The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-09

he pulls a pathetically veal
 This is not important as far as the Navy is concerned, because the gentleman in the White House likes to run the Navy Department himself, and Swanson has an ex- cellent assistant in the person of Charles Edison.
 But in an administration which is having trouble with the south ern wing of Democracy, and has as two of it's bitterest critics Sen- ators Byrd and Glass of Virginia, the President desperately needs two or three outstanding south erners in his cabinet to help to keep that branch of the party in line.
 Political WashOut
 Swanson. comes from Virginia, a key state in Southern Democ- racy, but as a leader of its forces he is washout.
 Yet Roosevelt probably never will get rid of Swanson. His po- litical demise has been rumored many times. In fact, after the 1886 reelection it was consid- cred almost certain that there would be new deal in the office of the Secretary of the Navy.
 But Swanson is still there. Chief reason is that Roosevelt has a soft spot in his heart for those who have been with him for 8 long time. Swanson, old, sick and without a personal for tune. is largely dependent upon his own salary, and the Presi- dent will not let him down.
 This is an admirable human quality in the Chief Executive. But it does not make for admins trative efficiency.
 He Loves Ships
 Swanson's heart is in the Navy as much as any admiral's, if not more. His great love is ships. He wants ships and more ships. When proposals have been made to erect a new Navy Department building, Swanson's reply has been:
 "Why use the money for that when we can get along with what we have? Spend the money on battleships."
 Though Swanson is i'll and crippled and spends only short day at his desk, he can make his influence felt on occasion. Sometimes when his subordinates think they have the department running to suit themselves, and that Claude Augustus is safely dormant, he will break into their well-laid plans and let them know that he still is Secretary of the Navy.
 For the most part, however, he is not acquainted with the in timate functioning of the depart ment, and on occasion his at- tempts to carry out his own ideas have been ludicrous.
 SWanSOn's FOllieS
 Once William E. Dodd, former Ambassador to Germany, visited Swanson and complained about the American naval attaches in Berlin. He wanted them fired. Swanson immediately called in Admiral Standley, then Chief of Naval Operations, who was com- pletely agreeable.
 "All right" he said, eff the present naval attaches are not satisfactory I'll be glad to send other officers"
 But don't want that" the Secretary of the Navy stormed, "T don't want any officers there at all. We don't want to give the Germans the expression that we are a militaristic ma tiOn."
 However, the naval attaches re- mained. In this case Swanson was not the boss of the Navy Depart ment.
 Wrong Protest
 Swanson's ignorance of naval affairs sometimes is extremely embarrassing, and on at least one occasion almost had disastrous repercussions. At Cabinet meet ing one day he took up the ques- ton of twelve and fourteen-inch guns and the position of the Jap anese. The matter was extremely confidential and rather compli- cated, and Swanson got 1t all mixed up. So the President and Secretary of State Hull, not familiar enough with the situa- ton to do otherwise, agreed with the Secretary of the Navy that note of protest should be sent to the Japanese.
 Whereupon MT. Hull rushed back to the State Department late in the afternoon and in- structed his subordinates to send an immediate note of protest to the Japanese. Jimmy Dunn, MT.