The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-18
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY wEsTBRoOK PEGLER


The republican underground movement OF
Arizona held a more or less secret meetns .
few nights ago for Senator Leverett Salton'
stall, Of Massachusetts, a big, lanky, Boston
aristocrat with a gaunt, Lincolnlan face. who
is being invited around the country Ike q
freshman being rushed by a fraternity. Inc
republicans Of Tucson invited him to give
them a speech and they tried 10 keep the
matter dark, but William Houston johnson,
the editor Of our evening paper, The Citizen,
got wind OF it and broke the story. and Will
liam Mathews, the editor Of The Star, gave
it a whirl with a story and picture on page
two, next morning.
The republicans are a minority group n
Arizona and very self-conscious about their
inferiority and I commend them to the mercy
Of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. who is always
taking up for minorities. The republicans Of
Arizona aren't brash. They don't demand So
cial equality with the democrats, they know
their place and keep it in a voluntary Jim
Grow and when they persuade a prominent
eastern republican to come to town they take
him off to their own quarter, something on
the order of a political ghetto, SO that no
bricklayers or truck drivers or other mem
bers of the employee class can hear him and
accuse the republicans Of spreading sunver-
sive doctrines. This little meeting for about
$50 confirmed republicans was held at Ell Rio
Golf and Country Club, which is just about
what you have in mind when you picture the
golf and country club in any small city. At
torneys, prominent merchants, doctors retr.
ed old geezers and the like. Patriots, OF
course, the republicans are but republicans
nevertheless and strangely apart because IL
is so long since they have won that tney
seem to feel that the majority OF the voters
wouldn't want to be republicans. anyway.
The democrats are different. They are bold
and bumptious. One night when Mrs. koose-
welt was ~trooping they brought her 10 tne
biggest auditorium in town, having first bill
ed her act like the circus or the embalrned
whale, and packed the place and she was on
her way with about 81, 500 Cor her end, as
easy as breaking sticks. A few nights ne1ore
Senator Saltonstal1 came to town, Carey NC
williams was booked to give his show, winch
consists of a talk, probably about the oakles
and Ankles and the CLIO, which are part OF
his line. Mr.. McWilliams is a California new
dealer but Just a second-s tringer and still,
he too probably would have hung them from
the rafters in the big hall, except that he
didn't show up. The paper said his plane was
grounded Or something. Elliott -RooseVel!
could get a big house or 1ckes or any OF
them, but the republicans are jealous OF their
show-horses and surround them with fellow
republicans, of whom there are just barely
enough to surround a skinny guy, so. II this
case, all Senator Saltonstall got out OF his
trip was the regular 81 dinner. He didn't
make a vote out of it because the only ones
who were invited were people who were Tor
him. anyway.
There is some dirty work going on in party
registrations that is similar to the nflltratlo1
of the communists in some OF the unions OF
the C.I.O., such as the Newspaper Guild and
the Mine. Mill and Smelter Workers. People
re gister as democrats who. everybody sus-
poets. are secret republicans. so that when
the primaries come along they can vote cor
the democrats who would act republican II
elected Or for the worst kind OF democrats
on a silly theory that if the nominee is pre-
posterous enough, even the regular democrats
wouldn't vote for him and the regular repub-
lican would get elected. One result Of this is
Thu. the democrats get the big registration
and another is that the state hasn't gone re-
publican since Hoover beat Smith. Undoubted'
ly there is a subversive republican vote on the
democratic line, but it hasn't been enough to
sabotage the party. One republican candidate
for governor just took down and didn't even
60 through the motions Of making a cam
paign which was wise in a way. at that, be-
cause he would have been wasting his time
and strength.
1t was strange to hear members Of the
republican underground specializing before the
speech whether Mr.. Saltoastall would be the
compromise candidate after Dewey and Taft
get through beating each others ears eft in
the 1913 convention. In1S is discussed as
though it were a ~foregone conclusion and yet,
seriously considering that eventually, they
kept it to themselves and away from the
voters, including the kids who will be voting
for their first presidential candidate in 1913.
The man with whom they would hope to win.
This is an exaggerated state Of the repub.
lican mind here in Arizona. and you can't
put it down to the fact that Clarence Buo.
dington Kelland. the state chairman. is a
carpet-bagger, either. Possibly a fourth of the
population are carpet-baggers now, meaning
west and parts Of the South because Arizona
is new country and humble John Boettinger
and his wife, Anna. the daughter Of late
F. D. R., are baggers. too, and more lately
come by several years than Bud Kelland. and
messing around in democratic politics as
though they were covered wagon stock.
Nope, it is a pathetic self-consciousness and
sense of inferiority, complicated by a natural
unerring knack for doing the dumbest things.
Now Mr.. Saltonstall has been and gone and
you would have thought the little exclusive
rally at. the country club was a cocking-main
or that Saltonstall was a sort Of Dillinger and
as hot as a pistol.
A communist author Of a dirty book out
bureau back in New York would get can.
at least three to one a. senator who is one
OF the best the republicans have and one OF
the best of our time On Capitol Hill, too.