The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-28
AS Pegler Sees 1t
Nv wEsTBRoOK PEGLER

Nv WESTBROOK PEGLER
Cartwright. by King Features Syndicate lnc.)
Somehow. 7 keep coming back to that TEL
low. CT x xuha,
they telephoned him that he was IT, an orol-
nary, play-poker, play-plano county oIa Ms
sioner pitched into the most important the
most RESPONSIBLE and the most dangerous ]oo
in the world, and he said to the reporters
sPray for me boys: and I mean IT.. =
We had been having a lot o. necK-praye!s
on dress occasions before then, but never IN
MANY a year, a spontaneous, motner S-hhse
PRAYER from the heart Of a man VINO "ouio
say Dear God, help me" and not seem 10
mean chow am l dom, partner
He can be happy without flippancy and l
don't recall hearing a sheer out OF him since
he took over. He can be serious without De
ing morose. He can get tough Wlthout naStt-
ness, but if you like it that way, cont 60
bawling to your NAV that he hit you VIVID
your own shinny-stick. -
1 will bet you I know a milton repuo,.
cans. which is nonsense because NOBODY
knows a million anybodies, but, anyway l
know a lot of republicans who wish he was
their fellow so they could be for him.
Why can't they?
Well. YOU know, the union bosses, the new
deal crowd, the bleeding-hearts, the commu-
nists, the old girl-and all them. To be for
MIN you nave u ne Will aCL oHN S' ~
B-squad, at that.
But I don't know.
Madam Perkins, she was new deal and
where is she at now? Ickes. Where IS he at!
Wallace. Morgenthau. Biddle. Frankfurter.
You don't hear much about old Vicente any
more, do you? Somebody must have taken
up his latchkey. Nor the guy with the jawr.
Remember Chester Bowles and all that COM
motion how you couldn't make an even trade
Of a pound of double-saws for a pound OF
hamburger if they cancelled O.P.A.? Missing;
Chester Bowles; no reward.
Leon Henderson. No thanks For the memory.
John Lewis. John had a permanent bead
on Mr.. Big and moved him around and KEEP:
him off balance and licked him every time
they started. Then along comes Johnny one
suit. always looking like his old NAV just
dressed him up and slicked his hair for the
strawberry social and he belts John right
through the skylight without even a glare. He
just turned his back on the toughest mugg
in town and when he came back from Key
West, Johns lawyers were tanning him with
their hats and he was muttering, 'he pulled
a knife on me-" Hexed him, he did. Hexed
him bow-legged and the first guy to lick him
since Girdler.
Do you notice how you don't notice his
wife? No taffy pulls for the ladies OF the
press. No popping off about what the British
ought to do to Franco. No cigars, cigarettes,
souvenirs and nuts. No graft. Iiave you
noticed how quiet it is? Maybe not, but you
don't notice a tooth when it quits aching.
It has been a long time since you heard
of old Dan Tobin, of the teamsters, in and
out Of the White House. and the P.A.C. IS
buried alongside the Anti-Saloon League. Sid
ney Hillman and Wayne B.. Wheeler settln
on a cloud Dragging what they done and Sc
cretly calling each other the boastfullest old
bore that ever lived. like Moan and the nero
of the Galveston flood.
1t took that fellow a spell to get the feel
Of the track, to learn timing and pace. He
floundered on that proposition OF 26 weeks al
s25 a week for the laid-off war-workers after
the U.A.W. had been Boosting that 1t got the
highest wages in history and even $50 a week
for a sweeper. / figure it was the old crowd
who handed him that one, not so much that
they hoped to get it as to show they had
for theirs. He was terrible on O.P.A
When he tried to save it for them, but
figure he was still listening when he should
have been thinking.
Then, all OF a sudden, the fellow was there.
I remember the night Paavo Nurmi ran
his first race in America in the old Garoen'
Little Al Copeland, the old Splinter and coacn'
was sitting there and after three or four laps
he said, yep, this one is a runner
And that is what l am thinking.
am thinking that if the republicans had
him. at his present political size and with
the class he has SHOWN, not mercy since
election when he came on so stylish, but
along in there when he was quietly passing
the old new dealers on the turns, they would
have it all. The democrats would have no.
body then because he is all they have got.
Don't heckle me about his past with Ponder
CAST or the way he stalls and fills in about
union legislation or Lilienthal or the budget.
1 keep coming back to him in spite OF
Pendergast. / don't reconcile it. I look him
over and hear him in a voice that was made
for talking to people and not to excite and
make fools of them and l feel that still he
is all-American and will belly up to Stain
and step en- his toes and say "listen, you
instead Of 'now, Joe." I notice that he has
ditched them all, Wallace, the widow and
Ickes and made them tag along and it doesn't
matter a damn to him if they don't because
if they quit him that will win him two votes
for every one they can take away.
/ can feel that he hates the communists
and has been a very good ratter driving them
out, even up to now.
keep coming back to him, no wonder
man. but George Spelvin, American, trim
ming a little but doing his best and with
his pants a little knee-sprung from kneeling
and not to Stain. either.
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