The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-04
Fair Enough
BY WEsTBROoK PEGLER

by DhOOA PLGLER
Copyright. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
NEW YORK.-If l mad been Ilya Ehrenburg
of %1zvestia, the American drug store would
have been honored with a few paragraphs if
not a chapter of its own. in my report on
America.
l should have described a strange insti-
tuition where prescriptions are Carefully com
pounded' but which nevertheless reeks of
CHOW mem and sour salad, gravy and coffee
ana whete surly men and women, in damp
and dirty white, dish out this food in an
atmosphere of perpetual tension. On their side
OF the counter, the mood is anger, as though
they hate their hungry fellow-workers, most
OF them, apparently, no more prosperous than
themselves. and on the customers side it is
anxiety and haste. This sight is a STRICTLY
American phenomenon which should interest
the RUSSIAN reader and should have i'm
pressed the reporter not only by the incon-
grulty OF this untidy department hard by the
prescription counter but by the abundance
and waste of food, such as it is, by contrast
with the scarcity in Russia.
L should have reported that in the United
States the slaves of the bosses exercise an
independence that, by and large, retards
progress and the work Of many others. When
an American workman decides to 60 fishing.
or hunting at the sacrifice of a days pay,
ne goes, even though his absence that day
may "AASN u VI SCuGuuJc tu6 COHDleC1On o.
a new dwelling house for some comrade.
known or unknown to him. That is freedom
as the quaint Americans understand it and,
though 1t causes expense and evaporation,
even the victims of these Whims would defend
to the death the right of their fellow-man
not to show up for work. This should amuse
and shock the Russian worker and puzzle him,
too. VINO owes a duty to the state to stay
on the Job that Russia may be strong for
tho wv odoire{ o,r4J,,4 .--..1:--0- ~
may be punished for delinquency.
l should have written that although this
capitalistic and imperiallstic nation is the
natural enemy and prey of communism never
theless 1t permits communists to practice poll
tics and espionage to the peril of the govern
ent and the nation. My essays would have
dwelt a little on the paradox whereby the
constitution and the laws are successfully in
voked to protect enemies OF the Constitution
IN their efforts toward its destruction.
I would have dwelt on the g~alloping d.
lapidation of Chicago and, to a lesser degree,
OF New York, the two greatest cities of the
mighty republic Of the Western world, where
the capltallstic system, for the time being,
at least, seems to have a hold on its own
throat and is unable to replace decay and
ugllness with utility and beauty because taxes
and other considerations forbid the risk of
private capital in new buildings. Perhaps a
NAS1A Coi q u 1
Through the unaccustomed eyes of a
stranger in the United States, I would have
seen actual breadlines, often with no bread
at the head end of those lines, in a nation
which, nevertheless. is trying to feed much
o. the rest of the world at the expense of
Its own physical and political health. l would
have told my comrades at home, through
lzvestla, that these contradictory foolish and
by no means unlovable people, the Ameri-
cans, were paying very high taxes to provide
food for others across the oceans and the
shipping to carry it, while shortages and the
black market in their cWn country had re-
duced the buying power of their take-home
pay to the point of bare sufficiency. if that.
Instead of calling American business men
fasclsts and writing that they and the work
ers all want war because war means profits
and high wages, I would have done my bit
for humanity and peace by telling the Rus
slams that Americans of all classes or eco
nomlc degrees fear war and would regard an
other war as the end of their world. l would
have said that the big industries whose
managers are called f~ascists, were the source
of all thai stupendous production which armed
the Russian soldiers and saved millions of
Russian lives and crushed fascism in Europe.
If these capitalists really were fa%scists, would
they and their sons nave gone. personally, to
fight fascism alongside the Russians, many
of them never to return? And would the CAPT.
talist workers of America welcome a war
with Russia for the high wages it would bring,
knowing that so soon again the blue and gold
stars would appear in the windows of their
homes?
Instead OF sneering at the Lions clubs which
roar at the word of command 1 would have
noticed the amiability and harmlessness of
such American foibles and treasured nv
readers that a people who go in throngs to
ball-games are not plotting against the people
of Russia and desire only to work, play and
enjoy life.
Ehrenburg thought some American report
ers in Russia had slandered his country. On
the other hand, the Russian people can re-
ceive only alarming impressions of the United
States and our intentions toward them from
the reports Of an observer who says fascism
has moved here and tells us he will see us
again, sometime, in the ruins of the fascist
theology.
Could that be the blood of Russians and
Americans on the hands of Comrade Ehren-
burg as he waves farewell to us?
T1