The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-27
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

ers His articles serve the good purpose
| Of making people Think
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1945, by King Features Syndicate.
| SAN FRANCISCO, April 27.-A few days
ago. over in the Arizona desert, one of those
kilograms came from Washington to a young
woman of 26, the wife of Army flyer
whose most recent letter had announced that
he had been decorated and promoted to cap
tain. Now he was gone. He wouldn't be home.
that evening, after the girl had cen put
to bed, her mother blrrted in rage through
her tears, damn those politicians if they
don't give us a decent peace this time.
Although the present deliberations here in
San Francisco have been pointedly described
as preliminary discussions, to warn the peo-
pie that they will not produce peace or even
l. in it's final form an organization to preserve
peace, millions of human beings do antici-
pate something substantial and reassuring.
They expect much more than this conference
is likely to produce and they would be hurt
in their souls and made rebelllous II they
were to hear it referred to as a clambakc,
as it often is in these preliminary stages,
and compared to those cynical and vulgar
rites by which we choose our presidential
nominees in the national conventions. There
are points of similarity to the nominating
coventions, it is true, but people who have
lost husbands and sons and others who have
dissolved their, homes and sacrificed young
years in this war have great hopes which it
were heartlesS to mock in this way. Perhaps,
this time the agents of the peoples will be
able to compromise and adjust and observe
decent respect for the feelings Of the vic
Tins of war such as the one who damned
chose politicians even in an atmosphere Of
doubt, amounting almost to flppancy.
1t would be dishonest not to admit that
confusion, distrust and past experience JUST
fly at the beginning lack Of confidence that
so unWieldy a meeting can give promise OF
great peace. There has been SO much dis
cusson already, there have been so many
plans, understandings and tentative proposals
that few men understand the basis on which
this conference meets. And many who for
years attended Versailles the Washington dis
armament conference, the League of Nations
and other European treaty meetings may be
pardoned the comparisons which now come
instinctively to mind out of the past.
At sight it is plain that Russia and the
United States dominate the situation in the
sense that these two must agree and in good
faith if good peace is to be given the
world Yet it is plain, also, that the Ameri-
cans are doubtful of Russia concerning Po-
land and then the question arises whether
the woman who damned the politicians would
be willing to risk that peace for the sake of
a victory on this point. There are many Polish
groups in the United States who would in
sist that Poland, the first nation to feel the
might of the Nazis, at a time when the Rus
slams were collaborating with Hitler, had been
betrayed again and here we wonder what
would be the verdict of the widows and moth
ers who have lost their men if that came to
be the issue on which the success failure
Of the conference should be decided. And
would Poland actually be worse off under
Russian domination?
This distrust of Russia, for all the propa-
ganda of the communists in the United States
and the abusive publications released by left
wing American collaorationists, does rise
from an old record of revolutionary activity
here directed from Moscow. 1t is all in the
official documents of the American govern
ment and beyond question this political &C
tivity, especially, in the American labor move
ment in the early years of the new DEAL
was intended to overthrow the American gov
eminent by the violent revolution of a mi
nority of the people. The proof exists in the
records Of the Dies committee and of the
Department of Justice. The Roosevelt gov
eminent gave aid and comfort, GARD and
lodging to some of these revolutionaries in
Washington and maintained for all the years
of the new deal many of their SympathlZerS
in offices in Washington. President Truman
never has been their friend and he may
gradually ease them out and reassure hiSI
Russia toward the peace he nevertheless re-
pudates communists here and all who be-
leve as they do in the United States. Ger
tainly the influence of the communists and
their friends will be less than it would have
been but for the change of presidents and
this might cause, in turn, a new understand
ing between the two countries that the price
of cooperation will be a decent respect for
the political privacy and governmental integ-
rity of our own country.
1t is true that the mechanics of operating|
this enormous congress resemble the clam
bake or the national political convention Aft
err all, there must be stages and flood lights
press rooms, ceremonies, orations and pic
turesque or grotesque characters and they
must be housed and fed and we are going
in for few amenities which are on the old
world or oriental side. And in the end, the
conclusions may be reached in the equivalent
Of the smoke-filled room, which is not to
say, however, that they must necessarily be
sordid For, after all, in Congress the con-
illusions often are shaped in committee rooms
where smoking is not forbidden and nothing
could be accomplished in any such meeting
as this by full and open debate in many
strange tongues.
Notwithstanding appearances, there is
ground for hope that this time the politicians
will produce a promise of peace in which
the American system need not succumo to
an alien form of government More depends