The Wilmington morning star., 1945-06-23
Fair Enough

Editors note.-The Star and the News
accept no responsibility for the personal
views of Mr.. Pegler, and often disagree
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,-The Office of War 1nforma-
ton. our first national venture into propa-
ganda, as such and undisgUised, is now max
ing propaganda for itself with intent to obtain
| from Congress more money than Congress is
willing to appropriate for its services. That
the selfless toilers in censorship and the en-
|Iiehtenment of the ill-informed in other lands
might be primarily concerned with their own
government jobs and worried about their flu
lure in a competitive world, where mediocrity
ENJOYS no subsidy and the wages of incompe
tence are failure, is suspicion which, though
| firmly rejected, nevertheless recurs. That the
communists in the Owl, including the
European refugees who are refugees because
thev are communists want the American
people to pay for their propaganda and lend it
| The strongly persuasive label of the Star
Spangled Banner, confidential comrade
would deny.
| In this situation, we are asked to pay
considerable share Of the cost of converting to
the Russian form of government bewildered
and bedevilled millions of Europeans who have
lust been delivered from form of des-
potism and might like the American way for
a change AS to whether we have any legiti.
mate mission to save them, as the missionary
saves the heather, there is not complete agree
ment among ourselves. Some of us hold that
our first concern should be to save the Amer
-%I Io,,I~f fhoti c1a NO
of freedom could survive the tide of Bolshe-
vism rolling from the east.
| There is a fascinating example of the Wiles
of the communist propagandlsts OF the owl
| in it's own arguments in its own behalf These
abusive texts put forth the proposition that
the typists and radio hecklers, the class
angling movie distortioners and pamphleteers
of this mysterious bureau have been saving
the lives of American fighting men by their
courage labors here in New York and
Washington and that to the extent that it's
payrolls are reduced, Americans will die need
lessly on foreign fields. Those members of
the American Congress who examine the prac-
tees and personnel Of Owl are thus accused
OF slaughtering their own innocent sons and
the sons of their neighbors for reasons of
petty politics. This, believe, is the only group
of sedentary government employees on the
HON side who have nominated themselves
| for medals as the authors Of victories in the
| field Even the Red Cross is more modest of
achievements which to the majority will seem
more important by any comparison.
The score against the Office of War Infor-
nation is that from its very beginning, it
has favored the theory that communism is
preferable to Fascsm and Hitlerism and is
a better antidote than Americanism. It has
used in its work European communists whose
own excuses all over Europe created Fascism
as the reaction and who came tumblng off
the boats at American ports bowling that they
had been roughed up when the truth was that
they had been asking for it for years.
Elmer Davis, the chief of the bureau, is
more distinguished by poll of white hair of
shade cut and texture which casting directors
favor for the role of the district attorney
than for any achievements in journalism or
more beautiful letters. He had recently acquired
some standing in the meters which measure
mob gulibility on the radio and he took office
| amid blurt of applause from the press coop
which was largely complimentary He had been
a member of the American Labor Party in
New York which has since become the tenn
porary disguise of the communist movement
and which never was party anyway but a
Typical European political parasite creating
confusion according to the disastrous system
of continental countries. In one Of his earlier
revelations of his own politics he said he
identified as communists those who denounced
the war against Hitler an imperialist cam
lpaign of aggression until Hitler attacked Stain
but perceived it to be a peoples war next
day Hold the owl been governed by that
declaration in its selection of editors and other
liob-holders ever since, he might have earned
the respect OF Congress and the public al
though it does not necessarily follow that, even
so, Congress should continue to meet his own
estimates of his needs in money.
But that standard or specification was flout-
ed from the very start The Owl has been
infested with domestic and foreign commun.
lists who have called communism truth and
its propaganda has been consistently that OF
political wing of the American people. OF
more properly the red political tip of the
left wing, not the average or balanced belize
of all the people which is the system under
which all of us manage to get along together
If Davis had wanted to- he could have hac
an objective, truthful and Informative service
which would have represented us to disturbed
J peoples abroad in manner to arouse their envy
: and desire Instead, we are at best fab
, by substitute for Boshevik nation whose
real initiation into the pleasures and spiritua
restrictions of statism is still around som.
] corner.
: IT, as the owl is now bowling, an American
soldier will die for every thousand pamphlet
which, because of congressional economy,