Report from Madrid

In the days when it was proper for U.S. newsmen to be on good terms with Adolf Hitler, William Randolph Hearst's high-strung, highly paid and highly touted Karl H. von Wiegand led the pack. Publicity handouts called him the "personal acquaintance of Chancellor Adolf Hitler for more than 17 years [who] has had more interviews and discussions with the German Chancellor than any other American. . . ." When Hitler swept across France in 1940, Von Wiegand, with his thick spectacles and his gold-handled walking stick, was flown by the Germans to Paris.

Now 71, Von Wiegand still had his old facility for telling readers what Mr. Hearst wants them to think. Last week he went even further than Mr. Hearst's unsubtle editorialists usually go, in portraying Russia as America's real enemy, and implying that Germany's defeat would be bad news for the U.S. Von Wiegand cabled from Madrid:

"With the impending collapse of Germany and her destruction as a dam against Communism, Spain and Portugal, a thousand miles to the west, become the next barriers to the onrushing Red Russian tidal flood. . .

"There are some Americans who are still sleepwalking amidst the grim and terrible realities in Europe. . . .

"Senator Arthur Vandenberg, in his Detroit speech, completely ignores what over here is so obvious--that the war has loosened upon Europe the most powerful imperialistic force since Napoleon--totalitarian, Communist Soviet Russia. . . .

"With Italy a hunger-anarchy, France a political economic chaos, Spain, peaceful and calm, is the next bulwark against the Red flood."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.