The Wilmington morning star., 1946-09-03
Fair Enough
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Copyright, by King Features Syndicate Inc.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 2-Elliott Roosevelt mas
composed a book entitled A He Saw II,
described by Look magazine, which IS pup
fishing a four-part concentrate, as me IN
side Story of the Roosevelt : ChurchlI StaIn
war meetings." -.
The propriety of the whole enterprise will
meet no challenge from those who, naturally
or from the long process of contamination
regard the presidency of the United States
as a gravy train for the and his
family, a year ago, in testimony before ex-
aminers of the Bureau of Internal Revenue,
Elliott revealed that he was very hard up.
The book and the serial rights will relieve
this condition. The material is a byproduct
of his fathers Office which his father fore
sightedly threw his way by inviting him to
historic conferences which all concerned were
shreWd enough to recognize as a source OF
future fortune.
1nasmuch as these unsupported tattllngs,
sold commercially, constitute a plea in clorl-
fication of the late President and an equally
unpleasant description o. Winston Churchill
and will be consulted by historians they
should be accompanied by f~ootnotes and ex-
c~eptions.
Look observes in an editorial note that FL
lott cha had his name tossed about on the
floor of the U. S. Senate (subject: His army
promotion.) That is an incomplete reference.
His name was tossed about in the House
of Representatives, too, and the Ways and
Means Committee made a miserably evasive
investigation of the loan of $200, 900 from John
Hartford, which his father helped to promote
and finally settled for two cents on the dollar.
Instead CT calling witnesses, the committee,
dominated by democrats, relied entirely on
the record Of the Internal Revenue, whose
attitude was expressed in an apologize re-
mark by the examining agent to Elliott at
the opening Of his testimony. The minority
of the committee fatty charged that the trans
action had been flagrantly dishonest rom
start to finish. If the editors OF Look did
not know about this tossing about of their
contributors name in the lower house of Con-
gress, that ignorance may be regarded as a
measure of their fitness to edit a news peri
odical.
The article here considered contains much
matter in direct quote. I find no statement
that these remarks are taken from a steno-
graphic record. If they are. the questions
reasonably arise whether the record was
taken with Churchill's knowledge or by
stealth, through a photograph or other secret
device and why, being a historical document
and the property of the American people, they
were made available exclusively to Elliott to
sell for private profit. In the absence of proof
that the quotations are exact they are subject
to the usual doubt. Even the best reporters,
who practice for years, cannot remember ex-
actly wat two or more persons say in con-
versation. AS an experiment you might try
it for ten minutes, using a stenographer to
record the blurts, the half-sentences and
asides.
Naturally, Elliott depicts his father as the
hero of the meetings and Churchill as his
inferior. Churchill, always a prolific pot-boiler
in the journalism Of this country and his
own, deserves the courtesy and justice of an
invitation to reply, at his regular rate. An
able man in controversy whose speeches in
the war will ring and resourd with poetic
and dramatic beauty by contrast with Roose-
velt's stiited condescension to that gibbering
slob of his own snobbish imagining, the COM
mon man, Churchill could be trusted to take
his own part against a phenomenal tyro with
out the help Of a ghost. But the interests Of
fairness, public information and historical
truth demand that he conquer his own qualms
and report his version.
We read under Elliott's name that Church
i'll "was beginning to look apopletic,' that
he began heavily a remark about British
Empire trade agreements and, in another
page, that 'he growled." These are the inter-
pretatlons of a hostile observer to which a
loyal friend of Churchill might retort that
Roosevelt had the appearance Of one who had
suffered cerebral thrombosis, that he "cackled
namely and that he "swore with the dis
gushing atfectation of a mama's boy who had
studied swearing for a purpose"
When we find Elliott reporting that, after a
night conference which revealed Churchill 'in
fine form" a whole bottle of brandy had been
emptied, We must analyze the passage for
explicit language. We find no statement that
Churchill, alone, had drunk the whole bottle
OF brandy, but a remark that ''f anything,
his mind seemed to work more clearly, his
tongue more easily"
l suppose Elliott meant me to understand
that Churchill did drink it all, that his father
and the rest drank nothing. BY the phrase
If anything" Elliott tells me that Churchill
stood to his glasses steady where another
man might have passed out drunk.
1t is common knowledge that Churchill is
a brandy man but it is not common knowledge
nor is it true that either President Roosevelt
or Elliott Stunned alcohol. The President
drank Martins, which are much more potent
than brandy and a horror to all well-manner-
ed drinkers of respectable taste. Elliott drinks
as much as Churchill on occasion and he
would not be the one to say whether his own
mind works more clearly and his tongue more
easily when he does. If they do he is a great
drinker.
Ii uncontlrmed and unsupported violations
OF the code of hospitality and civilized man.
pers are to be the missiles OF this unprovoked
comme1clallzed controversy, and this meet
ing occurred aboard the U.S.S. Augusta with
Roosevelt as host, then l may say that the
late Gen. Hugh johnson rold me of an all
night visit with F. D. R. during which Roose-
welt ernptled a stone bottle of Holland gin
and got drooling drunk. His wife, as usual,
was of on the road. He usually tossed in