The Wilmington morning star., 1947-11-10
AS Pegler Sees It
Copyright by King Features Syndicate
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER

against citizens who were not merely lnno-
cent but not even accused. That was long
before Eleanor the Great took fear at the
recent mild proceedings the Thomas COM
rnittee on un-American activities against the
communist traitors of Hollywood. 1t was
long before Paul McNutt, now an attorney
in private practice, took occasion to protest.
lit was, in fact during q time when she and
McNutt were members Of the adninistra-
ton whose method Of dealing with political
opponents was TO smear them with filthy
Iinnuendos and deny them q chance to an
IsWer.
Many instances of this have sprung to
mind lately in answer to their pietistical
lclanor, but my choice was the publication
Of the income tag returns of the late Roose-
velt's opponents and the adamant refusal
Of the democrats TO permit any examna-
ton of his, Or hers or the old lady's or El-
liotts. Ham Fish, then congressman, did
put up fight and they finally did throw
Jimmys return on the table, but the com
mittee flatly told Ham that anyone who
opened his mouth about the tax returns of
the Roosevelts would be thrown out of the
hearings Allen Treadway. stubborn Yam
kee from Massachusetts did put up a yell
for experts to examine Jimmy's returns as
the rubber stamp majority said nothing do
ing and the Roosevelts got away with it.
But for that, we might have learned in
time to be warned by the truth that Frank
lin D. Roosevelts great humane venture at
Warm Springs was "a business proposition
and that he had to be bribed John J. Raskob
TO drop it and come out of retirement to run
for governor of New York in 1928 Now
maybe it isn't quite right to prowl through
mans private returns which by law are
deemed to be exquisitely intimate But it
was just as right to examine those of the
Roosevelt family as any other mans. And
we would have struck legitimate paydirt
there, too because the pretense that Roose-
welt was a philanthropist certainly was eX
plotted for his own political benefit and his
party's and to the awful misfortune Of more
millions Of people than we have the for
titude to realize.
/ heard no protest from the CAB or Nc
Mutt about the incredibly cynical conduct
Of Hugo Black, then a senator but soon to
be rewarded for his shocking shysterism
with seat on the Supreme Court when he
was running an investigation for Roose-
welt, himself Not a word did we hear from
her or McNutt, when Ham Fish led Jimmy
Roosevelt by the hand into the office of
Walter Clifford, the president of the Ameri-
can Telephone and Telegraph, and told Gift
ford that it would be wise business policy
to give Jimmy some of A. T. and rs in
surance business.
II said to Clifford, you know who this is,
don't your" Ham Fish said to me some
years later. The guy is still adolescent He
has no more sense of right and wrong than
la Roosevelt.
uhx I Iphn 1p't hu,y gatI hat Hn,,
said. Anyway | did. | said, you know who
this is. don't your and he said yes and
said well. it is a good thing to have friend
at court
And Clifford said the insurance would be
handled in businesslike way, as usual,
and the next thing Mr.. Clifford and the AT.
and T. knew. they were going through the
sausage grinder in one of those congression-
al inquiries that Mrs. r. now deplores so
virtuously | didn't hear her deplore that
one.
Inasmuch as Ham Fish is a republican it
may seem strange that he brought the eaglet
|of the dynasty around to see prospective
victim SO rich In economic juices. | have
long ago quit trying to reconcile the con-
duct of such to normal ethics Ham just said
he took this interest in Jimmy because they
were both Harvard men.
II may be news to many OF us that II is
possible for a congressional committee to
gum things up deliberately so as to pro-
tect the persons under investigation. But 1t
isn't any news to Mrs, r.. because that is
exactly what the Ways and Means commit
tee did in the investigation OF the stickup
In which Mooseaw made John Hartford
give up $500. 900 to take care of Elliotts ali
mony. That was the most disgracefu act of
political extortion In all our history and the
democratic Ways and Means committee
knew II, But the committee did not hear
u sngle witness, All II did was read some
reports from Treasury agents, one of whom
addressed Elliott as general and apollo
gised for bothering him, and the curtain was
dropped on corrupt mess in the Depart
ment OF Justice itself by which some hot
oil grafters in Texas were eased out of a
jam They were Elliott's friends and Elliott
had delivered his old man to big. secret
party for them in Texas. but the committee
refused to go into this thing at all.
Another possible reason for Mrs Roose-
veits extreme senstiveness in the matter
of the communist expose is that she was
Caught In the act of butting into State
Department case to swing favor for Hams
Elsier, now under arrest on deportation
charges, and brother Of Gerhard Eisler. the
No. l communist in the United States That
came out only few weeks ago. 1t was un-
believably raw, but there she was greasine
the way for this oolshevik parasite.
l was against this abuse of the individual
by congressional committees back in the
days when the new dealers loved it: still
oppose it in principle, but in the present
occasion it is by far the inferior evil.
Free trade in Europe would mean that
are doing. When that condition EXISTS We
need no longer worry about democracv-
Cen Lucius D. Clay, commander. u s
forces in Germany
There is but one way to win the peace