The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-14
As Pegler Sees 1t
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, Incl
Charlie Chaplin recently held a ''press con-
ference in New York. More than 100 re-
porters attended to ask him questionsa mainly
about his politics. The occasion was the open
ing of a new movie in which, his ads tell
US, he appears in the role of a modern
Paris bIuebeard who gaily. marries and muir
ders.'
Up to a point, the story would seem to be
photographed, for Chaplin has married
four times and there was another exploit with
a stage-struck girl, who had been beguiled
to his mansion. She was railroaded out of
town, but came back, disturbed hi, secluded
peace and this time, got 30 days in jail.
Disclosing her pregnancy then, she was re-
leased and had her baby and the disclosure
ensued in court of a personal character which
the old public had never suspected in the
wistful elf in the low-comedy hat, pants and
shoes. Even by the barnyard moral code his
conducs here was deplorable for he was not
generous nor even liberal to the girl and their
chll1 but stingy and mean.
I In most of the church weddings in the Unit
ed States the marriage formula states that
matrimony is a state to be entered into
%''soberly and discreetly, as in the sight of
God"
In his press conference, Chaplin adverted
to a familiar error of his in explanation of
his failure. in more than IS years of voluptu-
Gus living in the United States, to become a
citizen OF the nation which had raised him,
financially, from the status OF a refugee from
the economic and social squalor of the
abominable sluns of his native London. Once
before he had said that he was a paying
guest Of our country. This time he said that
nearly 70 percent Of his earnings came from
outside the country and that he was paying
100 percent in taxes. AS to his whole income,
that. OF course, is untrue. Furthermore, dur.
ing his rising years and his greatest pros
perity, most of his income came directly from
the American public. The taxes then were
so low that he could keep most of it as he
undoubtedly did for he is very frugal, as the
meagerness of his productions and his treat
ment of the pregnant girl prove.
A further fact is that, for several years,
Chaplin tried to save money on his income
taxes by representations that another man
was his partner in business. In the last year
OF Herbert Hoover's presidency, however, the
Treasury insisted that this man had returned
most of the money to Charlie and Chaplin
was compelled to pay a deficiency of 81, 174,-
600. In his belief that the United States is
a sort of public fee country club offering
hospitality and service to all Corners in re-
turn for money, Chaplin is obdurately mis-
taken. He has not learned that this is a nation
OF loyal citizens conducted entirely in their
own interest, for the specific purpose of pro-
motng their own general welfare and secur-
ing the blessings Of liberty to themselves and
their prosperity. He may be pardoned the err
ror because many others have taken literally
the entirely unofficial and poetic invitation to
the "wretched refuse" of the 'teeming
shores of other lands which appears on the
plinth Of the Statue of Liberty. His attention
theirs and our own may be profitably invited
to the preamble of the Constitution wherein
we, the people of the United States, declare
tnaS this Is our own country to be managed
for the benefit of her own citizens, exclusively.
Ials Is not to suggest that Chaplin has
sighted the United States in his failure to
ask for citizenship. Nobody confers a favor
on us by such a petition. 1t is we who confer
the favor and often carelessly and to our det-
rlment. If Chaplin were to file a petition now
ne certainly would be opposed and there are
precedents under the moral turpitude"
clause which could be invoked against him.
AS to his association with persons sympa-
thet'c with the communist front in the United
States, further objections could be raised. He
probably is not a communist in the sense of
beng a member of the party but he has been
guilty OF great ~inpudeDce in this phase of his
life among US.
chaplain sat out two wars involving his ma
tive Britain. In the second one he plainly
evlnced a certain attitude toward the young
sons OF the American men and women who
had laughed him into riches in their own
youth by his conspicuous failure to try to
entertain these American boys even in the
safety OF the camps in the United States. His
suggestion, in his press conference, that his
two sons of one of his early, short term mar
rlages, were his personal Wears in the Third
Army in Europe is a fair expression of his
character.
Chaplin's only memorable contribution to
the general war effort was a recording of a
salute to the Soviet armies which closed with
the words, Russia, the future is yours!"
Some Americans have asked why we do not
deport him.
Although the Constitution assures us that
this is our own country we have, in our gen.
crosby made laws which confer rights on
immigrants. Most Of them become citizens,
to our mutual benefit. Chaplain is an excep-
ton, but an authority at the Department Of
Justice has reported that he can be deported
only after conviction Of a felony. Should he
leave the United States, however, as, for ex-
ample, to visit the f~leshpots of Mexico, he
might be seriously challenged on the return
trip