The Wilmington morning star., 1946-11-29
As Pegler Sees 1t
Bv wEsTBRooK PEGLER

to stimulate the sale of a scandalous book
prompt this further discussion of the works of
John Roy Carlson, and other matters.
John Roy Carlson is one of many false
names used by a young Levantine sneak,
whose original name has been established as
Derounian. During the war he turned out one
called Under Cover of which 700, 600 copies
were sold and a campaign is now under way
to achieve comparable success FOR a sequel
called THE Plotters." Both books purport to
present original material proving the existence
in the United States Of a fascist conspiracy
against not only the economy and government
of the nation but against the dignity and liber-
ties OF "minorities." The method in both cases
follows an assumption that all Americans who
opposed Roosevelt's foreign policy and fought
the communist treachery were eascists because
Roosevelt and the communists were outwardly
anti-fascist. That many of Roosevelt's pro
gressive' measures were taken from the book
of fascism and that Josef Stain joined Adolf
Hitler in starting the recent war as Hitler's
ally are Facts forgotten in the ninnble and
convenient reasoning of Derounian and those
implicated with him.. For convenience, and of
desperate necessity, Stain and Russia turned
"anti-Nazi" after June %, 1941, and, by de-
velopment, those Americans who were not de-
ceived and maintained their opposition to Com
munism became Nazis because Hitler, too, was
anti-communist.
After a legitimate trial in the United States
District Court in Chicago, under the American
system OF justice. Judge John P. Barnes said:
I think that book ("Under Cover'O was written
by a wholly irresponsible person who was
willing to say anything for money. / wouldn't
believe him under oath, now or at any time
hereafter"
OF E. P. Dutton, the New York publishers,
published both books, Judge Barnes said
they were as guilty as any defendant ever
had been before his court and expressed his
opinion that Dutton would publish anything for
money. He said further that he. believed the
publisher had not made an adequate investi-
cation, Of Carlson, Derounian, Munchausen or
whatever your convenience pleases to call him.
Officers Of the publishing company said they
had checked Derounian with the Department
o. Justice, a strange procedure, subject TO
highly unreliable Endorsements at best, with
three persons listening on the telephone. They
said the man who vouched for their author
was O.. John Royce, the assistant recently dis
missed from the department by Tom Clark,
Attorney General, in a controversy over Rog-
ge's disclosure Of material which Clark held
to be confidential.
AS to the authority Of the courts opinion,
these men held that Judge Barnes was preju-
diced against the defense, but gave no reason
why he might have been prejudiced on other
grounds than an honorable mans growing de-
testation, in the course o. the trial, Of wanton,
commercial calumniators. Moreover, although
they expressed faith in American justice and
the jury system, they did not irnpugn the YER
dict of the jury which also had condemned
Judge Barnes merely agreed with the
jury, adding some mmen of his own, and,
conceivably, members of the jury, who have no
opportunity to enlarge officially on their terse
would have been even more emphatic
than the judge.
The New York Times assigned the book COR
a Sunday reiew to Charles G. Bo1te, the
chairman, Or chief executive Of the American
Committee, known as the ave-,
an organization troubled with communist in
s~piration or infiltration. The AVG. has been
heavily engaged in a campaign to raise ST..
900, 600 for its purposes, which include higher
doles, and for unlimited time for persons who
are made idle by strikes or other labor" dis
putes a convenient way to national i%dleness,
restitution and bankruptcy with which objec-
tives no communist would find fault. Bolte ap-
pears not to be a himself, but to be
by experience, even granting that
has the desire, to Illustrate them. He is
young and solemn and is currently receiving
the doubtful benefits Of acclaim from the left
in a scramble by his organization, among other
new veterans groups, to capture the minds"
o. the veterans. The opinion of the veterans
mind reflected in the contest and in Derou-
new book could be more complimentary
without reaching the point of ~flattery.
Bolte, Of course. indorses The Plotters."
The Herald Tribune also, however, gave
1.-The Plotters' a prominent Sunday review
and assigned it to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,
recently wrote an estimate of the COM
munist movement in the United States for
Life" which, on analysis, impressed me as
and. COR whatever reason, decep-
tive. Schlesinger is one Of those Harvard
prodigies. v<
Schlesinger says THE Plotters'' is can
report Of the current activities of
of disunity and concentrates on
their attempts to exploit the grievances and
r~esentments of the veterans"
Granting that Merchants of Disunity" are
so engaged, we may observe that the AVG.
certainly appeals to those grievances and re-
sentiments and that both political parties, the
communists and most unions and the Political
Action Committee do likewise.
Schlesinger notes that. in one case, Derou-
MAN assumed, as a plausible disguise, an
Irish nane a though an Irish name were
treachery and bigotry than his native Armeni-
an name.
Derounian and Schlesinger both disapprove
of "nationalism, a term synonymous in many
American minds with patriotism and
Schlesinger states that 1.-The busiest nationalist
activity takes place in a curious, shadowy un-
which happens to be an excellen.
description of the congressional district repre-
scented by Vito Marcantonio, the congressman
whose program has been consistent with that
HEE II