Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 307, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 March 1936 — Page 13

It Seems to Me HEKWOODH who plan to be passionate about the Jfc coming presidential election would do well not to give all their emotions to the opening scenes. It's a long way to tip a reactionary into office, and today's burning issue may be an ember in November. Take, for instance, the case of Gen. Hagood. I will wager 10 to 1 that if you say "Hagood” to the first five voters you meet tipon election day each one of them will answer “Who?” The episode occurred too early to be an issue.

And yet the affair is decidedly worth discussion, since it presents some nice problems for the liberal mind. It W’ould be easy to say that the Administration committed no crime, but did the more deplorable thing of making a wholly unnecessary blunder. But I want to discuss some of the more remote ramifications of the problem. For instance, if one believes in free speech should he be for the general or against him? Personally, I must commit myself to the paradox of maintaining

Ileywood Broun

that when the generals and the admirals can say whatever they like free speech suffers. Loose talk by brass hats almost inevitably means censorship for the man in the street. tt a tt Look at Japan I DON’T want to torture analogies, and it is admittedly a long way from Hagood’s "stage money” quip to bloody riots in Tokyo, and yet Japan does illustrate the end result of what may happen when there are no gags of any kind upon the naval and the military. Even here in America the more audacious orations by officers have been directed against civil rights. Generals, when they get the itch to talk, are likely either to aim at international complications rr plead for Fascist rule at home. Os course, it was a single phrase which got him into trouble. If Gen. Hagood had refrained from saying “stage money’’ he would not even have earned himself a rebuke. It is true that he lashed around pretty freely with PWA, CCC and WPA, but most of that would have been forgotten but for the phrase which stuck. "Stage money” was sure to make the headlines. The picture of Gen. Hagood as the plain, bluff soldier from whose lips indiscretions poured, because he was cantering along with candor, is not convincing. Quite obviously the witness had prepared his wisecracks in advance. He called WPA funds “stage money” because, as he explained, “You can pass it around but you can not get anything out of it in the end.” tt u tt Well , Vm on the Fence THAT does not sound to me like an impromptu. It has all the appearance of a carefully rehearsed epigram. I do not blame any private citizen or general for courting punishment for the sake of a wisecrack of the proper sort. There is nothing undignified in that. The wisecrack may very well be the summation of the challenger’s most cherished belief. It can be the white plume under which he rides. I have never understood the psychology of Owen Wister's character who said, “When you call me that, smile!” On the contrary, it seems to me that in almost every case a smile accentuates the challenge. By this time I realize that I am hopelessly split upon the case of Gen. Hagood. Emotionally, my sympathies go out to rebels and to persons who dare to defy authority which seems to them unjust. On the other hand, when generals rebel they almost always do it on the wrong side. With very few exceptions their criticism of governmental policies represents the bitter cry of the reactionaries. They are forever wanting to have civilians fingerprinted or sent back to where they came from. They beat their breasts about compulsory military training and the red menace. Although I read the testimony with some care, I must admit that I am a little confused as to just what Gen. Hagood was getting at. I remember he complained that he could not get the proper sort of pencil from the government. I would be the last one to classify that as a minor issue, and yet I hardly think it sufficient to turn the next election. (Copyright. 1936) Supreme Court Is Hard-Working Body BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, March 3.—Whatever may be said about the Supreme Court, it is one of 'the hardest-working agencies of the government. Reassembling after a two-week recess, it handed down 13 opinions. Each member delivered two opinions except Chief Justice Hughes, who read four, and Van Devanter, who had none. There is much criticism of the delay in deter-

mining the constitutionality of legislation. But any observer will testify that once cases reach the Supreme Court, it works energetically to expedite them. The late Chief Justice Taft did much to set the wheels of the gods grinding more-rapidly and Chief Justice Hughes has carried on with even more remarkable energy. Laymen have little conception of the time consumed in hearing arguments, making the exhaustive researches and discussing opinions in conference.

