The Wilmington morning star., 1946-06-29
Fair Enough
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

- washington ana his nome at Beacon,
N. T., when the common mans motor fuel
was rationed with eye-droppers. I have ar
rived back where I started. He got away
with 1t, i'll secret, because the censorship for.
babe publication Of the movements of planes
o. the fighting services and thus protected
MIN. He travelled on his own business for
no other reason than to spend week-ends at
MS nome in the country and had the use of
a sem1-private field built at public expense
near his farm but he didn't have to pay for
the fuel, the use of the ship or the services
OF the Coast Guard crew because
James Forrestal, the Secretary of the Navy,
explains why in response to an inquiry.
There is no Navy regulation which author
ICES the use of naval aircraft for his personal
use" Mr.. Forrestal writes. "Air transpor-
tation is furnished cabinet members at their
o. the President"
So, by order of Henry's leader, patron and
neighbor, a crew Of intelligent, highly-trained
young Americans who entered the Coast
Guard to fight a war became private chauf-
feurs, and a big ship was assigned to Morgen-
than for his personal pleasure, while Harold
Ickes was abusing the common man for rae.
ing his motor and making jack-rabbit starts
because these practices wasted fuel, and girls
left home to relieve men for combat service.
This expression of Morgenthau's attitude
toward the common man is interesting at this
time for two reasons. First, the public knew
that many princes of privilege in Washington
actually looked down or the common man
and helped themselves to luxuries denied the
masses" but regarded Henry as a rather
modest and humble man 1t is now plain,
however, that he, too, shared the sense o!
superiority and contempt for the masses
that expressed itself completely in the dump
ing of two service men flying home or leave
in favor of Elliott Roosevelt's dog. Second,
Henry is now in politics, himself, in that
strange growth known as political action. not
as a candidate, to be sure. but as an "influ-
ence'' and this self-indulgence in wartime in
dictates the mental attitude Of such PERSONAL
ties toward the people whose wants, fears
and desires are being exploited in the po-
litical action propaganda.
Coming now into the main office o. political
action in New York, we find that one OF the
best minds Of the propaganda machine IS a
man calling himself Joseph Gaer. VINO wrote
a g%loating book after the fourth term cam
paign of 1914, explaining how the CLIO and its
PAC stampeded the vote for Roosevelt. 1t
seems to me that the title of this book should
have been Hello Suckers" rather than The
First Round which was the name Gaer Sc
lected because it gives NE an impression that
Gaer and his cole CUES were secretly laugh.
ing at the credulity Of the common man all
the time.
Now Mr.. Gaer, who was born In Bessarabla
when Bessarabja was Russian, and came to
Canada in 1918 at the age of II, mas had
an interesting career in CUT government. He
got into the new deal early in the game
as 'editor and CHEZ field supervisor OF the
Federal Writer'S Project which was strongly
infested with Communists and served as a
'consultant'' in the Farm Security Admins
~tration, although he does not claim to be a
farmer. and landed eventually in Mr.. Nor
genthau's service at the Treasury. He says
he was a consulting expert in education
in the war finance division and special as
sistant to Henry. Told that his work, at $500
a year as special assistant, consisted Of writ
ing a biography OF his boss, asked mr..
Gaer if this were 50 and he said no. NO,
he wrote educational material for the loan
campaigns and other subjects in which the
Treasury, under Morgerthau. was "educat-
ing' the same American common man VINO
coasted down hill to save gas while Henry
flew through the air with the greatest OF
ease.
His name, originally F.shr1an, was changed
to Gaer, meaning stranger in 1917 because
he had used it for his writing. in Bessaraola
at the age Of IL. He said he volunteered 1or
the Canadian Army in 1914 but was rejected
because he was under weight ana MS pdiehts
lived in Russia.
Another interesting personality to be con-
sidered with Morgenthau in his new role as
politician is Harry D. White, described as
M%orgenthau's chief monetary ADVISER IN the
Treasury. member Of the American delegation
to Breton Woods and American member OF
the board Of directors of the international
Fund.
A year ago, Merwin K. Hart, the president
of the National Economic Council, at a hear
ing of the Senate Committee on Banking, at
which he opposed the fund and international
Bank of Reconstruction, called attention to
the fac: that Mr.. White. a very powerful
influence in American economic and inter-
national policy. is described in just six lines
in ''Who's Who in America"
The sketch simply describes him as an
economist Mr.. Hart said, and tells the Of
fees he has held and gives his address,
Almost without exception, such capsuled
biographies do state where the subjects were
born and when and give the names of their
parents but no such data is given as to Mr.
White. Mr.. Hart thought this lack was a mat
ter Of interest to the senators in considering
the origins of d plan which he, and many
others, regarded with alarm as an attempt
to set up a world state and victimize the
American people.
The PAC, of course, il violently in favor
of Mr.. Whites plans. This puts us down a
Tr----, 49,. IL