Milford chronicle., 1948-11-12

Sl ing and overtime
pEcTEp profiteering, had
done as much TO
win the war as men who had been
killed in action.
These planted propagandists
hatched 'indoctrination" courses to
disarm the real Americans. the
fighters, of their natural, honest
hatred Of the Bolshevik dictatorship
and persuade them that anyone who
uttered any suspicion of Commu-
nism was doing Hitler's work. Men
who should have stopped this, but
didn't want to, sat in the Pentagon
in Washington and let it go on. The
guiltiest of these were members of
the cult Of Harvard law, the main
source Of the brutal cynicism which
became the philosophy Of our gov.
ernment after 1888.
The propaganda against the
Brass" rOared up In the sePv-
ice publications where the Com
munists and their shrinking
friends were hiding out the war,
who had sworn death to the
NaZis but with the prOvisO that
the neighbOrs' children should
do the killing.
Editors who will take the trouble
to look back will find also that it
came in standard package-goods
distributed by some of the syndi-
icates from Washington and New
York. There was a temptation, even
to editors, to engage in apple-pol-
ishing by appealing to the social
bigotry of the majority by black
guarding the officers as a class and
particularly generals and admirals.
There were so or 80 enlisted men
for every officer and the tempta-
ton to propitiate them was propor.,
tionate.
There had been a
eFSECuttOH similar campaign in
Of Italy after the first
nm. war. Officers were
chased and mauled
by hoodlums because they were Of
ficers. Train crews sometimes re-
fused to bulge until officers got
off. Many fine Italian officers nat
urally threw in with Fascism and
they got hung with the buns who
had b11Voi1io4ad 4Lov,o
Brass" is a cheap cliche affect
ed by blackguards and takers Of
journalism and the radio who can
not write and crib their paltry bro.
mides from Fui Pi-Yu's timestyle.
1t came out of the old British army
and with some tarnish on it, at that.
Their generals were brave, stately
and imperious but slow and had lit
tie imagination.
Any attempt to redress the repu-
tation of the American officers, and
especially of those above the rank
of captain and ieutenant-command.
er, runs hard against the fact that
Roosevelt, who cheapened and be-
fouled every fine thing that he
touched, Immediately made rank
cheap.
Bill KnudSen, a great manu.
faCturer, was induced to accent
the three stars Of a lieutenant.
general, formerly reserved for
really good commanders Of
American armies In war. No
body made fun of Mr.. Knudsen.
but many who admired him felt
sorry for him because he plain.
ly felt ridiculous.
Thereafter, Roosevelt and his
friends tossed out consultations Of
cheap stars. On winter mornings in
Washington, in the crowded buses
going downtown, bag-eyed, tired
generals, a few months out Of civil
ian clothes, lurched against sleepy
enlisted men going to work. The
buck-general, or brigadier, actually
had less prestige here than a buck.
sergeant had had in normal times.
Officers Of the reg
AeSutoTS ular army had their
Were own sentiments about
O,,t.u.L.l this. A man put in
years Of patriotic
soldering, always loyal to the beau.
tiful ideal and code Of West Point.
At SIS or so, he found himself still
a colonel or lieutenant-coloneI while
the fellow hanging to a strap in the
same bus wore one or two stars
pinned on him only to permit him
to out-rank other ex-civilians in
financial or legal negotiations in the
Pentagon.
Press-agents and welI-placed.
relatives Of Hollywood mag.
mates who always made pretty
shots Of ROOsevelt's polio par.
ties and made him look noble
in the neWsreels, wound up coll
Onel. A speakeasy man became
a gFandiOse mess-sergeant with
eagles on his boards, whipping
up sOuffies for the ''brass,"