Since convening last October the court has rendered 71 opinions, not counting hundreds of orders in which, after a quick glance ovei the court either decided whether or not to hear it. 000 IN view of the heavy amount of work thrown on the justices, there has been considerable speculation here as to whether Associate Justice Van Devanter, who recently has been in ill health, would not soon retire. Rumors that he would became current after his son purchased a farm near Washington some weeks ago. Absent from the bench several weeks of the present term, Justice Van Devanter has resumed his seat but has delivered no opinions since the court convened in October. Throughout the last few years, he has produced considerable fewer opinions than any of his eight colleagues. Over the last six years, justices have averaged a total of about 110 opinins each. Justi.e Van Devanter has rendered a total of 19 since the fall of 1930, out of a grand total of 955. Justice Stone tops the list as the most prolific producer of opinions, with 151 since the fall of 1930. The records of other justices since then is as follows: Chief Justice Hughes, 136; Roberts, 125; Cardozo tnot appointed until March, 1932), 106; Butler, 111; Sutherland, 103; Mcßeynolds, 89; Brandeis, 87; Van Devanter, 19. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes retired in January, 1932. In the three months before he retired, he rendered 6 opinions. The preceding year he delivered 22, more than Van Devanter has in six years, still he felt that he was growing too feeble to carry on his share of the court's worK. 000 THERE is no law requiring a justice to retire. Some have advocated one, although the relative productivity and usefulness of justices does not appear to have much relation to their age. Many persons believe that Van Devanter would have retired before now—he will be 77 next month —except for the fact that in view of the frequent 5-to-4 division of the court, his retirement now and replacement by a Roosevelt appointee might change the complexion of the court in some instances. For that reason Washington is skeptical about retirement of any of the conservative justices, among whom justice Van Devanter is numbered as one of the most steadfast, so long as they are physically able to sit in court.

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Rex Tugwell . . . He helped. BY RICHARD L. HARKNESS United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, March 3.—The New Deal with all its “spending-masters general” doing their utmost was able in 1935 to dispose of only one-third of the $4,880,000,000 workrelief appropriation, the Republican National Committee said today in quoting a purported “suppressed report” to Congress. Publication of a digest of the report said to have been made by President Roosevelt, coincided with release by the New Deal of a condensed account of the President’s stewardship since 1933 showing all but $311,606,000 of the work-relief appropriation had been “distributed” up to Dec. 31, 1935. The Republican committee asserted two copies of the report have been filed with the Senate and House committees on appropriations showing that more than $3,000,000,000 remained on Deg. 31 to be expended from the work-relief fund by June 30, 1936, under provisions of the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1935. a tt tt THIS report, it said, was made by the President “before the 10th of January as required by the act, but “for some unexplained reasons has never been published nor made accessible to the press ” Quoting from the current issue of its “facts and opinions,” the committee statement said: “Os the $4,800,000,000 appropriated by Congress last session to enable the President to carry on his Federal relief program in all its phases, only $1,672,394,306.18 actually had been expended, Dec. 31, >1935. The relief appropriations act was signed by the President April i 1935: the funds appropria... mmediately available ar.u to remain available until June 30, 1936. “This means,” the committee said, “that in the nine-months period ended Dec. 31, last, and President and all his ‘spending masters general,’ doing their utmost, were able to spend only onethird of the amount which Congress appropriated, and that there remained at the disposal of the President for expenditure during the remaining six months of the period covered by the act. . . . two-thirds of the total relief appropriation.” The statement said that “notwithstanding the requirement of law,” the President's accounting of spending of relief billions has been held under lock i *.d key, and “still is withheld from the public and from most Senators and Congressmen.” a tt tt MOST of the spending agencies set up to relieve distress and unemployment have been unable to function efficiently, and the majority have bogged down with a surplus of funds which they know not how to use, the committee said. The statement listed work-re-lief expenditures shown in the report as $894,047,582 by the FERA; $327,455,343 bv the CCC; $238.147,315 by PWA, and less than $50,000,000 by any other spending agency. “All this means,” the committee said, “that the spending program of the Administration, other than through Harry Hopkins and the Civilian Conservation Corps, has all but collapsed. The money is not being spent.” The Republican statement preceded the expected request of President Roosevelt for $2 r .000,000,000 to carry on work-relief for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The 125-page Administration report of stewardship made no mention of probable 1937 relief needs. The Administration report was issued at the start of the 1936 presidential election campaign,

