The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-05-01
Fair Enough

N Fair Enough
Editors note.-The Star and the News
accept no responsibility for the personal
views of Mr.. Pegler, and often disagree
| with them as much as many OF his read
ers. His articles serve the good purpose
of making people Think
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1945, by King Features Syndicate
SAN FRANCISCO Here, my friends, N
San Francisco may be observed at this Writ
ing a spectacle which probably would be re-
|iected, as a fantastic distortion and self
defeating exaggeration if it were done into
movie or play satire ON freedom OF
expression l. refer to the coverage OF the
United Nations Conference ON Internal onal Or
ganization, including not only our daily press
and their press associations, but the maya
zine press, the radio and the news reels and
our guests from beyond the seas.
We are sketch. Estimates OF our number
vary between 900 and 1900 but, whatever a
reliable census would show, we are, | truly
believe, the rnightiest aggregation, on the ba-
sis of man-power, and l deicately refrain
from raising any question of braln-poWer, that
ever bounced on story in a mass anywhere
in the world 1t might be admitted, paren-
thetically, just here that there is some doubt
| just pcI as to just who did the bouncing
because I have feeling that the story has
bounced us and has got US down.
Mr. Molotov, the foreign commissar OF or
gallant, peace-loving ally, Soviet Russia, held
press conference the other day at which
he was more or less expected to answer
questions As one who abhors the installation
of the Soviet system of government, which
is dictatorship, in our own country, whether
by creeping political means or violent lnsur-
rection, 1 must admit that our distinguished
guest had right to reflect during this strange
experience that they do such things rather
better in Russia, however they do them For
this wasn't properly a press conference at
all It was mass-meeting with about 400
of the beauty and chivalry Of our corps on
hand to ask him about Poland and to laugh
at his evasive replies. We are all kinds, in
cludin straight reporters with an amazing
ability to follow a scent through the crowds,
ignoring the picturesque dietary customs and
the night-shirt attire Of the Arabs, who are
said to have brought their own goats and to
sleep on the floor in their hotel quarters, and
to come up with accurate information and
quick unpertentious appraisal of the mean
ing of the news at the moment. This kind
do not attempt to interpret for posterity. They
do not tell you whether this or that huddle
or disagreement means that 20 years hence
civilization will obliterate itself with explo-
the middle of Chicago and London and from
New York into Moscow
II Eden comes out of a room smiling, that
does not mean peace in our time but, at
most, that someone may have told him a
hot one. Or he may have been thinking of
II Bum, Benito Mussolini, who called him
sissy ten years ago because he wore his
handkerchief in his sleeve, and caused hotel
in Rome to stop calling itself the Eden, even
,1~I,1 1J1L
garden OF the same name. Mr.. Eden's earliest
ancestors are said to have lived in the gar
den, which may be fact for some of those
old English families trace way back. If Stet-
tinius froWns, that does not mean war again.
but, at worst, that his feet are beginning to
hurt
Such reporters are coverage. They are the
essential men. If none of the rest Of us were
here, the world would still get the story and
probably understand it b ct r, delivered
straight as news, without argument or in
! depreciation. The hotels and the transporta-
ton then would have room for the parents
and wives of departing and returning war
riors and the locals would have more to eat.
We include, Also humorist, poor fellow,
sent all the way, from the Eastern Seaboard
to find mirth in a congress toward which
millions Of bleeding hearts are yearning for
some faint hope of blessed peace. We include
|
spoke to Senator Vandenberg last night, -
theological press-agents who try to partake
of immortal greatness by attestng that they
always strove to comfort Franklin D. Roose-
welt and rebUke his enemies, pundits, one OF
whom, himself, held a press conference in
hotel lobby, and disembodied intellects so
aloof from the distracting realities of living
that they can't type their own messages to
humanity and for that reason, had to bring
their secretaries.
No World Series, even in the glorious days
of the Giants and Yankees when prohibit
ton was new but drinks were free without
limit for those holding cards and buttons,
ever attracted such a congress of shrewd.
trained observers and interpreters. The goly
galas of Tunney and Dempsey, in the era
of wonderful nonsense when We were young
and gay, by comparison were stunned. Yer
fsailles, / am told was stately and the story
was relatively simple and the visiting per.
sonnet fewer and less pretentious.
retired book publisher who has known
most of the notable authors of our time re.
marked recently that this was the COLDER
age for writers. Tennyson, with contract
calling for guinea word, had been qres.
toned when he wrote Break, break, break.
on thy cold, gray stones oh sea-, by pub.
1Sher who hadn't fio,,red m renetitior or