The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-02-13
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

serve the good purpose OF making people
| think)
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1915, by King Features Syndicate.
The civilian labor draft is a totalitarisn
scheme long cherished and advocated by Mrs.
Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins with
the obvious approval of the President.
The draft was first proposed by Mrs. Roose-
welt in her column shortly after Pearl Har-
Dor There had been one of those interest
ing discussions Sunday evening which,
somehow, found her in the White House. and
this prompted her to write: "All of US, men
and women at home, should be drafted and
told what job are to do The only way
can see to get the maximum service out of
our citizens is to draft us all, and tell us
where we can be most useful and where our
work is needed.
The Grass feeling of that phrase "get the
maximum service out of citizens is not
slip of the typewriter. 1t is the genuine SEN
timent of one whose utterances suggest re-
gard for human beings as masses, not indi-
viduals and would "get the maximum service
out of our citizens teaming contractor
would get the maximum service out of his
horses.
Harry Hopkins, the race-track habitue, a
mysterious stranger in our midst and for a
long time our unbdden guest backed up the
proposal and went further.
mo American anywhere, not in the war
effort should be allowed to decide for him
self how much he will do or how much he
will give,'' Hopkins wrote. women who can
not work in factories and shops Will perform
such essential tasks as caring Tor children
whose mothers are working in munitions
plants Workers will have to be billeted in
homes and many social leader will become
boarding house keeper. Doctors and den
fists will go to communities where they are
most needed. Some students will quit High
school. I see no reason for wasting time on
non-essentials such as Chaucer and Latin.
diploma can only be framed and hung on the
wall
In commanding tones he wrote 1T does
mean you and it won't blow over
Mrs. Roosevelt then came along with the
supporting proposal that young man need
not be allowed to become a doctor merely
because he wanted to and that, having been
allowed to, he should not be permitted to
pick the scene Of his practise The alternative,
obviously, would be government board which
would assign him to locality but with due
regard for his politics and his willingness to
pay graft to the presiding commissar and
contribute to the Roosevelt partys campaign
funds.
Mrs. Roosevelt is, as she strongly affirmed
in her recent political harrangue in her col
urnn on behalf of Henry Wallace a forward
looking person. Roosevelt might die during
this term or the next bow out in 1948 in
vavor Of Wallace and the communist con-
spirators of New York and Washington. But
the party will 60 forward nevertheless Pos
sibly Elliott Roosevelt, already risen from
captain to brigader at "a after three years
service, would be ambitious to carry on. This
CONSUMPTION would last many years and be-
come our fixed way of life. The war emer
gency'' which is the duration Of all "emer-
gency' powers and measures will not expire
when the shooting stops
Hopkins ultimatum that workers will be
blleted in private homes reveals a kinship
with Wallace who once disparaged Bill of
Rights Democracy"
The third article Of the Bill of Rights says:
mo soldier shall, in time of peace, be
CHARTERED in any house without the consent
of the owner, not in time of war but in man.
ner to be prescribed by law"
The founding fathers did not anticipate a
draft Of civilian labor That unthinkable, |
SO it did not occur to them to forbid the
billeting of civilian strangers in the homes
of the citizens without the consent of the own
ers.
Hopkins seems to have detected this mega
tive flaw, and the moral problems and con-
sequences which doubtless occurred to him,
are fascinating. In a home where there is a
young daughter, a dangerous, strange man
could be CHARTERED by the agents Of the Roose-
welt party in the interests of national de- |
tense. In the home of man drafted to fight
overeas civilian shipped from New Eng
land o job in Seattle shipyard, equally |
dubious stranger could be introduced as the
unwelcome paying guest of that citizens wife
to be rejected only pain of fine or inn
prisonment. For surely there must be fines
and prison terms for refusal to accept bill
leted strangers else Hopkins would not have
written:
1T does mean YOU" You can't have COM
pulsion without force or force without penal |
ties.
To be thoroughly practical and domestic in
our consideration of the billeting proposal we
must anticipate that there will be little house
hold disputes over the use of the bathroom and
other irritatons which would be submitted to
the government board for settlement.
Inevitably, in the fufillment of Mrs. Roose-
velts scheme, as revealed in her associations
and activities there would be no racial dis
elimination in the allotment of billets to work
ers drafted according to Hopkins dictum. &c.
of course, Negroes would be billeted on white
families and vice versa, another situation
fraught with stimulating possibilities.
We find, further, that Mrs. Roosevelt has
proposed the deportation Of Negroes from
areas where they outnunber the whites and
would invite the deportation of Catholics and
Jews from regions where they dominate local
politics. And at his point reach out blind
ly to grab post and steady ourselves for
we find that the great progressive, liberal
and forward prophets and pioneers OF the