The Wilmington morning star., 1947-10-08
AS Pegler Sees It
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1947, by King Features
Syndicate, Inc.)

Syndicate, Inc.)
NEW YORK, Oct. 7.-There was SO
much truth and so little falsehood or error
in the appraisal of President Truman, writ
ten by Boris Gorbatov and published in
the Literary Gazette of Moscow, that Cen
eral Smith, our ambassador, might nave
better let it 90 without a protest. However,
inasmuch as he did take notice and thus
invite a belligerent retort so like the diplo-
matte repartee of Hitler and Goebbels,
Americans might as well wiring from the
incident such profit as we can.
Surely no honest American would want
to fight a war to prove that Harry S.
Truman doesn't like bow ties Or wear his
pants two inches shorter than ordinary"
He does wear bow ties and while there
is nothing in the bureau of standards fix
ing "ordinary," the Presidents tailor is
the only one with an interest worth a
quarrel on length of his pants. Until 1871,
Stain wore his stuffed into his boots.
Mr.. Truman is "the most average of
all Americans and the most provincial of
all Missourians."
BY comparison with Stain or Molotov,
Truman has indeed a serene face, rather
on the "good-looking" side in the Ameri-
can view. No Baptist could be honestly
offended by the charge that this is a typi-
cal Baptist face. And while President Tru-
man is distinctly superior to the average
American, that hypothetical, composite
fool, the dupe and protege of the late
Roosevelt and Henry Wallace, the fact is
that the average American does flatter
himself that he and Truman are about
alike. Truman and ALI Landon have a
great deal in common and this includes
manner and psychology. Landon despised
Roosevelt, not in the hateful sense of the
word but as a contemplate fellow who
had courage only when his gang was with
him. Internationally, Mr.. Truman has the
same private opinion. He is a manly,
masculine country boy who never had a
governess or family coachman to take his
part, came of much better family stock
and developed a natural p%oliteness from
his infancy. Roosevelt knew the forks and
the wine glasses, but the only men who
would say today that they foun him kind.
considerate and affectionate are wretched
sycophants with lust on their bellies.
So, if it could be said that in this re-
spect President Truman was a typical or
average American, we might, all of us,
be pleased. In sadness, not in indignation,
we have to say it isn't true.
To the great misfortune of all Ameri-
! cans, including those who do not realize
as much, it is true that Truman, until as
late as a year ago, did love to call him
self a modest pupil of Roosevelt. He per-
sisted in the morbid political custom of
q i lCCJll VI 1oWSl oll0 1lSCO1 y oi
the grave long after the most elaborate
demands of American obseouy would have
let him change from black tie to some
thing gaudv and 60 bowling and salooning
with the bows in the normal way.
"He stated that the postwar world does
not please him" Comrade Gorbatov wrote:
Anyone dispute that? "He is dissatisfied
with Europe" O.. K? eff Greece still con-
soles him, new democracies definitely up
set him" We lave long permitted the
Bolsheviki to apply the term Democracy"
to their own and kindred tyrannies. Roose-
welt even described them as "peace-1oving
nations and victims of aggression"
Thus Gorbatov has something in his favor
when he says that new "Democracies" in
Europe upset Mr.. Truman. We know what
he means by "new Democracies' and they
do upset not only President Truman but
the rest of us.
"He made some attacks on the U.S.S.R..
not naming it, however" Right or wrong?
He said the U. S. A. is determined to
remain powerful in a military way" Ger
tainly that charge doesn't insult our Presi-
dent.
In a side-long way, the comrade next
refers to Truman as "this new apostle of
imperialism."
That is unkind but not untrue. By our
charity this nation is more likely to be
done in, eventually, than by our greed.
1t is the enlarged photograph of the Bes-
%sarabian child with a blown belly and
grapefruit knees starved by the same
Communists who in New York flatter Hen
nv Wallace, that urges Americans ire
sistibly into more and more dangerous po-
sitions in other peoples countries. No
"Wall Street ~cartel' could raise a dime
by popular subscription or persuade or
compel a single American soldier to in
wade the Balkans or the Near East for
b,,c;,acc raocopc P11t Americans have VOL
u~ntarilv oiven thousands of millions to feed
and clothe that standardized, starving
child and his haggard young mother all
the way from the Rhine to China and for
many years. And for the same reason,
millions of Americans twice in Is years
dropped everything and went to war and
many of them were killed. Always we
were riding to the rescue.
Nevertheless, this is imperialism, once
removed. Certainly we will not continue
to feed and equip nations or artltlclal
states whose dictators are enemies OF the
United States, and thus arm and strength
en- opponents for a new war. Yet IL is
our firm intention to perform these good
deeds with the necessary provlso that
these countries raise governments TREND
Nv to us and adopt our system. That is
Imperialism, however painful 1t pe TO
agree with the Russian essaylst. AND the
inevitable result of our generosity Will be
the greatest war OF all and the certain
destruction of our form of government
with it's liberties. Economically. we will
blow up even though we should win a
military victory.
The review of President Truman's re-
1ation to his old patron, Tom Pendergast,
is generally truthful, though disgraceful
and humiliating to the people, who feel
an angry impulse to take his part because
he is our President.
The illusions to the Presidents wall
Street Master while they are false, as
honest than the familiar smears of our