The Wilmington morning star., 1945-07-17

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)
| NEW YORK:-In August, 1941, 1 received
from national womens magazine which en-
ploys Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt as a columnist
an advance copy of a writing from the lady's
pen, scheduled for the September issue, in
which Mrs Roosevelt said: II, personally, dol
not think that earning small or large
amount of money is commercializing The
White House.
That was the year when Mrs. Roosevelt
herself. was engaged by the Pan-American
Coffee Bureau an organization supported by
the public funds of nine Latin American ma
tions to promote the sale of coffee in the
United States, by series Of weekly broadcasts
have been told that her fee was $1,000 a
week and that Mrs. Betty Lindley, OF Wash
ington, Mrs Roosevelt's agent, called on the
National Coffee Association, an American
group, composed of importers, roasters, job
bers and wholesalers, to learn its objections
to this project. The Latin American group, call
ed the bureau, and the United States group,
| l e d tn e ass C a t i n, up to
t time were co a o a n G in thel
promotion of coffee sales through advertising
and propaganda in the United States. They
had joint committee of six men, to handle
their activities but the United States group
formally dissolved the relationship because it
objected to the deal for Mrs Roosevelts serv-
ices.
In a formal letter to the members of the
association, dated July % 1941, about the
| time that Mrs. Roosevelt was composing her
defense of her commercial activities for sale
to the magazine, George c. Thierbach its
president, announced the termination of the
cooperative agreement. ito relieve our mem
bers of an embarrassing situation in which
| oh
public funds without equivalent authorities
| over expenditures
| Prior to this time the advertising account
of the coffee campaign had been handled by
the Arthur Kudner Agency reputable New
York firm, whose work today was recalled
by an official of the coffee association as
| IAN outstanding job if l have ever seen one"
1T has been so regarded ever since" lie
added.
! Arbitrarily the account was taken away
from the Kudner agency and handed to the
Buchanan agency. There were two interesting
characters in the Buchanan agency, David
Hopkins, the of Harry Hopkins, of the
White House, and John Hertz, Jr. whose IA
ther is the movie magnate race-track pro-
moter and operator of one of the biggest
racing stables and partner in the Lehman
Brothers bank, in New York. Hertz, senior,
dominates Paramount pictures and the Buch-
anan agency boosted that it "serviced' the
Paramount advertising.
In going after the coffee account, amount
ing to about $60O,0 a year, of which the
agenty normally receives Is per cent or, in
i this sase 500, 900 for its services the Bucha-
nan firm prepared a booklet called "a plan
to increase the sale of coffee in the United
States" urging the employment of COM
manding American personality on the air
The following are excerpts from the book
let:
recommend n hat
sonality a who stands fortnight in
her own life the best example of the
modern woman who gets more out of life
by giving more to life; woman beloved
and respected because, in these most troubled
! times in the history of our hemisphere she
, is the First Lady of the United States, Mrs
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
| 1--WE have made the proper contacts We
have discovered that Mrs. Roosevelt is de-
sirous OF going on the air. We have ascer-
tanned that she will give first consideration
to Buchanan and Company, as the authorized
representative of the Pan-American Bureau
The matter has been carried even further
| We have obtained preliminary carte blanche
from the State Department for Mrs Roose-
welt to broadcast for the n-American Cof-
i fee Bureau
! The accuracy of this claim may be doubt
ed. man entirely familiar with the affairs
of the dissenting American coffee group in
S1StS tnal sumner WeUeS OF the state Depart
ment and even Leon Henderson, then influ-
entail in the deal, opposed the engage
ment of Mrs. Roosevelt.
But Harry Hopkins told them to lay Off
he said and the contract went to the COM
pany which employed his son, with Mrs.
Roosevelt as the lure.
When 1 describe Mrs Roosevelt as the lure
rely on the wording of the Buchanan pros
pectus which says further:
"Your message becomes connected in the
minds of millions of listeners with their per-
sonal and respectful admiration for Mrs
| Roosevelt. What Mrs. Roosevelt will have to
say will be news. The fact that you repre-
sent the most important commercial aspect of
the Good Neighbor Policy of this adnlinistra
ton leads us reasonably to believe that Mrs.
Roosevelt will be more than lenient in help
ing you to sell your product
Through the fact that Mrs. Roosevelt is
on the air for the Pan-American Coffee Bu-
reau and the equally important fact that the
bureau is the most outstanding economic unit
in the whole American republics hemisphere
defense plan we believe we can obtain, at
no cost to the bureau, statements from lead
ers in public life. Here, as you will see again
and again in our plan, we intend to make full
use of the governmental bureaus created by
Mr. Roosevelt for Pan American commercial
relations and to utilize their power and pres
tige directly to help you. Mrs Roosevelt prob
ably can be prevailed upon to describe how
J the presidential cup of coffee is made and
of course, it will be made with heaping