The Wilmington morning star., 1947-11-13
AS Pegler Sees It
By PEGLER

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Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
NEW YORK, Nov. 12.-Various accounts
of historic proceedings at Teheran and Yalta
strongly suggest that vodka, wine and bour-
hon were Influential in decisions which nave
been calamities to Christianity and western
civilization. But, although it is freely re-
lated that Stain drank vodka bottoms up
and that Churchill stood manfully to his
brandy, we have no honest statement OF
Franklin D.. Roosevelts ps and as. ELLIOTT
speaks of his fathers drains in a way to
leave DOB sober, and this may be the fact OF
it. But whether Roosevelt lushed or honest
ly turned down his glass when Elliott was
seeing things through a mist OF champagne
bubbles is a question on which any good
examiner would press the witness for an
answer. If Churchill emptied a bottle OF
brandy, what was Roosevelt drinking ana
how much of it? And do we know that the
stuff which Stain tossed off was not water
when we remember that the late Haywood
Broun used to boast that the colorless hqulo
in the pitcher on the lectern when he was
preaching his message to mankind was not
ice water but gin?
These were roaring, hairy chested giants
boasting of their capacities. Roosevelt al
ways vearned to ride in the smoker amongst
the men.
It is unlikely that he stuck to harmless
crooks.
Churchill is one of those rare old soaks
whose Judgment improves with plcklement
and We might wish that our fellow had
follered the same taste.
Discussion of alcohol as a problem of the
most nearly royal family we ever had in our
presidential palace took me some time ago
to the case of our first visitation, Theodore.
He was brother to the amiable rummy who
was father to our own Eleanor the Great.
Whether better or worse, politics was dlf-
ferent in Theodore's reign, for this matter
was a personal delicacy which in any cam
paign waged under the ethics and customs
of the Democratic National Committee in
the time of the new deal would have been
broadcast as a faint of the blood. Yet the
brothers unhappiness wasn't mentioned
then, even though Theodore dared to make
a legal issue of his own sobrlety. 1t re-
manned for Eleanor herself to set down Tor
the historians, in her first book OF memoirs,
the unqualified statement that her father
was a souse.
In the face of Theodore's dog-fall victory
and his six-cent libel verdict against an OBJ
scure publisher who had, in general terms,
called him a stew, 1 still believe he was
neither as dry as his idolators believe nor
as bibulous as his brother. 1t was easy tor
a man of Theodore's intimidating reputation
to make the defendant admit that he had
been guilty of an overstatement. But the
issue was not whether Roosevelt drank
but whether he was a drunkard. TIL YER
dict has been cleverly construed to mean
that he was almost a total abstainer and
never had been known to get tight.
He was not an abstainer and he sometimes
did pick up a load. This might explain some
of his outrageous conduct as, for example,
the time that he violated hospitality, pre-
cedent and amer to make a public hrawl
with Senator Foraker at the Gridiron din
ner, where the remarks are supposed to be
nonpolitical or, at worst, non-controverslal
and confidential. Roosevelt attacked Fora
ker, a fellow guest. Foraker thus deserved
and got his chance to reply and did. Roose-
welt thus made news and broke the Grid
irons traditional privacy. Roosevelt not only
acted the fool and the boor but he referred
to the Negro race in a word that would
make him a fascist today.
ut was the worst performance he ever
pulled off," Jim Watson wrote in 1896: II
never could understand what induced him
to smash all the proprieties."
A few pages later, Mr.. Watson, a Hoosier
senator and a republican landmark, describ-
ed Roosevelt as ian occasional drlnker."
Jim often lunched and dined with him.
Sometimes Roosevelt took a drink. Other
times he refused.
But he certainly did get tight occasional
ly.
On Joe Cannon's 10th birthday there was
a big celebration and Jim recalls that a big
fund was raised for the party of which it
was said that $500 was wasted for food"
1.-THE feast was sumptuous, every kind OF
liquor flowed freely and everybody had a
bully time. President Roosevelt came in
about II o'clock. He asked for champagne.
Each man then stepped up, filled his glass
and asked ne President to have one with
him which he oblighgly did. AS there were
a considerable number OF gentlemen and as
a couple of them who were not overly 1ond
of Roosevelt consistently poured whlskey IN
to his champagne behind his back, it was
not long before the President was IN as
convivial spirits as any of the rest: When
he sued a Michigan publisher. he did admit
on the stand having taken something to
drink at Uncle Joe's birthday party"
Jim recalled one other occasion, but only
one, when Roosevelt drank more than he
usually did" This was a dinner and Roose.
welt "ouaffed copious drafts of champagne"
But Jim quotes him as having said an
other time: "Tl drink whatever I want to,
whenever I want to drink it, up to the point
of being incapable to take care of the bust
ness of being President. It is my own al
fair up to that point. Beyond that it would
be the affair of the people"
But the party concerned never is an OBJ
jective Judge and many a red-eyed wreck
has told the judge in the morning that all
he had was a couple OF beers at the corner.
Franklin Roosevelt gave away a world
to Stain in meetings described as orgies.
The witnesses do not try to absolve him
among so many tosspots. They just evade
the subject.
Mohammed wos the name of five sultans
of Turkey. Mohammed I became sultan in
1913 and reigned until 1921. He consoidat-
ed the empire which had suffered from the
inroads of Timur who had captured Moham-
med's father, Sultan Bajazet I, in 1902, the
latter dying in captivity.
The first-and finest-clip OF wool may
be made on a lamb eight months old. Fleece