The Wilmington morning star., 1946-11-07
As PeglerS Sees 1t
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER
(Copyright. By King Features Syndicate, lnc.J

NEW YORK, NOV. o. AHloflS tie ASoooo
why the voters turned against the new DEAL
even ignoring idolatrous invocatlonS OF the
Hyde Park hant, was a dawning reallzaton
that, from Roosevelt himself down to the non
orary bleeding-hearts of the night-slde IN New
York and Hollywood, the championship OF the
people was always a political pose, never a
sincere inner mission. Never, In our country
at Newport of old or at Palm Beach IN the
spectacular nights of the prohibition era, were
more extraVagant scenes OF Indulgence ana
luxury enacted than in Harry Hopkins we'd
ding party or Marshal Fields debut at the
Statler in Washington, whereby the little man
who isn't there introduced himself to me INK
stained wretches of the Fourth Estate. Ihese
were not exceptional, but typical, as Elllott
Roosevelt reveals in. his memoirs, which pear
a certain resemblance to Ter Nights In A
Rarroom.' Merriman Smith, the White House
correspondent OF the United Press, In Thank
You. Mr.. President the frankest and most
Informative of the memory-books to date, tells
us that Roosevelt was a regal fellow and gives
us a view of revolving drunkenness among the
mourning members of his Official household
on the train returning from his funeral. Ihese
we're the ~selfless anonymities OF the palace.
Here are selected quotations from Elliotts
story of the travels which tore him away from
the war to attend his father at his great con-
ference among the potentates:
Cocktail glasses clinked and the air buzzed
with heavy talk; father remarked that there
had seemed to be 1865 toasts-"; sat the prime
minister's birthday dinner, once more the Rus
sian custom, everyone toasting everyone else.
was observed and I am afraid that accurate
count was lost. I do remember Stalin's cheer
full habit of touching the glass of everyone III
whose name we were drinking. And father
paid tribute to the huge Red Army that was.
rolling the Nazi war machine steadily back;
there was no conversation without a drink.
The only way we talked was through the medi-
UNI of proposing a toast. It your staying power
is good it develops into quite a lot of fun;
stain stuck to vodka; once he filled my
glass; if it was anything less than 100 PROOF
1 do not wish to be offered the real thing:
''by and large. I stuck to champagne, feeling
that American honor was at stake; Thanks
giving dinner could not have been more pleas
ant; TaraWa and Maxim, with terrible cost
were behind us; over Europe, our air armadas
were daily growing in might, as Berlin was dis
covering"; father always brought his own
turkeys from home; $50 that night I went to
a Cairo night club; "when Madame Chang
left me to 60 on to another guest, I got my
self a long. stiff drink"
Hitler was an %ascetic, but in this enormous
~joviality o. gods at play these other masters
of men disposed the world, mankind and the
future, and who knows how good their "stay-
ing power was?
To this young r~oisterer, who earlier In the
book had criticized Winston Churchill as
a hard-drinker. the President confided the Sc
cret information that Stain had agreed to at
tack Japan. From Elliott. General Dwight
first learned of the final decision
to invade Europe through Normandy, although
was to be the commander-in-chie.
Indeed. Elliott insinuates that Eisenhow-
er wheedled with him, who had been a civilian
only three years before, to wangle that COM
mand when Ike was apprehensive that instead
he might be sent back to a desk job in Wash
ington. Elliott personally lobbied the Legion
OF Merit for Eisenhower from his father, ar
ranged delivery Of the medal to Cairo for
presentation by the President and lew away
with Ike for a sightseeing tour in Africa.
Yet. of course, his own promotions up to the
rank Of brigadier were all deserved.
Later. during an evening of bridge in Lon
don, Eisenhower had to ask Elliott for chatty
information on the Russians.
"What was their army like?" he INQUIRED.
How were their fliers? How was their disci-
pine? What did they think Of us?"
The President, Eisenhower's commander-in-
CHIEF had reduced him to the gossip Of pops
precoclous pet for his military intelligence.
Merrlman Smiths description OF drunken
behavior at the teamsters' dinner at the Stat
Ter IN the presidential campaign of 1914 was
not the first intimation to the American work
ing stiff that the unions have their regal
class. The luxuries, privileges and perquisites
o. the big brass of the teamsters, including
the winter palace of the high caste on Miami
Beach, were revealed long ago. And only a
few sincere old union fighters, of the type
OF Victor Olander of Chicago, remember the
humility and devotion of the late
Andy Furuseth, OF the sailors union. who al
ways Topped in sailors crimps on the water
fronts when he went to the great conventions
and ate slum and chilli mac at Pittsburgh
Joe's. only to be %disowned and reduced to
the job of porter in a dirty union hall in
his last days on earth. His like was not to
be found anywhere in the new. political union
ism. in partnership with the princes who
patronlzed "the common man. but shared
none of his problems.
The most pretentious and precious devotees
OF the new deal were men and women who
loved the masses" at a distance. fed them
with a long. long spoon and never forgot that
poverty and B. O.. are concomitants. Thew
dlned on filet and plover's eggs at the Stork
and IWentv-One in New York and at Roman
OTIS and Chasen's in Hollywood and. while
these contracts we're not mentioned in the
campaign, the forgotten man surely must
nave sensed them at last. These were the
Roosevelt literati. the intelliqentsia. the bu-
reaucracy and the hams of social Significance
The .fastldious taste OF the communists in
the angry deliberations on the brave and
peaceful world of the future. and fragmen-