Evening star., 1945-01-22

I'll, =. a. COW
siderable cost in Frank r. Kent.
self-respect to persons for whom
self-respect should be important
And 1t will tend to deteriorate gen.
eral standards of conduct by encour.
aging favored persons to use inf1u.
ence to obtain preferential treatment
for personal reasons. If once it Il
established that that sort of thing
can be done with impunity, there is
sure to be repetition.
Such an incident seems to be that
of Elliott Roosevelt's shipment by
ali from England of large dog te
his wife in California, which caused
three men in the armed services tc
be put off a plane and subjected to
great inconvenience.
That one of the men was flying
out to see a sick wife and another
to 60 to the funeral of his father is
further aggravation.
Bad Enough in Peacetime.
All this would be bad enough in a
time of peace and it is particularly
unfortunate that it should have
happened at so critical time In
the greatest war of history and al
the moment when the President and
the chiefs of staff are telling Con-
ereSs and the country of the urgent
necessity of going on total wal
basis involving further large civil
ian sacrifices and a tightening OF
everybody's belt.
Perhaps, from Col. Roosevelt or
some other source, an adequate ex-
planation will be made; but the
White House statement that no one
had asked priority" for the dog,
and that Mr. Roosevelt knew moth
ing about it, does not seem adequate.
Of course, Mr.. Roosevelt did not
know anything about the dog. But
the facts remain-first, that his son
shipped the dog from England to
this country by air, and then sent
1t by air clear across the country;
second, that the dog and the crate
were big enough to occupy three
seats in the plane: third, that three
servicemen were put of the plane
because of the dog, fourth, that
some one somewhere did give the
dog priority; fifth, according to Mrs.
Elliott Roosevelt, this is the second,
not the first, dog which her husband
has sent her from abroad.
These facts appear undiSputed.
They may seem trivial to some, but
they really are anything but trivial.
A good many thousands of people
all over the United States were in
dignant and resentful when they
heard the story.
g With space on boats and planes in
tremendous demand for men in the
armed services that two large 115-
pound dogs should be shipped from
England and then transported to
the Pacific Coast by air, is just
something that is hard to believe.
No one has any business to be ship.
ping dogs across the ocean and
across the country in times such
as these.
Idb OH Va Iil1liS uldhCS q iilOAh~
cry of the restrictions under which
we are now living and the additional
ones about to be imposed
r National Temper Upset.
The people generally have ac-
cepted present restrictions and will
accept those to come cheerfully and
without complaint. They are neces-
sary to win the war and anything
that is necessary to win the war has
got to be accepted But, this dog
business does not make acceptance
any easier, and it does not improve
the national temper rather the
reverse.
Priority or no priority, it is diff
cult to conceive any reason that
Elliott Roosevelt was permitted to
ship his dogs, except that he is the
Presidents son.
Certainly, no one else would have
been allowed to do so. And that is
what makes it bad. There is no
disposition here to magnify the in
cident, but certainly the Presidents
son, of all people, ought not to be
allowed to get by with this sort of
thing.
For the White House to say that
1t was just a "regrettable mistake" is
not enough. Unable to deny the
facts, it could hardly say less. Nor
is Col. Elliott's denial that he had
asked priority enough.
Priority is not the only point The
main point is that, with airship and
train transportation all strained to
the limit for war purposes, this
business of shipping huge dogs as
personal gifts 5000 miles is disturb
ingly offensive. 1t ought to be i'm
possible.
Something ought to be done about
it that will cure this bumptious
young man of the belief that he is
a privileged person who is entitled
to do things denied to the ordinary
soldier. Perhaps no one asked prior
-ity. Perhaps it will turn out that
it was the dog that asked priority.
Z