The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-30
Fair Enough
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
copyright, by King Features Syndicate, lnc.)

as I would call it if I were writing about
the perfidious Democrats, to the nomination
Of Maj. Gen. William j. Donovan for the
United States Senate. Here they 60, on the
floor.
In the first place, although it is good poll
tics to name the man with the best chance
o. winning the election, the party leaders, or
bosses, as I would call them if they were
Democrats, take too much to themselves when
they try to turn down the best available man,
who is Donovan, and arbitrarily make his
superior ability and knowledge unavailable to
the nation. This consideration is especially
poignant, a word I picked up out OF the new
republic, in view of the fact that Soviet Rus
STA already has drawn first blood in w%antonly
killing a crew of unarmed American Army
flyers in Jugoslavia. I wouldn't 60 as far as
to say that Bill Donovan knows more about
the politics and personalities of the Soviet
conspiracy against the Western civilization,
culture and religion, particularly in the Bal
kans, than any other American but he certain
" would know more about them than anyone
else in the Senate.
What I say is that the party leaders ought
to remember that they owe a first duty to
the people and have no right to finch because
they think it would be difficult to elect Dono-
van and offer Lieut.. Gen. Hugh Drum instead
because they think Tom Dewey can carry
Drum IN on MS coat TAILS.
I don't believe they do have any such mis-
givings about Donovan's chances in a cam
paign as they profess to have. I say the
objections are personal and matters of rivalry
and anger.
The State Federation of Labor, which is the
state organization of the AT. OF L., is in
no moral position to condemn any candidate
as an enemy of labor on any grounds. The
record of rotten unionism is so scandalous
and the complacency of the boss unioneers is
so notorious, as Governor Tom Dewey certain
ly knows from long experience as a prose-
cutor and as governor, that a smear from
this quarter should be regarded as a badge
OF honor, and an endorsement as a frame
up. The smear consists of a charge that, as
United States district attorney, Donovan sent
some unloneers to prison about Is years ago
FOR dynamiting a passenger car on a struck
railroad.
Donovan pleads guilty Of performing his
sworn duty, in the interest Of law, order and
good government. To 60 right to the top of
the AFT. of L., I would challenge William
Green, its president, to cite a single occasion
in which he similarly responded to the obi
cation OF good citizenship to help the prose
cution in any case against any dirty criminal
in his official household. To come down to a
more recent time and dramatic particulars
l would point. out that not one of them o.
fered a word of testimony or even private
information to Frank Hogan, the district at
torney OF New York county, in the long and
expensive campaign to convict their thieving,
plug-ugly colleague, Joe Fay, of the operating
engineers.
Now it Is beginning to come out that the
anti-labor smear was only a euphemistic sub
stltute for something ~nastier. Inasmuch as
Donovan didn't take the hint and quit. the
inmates o. the smoke-filled room are begin
ming to monkey with a religious smear. In
cidentally, this is not the same smoke-tilled
room that 1ckes, Hopkins and Sidney Hillman
used. That one is in Chicago and it is much
bigger and smoker. This is just a little
snoke-filled room in Syracuse.
This smear would have it that Donovan. q
Catholic, is in wrong with other Catholics in
New York because Mrs. Donovan is a protes-
tant. know religion as an issue usually is
whispered and not printed but I see no reason
to follow that rule. Donovan knows of its
existence and so do the Republicans who are
against him. They would roll their eyes and
holler dirty pool' and "bigotry'' if anyone
should mention Jewishness in connection with
the candidacy of Herbert Lehman o the
Democratic nomination but, within their own
party, because they can't halter Donovan.
they are repeating this gossip or poison and
using it as an excuse to turn him down. They
say it makes him a liability on the ticket.
I don't like to employ that they say form
In reporting but it is the best I can do
under the circumstances. They won't per-
nit themselves to be identified with this STUFF.
But they have said it to me, and I don't
mean any little ward politicians either, but
men who make decisions or want to.
l went to Donovan about that and he said
he never was a professional Catholic in poll
tics but that, in religion. is a Catholic, never
theless, end confirmed information that I al
ready had that he holds two papal honors,
the Lateran medal, received at the Vatican,
and the Order of st. Sylvester. presented by
Cardinal Spellman last Jan. 30, at his home
adjoining st. Patrick's cathedral. They were
awarded for his humanitarian works. in the
second world war.
Another consideration that is supposed TO
make Donovan a liability is the fact that he
campaigned for Herbert Hoover against Al
smith. He just supported his party's ticket
and that is all there was to that. and the
present party leaders surely would damn him
il he hadn't.
For Still another smear, Donovan, as a
aWyer included among his clients some of
the du Font interests and the aluminium cor
poratlon. That is good work for a lawyer,
II ne can get it, but Franklin D.. Roosevelt
never suffered from the fact that he was a
second-string attorney for the New York
Stock Exchange and whooped it up for John
w. Davis, the lawyer For the J. P. Morgan
interest, when Davis was the Democratic
nominee for president.
Just when they are beginning to get off