The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-09-04
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
lCopyright, 1915, by King Features Syndicate)

|
Copyright 1916, by King Features Syndicate)
| NEW YORK,-No sooner do I carve my
initials on the fence intertwned with those
of President Harry Truman inside valentine
heart than what does he do but propose the
forgivery of all those war debts.
find that I have rocked through the crisis,
however. because after all. none of them
ever did expect to pay Oil, anyway, and most
Of us didn't expect them to, and anyone who
did deserves a place on Elliott Roosevelt S
sucker list. There is nothing they could use
for money even if they wanted to pay and
our labor movement and our manufacturers
would never permit them to dump on our
markets the equivalent IN manufa ctured
goods. True we could soak up quantity OF
Scotch by way of return lend-lease but our
native corn squeezing interests would have
something to say about that considering that
they are heavy taxpayers and employers, and
by comparison with the total, we could use
only negligible amount of chutney, bloaters
and tweedy things from Britain. Caviar from
Russia and champagne, camembert and lady
pants from France.
AS all realistic Americans anticipated, we
pick up the check but anyway, apparently,
we saw off here and begin paying our way
out but don't continue working one day or a
halliday a week indefinitely for unknown and
unseen opposite numbers residing, in the late
Mr.. Roosevelt's pearshaped phrase, EVERY
where in the World
We save ink and manpower in the book
keeping department and the wages and travel
costs Of distinguished bill collectors in another
endless and fruitless series of negotiations
such as, in the other case left us with nothing
but few pounds of bank-notes engravings,
the material evidence of the debt from the
last war which, one day about 10 years ago.
held in my hands in a room where they are
stored under the front stoop of the Treasury
They are done in beautiful colors and auto
graphed by Benito Mussolini, and financial
officers OF Britain and France, millions of dol
lars at a clip, and, except as souvenirs
treasured by those morbid souls who collect
birds eggs, sprigs of statesmen's whiskers
and postage stamps, they aren't worth their
space in storage.
When bank lends big money to an industry
which is having trouble whether from mis-
management or from reasons beyond its con-
troll the lender assumes some control over
the firms affairs. Our government also does
this when it comes to the help of domestic
industries. 1t examines pay-rolls and limits
the salaries of executives, demands the cur
tailn1ent of wasteful activities and, in general
reserves veto for the protection of the tax
payers who after all, provide the money.
If we were to take this position in relation
to the debtor countries, we would undertake
to manage the whole world These other ma
tions wouldn't let us do that even if we wanted
to and while it is true that in dealings between
big nations and little ones, the big lenders
insist on picking presidents, dictators and cab
inets favorable to them, which just isn't pos
sbe here.
With regard to those off-shore bases Of ours
created under Lend-Lease some of us may
think. impetuous1y, that we ought to insist on
no al yr,if {Ioair sy,1o ~
tants, Of British and French islands where
these works are but what I say is that they
are less trouble to us in their present owner
ship and management. If we got them, we
would have to make citizens and voters of
some of the most temperamental, indolent
inefficient weekend revolutionaries on earth
| and by the thousands they would swarm
| ashore to settle in New York and drink
gamble and rob and vote for La Guardia and
Marcantonio and more and more de luxe doles
of the Yankee dollar In case of war, consid-
erlng recent developments we should be able
to eliminate them easily as enemy bases.
The present condition and the future of
peoples abroad are described as desperate
and warnings are uttered that unless we pro-
vide the margin, anarchy and relationships
| Will ensue. That may be so and we may say
that we are providing great gift in BURNING
the book and assuming into our own tax bill
for many years to come the debts we would
forgive. But we might have some noisy
troubles of our own unless our own people
and particularly the ex-service people get de-
cent homes and chance to buy automobiles,
clothing and food
In the last Is years, we have persuaded our
selves that there is some sort of guilt in our
prosperity and comfort and should maintain
In many other countries a standard of living
which they desire, having heard Of ours, but
can't support because it simply isn't in the
cards.
They are not only overcrowded but too high
ly industrial and produce too little food. There
are plenty of new fields which could absorb
surplus millions and relieve the strain, but
pioneering does call for some daring and a
lot of hardship and hard work
The question for Americans is whether we
nave the determination to enjoy our own gifts
and advantages and create prosperity in a
country which, under able management, could
support all of u.s. but not all the rest of the
world, on a scale that no other nation has
ever known.
QUOTATIONS