The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-07
Fair Enough
BY wEsTBRooK PEGLER

downright, 1915, by king Features syndicate)
NEW YORK. Nov 6.-I have always had a
stout sales res stance to Robert Elliott Burns,
the celebrated fugitive from a Georgia chain
gang and now that he has been pardoned with
eclat by the state of Georgia and his sole
claim to celebrity thereby exhausted, the reg
lister still records no sale.
From the beginning the publicity of the
scenario has made a hero OF fellow who
on his record was a stickup man and who,
we have right to surnaise, might have done
other jobs and shot his way out, 1t it came
to that had he got away with the unsuccess-
full hoist. don't believe his story that the
original prosecutor jobbed him into plea OF
guilty with promise OF maximum sentence
of one year nor do I hold with those who
insist, arbitrarily, that six-to-ten, which was
what he got is too much for robbery. Cir
cumstances alter cases but our papers the
other day recorded that three women had
been killed in about a week in Brooklyn by
stickups and am all in favor of making it
safe for people to walk in the park or step
down to the tavern after dark even though in
the process we have to inflict great and pro-
longed mental anguish on the likes of Mr..
Burns.
Anyone who has ever had any traffic with
criminals knows that 80 out OF every hundred
are victims of bum raps, false promises by
Judges. take the liberty to assume there
fore that Burns is liar about that impo-
sition on his trusting nature by the prose-
cutor, an official who, by the way, is often
described in whitening way an Ambitious"
man, tout to make name for HIMSELF as
though ambition were an evil trait and the
ideal man for this important job in the com.
munity would be some shiftless drunkard with
an avowed determination to make a rotten
record in the performance Of his duties.
Burns says he was broke when he came
out of the Army after the first big war and
hung around Brooklyn four or five months
without finding job, which may not be true
in all particulars but even if true was never
theless the experience Of many better men
who didn't try to take it out on unoffending
strangers.
he. II was broke. wasn't in a normal mental
state. I drifted to Atlanta. No money, no
friends, no place to stay It was February
and it was sleeting."
All of which, in the selfpity Of Mr.. Burns
adds up to an excuse for robbery by contrast
with the judgment and conduct Of many Of
us who also in our time have been out Of
work, broke, melancholy and respondent in
surroundings no worse than Atlanta and in
weather no less depressing.
guess we of the newspapers have to take
responsibility for this one because we certain
ly gave Burns big party in print, with art,
and thus prompted him into book and
movie, the ultimate result of which is that
he now regards himself, not as a criminal
who got very lucky break. but as victim
of social injustice and great reformer be.
cause Georgia finally did abolish the chain
gangs.
We often do such things, persuading our
selves, in this case, by our own zeal for
a story that things are so which amt. Here,
our journalism ignored the basic fact that
Burns was guilty of a crime against which
we are forever bowling and devoted ourselves
exclusively to horror stuff about the chain
gangs and the 'backwardness of state which,
at worst, was conducted much better than
New York and California, in many respects.
Seven years after he escaped we are told he
was denounced by his wife who was divorcing
him which makes that lady seem pretty
ornery but here, again, We are listening to
Burns, not that wife, who might give us a
different impression of our hero.
I call attention to the fact that psychiatry
recently has become the refuge of all sorts
of rogues and that Burns plea that he wasn't
in a normal mental state'' because he was
broke and sleet was falling as justification
Tor a stick-up, is a common defense now
adays. Because this phase OF the medical pro-
fession is inexact and matter of impression
and Interpretation it has attracted many dis
graceful quacks who, for a fee or publicity,
will go into court and tell a judge that the
accused isn't criminal at all but a victim
of compulsion neurosis and therefore should
be sent to a pleasant rest cure for year
while the victim drags his painful way to his
grave with fractured skull or leg mangled
by As built
To be sure, the chain gangs weren't nice
but neither is Alcatraz and, moreover, in all
the convict working parties that have visit
ed, and they number about 20 in Georgia and
Florida, the only prisoners wearing leg irons
were men who had tried to get away. And
still moreover, in Florida in recent years,
the state prisoners don't 60 out on the roads
until they have misbehaved in the big house
at Raiford which is fine prison, as prisons
go. The assignment to the road is punishment
and one of the wardens explained y me that
for this reason the road gangs usually are
| composed of the tougher convicts who require
alert watching.
But, you can use trained pig to mine
truffles and Burns had been an instrument of
reform That much I generously grant him.
But if he does possess some degree of that
fine character that has been tailored for him
he will now shut up and we, if We have
any sense, will pull his envelope and forget
him lest nobody knows how many soldiers
now returning from another war be tempted
to court celebrity and SOLDERING public SYM
pathy the same way
Editorial Comment
| PrBLIC HOUSING