The Wilmington morning star., 1946-02-22
Fair Enough
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER
(Conyripht. 1916, by King Features Syndicat,


Downright. 1916. by King Features Syndicate
Throughout his career in the Cabinet, there
were many Americans who thought that the
title of Honest Harold, bestowed on Mr.. Ickes
with sarcastic intent, was a gross exaggera-
ton. Originally it referred to his suspicious
nature which instinctvely examined the mo-
tives of others.
Honest Harold implied full recognition Of
the probability that here was one new dealer
at least Who would not tap the till or drain off
secret graft in one guise or another either Tor
his personal gain or that Of his sisters and his
cousins and his aunt. In this commonplace vlr-
tue there was a sidelong crltlclsm OF the NOR
ais and ethics of his chief but it will be noted
that Mr.. Ickes' honesty was not so active as to
evoke from him any public objection to such
violations of his own code by his political bet
ters That public servant be innocent OF the
larcenous instinct or that he resist IT 1lrmly
would seem to be little enough to ask, put the
personal fortunes of some who led the Roosevelt
revolution show that it is not only lot to ex-
pect of them but much too much.
Mr.. Ickes leaves public office, but not the
public eye and ear, selfstyled grasplng and
miserly fellow and with no dissenting OPINION
from those who know him best, but his most
enthusiastic enemy will not allege that ne got
dollar Of his fortune illegally. To that extent,
then, he is indeed Honest Harold but that is
faint praise,
Honesty means more than that and by other
tests Ickes flunked.
In the second new deal, Mr.. 1ckes toyed with
a temptation to return to Chicago and run for
mayor against Ed Kelly whom he piously re-
garded as rascal in need of turning out.
He was not resident of Chicago in any pub
lcly known sense of the term
He actually resided in the suburbs of Wash
lngton and his only other registered home was
on street called in his biography in Who's
Who, Private Road, Winnetka, Ills" yet Mr..
lekes said he believed he could establish a
fine legal residence in Chicago. His plans
changed and he was not called on to prove
domicile but the Kelly politicians naturally
went searching and their conclusion was that
lckes had vague technical claim to legal but
fictitious residence in a room up near the caves
OF an old hotel near the loop.
In 1910, Ickes had either changed his opinion
OF Ed Kelly or was STOPPING to conquer At the
height Of that stupendously sordid braWl which
nominated Mr.. Roosevelt for his third term
and Henry Wallace, amid boos, for his first in
any elective office, Ickes was caught in fla
grant association with the man he had 50 re.
Gently and ardently despised. He and Harry
Hopkins, who, to his credit, as wisely never
made an issue Of his honesty, turned up in the
company Of not only Mr.. Kelly, but that other
despicable Fascist, according to the new deal
1li1ngsgate of the time, FRANKIE Hague, of
Jersey City. The purpose of their huddle was
not reform or civic virtue but the low, prac-
teal politics of the old-time smoke-filled ROOM
They couldn't get along without the rascals
and their wicked machines so, in that moral
crisis, they decided to get along with them
and turn to their own political service the very
wickedness which they deplored.
Having his own gestapo in the Department
OF the Interior, Mr.. Ickes cannot be presumed
to nave been ignorant of the So, 900 bite to
which Judge Charles HarWood submitted in a
rush act by Hall Roosevelt, the brother of Mrs.
Eleanor Roosevelt, acting on behalf OF Elliott
and his radio chain. Ickes knows more scan
dal and gossip than any other one in Wash
ington. Yet when the President named Har-
wood governor of the Virgin Islands, under the
general management of Mr.. Ickes, and even
after the facts of the bite were presented in
print, his honesty did not move him to repudi-
ate the whole affair. In so doing he would
nave reflected on his late leader, the preserva-
tlon OF whose reputation, as we have been see
ing, is more important than all considerations
OF virtue and decency in public affairs.
Mr.. Ickes' own participation in the distribu.
ton OF philatelic moastrosties of great value
was IN accordance with the new ethics of high
office. No man can say he got a dishonest
NOAAoA
ne knew the value of such stamps and so his
conduct will be called honest only by those
who share his principles.
Mr.. Ickes has always been stout man in the
hight Tor labor's gains, including the protection
OF the so-called common man from impudence
and all manner OF personal imposition by the
bosses. Yet, like Fiorella LaGuardia, another
honest man, IN the same restricted sense, he
was an overbearng executive in the Depart
ment OF the Interior whose manners and meth
ods IN his relations with individuals who
couldn't hight back would have had him up on
serious charges before the Labor Relations
Board had ne used them in private industry.
Mr: truman probably will be relieved to be
ria OF him once the noise subsidies The party
is separating into its two natural divisions now
and 1ckes obviously belongs with Wallace, Hill
man, Frankfurter and the few shameless takers
IN the Senate who never had any principles and
spoke pieces written for them by the left wing
strictly for the sake of their jobs and invita-
tons to parties in Washington. The Repub-
lcans might even think of nominating John L.