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

Editors note.-The Star and the News
| accept no responsibility for the personal
| views OF Mr.. Pegler, and often disagree
with IL them a as IN; much as many of his read
of making people Think
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1945, by King Features Syndicate.)
NEW YORK. July 10.-A campaign of propa-
ganda is now in progress to repudiate Presi-
dent Roosevelts pledge to Congress that a
group OF approximately 1000 refugees from
continental Europe who were brought here
last summer would be returned to their home
lands upon the termination of the war" These
people have been quartered at disused mill
| tary post near Oswego, N. Y, and an or.
ganizatiori calling itself the Oswego Citizens
advisory committee has implored President
Truman and Congress to waive the Roosevelt
promise and their own agreement that their
asylum here would be temporary.
This probably will be the way Of it, after
all. and l believe most Americans will wish
them we'll but with dubious hope that all
OF them will be able to cleanse their minds
OF European politics and become Americans
AS far as we know, this is the only group of
refugees so admitted under Mr.. Roosevelt
decree and, if that is the. case, we may hope
that there is no Trotsky among them. But
from the beginning, the proceeding has been
lawless and a calculated imposition on the
moist sympathy of the American people.
It was flatly predicted at the time of their
admission that they would not be required to
go back and the propaganda to admit them
permanently began within a few months after
their arrival. incidentally, although Mr.. Roose-
welt told Congress that these refugees would
be "predoninantly" women and children, that
was not the case. However. a prompt chal-
lenge of this action probably did thwart an
| ;,,%o IN hr;n thryyc DC
without the slightest regard for their politics
or their fitness for immigration under h e
laws which the American people adopted for
their own protection. convenience and domes-
| tic peace.
Long before Mr.. Roosevelt blandly advised
Congress of his own decision to ignore the
immig grafton laws in this case, Harold Ickes
had proposed that we admit to Our off-shore
islands, where Distress continued under the
New Deal, provides inviting material for a
Communist conflagration as many refugees
of the Spanish Communist revolution as we
could find shipping for Not all refugees from
the victorious Franco Army in Spain who had
| fled to France were communists. But the war
in Spain had been a practise war between
Communism and Nazifascism and the COM
munists had lost Therefore, it was reason
able to assume that in the immigration pro-
posed by Mr.. Ickes we would receive in a
badly troubled and remote American outpost
force of hardened killers who would imme-
diately join the American communists in wag-
ing civil war.
Later, Mr.. Roosevelt proposed that our i'm
migration laws be suspended for the duration
of the World War and Francis Biddle, his at
torney general, appeared before the Ways and
Means Committee of the House to urge compli-
ance. For justification he said that otherwise
it would be necessary for Is to pay ourselves
a head tax of So on every captured German,
Italian ard Japanese soldier brought here for
! detention. Moreover, it was argued, we might
otherwise embarrass ourselves in the eyes
of our Allies by inflictng on visiting politi-
cal and military guests the formalites of our
immigration stations.
Both excuses were nirnsy pretext for the
Presidents arbitrary action in the case of the
| 1000 OsWego refugees later on, although Mr..
Biddle said at the time. Il can assure you
that the President has no intention of exercis.
ing the powers so as to remove immigration
barriers for any purpose not connected with
the war effort
| Denied this legal permission to open t h e
country as France had opened her doors, for
years to her great injury, Mr.. Roosevelt final
ly ignored the law and defied Congress. He
just sent message to the Hill which said, Il
wish to report to you step which have just
taken" This step was the admission of the
OsWego party. There was no assurance that
these would be all. The group, when they did
arrive were not, as he had told Congress
they would be- ''predominantly'' women and
children, and proof of the fact that there was
no intention to return them, according to his
promise, comes now. Moreover, these refu-
gees already had been rescued from the Ger
mans and were as safe any other civilians
on the American side of the lines in Italy. And
the basis which they were selected would
seem to have been personal and arbitrary in
which case influence exerted through indivi-
dual friends and relatives already living in the
United States might have superseded other
tests of distress worthiness.
The current agitation is sordidly political,
arising from the New York mayoralty cam
paign and constitutes an imposition on h e
humanity of law-abding Americans. They will
waive their legal objections for reasons OF mer.
cy but with the unavoidable effect of promot-
ing the aspirations of low politicians who d.
vide Americans into religious and racial
groups In appealing for their votes.
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