Clapper

F. D. R. LOOKS AT THE RECORD ‘ * * * a tt a tt tt tt an tt a a a G. O. P. Disputes Spending Claims, Alleges Report Suppressed

BENNY

benny- I * r ~'' r YCuR ACCOUNT *5 NOW LOf<i r I f OVERDUE, UNLESS IT IS PAID AT V'/ \ \ ONCE, WE WILL BE Forced TO A3C \ \ PLACE it in the hands of a nN . Nrr \ \ / / LAWYER for/ FINANCE \ —\ / , COLLECTION. Q ' >J L J ( Sjgk <•9 ft iw A- TT- ffmftrsii Taa M tiAld Ctmoc-AiniftiMM ***- ,1 -

The Indianapolis Times #

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President Roosevelt Points with pride.

but the National Emergency council, which compiled it for the White House, said it “should not be considered a political document.” The summary, in skeletonized form, showed: Work-relief: From May, 1933, through November, 1935, the government spent $3,527,899,000 caring for unemployed. Relief cases declined in that period from 4,252,443 to 2,846,910 when the new $4,880,000,000 employment program had made jobs for 3,284,000 persons. tt tt tt MR. ROOSEVELT distributed all but $311,696,000 of the $4,880,000,000 up to Dec. 30. The needy were put to work on $1,769,661,612 worth of highway, road and street projects; $474,896,534 public buildings; $389,773,570 recreation facilities; $470,416,378 public utilities; $434,575,130 educational, clerical, professional and social employment. The report did not state that Administration plans called for a new appropriation of around $2,000,000,000 for work-relief between July 1, 1936, and July 1. 1937. Finance —Fiscal: T 1 e interest-

WASHINGTON, March 3. Probably the greatest deficiency in Herbert Hoover while in the White House was his sense of humor. He had none. Now, however, the ex-President has blossomed forth. Not only does he smile, but he tells an occasional good story. Here is one told to friends before an open fire one evening. We do not vouch for the accuracy of the story. But we do vouch for the fact that Herbert Hoover told it. tt tt tt Cutting Red Tape WHEN Albert, late King of the Belgians, paid a visit to this country shortly after the war, he found that the meticulous protocol of the State Department required that he pay his respects at the White House before he did anything else of an official nature. But President Wilson was absent and would not return for nearly two weeks. So, rather than mark time in Washington. King Albert telegraphed to Hoover, who he had known during food-relief days in Belgium asking if he could visit him in California. Mr. Hoover wired back: “How many in your party?” And King Albert’s secretary, without consulting His Majesty, wired back: “Sixty-one.” Mr. Hoover says that he was a little dismayed at chis, but finally decided that several millionaires living in the California foothills had lost no money by the war, and might well entertain different parts of the King's party. Hoover suggested, incidentally, that the King doubtless would want to bestow important decorations on them. tt tt a “O, King!” Is O. K. SO King Albert and his retinue arrived. And as he went out on the first day for a ride through the California hills, he found waiting for him at the gate a picturesque figure on horseback. The visitor greeted him with,

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 1936

bearing public debt rose from $20,991,640,520 on March 31, 1933, to $28,617,496,846 on Nov. .30, last year, when the report listed $4,529,574,043 worth of “guaranteed liabilities of government agencies.” The computed rate of interest on the debt declined from 3.4266 per cent to 2.575 during the period. The government, between April 1, 1933, and Nov. 30, 1935, listed receipts at $8,941,674,000 and expenditures at $17,762,056,000, an $8,820,382,000 deficit. The report recorded declines in commercial failures, a decrease in bank suspensions and a rise in bank deposits from $41,643,000,000 on Dec. 31, 1932, to $44,771,000,000 on Dec. 30, 1934. “The Treasury Department reports,” the summary said, “that such rapid recovery in the banking structure was possible largely because of the effective operation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ...” a a tt THE RFC, it added, made 20,475 loans to banks with gross authorization of $3,669,307,555; lent $487,123,572 to railroads, of which $412,902,783 still is

Washington Merry-Go-Round BY DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN

