The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-08
Fair Enough
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, BY King Features Syndicate Inc)

HOAs1A, avg OON~
M. Coffee, of Washington, who took 81, 500 from
a war contractor for swinging a deal for him,
has been conspicuous Tor years as one OF those
noisy mountebanks VINO bawled their settles
devotion 10 the common man and their furious
hatred of corrupt exploiters OF the drooling
masses. Franklin D. Roosevelt, since his
death, has been exposed beyond challenge as
the greedest,. stingiest ard most hypocrltical
Of them all and no member of his family nor
his political following has dared deny the I'M
controvertjble proofs of his avarice in exploit
ing the presidential office to blk his sons
creditors and his meanness in his dealings
with worker employed at his estate.
The revelations of the last year are so de-
pressing that even some Americans who OPP
posed Roosevelt would drop the subject and
waive the presentation of further details of
the disgusting scramble FOR graft that went
on during the new deal, lest the people lose
confidence in popular government. To take
that course, however, would be to protect
takers who are still in action and to fail in the
duties which are assumed by a free press in
compensation for its privileges.
So even if the Democrats should keep con-
troll of Congress this year and manipulate the
official Investigation so as to spare all but a
few Of their Wretched political ''expendables,'
such as Coffee and Andrew May, initiative re-
porting in the papers will continue to heap UP
material for historians. Thus, when the
story of the new deal comes to be written,
futureAmerlcans may know what takers i'm
posed on the faith and tears of their ancestors.
Coffee, with a reputation for brutality in the
abuse of ell who disagreed with his evil gang,
has Whined and resorted to the most trans
parent explanations of the So, 500 check from
Eivind Anderson, the Tacoma contractor. in
payment for his help in getting Anderson a
contract 10 build a hospital for 81, 600, 900. He
loved that chimerical political monstrosity, the
common man, so fondly that he dickered for
a kick-back on a project to accommodate men
wounded in a war for Democracy"
The sequence of events has been established
beyond even Coffee's own power to deny. An
derson asked Coffee to help him get the con-
tract AMI Coffee did and Anderson got it and
his bid included the $500 for Coffee in the
guise of Washing ton representation, so that
the common man through his income taxes,
eventually supplied the money for Coffee. An
derson sent his check to Coffee's secretary
and Coffee got the money and banked it to
his own account. Now he says the 81, 500 was
a campaign contribution, and from a Republi-
can who was a politician as well as a con-
tractor, mind you, although there was no cam
paign running at that time, but he admits that
he failed 10 report it as a campaign contribu-
ton. And, in a final, desperate effort to clear
himself, Coffee reveals his contempt for the
common mans intelligence, with his explana-
ton that he owed himself $1,000 from his 1888
campaign and applied the 81, 500 to reduce his
own debt to himself. Nor did he even pay in
come tax on the rakeotf, holding it to be a
tax-eXempt gift.
So what is this Coffee's political record? Is
he a constant fighter for the non-existent all
American slob and one of those savagely right
eouS enemies of corrupt eXploiters?
The late Dies m spotted Coffee earlY
in it's investigation c. communism and its
ramificationS in the Roosevelt government and
the new deal following. And Coffee naturally
was one of those who tried to disband it and
put a stop to the compilation of a permanent
and detailed record involving himself.
This record still exists, although copies of
the reports are now rare, and it shows Coffee
up as a hair-trigger "endorser" OF causes
and events, promoted by the communist con-
spiracy, and an agile joiner.
In the first entry he is found endorsing the
Congress for peace ano democracy called on
Jan. 6, 1899, by the American League for
Peace and Democracy, and appears as a
member of the national committee of that
league. Most of the other endorsers were no
torious communists. He vas a sponsor of U.s.
Soviet rallies arranged by communists and
he signed a statement published in the COM
munist Daily Worker Genouncing as 'disrup-
tive' a vigorous, current criticism OF that
miserable distortion of truth and history, Mis-
sion to Moscow contrived by Joe Davies, a
Roosevelt house-pet and dilletant, part = time
ambassador, and produced by Warner Broth
ers of Hollywood.
Coffee was a sponsor Of American Youth
for Democracy of which the Dies Committee
reported that this was a new name and form
for the Young Communist League whose old
name had become a political handicap. He
sponsored a lunch in Washington given by the
Conference on Constitutional Liberties, an off
shoot of the National Federation for Constitu-
tional Liberties, which was described by Fran
shoot of the National Federation for Constitu-
tional Liberties. which was described by Fran
els Biddle, when he was Attorney General, as
part Of what Lenin called the solar system of
organizations, ostensibly having no connection
with the communist party by which commu-
nists attempt to create sympathizers and sup
porters who would never affiliate themselves
openly with the party
Coffee was sponsor of a celebration of the
18th anniversary of Mother Bloor, whom the
report Identifies as 'one Of the most notorious
leaders of the communist party in the United
States for many years." adding, that to "do
her honor was to honor the only cause she
represents"
Cafefully. accurately, always with documen-
tary proof or credible testimony, the Dies
Committee traced the 1eptilian course of the
communist treachery in hundreds of organiza-
tons, many of them fictitious and many dupli-
Gates of others, and IN its report it informed
Conorece that John, M Coffee Of Wa hinpton