The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-16
Fair Enough
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright. by King Features Syndicate,

IL III CC-lIpCL1lIoE, oo EC OlC guy L IL
ways lick. Like Ickes, ne leads with his chin
and leaves himself in POSITION, asking for it,
and he has only to ask to receive.
Comrace Ehrenberg IS the Soviet journal
it, the trained seal of Pravda. who barks
for his herring and, accordingly, argues that
we, Of the great, free American commercial
press do the same, meaning, IN our case,
that we serve the Interests of the advertisers
and that they dictate our editorial policy. Our
radio. too.
Well hoi1 still, com-ade, here It comes,
I am looking at the July 9th iss1e OF Col
lier's. The first page inside the cover ; a
pretty, coltr-press ad for Studebake- and the
next is a gray page for Listerine, both mem
bers of American big business, that sinister
and souless Institution. Then come a half
page for FlorSllelm Shoes and then another
page OF color for Ethyl, the Marijuana that
they put in motor fuel nowadays to make
the engine Of an ordinary family lob think
1t is working tor the army in a B-29. And
another for Shell OIL arc SO forth, to the
back cover. where Coca Cola runs a pretty
pitch. The back cover re minds me that lin
Farley has been with Coca Cola since he left
Roosevelt and kept a still tongue in his head
through the campaigns Of 1910 and 1914 when
the Roosevelt government might have pinched
Coca Cola for sugar arc markets by wav
OF reprisal, and wasn't above doing so. and
moreover had some profitable family connec-
tons with another popular brand Of sweet
water.
What is the editorial policy Of Collier's?
You could call it either Independent or other
handed. On the actual editorial page it some
times comes out in heavy chest tones for
policies that would please the capitalists, but
IN its articles it has been lavishly hospitable
-or several years to propagandists of the far
left, including some who have been pegged
as communists or fellow travellers by the Dies
These hay We Included Lillian He'll
man ana Ella Winter and a member of the
regular staff with a dual personality who calls
himself Kyle Crichton in Golfers and Robert
Forsythe IN the New Masses. And, recently.
Golfers had a piece oy Ehrenberg, himself.
which later, I should say, was honest journal
ism, however, inasmuch as Golfers hung a
red flag over the story placing the readers
on warning. Altogether, through eulogistic and
biographies Of new dealers and con-
troversial pleadings, some of which seemed
to me to rise TO a pitcn Of hysteria, Golfers
has worked the let side Of the street which
1 concede 10 be Its privilege.
The New Yorker is another.
The New Yuker's inside cover on Aug.
was a nice page Of color for the %electrol-
motive division Of General Motors. Then came
pages for Bergdorf- Goodman and Lord and
Ns-NH $500 2atJ otol " DS I dix |
avenue anc hish-suburbau trade and one for
Elizabeth Arden and one for the Grace Line |
and two for perfumes and one each for old
Overholt and DeWar's white label and a back
cover for Virginia Rounds, sold by Benson
and Hedges
In a long acquaintance with the New Yorker
l have observed a constant tendency to tear
to tatters the regulations and personalities of
decent citizens foolish enough to submit to
~ y1nr -. H. I--:-
known as 'profiles' bit to compliment and
'humaaize' as very nice fellows such as Joe
Curran. the president OF the National Mari
time Unior. who and which have followed
the communist party lire in all major issues
with no deviations that I have ever been able
to observe but not for lack Of study. I have
noted book reviews by pundits cited BY the
Dies Committee many times, notably one
signing her name Dorothy Parker, and Clt-
ton Fadinan OF the raGio program "Infor-
nation Please a really ferocious fellow
when aroused who was going to wiring chival-
rvs neck in attacking Glare Luce Rep.
Conn., in her 1914 campaign and probably
would have too. had he been able to recog-
nize chivalry. My advice to any reputable
and interesting American whether in business
or politics would be to say "nothing doing
to any interviewer for the New Yorker on
the probability that courtesy and kindness to
d PIOleoSIOndl WIlteT working LOT a living
would be repaid in preconceived n~astiness and
distortion But the poor unsuspecting slobs
never learn unit. they come to, cut and bleeding
and ruful, and I certainly would not adver-
tise in the New Yorker.
Finally, we find that on the radio a few
rich business operations, with every reason
to refrain from grub-staklng enemies of the
capitalist system and free popular govern
ment. pay fantastic amounts to propagandists
who use the advertisers own radio time and
their prestige to promote issues and candi-
dates hostile to them. AL the dirtiest features
are supported by business interests which |
have most to lose. That is how smart thew
are.
While I spbmit that all this proves that our
press and radio really are Indifferent to the
political interests OF the advertisers, I confess
that II l myself were an advertiser in any
large way, 7 would pick my spots and patron
ize my friends. l wouldn't try to dictate edi-
torial policy. I just wouldn't spend an money
with my opponents. And Mr.. Ehrenberg
should be the last to object to that because
those who are his closest friends in the Unit
ed States frankly make free use of the
boycott business-office pressure in their at
tempts to suppress publications and radio
presentations hostile 10 their program. For
legal background they car cite opinions bv
Felix Frankfurter, WAC has even held that
it is fair to publicize deliberate lies about
an opponent to make a boycott more ef-
~fective.
So, even if all Ehrerberg says were true