The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-08
SAY PERSHING MAY QUIT ARMY
 FOR BUSINESS
Return Recalls Reports of Overtures From
 Hitchcock.

Gen. Pershing's triumphant return today to the United States has given persistent circulation to a re- port that he is being urged to re- tire from the army and go into bus iness.
 The report. involves the name of Frank H. Hitchcock, former Post master General and Chairman of the Republican National Committee, as the emissary through whom the ad vances were made to the American commander. It specifics as the time of the overtures last March, when MT. Hitchcock was present as Gen. Per shing's guest during his reviews of the Army of Occupation.
 No hazards as to the nature of the business in which the effort to in tererst Gen. Pershfng is alleged to have been made are embraced in the current report. Mir. Hitchcock is a close business and personal friend of T. Coleman du Pont. At his request in December, 1917. Mir. Hitchcock un- dertook the reorganization of the Vulcan Steel reducing Company and of it's export associate, the Vulcan Trading Corporation.
 Office with du POnt Lawyer.
 NIT. Hitchcock held this place for a year, or until very shortly before he went abroad. He has extensive in terests of his own in the West. chief ly in oil, and for the direction of them maintains an office in the Equita ble Building. This office is a part of suite bearing the name of Stuart McNamara, attorney for Mir. duPont
 Mir. Hitchcock stood pat on his tra- ditional habit of not talking for pub -V,., terday when a reporter asked him about the Pershing report. He ; seemed to think at first that the report was a revival of one { extensively printed in April. that the purpose of his visit with Gen. Per l shing was to see what Presidential i timber might he fabricated from the soldier. But when 1t was impressed i on him that the report inquired about | had to do with business, not political ] prospects. he still insisted that he 1 couldn't and wouldn't talk.
 From quarters very close to MT. l Hitchcock. however, the declaratio | was received that the report was | ridiculous" It was said that MT. | Hitchcock became Gen. Pershing' : guest solely because they had been l intimate friends for many years, and ] that when they met in Paris the sol ! dier took the politician to the Rhine 1 land with him. Emphasis was laid | upon a statement that the "only bus | mess talked was the Generals bust 1 ness-soldiering and Americas part 1 in the great war" In the quarters re- ' ferred to there seems to be no doubt [ whatever as to the failsity of the re- port.
 Dogged Pershing's Steps. ....
 MT. Hitchcock's presence along the
 Rhine as the guest of Gen. PershinL ! attracted great attention in March
 On March 21, Cyril Brown, the staff
 correspondent present at the review
 wired:
 The only derby y-hatted. can car | rying, rubber wearing civilian privil
 eEedNtO witness this or any other re
 view of the Army of Occupation wa:
 Frank Hitchcock, ex-Postmaster Gen
 eral and former Republican cam
 paign manager He conveyed the i'm
 pression that he had no political mo
 tive in visiting the Rhineland simuI
 taneously with Gen. Pershing, yet h,
 dogged Gen. Pershing's footsteps foi
 ten miles of inspection and declared
 himself tremendously interested in al
 he had seen and heard.
 MT. Hitchcock saw Gen. Pershinl
 at his best this afternoon, and ol leaving for Cologne and Brussels h. 1 undoubtedly carried with him tn : conviction that Gen. Pershing ha acquired the art of public speakfni and of swaying his audiences, am particularly that he is sending tn
 army home with deep, vivid and fav orabfe remembrances of his personali , ty It is estimated that to date Gen ! Pershing has reviewed more thai 100000 men of the American EH peditionary force"