“O, King!” and announced that he was the local sheriff. King Albert seemed much taken with the sheriff and spent most of that day riding with him, much to the disgust of his host. Next day the sheriff again waited on the King and again rode with him. Following this, the host called in the sheriff, informed him thathe made a great mistake in addressing Albert as “O King,” that the monarch should be addressed only as “Your Majesty.” Furthermore, the host hired a couple of detectives to guard the King and keep the sheriff at a safe distance. Next morning the King went riding again. The sheriff was not at the gate. But later Albert saw him riding alone on the top of a ridge. Whereupon the King of the Belgians left his host, the detectives, et ai., and spurred his horse on to join his old crony. “Good morning, Your Majesty,” greeted the sheriff, hesitating over the pronunciation. “Why don't you call me ‘O King!’?” replied Albert, “I like it much better.” As his majesty departed for Washington he bestowed on his BRIEF FAVORING GUFFEY ACT WRITTEN GY LUTZ Indiana’s Interest in Law Springs From Bituminous Coal Mines. A brief upholding constitutionality of the Guffey Coal Control Act has been sent to Washington by Atty. Gen. Philip Lutz Jr. for filing in the United States Supreme Court.t Indiana’s interest in the law comes from operation of bituminous coal mines, Mr. Lutz said. Federal regulation is the only answer to a practical solution of the disorders of this industry, Mr. Lutz said in the brief. He pointed out the hardship of coal shortage sometimes caused by inability of management and labor to agree on a wage scale because of competition from other fields.

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Harry L, Hopkins . . . Biggest spender. owed by 57 lines; advanced sl,299,984,233 for relief and $734,586,548 to government agencies. In all, RFC listed $7,698,954,089 total disbursements. FDIC insured $18,000,000,000 of the $41,000,000,000 deposited in 14,195 banks up to last Aug. 22. The Federal Reserve Board, the report said, assisted private fiscal affairs since March, 1933, “by the policy of monetary ease pursued.” Agriculture: The report detailed a $2,773,000,000 increase in the annual farm income from 1932 to 1935. Then it stated that, using the 1910-1914 price average as 100, the “ratio of prices received by farmers for their products” rose from 61 in 1932 to 90 in Dec. 1935. It gave credit to the now-in-validated AAA and to $1,056,352,420 paid farmers for the agricultural upturn. Against the payments, AAA collected $817,032,446 in taxes. Acreage shifted from production of usual basic crops in 1935 was set at 31,311,000 acres. Recognizing that the AAA program had boosted the cost of living, the report set out a chart of food prices in relation to other living expenses and personal earnings. Using the 1929 average as 100, the statistics showed 1935 food prices at 76.8, other living expenses at 83.1 and earnings per person employed in manufacturing, mining and distributing industries at 81.7. tt tt tt OTHER New Deal agricultural activities were listed as: 3,172,352 acres of rural land purchased for $8,999,342; expendi-

hosts the promised decorations. They hung from small pieces of ribbon to be pinned on the chest. But a few days later, the millionaire hosts, riding through the neighboring town, were greeted by a sheriff who wore around his waist the broad, majestic sash of the Order of Leopold, highest honor of the crown of Belgium. tt tt tt Unexpected Honor AFTER King Albert returned East, it was arranged that he should bestow the Order of Leopold on the late Charles A. Sabin, head of the Guaranty Trust Cos. This order, it was specified, could only be bestowed properly when the King touched the recipient on the head with his sword. So it was arranged that, at a reception to the King, Mr. Sabin, whom the King had never met, u'as to step out of line, wait at one side, while an aid put the decoration over his head and the King touched him with his sword. All went as scheduled. A man stepped out of line and stood beside the King. Fe was very bald, wore a black skui, cap. The aid promptly put the aecoration over his head and the King touched him with his sword. The recipient looked slightly dazed but went on/ tt tt tt Sabin Left Out A FEW minutes later, another guest stepped out of line. The King kept on receiving, paid no attention to him. The man coughed, looked slightly nervous, paced back and forth. Finally an aid said: “Your Majesty, there's another man waiting here. I think he's the one to be decorated.” “But we have no more decorations,” replied King Albert. It turned out that the second guest was Charles Sabin. The first was the late Judge Elbert Gary, head of the United States Steel Corp. . He had been pushed out of line. And that is Herbert Hoover's story.

