The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-15
Fair Enough
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright BY King Features Syndicate, lnc.)

LIZ WILL 4AS VASAA - $780,
from Oakland, Cal, running to about l,6Oo
words, entitled KAISER Demands Full Dis
closure" This is a flattery that l must not
permit to turn my head even though the cost.
reckoned on figures provided by my actuary
at the Western Union, would have been about
SIG. so. 1t is more a political harangle in the
manner of Senators Joe Guffey, of Pennsyl
vania. and Theodore Bllbc, OF Mississippi: than
a statement of position, crying out loud
against scandal mongers misleading state
ments, half.truths and character assassination
and it reminds me OF Samuel insult and Elliott
Roosevelt iii their first reactions to opeE
charges, subsequently p1oved.
Although the telegram is signed Henry j.
KAISER 1t is slugged, at the beginning, from
Henry j. Kaiser Company, publications de-
partment, Kaiser Bldg, Oakland, Cal.." and l
am thus enticed to speculate whether the CON-
pany paid the tolls fer a job of pc 'sonal
propaganda, at the rate OF $3.50, multiplied
by x, for l assume that others received the
same text, and wheather this cost will be de-
ductible from the company's income as legi-
innate business expense. AT any rate, it sets
ITO a resistance within me because l think It
is up to me and the rest of the public to de-
eide ana rot FOR Henry to say whether the
accusers are just low scandal mongers and
character assassins and their charges true or
false. Although Henry's telegram says that
unseen hands have set up a systematic cam
paign with a flood Of articles to the press and,
most amazingly, sent anonymously, thus hiding
under a cloak OF immunity" 1t has been my
impression that the most ephatic omnen
on Kaiser's record, financial and productive,
during the war was made openly by Senator
STYLES Bridges, of New H Hampshire.
If his motives were political, as Mr.. Kaiser
seems to suspect, then il can be answered
that Henry, himself, chose that field as the
scene of controversy and, moreover, that,
up to now, he has had all the better OF it in a
campaign Of publicity which has built him into
a sort of national monument made OF such
stuff as virtre, altrisro and truth possibly
without legitimate priority on those precious
materials.
I have observed for a long time that Henry's
publicity consists in more or less equal parts
of unconditional praise of Mr.. Kaiser, which I
have discounted on the basis OF personal &C
ouaintance and information, and dirty slurs
against other inoustrialists, which l nave dis
counted at the same rate on the same basis.
He is a man who believes his own publicity
and he has that rare instinct for corn and
self-app1~c ciation that made F. D. Roosevelt
the champion OF the common man when he
denounced well-fed clubmer even while he was
a member Of five OF the most exclusive CLUBS
in New York and was, himself, 50 wei led
that a Hyde Park village butcher had to
threaten suit to make HIM pay a household
meat bill OF several thousand dollars, gears
outstanding.
can think Of no civilian OF recent years,
other than Roosevelt himself, who enjoyed
more abundant and favorable personal publ
city than Henry Kaiser and l would here
mark a distinction between Kaiser's actual
character end the character that was created
for him in the public mind by propaganda. 10
injure his personal character would be one
thing but to debate or revise a provisional or
mythical character would seem to be the duty
Of the same press that created it and 1t Is not
assassination to destroy a myth.
Early in the ship building program, I began
to hear from men who had been building ships
for many years that Henry Kaiser's achieve
ments were less substantial than his feats OF
publicity led most Of US to believe and that
he enjoyed favors from the Roosevelt regime,
which constituted a handicap comparable to
a stroke a hole.
When Federal was tied up by C1O strikes
and the Navy had to serd in an admiral as
the nominal manager Under a seizure. Mr.. L.
H. Korndorff, president Of the shipyard, con-
tinued TO contribute his work and experience
nevertheless, although the public heard little
labor problem, Henry gave a blanket closed
shop for his Pacific yards to the old boiler
makers union of the AT. Of L., worth mil
lions to the peoples money in dues and fees
to that union, when there were only a few
thousand workers on hanc and thus obliged
subsequent hundreds ct thosands Of men and
women to join the boiiermakers in order to
give their alp for the defense of democracy.
Johnny Green, Of the CLIO Shipbilders' I'M
ion, complained angrily wherein l agreed that
this was not fail collective bargaining under
the Wagner ACT but Henry went undistrubed
in his union relations with the boile. makers
although the son Of the Unions president got a
rake-off from every collar of wages in the
form of d commission or premiums for COM
pulsory insurance. Henry knew all this but his
way with the unions was to give them what
they wanted and keep the union bosses happy
and thus make character for Henry as a friend
of labor, passing any additional expense along
to the taxpayers. This l learned in interviews
with Henry, himself, and it was about this
time that, with astounding agility in one of my
years and sedeEtary habits, l fetched myself
a stout kick in my own britches for having
been so %guillible a little while before as to
write, in the sweet throes of a crush on Henry,
an essay in idotic praise thereof.
During the war I received many letters from
truly patriotic and disguised citizens turned
to shipbUilding in Heory's yards, telling OF
l~oafers: sleeping, playing cards and~visiting in
obscre hooks of ships abuilding, their thought
being that Henry was keeping idlers on the
payroll as a labor reserve lest they disperse,
if laid off. and he finds himself short of help
in his expanding program. Suchmemoranda