
poses and the gallery of rogues who rule hun
dreds of thousands of American citizens
through chartered union rackets
Mrs Meyer is a rich woman of the formi-
dable, determined type. In the course of her
remarks about the Red Cross she rebuked
some Every bitter and very obtuse old fuddy-
buddy leaders who resent the fact that labor
is gaining foothold in the management of the
Red Cross The term 'fuddy-duddy' is, it.
self, fuddy-duddy language, and who's who
tells us that she was born in 1887, although,
of course, a girl is only as old as she feels.
Labor, as such, is not involved in the con-
troversy and the organized unions have no
more right to vote in the Red Cross than
the democratic party has. It should be abso-
lutely unpolitical and protected from the con-
Eliminating touch Of communists, riot-leaders
and racketeers, but, unfortunately, during the
fighting war, its symbol and credentials were
exploited for purposes foreign to the provisions
of its charter to an extent which invited the
enemy to repudiate the sign and all it stood
for.
The participation of the two rival sub-divi-
sions Of the democratic party, the CLIO and
A. F. of L., both striving for absolute control
Of all American labor and Of the national gov.
eminent would certainly ALLEVIATE all who op-
pose this political venture and Mrs. Meyers
manner OF raising the issue will harm the Red
Cross Immediately.
Yet, like new dealer at Henry Wallace
rally, Mrs. Meyer applies such terms as "au-
thoritarian leaders, and "gauleiters'' to some
Americans otherwise unidentified and thus I'm
not accepted her own proposal that the Red
Cross abandon its own separate drive
for money and her demand for a council of
welfare agencies. These Authoritarian lead
ers'' had perverted the Red Cross spirit and
made the Red Cross the object of repressed
fear, resentment and even hatred.
Few Of us have realized that it was so bad
as that but the long tour that Mrs. Roosevelt
made in the Pacific area under Red Cross
auspices did wreck great damage to an in
stitution whose chief at that time should have
had the character to deny her whim Mrs.
Roosevelt suddenly appeared in the role OF a
Red Cross observer, wearing uniform, and
flew away under conditions that never have
been explained, the people who support the
Red Cross were never told how many planes
were used to fly her and protect her
and how much gasoline she used and caused
to be used in New Zealand and elsewhere
every drop Of it imported in tankers, as
crowds motored to pay that homage which
pleased the lady so.
Informally, it was tacitly admitted that a
command went from the White House to the
late Norman Davis, an obliging old household
retainer and that he saw the splendid wisdom
of such a mission and pushed it through. Mrs
Roosevelt was to give to the Red Cross the
proceeds Of her newspaper column during her
absence but later, the Red Cross refused to
say how much this was and Mrs. Roosevelt
never told. But no person familiar with the
syndicate trade is naive enough to believe
that her receipts for that time would have
paid for the fuel of her own plane to say moth
ing OF the salaries Of officers who might have
been more Importantly employed.
This was an imposition on the whole Ameri-
can people among whom the Red Cross was
symbol to which persons of all official and
religious faiths and races could rally and
there is no doubt that the Red Cross did suffer.
The fact that Mrs Roosevelt routed herself
eventually to the place where her protege, Joe
Lash, the inveterate promoter Of political youth
was serving in the Pacific, and the
subsequent marriage of Lash to a friend of
Mrs. Roosevelt, under her social auspices, did
not abate suspicion that the Red Cross had
been used as a pretext Then, reporting her
observations" Mrs. Roosevelt said she had
found among the generals whom she inter-
viewed no dissatisfaction with their equipment, |
military matter which was no proper bust
ness OF the Red Cross and a political matter,
moreover, inasmuch General Macarthur,
at that time, appears to have had other opin-
ions.
There may be legitimate criticisms but it
is to the credit of the Red Cross that influ-
entail voices in its councils have tried to keep
1t out of politics and the crude and greedy
grasp of the professional unioneers.
Mrs. Meyer has some achievements as a
reporter, notably fine survey of the squalor
and danger of homelessness and the neglect
OF children in some of the war industrial areas. |
view with appalling racketeer of the CLIO
ion above the lives of American flyers, and,
with the count and on the hitter. put the
ball in her pocket and went home Had she
followed through she would have discovered
that Joseph de Lorenzo, of the United Auto
Workers, was imposter under false name |
with a carney F .B.I. record but this coup was |
left to Edward Hebert, a congressman from
Louisiana, who broke the real story some days