The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-20
Fair Enough
: By WESTBROOK PEGLER
! Copyright, 1916, by King Features Syndicate,
Incl

---
why Stanley Walker one OF our best news
paper men, is saying farewell to New York
is that In the clubs and restaurants, the bars
and peoples homes, he encounters men and
women of ostensible intelligence who try to
intimidate him with fiery crosses Of political
and theological bigotry. He seems to insist
that he hasn't yielded but he writes never
theless, that he is becoming a refugee.
Except that I have no clubs and don't fire.
quent bars, l have had the same experience
these last few years. I have a sense that
this intolerance and personal hatred of the
fish who swims upstream is a pervading thing
but, for comfort, I sometimes recall a thought
expressed some years ago by a great, musical
orator Caruthers Ewing of Memphis and
New York.
What one man thinks and what another
man has thought curse and canker the mind
and heart and bank the intellectual waters
that ought to roll and run unhampered," Mr..
Ewing said. Fear of criticism and of con-
tempt makes more slaves a n d perpetuates
more nonsense and breeds more agony than
the mind Of man readily grasps."
One night during the last presidential cam
paign, Mrs. Irene Kuhn, who had handled
press relations, distaff, on Tom Dewey's cam
paign train and her daughter, Irene, Jr.,
were walking quietly near their home in
Greenwich village. Born Of Irish parents in
Chelsea village, clese by. Mrs. Kuhn has lived
in that region most of her life. Political hys-
terra and bigotry and alien accents were in
the air. reminiscent Of evil nights in Munich,
and the two Irenes wore Dewey buttons as
they strolled.
Near a corner meeting, a Negro woman
spotted these political insignia and, shrieking
"fascists!" brought a crowd.
'You make one pass at me-" Mrs. Kuhn
remarked sedately, land 1 will break your
Il - ned rArk This ic ~, hama arI ~ a,p
try and ! will vote as I please"
This sort Of thing was not common in New
York in those days but only because few of
those who intended to vote for Dewey, and
did vote for him, had the belly for public
commotion.
At a party in the high suburbs, a rich
woman Of the hunting set, with pretensions
to breeding and intellect, sratched a Dewey
button from another woman's dress and threw
it on The floor. The victim Of this abuse Of
course should have dragged her around by
the hair and the hostess would have been
within good manners to order her out, public
ly, but it was passed off.
Among business men In New York III that
angry time, Republicans avoid politics or
silently agreed with Roosevelt men at lunch,
aware that if they announced their intention
TO vote for Dewey or criticized Roosevelt they
would make enemies and lose important or
ders.
1 know men who endured this and I know
that some Of the brown shirts who held this
evil threat over American citizens were
among the noisiest of those who yowled up
the four freedoms and damned the nazis. We
had an underground movement Of our own
composed of Republicans who well knew that
their business would suffer or that they might
lose their jobs if they merely exercised their
right 70 express their political opinions and
intentions.
To my regret, I confess that I voted for
Roosevelt not once but twice. The first time
I was thoroughly deceived but l remind you
that his platform and his speeches in 1882
were such as any credulous American could
have approved. In 1886 the fault was my own
and I now believe that had we elected ALI
Landon We would have Jared much better if
only because the communists would have been
kept out OF our government and the anar-
chistic union movement would have been
brought under control OF law and government.
But, like the Germans, we wanted a leader
and he led us, in the end to the iron curtain.
1 began to violate the thought-control of the
Roosevelt following soon after Landon's de-
feat and my rebellion has increased in force
and results day by day ever since. Unlike
Mr.. Walker / have no regrets for friend
ships, if they were that, which vanished in
controversy. 1 was right and I have dis
covered many a vile hypocrlte among the
Samaritans who helped the common man to
the mouth Of the alley and rolled him for
his liberties and pay. Anyway, I will not be
policed in my politics or opinions and l will
maintain against every literary bar-fly and
all the ignoramuses and precious imposters of
the stage and screen, all the i~lliterate pro-
fessional scsndal-mongers and the fry-cooks
and bar-tenders turned tavern-keepers and po-
litical pundits, that Roosevelt was a greedy
cheap-skate, stingy and mean in his own deal
1ngs with the common man in his employ,
a swindler in the Hartford and Baird loans
to his boy Elliott, a dead-beat whose butcher
had to threaten suit to collect his bill for
meat supplied the family and a ~profiteer in
office. I say he degraded the morals Of mil
lions of Americans a n d glamorized leering
dishonesty.
I have none Of that Fear Of criticism and
contempt that Mr.. Ewing mentioned for the
criticism never faults my facts and 1 am
above the contempt Of interiors so corrupt
and low that morals are beyond their com.
prehension.
I oppose immigration to my country by refu-
gees selected on religious or racial grounds
for the same reason that I oppose discrimi-
nation by employers against my countrymen
on the same grounds. I say that if we dis
criminate in a mans favor on such grounds
to let him come in, then that is a binding
precedent to justify discrimination against
him when he wants to get a job or run FOR
office. If any man should propose that we
bar refugees because they are Jews I would