The Wilmington morning star., 1947-11-03
AS Pegler Sees 1t

AS fegler OccS IL
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-THE Commun-
lists certainly are on the run now IN WASH
ington. This naturally means that they are
losing elsewhere in the country - losing
Ground in our politics, losing influence and
stvle-because, no doubt about 1t, curing
ali those years of the reign OF RooseVel'
and his consort Eleanor the Great, WASH
;noton was their strongest point, next to
Moscow. To be sure, they made some pro-
press on the tamale circuit OF Latin Amer
lea. but those places are just Indianapolis 10
anv professional with a feel for publicity
Washington was the Moscow OF the west
ern world and a little more because tne
whole world knew that Moscaw was closed
shop whereas in Washington Communism
seemed to be making progress on lts merla
against capitalistic resistance.
The Communists were always ahead OF
the poor. dumb, plodding Americans, .such
as the Dies committee. and the American
Legion forever passing resolutions IN smoke
filled rooms at the annual conventions, whlle
prankish old heroes OF the sos. upenaea
working girls young enough to be their
daughters and rubber-stamped their pantles
on Forty-Second street.
Our kind of folks-We-aal, tater -hoeln,
God -fearin,' baby-havin,' 100 per cent Amer
icans-well, we was just too innocent 10
cope with Satan's guile and meanness. You
couldn't hang ham too high but what they
would fotch it somehow ana ieaVe =, our II
young to hunger while Stain and all OF
them feasted on rare viands and exotic
delicacies.
Now and then, J. B. Matthews or Robert
Stripping, the hawkshaWs of the Dies COM
nittee and its permanent successor. the
Thomas committee on Un-Amerlcan ActlV-
tiles, would come up with photograph OF
the hammer and sickle in the hatband OF
Harry Hopkins or Henry Wallace. But 1t
got so that even when absolute proof was
given to our people, the devil at their ell
bow would whisper, what OF it," and they
would repeat, like parrots, "sure but it's
free country and Herbert Hoover massacred
the bonus marchers."
There have been many reasons for the
great change. You could just about say
that our political chemistry has worked as
usual We got infatuated and excessive,
which certainly is our habit. And then we
got sick and tired of the Communists and
their ur~American ways and we are 60
ing to take it out on poor Harry S. Truman,
who must carry the target for Roosevelt
and all his works in 1948. He has bug
powdered the edifice but he CANT repud-
ate the spcok who let them in. Impalpably,
the Communist taint, and it is a curse since
Stain started messing with us, will sick to
the Democratic party in 1948, however sim
cerely Mr.. Truman rebukes the kremlin.
Roosevelt's death was the blow that
stopped the advance. It isn't necessary to
say that he wasn't Communist himself.
Not even the Communists thought he was.
They recognized in him a political summer
and a vain fellow who yearned with an
actual anguish and against his raising to be
man of the people. Biographers will grope
and tumble for better word than super
cilious to put the right complexion m him,
but they needn't. There it is Snobbish
connotes superiority and aristocratic would
be garishly wrong. He envied the homely
country vulgarity of Jim Farley and Jesse
Jones, for although he had walked country
roads as a little boy he never felt the dust
or the sensuous mud between his toes with
those high button shoes on.
God only knows what moral saving had
been wrought by little preventive sin six
ty years ago-the stealing of watermelon
or hatful of apples by the way OF inltla-
ton into the human race.
La Guardia, like Roosevelt, had per-
sonal objections to Communism But ne had
sense of inferiority as foreigner" Most
of our Communists and all of the 'efugee
Communists are foreigners. They exploited
this mutually and he enjoyed it.
Now nobody takes his place.
Henry Wallace may do Truman favor
should he run Tor PRESIDENT OH IllIo
ticket next year. Mr.. Truman's defeat will
be less painful when he can tell himself that
Wallace took from the lunatic wing OF the
Democratic party the few votes that he did
get He knows the change is inevitably due.
The old home week OF the Thamos COM
mittee was thu wholesomest native Anaerl-
can volkspiei since the N;RA. parades
You could tell by the turnout OF Hollywood "a
actors that it was now safe to come out Of
the underground and say out loud, mo, l
won't ticket for d.0 the old - e1s the Hspp1
Rr;does defense fund" Only few were that
brave in 1914 - Lionel Barrymore, zasu
Pitts, Adolphe Menjou, McNutt, McGuinness.
McCarey, Moffitt and Disney, but lot many
more.
The Thomas committee has developed :ts ol''s
shrewdness and expert talent OF its own.
The Communists for years had the great
advantage of surprise, absolute cynlclsm
and brutality. It takes Americans lorAs
time to understand the enelny's lack OF
standard American inhibitions. Robert Strip
ling, the chief investigator, and Congress
man Thomas, the chairman, now Know
where the records are and where to serve