The Wilmington morning star., 1946-12-04
As PeglerS Sees 1t
BY wEsTBRooK PEGLER
BY King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Copyright, BY King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
E YORK, Dec. 3. - Life, the pictorial
magazine recently presented an article pur-
porting to be a review of the communist
movement, or conspiracy, in the United States
by an expert.
The author was Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The New York Herald Tribune selected
Schlesinger to review a book called The Plot
ters' by a man known by many names, includ-
ing Arthur A. Derounian, Avoids Boghos De-
rounian and John Roy Carlson. Mr.. Schlesinger
thought well of the book itself and regarded
the author as a sincere authority. In this latter
particular he disagreed with Federal Judge
John P. Barnes, of Chicago, who said from
the bench, after a trial of the evidence, that
Carlson was "a wholly irresponsible person
who was willing to say anything for money"
and added, II wouldn't believe him on oath,
now or at an time hereafter"
OF Carlson's chapter on the American COM
munist party, Schlesinger wrote that it was
mot so complete as his picture of the fascist,
largely because the efficiently organized COM
munist party is harder to penetrate by Carl
sons methods"
The meaning of that remark plainly is that
the communist conspiracy is more dangerous
because it is less easily unmasked. Neverthe-
less. Carlson and, I gather, Sshelsinger, too
regard 'fascism" as the greater menace. The
reader with a free mind has a right to suspect
that Carlson had undisclosed reasons for pre-
senting an incomplete picture of the commun
list conspiracy. An outsider certainly would
have, as Schlesinger writes, great difficulty
penetrating the communist iron curtain in
American politics and unionism. But a person
sympathetic with most, or eli, OF its aims
might be loath to reveal it fully and might try
to dismiss it as a secondary or unimportant
threat. But the chapter" on communism,
shows amply that Carlson's awareness of the
proto-fascist use red-baiting as a means Of
anyone to the left Of General Franco
does not suspend his conviction that liberals
must nail down communist activity wherever
it is clear and probable" Schlesinger %continu-
ed. I should prefer palmer Americanese, but
these double-dome types do use an theological
geechee and we have to use their oWn wordage
Or they may say we distorted it. "Proto-fas'
cist'' is their way of saying 'pro-fascist' OF
even "Facist William S. Gsilnor, the SWIVEL.
ing thiet who lectures along the party line,
once explained that he found the device "fas-
cist-minded' to be useful, as it would be pref
ty hard to prove what was or wasn't in a vic.
TINS mind.
Canvassing Schlesinger's statements and as.
SYMPTOMS, we find here that he does not &C.
cuse all anti-communist Of "smearing anyone
to the let Of General Franco" But there are
many Americans in THE Plotters' far to the
of General Franco who nevertheless in
-ulge in "red-baiting." I have done it for
years, even when 'red-baiting" was regarded
as undignified If not dirty pool. Why should
the reds injoy exclusive immunity from bait
And, moreover, there are those who re-
gard all opposition to communism as red
Notwithstanding his EXPOSE" in Lie,
l thought deficient in important matters
for reasons which I am at liberty to surmise,
I think Schlesinger could have gone much
further in Life" without exposing himself to
any reasonable charge of "red-baiting."
On the subject of batting" at this point, I
offer an independent observation of Schlesing-
er's which, to my mind, after long study of the
smear technique, is a pretty example OF "fas-
cist : batting" To paraphrase the precoclous
Harvard study-boy, l would say he is sharply
aware Of the ''proto-communist use OF fascist
batting as a means o. smearing anyone to the
Of Joseph Stain"
He speaks of Merwin K. Hart as a member
Of an unattractive group who may be de-
scribed as members of the proto-fascist demi-
and says Hart had participated Sin
practically every important anti : democratic
movement in recent American history.
Schlesinger thus runs over a man and rolls
on. We are to take his word that Hart is a
very bad fellow. But l have been observing
Hart tor some years only because he has
been so roughly attacked, and l have never
seen evidence that ne Is pro-1aSclSt, and ne
works so openly for American principals and
against measures which he has a citizens
right to oppose, that not even by rhetorical
license could he be called a political prosti-
tute.
Only for the sake of argument do I take
Schlesinger's word that Hart had been active
in "anti-democratic " movements, but l would
give Hart a cheer for that. This nation is not a
democracy, but a republic, and there is a
~u>.k -
cy" will be found nowhere in either the Dec
~laration of Independence Or the Constitution
and it was not by oversight that they were ex-
Guided. And Democracy has come to mean
many things abhorrent to believers in the
true republican form Of our government, in
Guiding sexual democracy and other varia.
tons that Henry Wallace described in Soviet
Russia which his patron, Franklin D.. Roose-
welt, nevertheless damned as a dictatorship as
absolute as any dictatorhip in the world.
l had hoped to review in today's discussion
the association of Schelsinger's father, Prof.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger, with groups and
purposes which the Dies committee held to be
pro. or, as his bright young son might put it,
'proto" communist. These references to he
old gent are contained in the official report OF
this congressional committee to the congress
of the United States. How young Schlesinget
could have overlooked the national citizen
political action committee and his fathers i'm.
p~lication in it, in his review OF the red menace
for Life. I cannot for the life of me, see. Just
an absent-minded son of the traditional absent
minded professor, l take it.