The Wilmington morning star., 1946-05-13
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1916, BY King Features Syndicate,
Inc.)

4AC Noo IL 1OllI oSWCy J. All o1Aik W
the strange moral intimidation OF the Ameri-
can people that has taken place since 1888
which saw the beginning of a sustained cam
paign Of nasty belittlement of every dignified
and decent trait in publicmen
1t takes courage to praise. him.
There is mo governor today whose record
may be seriously compared with DeWey's.
To find his equal in Albany it is necessary
to 60 back beyond Lehman and Roosevelt
to Al Smith whose like is not around today
because he was Al Smith.
But because he is efficient without the leer-
ing flippancy which in others has passed for
human understanding, because he has esch-
ewed such comedian-props as the Ed Wynn
fedora anc the gas-pipe cigarette holder, be-
cause he treats other politicians with more
dignity than most of them deserve, Mr..
Dewey has been ridiculed and suffers in the
public mind. He is unreas oningly regarded as
a serio-comic little fellow whose very aspira-
ton to the presidency in 1914, was, of itself,
an absurd effrontery.
First, he was too young. That objection
faded when it was noted that the Roosevelt
who ran for vice-president in 1920 and might
have become president, were the ticket cleo
ted, had been even younger. Then his stature,
something between that of Tom Thumb and
Jess Willard, was offered against him until
comparisons tended to embarrass Laguardia,
Stain and Winston Churchill, when the sub
ject was quietly dropped.
During the brief run of that ill-advised ven
ture to smear, a new deal propaganda sent
along on Dewey's train to heckle him hailed
one of Dewey's friends one evening with the
news that a New York custom shoemaker
claimed to have made high heels for the gov
ernor to make him seem taller.
YES Dewey's friend answered, land I
understand your fellow buys those iron legs
of his from the Fuller Construction company"
That, OF course, was a vicious reference to
the sad infirmity of a great and noble friend
of nan and in no way comparable to Harold
Ickes' sneering jibe at the wheel chair in
which the afflicted Lionel Barrymore at
tended a Dewey rally in Hollywood about the
same time. That was humor.
What is the charge against Dewey, any,
way?
He has been a student Of government an
has made government a serious profession.
He has refused to frequent night-clubs and
cultivate the politico-theatrical underworld
where brawling mountebanks of the ruling
party have made their social headquarters
more often than not under the possessive
auspices of converted bootleggers and gamb-
lers.
Just over the hills from the inherited barony
where Roosevelt took homage from the "sim-
pie" folk and paid them Coolie wages, Dewey
bought a farm on borrowed money and has
11VCo -i1OoColy u1llOllS Allo PSC10. tSllO
by one state trooper, by contrast with the
presidential household garrison of 300 select
ed M. P.'s who joined the Army as American
soldiers and became an honor guard of
flunkeys. No kin of his have been found on the
public payrolls nor has he ever used the power
of his office to swindle trusting lenders re-
liant on his honor.
Yet, even Republican politicians begrudge
him honor, not for sensible objections to his
record or ability but because they have been
put under the spell. The same reticence is
observed toward Herbert Hoover, certainly
one of the greatest patriots of his time, who,
far from sweating the presidential office for
the last mean and doubtful dollar of per-
sonal profit, actually served without pay be-
cause he didn't need the money and felt hon
ored in the position. In194, Hoover deliberat-
ely kept away from Dewey because the prop
uganda ran that he was the real candidate
and Dewey his Charlie Mccarthy.
Jim Farley, honest and courageous, despite
his years in Tammy and the new deal, re-
Gently EXPORTED the Democrats to beat Dewey
for the governorship next fall. He gave no
reason Why Dewey should be beaten because
his only reason was that Dewey has been al
together too good a governor. That might
mean President Dewey in 1948 and better the
poor, beWldered county commissioner Harry
Truman or the Stalinesque Henry Wallace
than a good Republican president.
instead, Farley asked the Democrats to
nominate a man in the tradition of Smith,
Roosevelt and Lehman when every reporter
present knew he had only contempt for Roos-
evelt. AS FOR the others, no candidate could
be found tor governor more in the tradition
OF Al Smiths honesty and worth than Dewey,
himself, while Lehman was inferior to both.
Notwithstanding his fine record, Dewey
often is subordinated to Stassen o. Minnesota,
a new dealer in a Republican wrapper, whose
latest record in office is some years old and
never was remotely comparable to Dewey's if
only because DeWey's problems and respon-
sibilities were so much greater. His war ser
vice as ar admirals aide will be urged in
his favor but his was, after all, a political lob
in the war and no intelligent man could argue
that sucn service called for craftsmanship.
My issue here is not Dewey's political future,
however, but an intellectual stupor, the effect
OF propaganda and regimented prejudices
which gives some Americans thought to dis
miss MIN as a silly little man who makes
himself the sillier by living decently in we'll
behaved company, taking lie and his re-
sponslb1f1tles earnestly and even saying grace
before meals and damn the Knockers of his
plety.
he has no 1ckes in his circle, no Leon
Henderson,, Tommy the Cork, Harry the Hop
has come for dinner to the mansion in Albany
to amuse a tired ruler with premeditated
rudeness, nor riff-raff from the big saloons
to make publicity at the expense OF his office.
He has been, in short, G gentleman in his