The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1946-03-12
Fair Enough
Copyright, 1916, by King Features syndit
BY wEsrBRooK PEGLER

In criticism of the American owners OF
small homes mansions, farms, estates, VII
lage stores and other property who are I'M
willing to surrender their lawful possessions
to the. UNO, Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt writes
that If she had been il a like situation, mo
personal consideration would have outweigh
ed the possibility Of helping to- establish the
United Nations.
s"This organization may save our country
and others from the kind of human misery
which another war must inevitably bring"
she added, land for that end no sacrifice is
too great"
If my understanding of her late husbands
will is correct. Mrs. Roosevelt's position here
is purely academic for, l believe he left her
no owners interest in the ancestral real es-
tate at Hyde Park Furthermore, the record
shows no indication that the President or his
family ever made any sacrifice OF wealth IN
the interest of the American or the peoples OF
the world but, on the contrary, prospered
enormously, some of them through the most
brazen exploitation of the presidency and po-
litical influence, ever since the beginning OF
Mr.. Roosevelt's war on want in 1888
Mrs. Roosevelt, herself, is no amateur in
her service to the organization which may
save our country and others from the KIND
of misery which another war must inevitably
bring The job which she holds pays at the
rate Of $4,000 year plus $25 day for ex-
penses. This income, entirely aside from her
proposed pension of $1,000, as Presidents
widow, is much greater than the income OF
most Of the families in the Westcaester-Green
wich area who would be dspossessed. Since
her return from Europe Mrs. Roosevelt has
been on tour again, lecturing under profession
al management. Her old fee, in the role OF
First Lady, in several instances, was report
ed to be $1,000 per show.
With her box-office power stepped up again
by reason of her new publicity, the promoters
have been able to charge a $40 top even
in small cities and she has played to excel
lent business. Altogether, then, far from serv-
ing the United Nations at a sacrifice Mrs.
Roosevelt is still pursuing the old profit motive
even in her effort to spare the world the
human misery which she foresees as a pos
sible alternative to the success of the UNO.
If we assume too much in assuming that
these revenues are strictly private income for
private use we are guided by the crude ef-
frontery Of the sales talk published by the
advertising agency which offered her as a
radio attraction to the Latin-American coffee
nations They not only emphasized her posi-
ton as the Presidents wife but held out the
enticing probability that, for her fee, Mrs.
Roosevelt would describe how the presiden-
tial cup of coffee is made and, of course, it
will be made with heaping tablespoonful of
coffee and one for the pot"
There was no representation that this rake
off, so frankly attributed to the highest cleo
tive office in the nation, was to be shared with
anyone or any cause. On past performances, |
then; on the precedent of Elliott's shakedown
of John Hartford for $20O,000 assisted by his
father both in the original clip and the triurn-
plant final gyp; on the facts of Jimmy Roose-
velt's highly questionable association in the |
yeast business; on the tax-oodge in the trans
fer Of the Hyde Park heap to the Department
of the Interior, and recalling the raw and
cynical graft in philatelic monstrosities be-
queathed to Franklin DIS estate, we would be
culpably naive to entertain the thought that |
Mrs. Roosevelt is sacrificing anything to the
United Nations. And if any further instance |
were needed to outweigh our wistful credulity |
it would be found in the recent inquiry in the |
state Of New York whereby Jimmy Roosevelt, |
as one Of his fathers executors, sought to |
know whether his late pere could be regard
ed as military man on active service in
his role OF Comm in which case
the heirs would get small remission of
taxes paid and payable on his income for
1945
That one who has not only participated in
the most scandalous profiteering in an office
formerly regarded as one Of trust and dignity
but has actively connived at sordid racke-
teering by others should so denounce honest
citizens for clinging to their homes would be
a shocking experience to victims not previous |
~ prepared for such effrontery But it will |
be hard for them to understand the psychology
of the proposition accusing them of willing
ness to sacrifice civilization for their posses
SionS.
Americans don't think that way
Americans wanly believe in law and the
right to possess property yet here, not only
are they threatened with denial of that right
out plllorIed as monsters. The proposition here
is mat no other place in the United States |
would be suitable for the UNO when the truth |
is that the regions of New York and Wash |
ington are the worst possible selections, under
lad and premeated with racial, political and
rehglous issues imported from the old world
that promise CHASTITY troubles.
A village doctor in the region innocentlv
states his case
When our homes are jeopardized as well
as our means of livelihood which, in my case
took many years of study and hard work, ;"
he writes ''you just can't sit back and let
it happen We are all in favor of the principles /
OF the UNO but they have no right to take |
our homes and businesses when other sites
are available"
Mrs. Roosevelt once said that she thought
her late husband had laid the groundwork for
the UNO. No member of the family has pub
licly suggested however, the donation of his |
entire estate to the promotion of the work
which we are permitted to believe should be
regarded as his greatest monument. On the |
contrary. the heirs present miserably arti- |