IL

Henry P. Fletcher . . . Critical

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Henry L. Morgenthau ... He found money. ture of $75,362,842 to purchase surplus hogs, dairy products, wheat, peanuts and sugar; spending of $156,297,027 for drought relief; Lending of $406,170,738 on cotton and $139,466,196 on corn by the Commodity Credit Corporation; treatment of 1,207,364 acres by the Soil Conservation Service in 1935 and a plan to improve 8,000,000 acres in 1936; Adding 2,126,459 acres to pub-licly-owned forests in 1935 with approval of purchase of 8,060,344 acres‘this year; planted 125 miles of field shelter belt strips; established 38 wild life refuges on 925,570 acres in 18 states in 1935. In addition, the Farm Credit Administration lent $3,230,308,000 to farmers between May 1, 1933, and Sept. 30, 1935. The government also made 417,068 shortterm seed loans totaling $56,189,531 during the first nine months of last year. Labor and industry: “From the low point of the depression early in 1933,” the report said, “The value of production increased rapidly and was accompanied by re-employment and by an increase in national income. “The volume of output of basic products was only half as large in 1932 as in 1929, while the number of factory employes was about 40 per cent smaller and pay rolls about 60 per cent less. tt tt tt “TP'OR the first 11 months of ■T 1935,” the report said, “after two and one-half years of improvement in industrial activity, the volume of manufacturing was about 50 per cent larger than in the early part of 1933, and was some 25 per cem; below the level of 1929. “The number of factory employes had also increased and in 1935 was about 20 per cent below the 1929 level. Factory pay rolls in 1935 increased by about 50 per cent, but were still 35 per cent below 1929.” The summary credited NRA with making employment for 1,000,000 persons by shortening working hours and with increasing hourly wage rates “in the first few months of code operation from an average of 42 cents to 52 cents, or an increase of 42 per cent.” However, the report stated, “the effect of NRA on general recovery can not be traced in any such direct way as in hourly wages and work-week because of the many agencies that have been at work.” The survey reported 1258 strikes and lockouts in 1935 affecting 528.843 workers and causing 9,110.898 man-days of idleness. The National Labor Relations Board was established as a mediation agency. Under the “labor and industry” section was a discussion of plans of the Social Security Board, put into effect this year for unemployment compensation, oldage security, aid o dependent children and other activities.

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough WESTBROOK PEGLER PRAHA, Czechoslovakia, March 3.—The Nazis are having a rather difficult time in their attempt to prove that the Kingdom of Heaven is a political ! alumni association composed exclusively of departed followers of Adolf Hitler. I am afraid this will sound blasphemous to some, but Hitler's followers are going through a peculiar phase just now, and many of their activities will shock the neighbors. The truth is that the Nazis want God on their side, but on their terms and subject to the party discipline. There are some arrtang them

who have no patience with Christ and consider Him to be an undesirable alien, but the most influential opinion in the organization holds that Christ could do more harm outside the party than in. It must be understood that piety is not a factor in this situation, for the question is whether Christ, if duly qualified and admitted, could be of service to the Reich. Old Gen. Von Ludendorff, an embittered warrior, who came out of the war hating Gen. Von Hin-

