Washington telegraph., 1927-07-01
ADMINISTRATION IS
AFTER ALL CREDIT
Various Departments Lay Claim to
Recent Air Successes
POLITICS BEHIND EVERY MOVE
Washington Writer Says Lindbergh
and Byrd Alone Are Due
All Credit.

cy of attempting to appropriate to
Itself the credit for everything ere
ditablc and popular, and of evading
The issue and remaining silent on
matters that are dubious or unpo-
pular is Strikingly exemplified i'm
the cases of Colonel Charles Lind
bergh and Commander Richard E.
Byrd, the daring American aviators.
/ one the conqueror of the Atlantic.
the other the first man to flv to the
North Pole.
In the case of Colonel Lindberah.
as soon as his feat was accomplish
ed. the War Department claimed
him and sought to appropriate a
share of glory for the Coolidge
administration. In the case of Com
mander Byrd, the navy department
was guilty of the same prcsump-
ton. This is pointed out by Brig.
Gen. VIM. Mitchell, chief of the A.
f. +. air force during the World
war and later director of military
aeronautics in the army. Beneral
Mitchell said of the navy depart
ments propaganda:
"The navy had nothing to do with
Byrd's flight to the North Pole.
Byrd himself organized it, financed
it. planned it out himself, irrespec-
tive of the navy. The navy had re-
tired Byru as physically unfit for
duty. The money for Byrd's expedi-
| ton to the North Pole was obtained
from Edsel Ford and other public
spirited citizens. The Navy said
little about Byrd's trip until it had
been successfully accomplished
then they picked up as means OF
propaganda in the same way thai
they have attempted TO pick up
l.indbcrgh." Commander Byrd is q
brother of Governor Harry F. BYRD
Of Virginia.
Much the same happened in tn,
case of Lindbcrgh. The war de,
partmeni and the Coolidge admins.
tralion had absolutely nothing tc
do with his transatlantic flight
They had never even heard of him
But when he startled the world
with his magnificent feat, and was
acclaimed abroad by millions, from
peasants to presidents and kings
and New York City was planning a
tremendous demonstration for him
ment and the Coolidge administra-
ton woke up. Lindbergh was all but
ordered home, to meet the PreSi-
dent before he left for Black Hills
He was forced to give up the trip
he had planned TO various Euro
pean countries, spelling his vacation
! that he might get back to Washing
ton to be received at the Presidents
convenience on certain date, SO
that the Presidents departure for
his own vacation in the Black Hills
would not be delayed an hour. The
war department hastcned to appoint
Lindbergh a Colonel in the Reserve
Corps, and rushed an uniform to
him to be worn when he landed al
Washington. But Colonel Lind
bergh did not fall for scheme, and
came back to Washington in a
civilian suit. as a cevilian, as he had
gone away. When he did arrive
Secretary Kellogg, the Old Guard
former Senator from Minnesota who
was chiefly responsible for the de-
feat of Colonel Lindbergh's father
when he was a progressive can1l-
date for governor of Minnesota, mo
other of the Sychopantic Old Guard
members of the administration, tel
upon his neck, in their efforts tC
capture for the Republican admins
tration some of the glory ColoaeI
Lindbcrgh so daringly earned
Colonel Lindbcrgh's father was ar
insurgenl republican member pi
congress from Minnesota for u
wears. He stood for everything h6
Coolidge-Kellogg party opposd
and opposed nearly everything iI
llypifics. II was responsible for rs
political retirement. Its leadd'
hated his father, and deteSted tht
lDTOVTtSSlNt Di liitfpiNo hN "h'ON''N'
If the elder Lindbergh was lookine
down from the rampartS of, heavn
he must have enjoyed the show.
Another sample of the Coolidst
administrations efforts to tait
credit for everything in which the''
is merit was in the recent claim pa
forward by Undersecretary of tl'
Treasury Ogden ID. Mills, who in a
official public statement, boasied I,
total debt reduction of s6,6l ,OOg
900 under the Harding and Coolidf
administrations, ignoring the fa'l
that S2.400,000,000 of the reductid
was accomplished between June .
1919, and March 4, 1921, whdl
Woodrow Wilson was president, 1
reduction during a little more thdl
a year and half that was create
than accomplished in any thra
years of the Harding-Coolidge ae
'miniStvatiOnS