The Wilmington morning star., 1947-07-07
AS Pegler Sees 1t
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK. July s. - AL right, here we
so again
In January. 1886. Mrs Frederick Kettner.
of New York. decided to print a tribute to her
husband on his fiftieth birthday. Kettner, born
in Austria but now a citizen of our country,
is the guru, or teacher, OF a relatively new ism
called biosophy. You may find a clue to his
stuff in the fact that he did a book called Spin,
oza the Biosopher,' if you know anything about
Spinoza. This book was published by the Roe
rich Museum Press and carried an intro0uc-
ton by Nicholas honstantin Roerich. Henry
Wallace's guru and. for a long time. the land
lord of Congressman Sol Bloom, until recently
chairman Of the House Committee on Foreign
Affairs. Sol says he never would let old Roerich
look him in the eye because he might hypno-
tie him. But Roerich certainly did put the
eye on Wallace, because poor Henry came so
unstuck that he sent Roerich and a bunch of
his friends proving over China and Inner
Mongolia in search OF grass seed for the De
partnent OF Agriculture al our expense. Only
when the old boy with the two-legged beard
vas that far away did Henry snap out CT it TO
ire him by cable. Then TO make coed and
sure that Roerich wouldn't come back and give
Henry the eye again, the New Deal gave him
the income tax treatment. found him guilty OF
delinquency, non-paynnent and pink tooth
brush. and pu. him behind the eight-ball over
in India. He has never come back and Sol says
he heard he was dead.
Moreover. Louis L. Horcn. another of the
d%evotees, started a court action TO grab back
possession Of the Is story Joss-house on river
side drive, after Henry made it almost impos-
sible for Roerich to come back. Horch admits
ne was under a sort of mental influence. And
just at the psychological moment of the law
suit and with the finest timing, the Depart
ment of Agriculture, Of which Wallace was
secretary at the time, issued a statement say.
ing Roerich had been canned because he was
messing in oriental politics. In fact, one version
Of the publicity handout went so far as to in.
innate that Roerich had been suspected of spy.
ing. None Of this publicity was calculated to do
Roerich any good with the honorable court,
you may be sure.
That Wallace certainly is the naive and
innocent one, isn't he? No guile. Fortnight.
Sincere and all that. Like Roosevelt.
Well, Kettner's old lady prints this tribute
to her hero and it is published by the great
guru on the joss-house, or lamasery, press
and in 1t she says this:
During a vacation trip to bar harbor, DR..
Kettner attended a lecture by Henry Morgen-
THAI, Sr., the father of Roosevelt's Secretary
of the Treasury. who formerly had been our
Ambassador to Turkey. Morgenthau, Sr., had
developed the pose of those self-elected philo.
sophlcal elders among us who go around leak
ing love from every pore and p~rattling plati-
tudes.
VIC HdFe lldu QuAe a lew Ol lQOSe.
KettneT. his wife tells us, was 'strongly at
tracted by the evident spirituality of the speak
en-" and buttonholed him after the meeting.
1t paid Oft, too. The Morgenthaus "graciously
invited DR.. and Mrs. Kettner to visit their
beautiful home in Bar Harbor,' which is pretty
nice going from the standpoint Of comfort and
%ratlons, and the old boy Expressed deep in
terest in the biosophical idea of character and
peace education"
Later he wrote two articles for the Biosoph-
ical Review, which is Kettner's publication.
Kettner and Roerich had a great deal in
common. Roerich invited him to install his
biosophical and Spinoza outfit in the joss-house
on the drive. If you want an idea of the stuff
the old boy dashed off for Kettner, this will
give you one: THE rights of man are reach
ing their estate without a French revolution or
the introduction of bolshevism or communism
and you might understand what sort of gov
eminent he was driving at when you read
that: To-day we behold the beginning of the
fulflllment: the nation has assumed the role
of its brothers keeper" That was 1884. Roose-
welt was beginning to show his hand.
Morgenthau said the real lovers of man.
KIND never wondered what ought to be done to
Illustrate those enemies of man who had always
preached leach for himself and thus kept the
masses disunited and demoralized. '"They in.
sisted on the abolition of privilege, the exten.
sion OF freedom and we have lived to see their
aims embodied in the duties of government"
The piece was the prophecy of the Roose.
welt Fasclsm which just fell short of that full
flllnent proposed by Mrs. Roosevelt and Har.
ry Hopkins when they demanded that one and
all OF us be drafted for civilian labor, and sent
Wherever any new deal commissar should d.
rect us, without regard for family ties or
Chrlstlan morals, and that civilians be pro-
mlscuously bllleted as boarders in all of our
homes with particular emphasis, however, on
the homes of the well-to-do and the very rich,
but excepting, of course, the homes Of the
Roosevelts and the Morgenthaus.
I'm the winter of 1885, Kettner had two
more guest stars in his Biosophical Review.
One Tas Daniel c.. Roper, our Secretary of
commerce and a high-rolling new dealer of the
time, and the other this will assassinate
you - the other was Ezra Pound. Ezra was an
expatrlate, living in Italy and an enthusiastic
fascist.
During the war he maintained his fascist
principles and stayed in Italy where he contin-
ued to eXpound them. Therefore, after the war
we brought him home to try him for treason
but discovered that he was crazy and put him
away In the government sanitarium in Wash
lhgton called st. Elizabeth's. But, before he
was found crazy, Pound insisted that he be
allowed to call Henry Wallace as a witness to
show the similarity of his ideas, which were
the basis OF the treason charge, to Henry's and
those Of several members of Wallace's phiIo.
sophical circle. His stuff is almost exactly
tne same mat Old man Morgenthau was writ
ing in the same publication which found their
pieces to be consistent with the biosophical
aim. ~
The crazy" verdict saved Wallace from a
public examination.
You have been patient, I hope, with me in
my development of the association and the
connection OF these people and their common,
naough not necessarily unanimous, ideas on re-
lglon, deity and the sort of government and
society that would be best for all mankind. in
a world without nations or races, without
money or private property or Christianity, as
such.
l have noticed that all other newspapers
than thlca auhiohA ,ript thnco- dicnataLaA- L.