Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-07-31
Letters to The Star
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Echoes of Miss Vests Reports

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Echoes of Miss Vests Reports
To the Editor of The Star:
Rebecca Vests comments on the horrible
youths" at the Progressive Party convention
carried me back to my own youth when surface
appearances Of people aroused the same pas
sionate disgust in my own small adolescent
mind. Having passed through that stage, it is
possible for me to understand effectively why
some people never are able to progress beyond
1t. 1t is not easy to do.
There are two kinds of people-those with
closed minds and those with open minds.
For the first life is not difficult Surface facts
fill shallow intellects quickly and pat answers
Immediately are available For the second life
is considerably more difficult. Pat answers
eventually are found to be false, and recog-
milton of that fact and facing it squarely are
too much for many people. Consequently we
have such articles as Miss Vests, who still
finds answers by looking at the scum on the
surface and saying it's that way all the way
to the bottom.
1t is shame that this type Of maudlin
propaganda is used against the Progressive
Party 1t should be used as propaganda against
the old parties that have spawned the sad
boys and girls under fire. They are the
direct result of the economy under which they
have been submerged They are possibly
children Of the 40 percent of our population
who make $4,000 or less a year. Perhaps
they recall four years OF war and consequently
want peace. I am sure that if Miss West had
her say in the matter, I should not trust
her to do anything for these youths after the
way she has displayed her hatred for them
She might believe that war would be a good
way to get rid Of them Can you blame them
for looking elsewhere for their security? Would
you have. expected Harvard, Princeton and
Wellesley to predominant at the convention?
I think it was entirely unnecessary for Miss
West to have given up her press box to mill
around with the public" I could have told her
what she would have found from here in
Washington.
Make no mistake about 1t, however, I am
sure that she also found many noted for their
genius attending the convention-or maybe
she didn't want to see them.
incidentally, Miss West could make millions
by giving her visual 10 test to students,
employees, Congressman and others who might
be interested accidentally in seeing just how
she does it. WILLIAM H. REYNOLDS
To the Editor OF The Star:
Rebecca Vests description of the Wallace
convention was pretty good, but Shakespeare
beat her to it by more than $50 years when
he wrote in Titus Andronicus Q59D:
Here, at dead time Of night,
A thousand fiends, thousand kissing
snakes,
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many
urchins,
Would make such fearful and confused cries
Ae rfol hoJ1,
Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly
X. Y. z.
To the Editor of The Star:
The gutter sniping over the Wailace-Taylo
Convention has somewhat subsidized for the
moment because even the most experienced,
hardboiled, polished and genteel critics must
stop for breath of fresh air in such an orgy.
So, now, let some Of us other observers have
a word on what we saw and heard at Phila-
delphia.
got around quite bit oyer the weekend
and must say that I didn't see Rebecca
Vests horrible people"-not even one in a
"bistro" near Convention Hall where stepped
in for bite to eat. And didn't have to ply
my hatpin to ward off the aggressive nor use
extra doses of cologne to smother the offensive.
The Rebecca Vests and Alsops may have
learned to eat properly with the knife and
fork la Emily Post but, fguratively speaking,
they still gnaw their intellectual bones and
throw them contemptuously over their Shout
ders to the dogs c'horrible, unintelligent
people" to Miss West-"ghoulish, ludicrous and
politically unsophisticated village idiots" to the
Alsops). These and other critics have the
temerity to pass off this cheap kind OF smear as
responsible journalism! Strange how an as
yl-k- IA; L&nk
program of peace, goodwill and economic i'm
provement, can roll the minds of intelligent
reporters to the point that they can answer
only with despicabe smears, falling lamentably
to rebut the Progressive Partys platform and
aims. Even the politically naive expect and
deserve more honest. mature and less biased
comment from a responsiblee and respectable
press.
True, I didn't see shiny. lustrous Clare Luce
satins nor many orchids. Many appeared to
be simple folk who evidently had had to pinch
pennies to make that trip and doubtless will
have to pinch lot more in weeks to come.
And let the sophisticated sheer at this-I didn't
smell any berry breaths 1t was certainly q
spirited crowd-but not with the customary
gins and WHISTLES which have clouded the
minds of former conventions.
Maybe some of the Wallacetes are politically
naive, but they know enough to know that the
main issue today is war or peace. They mean
to see to it that this country's present policy
makers who are more interested in face-saving,
prestige and power than in peace and progress
are not going to succeed in steering this coun-
try into another war. They know that such war
Is not worth even the life of one soldier abroad
or of one civilian at home.
AS for Mr. Wallace and Senator Taylor-in
the words of one fine columnist, l. F. Stone
in the New York Star, these candidates care
enough about people and about peace to venture
out into storm Of abuse, ridicule, aspersion
and hate. HELEN WALLACE KELLEY.
Congress as Trojan Horse