The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-24
rs Pegler Sees 1t
By wEsTBRooK PEGLER
Copyright, 1s47, BY King Features Syndicate.

4ONOON, AIlL., MdA III Ho' o
my colleasuc m - u '..~'s n 80,
peoples worries. has come up with a proposal
that we scrap the terms communism" and
''communist' because they are inappropriate
and tend to discredit themselves. He points out
that the Russians actually do not practice
communism at all but live under a despotsm
only slightly different from Hitler's and would
substitute 'Russianism" for communism"
don't know what he would use instead
Of communist ''R%ussophile" has 4 ponnpous
air to it and 'Russianist' is an 'irhprovised
thing that wouldn't do, either. Anyway, the
things we mean by communism and corn
munist,'' while they do suggest Russia, are
more serious than mere liking for Russia and
the Russian people. Many exiles from old Rus
STA, still have an affection for their old home
land and for the people and most Americans
either like the Russian people or bear them no
grudge but think Of them as slaves who merely
changed one set OF masters for another in
1917 and never have known freedom. An
American who wants peace with Russia Ger
tainly is not necessarily a communist And a lot
Of us were pretty sore when Henry wallace,
on leaving the Cabinet, put out the inference
that those who disagreed with him On Russia
wanted war while he was dedicated to a great,
almost singlehanded fight for peace.
I agree that the term communist Is 4
misfit for many of the Americans who, never
lS1SSS. DIG l1OC Il1SA ~ RHo AhNNN~~N
appease, if they do not actually admire, Stain
and his small group of bosses. Some OF these
Americans are very rich men who love a dol
lar but their names are found on many OF those
phoney committees which the communists get
up. 1 think one element among them like Stain
and company, in spite Of their terocltles to the
Russian people and their brutal practice OF
slavery, because they have a mistaken belief
that Lenin and Trotsky, who set up the pres
ent despotism, liberated the Jews in Russia.
That simply isn't so because Kerensky's rev.
olution did it and would have progressed to
great reforms but for the arrival of the exlles
who wouldn't be content with anything less
than the slaughter Of all the more intelligent
and valuable Russians who couldn't get away.
But, if Lenin and Trotsky could be given credit
for this, then the German government OF the
Kaiser would deserve primary credit Tor the
removal Of the degrading restrictions and dis
~tinctions because the Germans let Lenin 60
through from Switzerland for the purpose of
wrecking the Kerensky government and taking
Russia out Of the war on the Eastern front.
We have some other rich Americans who
play luxuriously at being dilettant communists
or pro-communists because they grew up in
voluptuous extravaganza, never had any more
serious problems than deciding whether it
would be Palm Beach or the Riviera for the
winter and want to get right with the revolu-
tionists against the day when they try to take
over in our country. They think they are prac-
ticing democracy" by drinking all night in
mansions in New York with well-known com
munists.
Then we nave an element Of abandoned
~riff-raff, some Of them educated, to be sure,
who resort to democracy or communism
as an excuse for licentiousness A girl named
Dorothy Day put her finger on this a few years
ago in a book called From Union Square To
Rome" This girl had been a fighter from way
back and lived in real squalor to be with the
poor in person, by contrast with the precious
takers, so numerous and pretentious In the
entertainment business and the writing trade,
who never forget that the poor, they have
B. o. and therefore do their uplift from the
best tables in the most expensive restaurants
in New York, Hollywood and the Miamls. Miss
Day knew this trash first hand and knew that
they were only Summing and used their
liberalism or radicalism as an excuse for
sleeping around. She quit the movement or ele-
ment and, when last I heard Of her, was still
living down around Chinatown and practieing
poverty in the most practical and painful per
sonal way but as a religious and conseerated
worker for humanity.
I think all these persons are playing with
dynamite and looking for trouble because Rus
STA has placed herself in a position OF hostility
to the United States. Everything we do is
wrong. They won't even talk about a reckon
ing Of what they owe us and won't even ad-
NIT to their own people, much less TO us, that
we saved them millions of lives when we
might better have let the Russians and the
Nazis chew each other up in a real showdown
that would have left the victor too weak to
hreatensus whoever the victors had been.
Rich men who contribute to Russian causes
among US, causes thinly and unconvincngly
disguised as progressive political movements
intended only to stir commotion and keep us
off balance, will holler persecution if these
fakes ever succeed because they will sue
coed only in introducing some fascist reaction.
Herbert Hoover noted, a long time ago, that
in all the European countries where the COM
munists goaded the people to desperation, with
the sole exception of Russia, the result had
been fascism Of one kind or another. True,
fascisn and communism are alike but each
has it's devil and the devil to fascism is COM
munism.
Some of our federal courts have made a
bad mistake in holding that it is an offense
to point out that a person runs with the com
munists and publishes or breaches parts or all
of their political dogma. The decisions are not
quite clear on this point but some of them
seem to mean that if you call attention to
such conduct by an individual you are call
ing him a communist and that this might dam
age his reputation. On the other hand. the STU
preme Court has held that a man can CO.
operate with the communists all the way down
the line to the point of advocating armed rev.
olution against tthe government and still be
innocent of communism. The uncertainty I'M
doubtedly has deferred some individuals from
free expression and to that extent impaired
the constitutional right of debate. The protec-
ton which this throws about actual p%lotters
against our government is plain and real and
no other group of enemies of the United States
has ever enjoyed such immunity from ex.
posture and criticism.
Mallon is right. Communism and Com.
munist' are loose-fitting terms.
Editorial Comment