The Wilmington morning star., 1947-01-11
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

AOAN3 CoAis t'
fair to Harold L. Ickes and Joseph Guffey,. UNI
til Just now a senator from Pennsylvania, to
say that Senator Theodore Bilbo, OF Mlsslsslp-
ri, is less beloved of his brethren who jeered
the fallen and apparently dying little pecker-
wood out Of town and on his way to the oper-
ating table. He is cheap and he is ornery, but
Ickes confessed himself a miser and Guffey
owed an income tax for years and years. Bilbo
at least, never pretended that he lived only to
serve the common man, and he deserves a
measure Of respect tor that. His worst fault,
and his fatal one, was that he lacked the
jovial grace of the late Pat Harrison, often
elected in the same state OF Mississippi and
under the same laws, who enjoyed the friend
ship of Franklin D.. Roosevelt and the respect
of many of the same hypocrites who damned
Bilbo.
The laws and the system that Bilbo invoked
had prevailed in Mississippi and other deep
south states since reconstruction. They were
devised before he was born to assure the out
numbered and destitute planters that they
would not again be governed and jim-crowed
and taxed by the freedmen, and Bilbo neither
wrote them nor changed them by so much as
a comma. An oppressed minority had rebelled
to become oppressors of a predatory majority
and the congressional hearings Of the time re-
vealed horrible persecution and exploitation o.
the beaten southern rebels.
On the same ground, Mr.. Byrnes, the re-
signing Secretary of State, might be repudi-
ated, and the Bankheads Of Alabama and hun
dreds Of other southern politicians, including
some statesmen. and certainly including SEN
ator Claude Pepper, Of Florida, who finds
himself in strange company among the New
York communists.
Ten years ago, in Peppers state, at picking
time, his constables and sheriffs practices a
system Of peonage, and they were his con-
stables and sherifs, for he was even then as
sorting his command Of a political machine
that extends far back along the canal banks
and into the meanest jukes. At picking time,
for the harvesting Of crops that couldn't wait,
the constables and sherifts of Mr.. Peppers
back country rounded up the Negroes and in
vited them to work the crops at the going
wage. which was not luxurious even by the
standards of the swamps. If they refused. they
were subject to arrest as Migrants and would
work On the road gangs for nothing.
What now has Bilbo done in Mississippi that
hasn't been done there and elsewhere in the
South. ever since a desperate people rebelled
against an earlier generation Of carpetbag gers
and scalawags in a situation now being repeat
ed, For God only knows what eventual result.
In Germany? And what has been his crime.
except the exercise Of a nasty disposition that
ne was born with, and no worse, surely. than
many another in the party Of humanity?
10 accuse him as a CRATER. exploiting the
power and influence of his office for private
gain is to repudiate the holy example of him
who used the presidency to swindle a gullibie
grocery man of $196, 900 or a loan. His opera
tons differed only in detail and magnitude,
but not in principle, from that OF Representa-
tive Coffee of the state OF Washington. a new
dealer Of high degree. whose price for obtain
ing a contract for a bidder on a hospital Job
was 81, 500. He is but on Of a whole gallery Of
sticky fingered impostors whose names will
soon be coming into view now that the Re
publicans control the committees and have the
power to examine the income tax returns.
The Department OF Justice has been tricky
and cunning down to now in smothering tax
frauds which have been turned in by agents
Of the Treasury. 1t has stuffed away and tor-
gotten reports OF corruption calling for prose.
cution. on the %pretense. when anv explanation
at all was given. that these matters required
further study. But there came a time in the
Harding administration when the department
itself came under investigation, and that prob
ABLY will happen again. =.
The total Reputation Of Bilbo as a regular.
organization democrat was dictated not by
honest motives but by the communist organiZa-
ton in New York and the hypocrisy of takers
in both parties who would be Bilbos them
selves in the same circumstances Mississippi,
a democratic state, which elected him, GER
tainly cannot be said to have taken that means
of %disowning The Man. He was good enough
tor Mr.. Roosevelt when he was first elected
on the understanding that here vas an Acorn
eater as low and rough as Huey P. Long who
would fight Huey his own way and keep Huey
from invading Mississippi to defeat Senator
Harrison. He was welcome then and his cleo
ton methods, which were well known, were
not questioned because there was dirty work
to be done on a persistent and dangerous
mocker. That he failed to do a job on Huey
may be charged against him as a doublecross,
no worse.
As the filibuster started. Senator Overton, of
Louisiana, met Senator Brewster. o. Maine, in
a hall and stopped to gossip. Brewster was
next on the list to be sworn in and he was inn
patient.
Il told the boys" Senator Overton said, "to
just keep on talkin'."
Huey in his day, had read the funny papers
aloud, read his fan mail aloud and discoursed
on pot Ticker, and Senator Overton wed his
first election to Huey by a process as corrupt
as highway robbery. Senator Tom Connally, o.
Texas. was sent to New Orleans to ''investi.
gate and, at one point. when Huey turned
out his goons and the militia, Connally had to
climb the fire escape to reach the room
where the hearings were held. Never were
the authority and dignity OF the Senate so
nagrantly Knocked, but Senator C%onnally, his
report completed, merely told his colleagues
that fraud had been done and dropped 1t on