denburg for outscoring him in the publicity, is on® of those who would cast a blackball if the subject of Christ’s election to membership should ever come to a vote. Gen. Von Ludendorff has become in his old age a prolific writer, and his thoughts have been extremely skeptical of the qualifications of God. In speaking for the opposition, the general denounces Christ as a foreigner and raises the formidable point that Christianity has been preached all around the world and has thus become a form of internationalism. tt tt u Exclusive Nazis HE insists that the Nazi German must have an exclusive religion, thus avoiding ties with other and, of course, inferior peoples; he proposes in effect that each Nazi become his own God. The general suggests, and with sound reason it must be admitted, that this is a religion which the citizen of the Nazi state would not be required to share with any one else. Certainly no Englishman, Czech or American would breathe a prayer to Herr Streicher, who enjoys a monopoly on the publication of obscene literature in the Reich and possesses a collection of pornographic art which is said to be the most extensive in the world. ~ The general insists that if every German citizen be in tune with the Reich and the army and if all of them believe in the perfection of their race, then the Reich itself is the best possible God for Germany. The general objects to Christ as a somewhat supercilious critic of the German race. For after all, the Germans being perfect, what right has any God’ to sit in judgment upon them and isn’t it a seditious assumption on the face of it to suggest that the Nazi is capable of doing wrong? * tt tt Treaty in the Making THE plan now is to negotiate with God’s vicars in the Reich a sort of most-favored-nation treaty and to this end the Reich has been dealing with Nazi clergymen who claim to have credentials from the heavenly throne. There are other clergymen. Catholic and Protestant, who insist that the Nazi clergy are not authorized to represent their God, but Hitler looks upon these men with deep suspicion and the negotiations are proceeding. Thus far the Nazi clergy claim to have received several concessions. They report that Christ has expressed a special preference for the Nazi state. That h< has indorsed the Hitler administration, including the slow massacre of the Jews, and that h® looks with approval upon any war which they may undertake, inasmuch as any war of theirs necessarily must be fought for the propagation of the Nazi principles fthich he has approved. In the matter of official rank, Hitler, of course, will remain supreme and Christ will receive a subordinate status. , I realize that this is a story, but much more shocking is the fact that it is true.

Gen. Johnson Says—

March 3.—ls you think national ’ “ war policy is too timid, just pop off a member of the Cabinet—that is getting to be a habit in Japan. These Asiatic assassinations do not follow any known pattern of political murders—which all fall into one of about three classes. These are unique in the kind of perpetrators, in the method, and in the apparent purpose. Maybe they have some odd Japanese significance, like hara kiri to save your honoreven if you lose your intestines—or jumping into a blazing crater to attain Nirvana. There is one unfailing and unvarying persistence about Japan—like a mushroom pushing itself up through an asphalt pavement—a belief in manifest destiny and a policy of armed expansion, evident since 1894. There seems never to be any question about the universal, implacable and almost religious design—only about the speed and timing of its successive steps. All Japanese seem to take it for granted like recurrence of the tides—ordained and irresistible, and they serve it with great sacrifice and patience. a a a OUR Army has been discovering Japanese officers “on leave” among servants and hucksters for 30 years. The Navy has had similar experiences. There are plenty of them in northern Mexico. Pershing’s principal secret tgent in Chihuahua was a Japanese Lieutenant Colonel—acting as an aid to Villa, but not above doing a little honest spying for us as a side line. Certain wholly unexplained incidents in our own history suggest that we have been close enough to this much of destiny to smell sulphur—the “fight-or-frolic” cruise of our battle fleet under Theodore Roosevelt; our sudden speed in fortifying Manila; our border mobilization in 1911; Funston's backtrack at Vera Cruz; and Pershing’s strange orders after Carrizal. If Japan was the explanation of any of these, we have bluffed or euchred our way out of trouble, but trouble is always possible. We always can be certain of Japanese aggression, at least in Asia. We may delay it again ani again, but judging from its uninterrupted history for nearly half a century, unless we want to fight, v/e can’t stop it. (Copyright. 1936. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Times Books

FOR those readers who are searching for a novel of distinction, a young Englishman, Richard Blaker, has written “Here Lies a Most Beautiful Lady,” a book of rare delicacy. (Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis; $2.50.) Mr. Blaker employs an unusual technique in starting his story from the finishing point. From this queer, reversed beginning, the reader is drawn into the story of the blatant and swashbuckling adventurer, John Billiter and his wife, Hester. While the story is written from Hester's viewpoint, it is John Billiter who dominates the entire tale. The comings and goings of Billiter from one corner of the earth to another provide a romantic background for a deeply sentimental story of a wife's love. The episode of John’s infatuation for Brenda Harrison, the children's governess, practically forms a novel in itself. Mr. Blaker is a w-riter of unusual charm. The book is a best seller in England. It deserves to be as widely read in the United States. (By Dorothy Ritz.) V

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Westbrook Pegler