Hide Article Text (OCR)
(We received no Johnson dispatch today).Fair Enough-:-- ♦By Westbrook Pegler♦ ♦ 4 ♦When a Man Like Lippmann Warns Us of Jap Peril on West Coast, It's High Time to Act |CHICAGO, Feb. IT.—Walter Lippmann is one of our best known columnists, distinctly on the scholarly or double-dome side, and a conscientious and responsible man. He is not known as a news-and-fact reporter, however, so he gave me a start when he wrota from San Francisco a piece that seemed to me 0to be a cry of alarm. His trouble in the role of Paul Revere is his reputation as an essayist.People read his column as required study in difficult subjects, so I imagine that they mistook his siren for the one on the battalion chief’s car tolling the skipper through the traf- II Ific to a date for lunch. I imagine that because what Lippmann said that day belonged in no column over near the editorial matter but under a black line outside.Tightening up a little bit, this is what he said:“The enemy alien or fifth column problem PEGLER on the Pacific coast is very serious. The coastis in imminent danger of combined attack from within and from without. The peculiar danger is in a Japanese raid accompanied by enemy action inside American territory. The combination can be. very formidable. For, while the striking power might not be overwhelming at any one point, Japan might do irreparable dam-age if it were accompanied by sabotage to which this part of the country is especially vulnerable.Jap Navy Is Reconnoitering“This is a sober report based on what is known to be taking place. The Japanese navy has been reconnoitering the Pacific coast testing and feeling out the defenses. Communication takes € place between th enemy at sea and enemy agents on land. There hss been no important sabotage, but this is no sign that there is nothing to fear. It is a sign that the blow is well organized and held back until it can be struck with maximum effect.”From that Lippmann goes on to urge the mass evacuation and mCiSg internment of enemy aliens, most of whom, of course, art A Japam sc.lo you get what he says? This is a high-grade fellow, with a hear; sense of responsibility, trying to tell us that the enemy has been scouting our coast, a fact unknown to our people, that the Japs ashore are communicating with the enemy offshore and that on the basis of “what is known to be taking place” there are signs that a well-organized blow is being withheld only until it can do the most damage. That probably means reservoirs, harbors, oil stores, naval works, bridges and the big power works and radioStations and shooting of our civilians by Japanese residents in military groups and civilian garb.We are so damned dumb and so considerate of the minute con-stitutional rights of people whom we have every reason to antici- 9 pate with preventive action! The Germans round them all up and ketp them in pens. There isn’t an American or Briton on the loose anywhere in Japan or the territory she holds. But we have to be fastidious and shysteresque like a lot of guardhouse lawyers, and the first thing we know it’s Pearl Harbor and we even bury inside the papers a warning by a man whose reputation for sober respon- iff sibJity justifies immediate alarm and radical precautions.What Are We Waiting on?What Lippmann says I accept as truth on the basis of his reputation and if it is the truth we are just sitting around waiting for the enemy to stab us in the back as the German parachutists and tourists struck down Holland and Norway.Our papers are operating under great difficulties and strain.We can’t investigate half the important tips that come to us or give due prominence to information which we do confirm. Nevertheless, we have done much fine work and our worst sin has been our poisonous optimism expressed in the over-emphasis on petty victories.*But in this case I say we booted one, for If what Lippmann says is true we should have been all over the story within a few hours and the Japanese in California should he under armed guard to the last man and woman right now and to hell with habeas corpus until the danger is over.
Newspaper Details
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur, Texas, US
Tue, Feb 17, 1942
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 05 Oct 2018
Other Publications Near Port Arthur, Texas
Port Arthur Community Post
Port Arthur News Community Post
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur Daily News
