Evening star., 1940-05-26
Single Department
OF National Defense
Proposed by Clark
Bill to Ask Merger Of
Army and Navy; Cabinet
Shoke-up Reports Persist
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

While reports continued to spread
yesterday that there will be shake
ups in the cabinet, with the War
and Navy portfolios especially in
volved, Senator Clark, Democrat, of
Missouri prepared to introduce
bill to merge both these depart
ments in a single Department of Ma
tional Defense.
The Missouri Senator said such q
move was necessary in the insterest
of better coordination. His bill will
provide for three "undersecretaries,"
one of the Army, another of the
Navy and third of the air forces.
IF there is no combination of the
War and Navy Departments" said
Senator Clark, there should be es-
tablished a new department, that Of
aviation, with the Army and Navy
air forces included in the new de-
partment."
AS for the cabinet shifts, it was
insisted that before long efforts will
be made to dislodge Secretary of
War Woodring. Secretary of the
Navy Edison, who has been nomi-
mated for Governor by the Demo-
Gratis in New Jersey, has already an
nounced he will resign within 80
days. It seems entirely clear that
he would not be able to continue to
work at his cabinet Office and cam
paign for election as Governor.
Woodring Not Planning to Quit.
Secretary Woodring, whose scalp
has been sought by the so-called
New Deal inner circle for some time,
has no present intention Of STEP
ping out of the War Department.
If he goes it will be because he is
asked to go. President Roosevelt
has recently been given an oppor-
tunity to suggest to Mr.. Woodrlng
that he retire from the cabinet. But
the President has made no such
suggestion. Until the President
himself speaks, Mr. Woodring Will
90 right ahead working long hours
over the national defense program.
There has been no disposition on
Capitol Hill to criticize Secretary
Woodring. Indeed, members OF the
House and Senate have come to the
defense of both Secretary Wooorlng
and the general staff. congress
members realize the Army is lar
below national defense needs. !neS
realize, also, that present admins
tration has done little for the Army
as compared to what has been done
for the Navy, and that the money
appropriated for the Army mas iioO
been sufficient to create the 1orce
which is now contemplated.
The idea of taking two or more
Renublicans into the Presldent S
cabinet has gone overheard. IL Is
true that no vacancies existed IN
the cabinet, and that any proposals
the President may have mace 10
Col Frank Knox, x,-Chicago publisher
and Republican vice presidential
candidate in 1896, in regard to the
Office of Secretary of the Navy or
Secretary of War, were tentative ana
dependent on vacancy. ~-~
There are at present in the cabl-
net two former Republicans. Secre-
tary of Agriculture Wallace and
Secretary of the Interior Ickes. Po-
litical ties rested rather lightly on
the shoulders of several other men,
bers of the cabinet until they Joined
the "New Deal" among them Secre-
taries Hopkins, Perkins, Edison and
Morgenthau. The cabinet contains
four active, full-time Democrats
Secretary of State Hull, Secretary
of War Woodring, Attorney General
Jackson and Postmaster General
Farley.
La Guardia Doomed for Post.
Coupled with the reports that Mr..
Woodring is to be eased out of office
is the prophecy that Mayor Fiorello
La Guardia of New York is to be
picked for Secretary Of War. The
supporters of the La Guardia boom
say he will be able to dramatize the
defense program, that he is a perfect
dynamo of energy, and he would
do good job. Mr.. La Guardia can
not be considered a Republican by
the widest stretch Of the imagina-
ton, although he at one time was
elected to the House with q Repub-
lican nomination and more recently
had the backing Of the Republicans
in New York for mayor. He is an
out-and-out New Dealer, and has
become member of the American
Labor party.
While the New Dealers would
like to have Mr.. La Guardia in the
cabinet, they realize he will be a
strong ally in New York in the No
vember elections, if he remains as
Mayor. They may need him there.
At present five members of the
cabinet hail from New York-and if
La Guardia were named Secretary
OF War there would be six New
Workers in the Presidents official
family out of a total of 10. Secre-
taries Morgenthau, Hopkins and
Perkins were appointed from New
York, and so were Attorney General
Jackson and Postmaster General
Farley. OF the other four, Secretary
Edison Is from New Jersey, Secre-
tary Hull from Tennessee, Secretary
Woodring from Kansas and Secre-
tary Ickes from Illinois.
There Is talk, also, of Mr.. La
Guardia as a vice presidential NOM
inee, in the event President Roose-
velt himself does not run. The New
York Mayor has never run as a
Democratic nominee-although he
has had Republican and Socialist
nominations, and that of the Amer
lean Labor party.
Considerable Friction.
At one time there was expectation
that Assistant Secretary Of War
Houis johnson would be promoted
to be Secretary of War. Indeed, in
some quarters it was said the job
had been promised to Mr.. johnson.
Because of this situation, there has
been considerable friction in the
War Department. Now it is said