The Wilmington morning star., 1946-09-04
Fair Enough
nv WEsTBROOK PEGLER

Copyright, 1890 ny NAAs
NEW YORK, Sept. 3.-The memoirs OF NJ
1;o++ roosevelt and of persons who nelo ONCE
49, enioved social courtesies which mace
thono more or less intimate with franKlih ~
roosevelt will call for a running accountant
ment of exception if the record is 10 NC n.y.
straight for posterity. No honest person .ouo
object to such repartee because hooseVei' "as
The first to recognize himself as a great man
" bic time and a figure Of enormous his
torical Importance. Those who honor MIN
surely would insist that it was his desire 10
he known to history as the man ne was
complete with his Inconsistencies ana tauitS.
Vet. the minority of the Pearl Harbor Com
mittee complained that its inquiry was
cramped by the Withholding OF RECORDS winch
were deemed to be the private property OF
his estate so the possibility naturally occurs
to mind that the Roosevelt papers which are
IN become a national treasure" and a charge
m the peoples taxes in the library at Hyde
park NAV be culled and edited to the ad-
vantage of his reputation and the distortion
of history.
Currently, Elliott Roosevelt is commercial
ling mis- version of private conversations be-
tween his father, as host, and Winston Church
ill, as guest, to Churchill's detriment.
Manners change with the times and a his
torian might not know that the unWritten law
of polite hospitality in our time assured the
guest that his remarks and his conduct and
the nature and quantity of his drinks would
not be discussed, much less written about Tor
profit, by a member of the family q the
host. In this respect. Elliott may be either
behind or ahead of his time, but he is not
current. It seems almost certain that Mr..
Churchill was not put on warning that this
would be done and I am equally confident
that he would have expressed himself well
had he been so warned.
Nevertheless. Elliott conveyed an impress
sion that Churchill. alone, emptied a bottle
of brandy in one evening and that the others
present abstained.
Again. in a book called Dinner at the
White House. by Louis Adamic, who is cited
forty times in the official report to Congress
of the Dies Committee on UnAmerican activi-
ties, Churchill gets an unfavorable press from
one who shared with him The status Of guest.
Adamic refers to the Dies Committee as a
''red-baiting'' agency, but that may be a de-
Tense. Red-baiting is a legitimate and COM
reaction against the communist
conspiracy against the United States. And I
am confident that he would agree with me
that the cry of "red-baiter" often has been
raised to discredit truthful revelations OF or
ganized treachery by communists acting un-
der directions from the headquarters Of the
international organization in Moscow.
Dinner at the White House, is largely an
dQVeTllSe41leNI OF an carrier Work Dy AOdWlC,
who is a naturalized Jugoslav. Churchill want
ed to invade Europe through the soft under
belly" OF the Adriatic and the Balkans. All
communists opposed this and they still main
tain that the Normandie coast was the correct
point for the invasion although t h e attack
there met prepared Notifications backed by
much better communications than the enemy
could have had in the Balkans.
ChurchlIs purpose was to thWart the pres
ent Russian domination of the Don,ho ,,J
the Balkans which many authorities low re-
gard fearfully as a Matching place for an
other war. The communists clamored for a
second front in France but the most vocicer-
GUS OF them never went there. They included
Charlie Chaplin and half a dozen CLIO. presi-
dents. Adamlc writes that he urged Roosevelt
to abandon plans for a f~ull-scale invasion of
the Balkans, proposing instead that the United
States send arms to Marshal Tito, who so
recently shot down five unarmed American
soldiers with some of those very weapons.
In the summer of 1914, Mr.. Adamic writes.
our boss inquired whether he would 20 to
Yugoslav.a as an attache Of the American
commanding general if we and the British
should attack in the Balkans. BY that time
ne mad developed "a profound distrust' and.
remembering the sad experiences of some
less cautious men, he stipulated such con
dltlons that the idea of giving me the iob
was dropped" Others of the same political
persuasion were equally bashtul.
In this little work about the dinner party
Adamic permits himself a liberty which
have never allowed myself in such circuno.
stances. I have lunched at the White House
and attended a picnic at Hyde Park but nv
understanding of manners forbade me tn d.
scribe these parties or comment on INV fellow,
guests. To ask permission to do so would he
unthinkable to me. A w
Aoamlc tells us that mo member of +ha
roosevelt family and no one present at tho
olnner saw any part of his book in scrint -
he relates that Roosevelt, who certainly,
anew Churchll was a brandy man. offered
tne frime Minister an orange blossom cock-
!an' Inns is a disgusting mixture of orange
juice and gin tit for unmanly hypocrites ,fn
wlllhg TO drink forthrightly. l count on Mrs
IAnly Fost TO support my contention that the
most IN common courtesy, should have nro.
yloeu brandy. The evidence of internation.
Doorlshness is supported by Adamic's report
uia' roosevelt presently raised the shaker
a %refill?" ~" Nooo'
churchill declined "glumly'' but otherwise
held his tongue.
but, sultlng his manners to Roosevelt's
would ne not have been justified to pour the
orange BLOSSOM into the fern pot or the fire
place and spit in Roosevelt's eye?
AS hostess, how does Mrs. Roosevelt come
OH IN THIS? BY her own statements, in her
autoblography, her father was a drunkard re
peatedly confined in. sanitaria, and one of her
uncles was a spectacular souse. Her own
aversion to alcohol thus may be understood
put mere we have not teetotalism but a
gratultouS denial of an ordinarv convenience