“COPPERHEAD”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4462, 11 August 1941, Page 2

“COPPERHEAD”

COLONEL LINDBERGH. Colonel C. E. Lindbergh, who for many years received the hero-worship of the American people, may now be regarded as a thoroughly discredited man in the eyes of the general public, except for the support of a comparatively few leaders who subscribe to his ideas and beliefs (writes the New York correspondent of the Sydney Morning- Herald). Lindbergh has been the target of many notable speakers, but the words of President Roosevelt at a recent press conference, to the effect that Colonel Lindbergh was no longer useful to the United States Army, proved the worst blow. Most of the leading newspapers have long disagreed with Colonel Lindbergh’s fears and warnings, and still believe he is wrong-; but, in a spirit of fair play, the New York Times, in a leading article, observes that President Roosevelt probably was a bit impetuous when he went back to the civil war to find a disparaging epithet, “ Copperhead,’’ for him. “ Copperhead ” was applied by the Union men during the American Civil War to those men in the north who, deeming it impossible to conquer the Confederacy, werfi earnestly in favour of peace, and, therefore, opposed to the war policy of the President and Congress. The name Was adopted because of the fancied resemblance of the Peace Party to the venomous copperhead snake which strikes without warning.