Evening star., 1941-04-06

WILLIAM J. DONOVAN.
When this picture 1UaS taken he
1OaS telling congressional COM
mittee 1Dhy he tapored Selectiue
service legislation. A. P. Photo.
to push his way through Cool is the
word the men use of him and cool is
their highest epithet for a man OF dar-
ing, resolution and indifference to danger.
Wounded Three Times.
LAS soon as the advance began to slow
up under heavy losses, he passed to the
front line of the leading elements The
motto of the Donovan clan must be,
Come on 1t was Come on, fellows, it's
better ahead than it is here or Come on,
We'll have them on the run before long
He would stand out in front of the men
lying in shell holes into which he had
ordered them and read his map uncon-
cernedly with the machine gun bullets
kicking up SpurtS of dust around his
feet. 1t was more like Civil War pic
ture than anything we have seen in this
ing forward, led by their commander" :"
He was made a lieutenant colonel in
September of 1918 He was thrice
wounded. At the crossing of the Ourcq
near Cote de Chatillon, with his leg
broken by a rife bullet, he refused to
leave his command until relieved by an
other battalion At the end of the war,
honors were heaped upon the hero. He
holds seven war decorations, the Dis
tinguiShed Service Cross, the Legion of
Honor Croix de Guerre with Star, Croix
de Guerre with Palm, Distinguished
Service Medal, Italian War Cross and the
Congressional Medal of Honor, the latter
conferred on him in 1923.
Siberian Mission.
In 1919 he went on mission in Siberia
to investigate the status of Kolchaks
army. Returning, he settled down to
follow the career that seemed to lie so
promisingly before him. One thing he
vowed and that was that he would not
trade on his military exploits. With one
or two minor exceptions, he has lived
oP w NlIot PAIN6Cs LII lIIC UulpOlHIOlC
of this conspicuously decorated American
are no ribbons no rosette
Col. Donovan was appointed United
States attorney for the western district
of New York in 1922. 1t was the era of
prohibition. Col. Donovan had not been
in office long when Federal agents raided
the exclusive Saturn Club, the club he
had joined after his marriage into the
Rumsey family. In the lockers of many
members liquor was found and prosecu-
tions followed
This fortnight action stirred bitter
hatreds and resentments. But the dis
trict attorney seemed not at all dis
turbed. He lived up to the dry law, al
though he let it be known that he did
not approve in the principle of prohibi-
ton. President Coolidge rewarded him
by appointing him Assistant Attorney
General in charge of the Criminal Di-
vision. This was in 1924. Less than
year later he was made First Assistant to
the Attorney General, and when John
Garibaldi Sargent of Vermont was named
head of the Department of Justice, it
was Assistant Attorney General Donovan
who really ran the show
Promoted Hoover Candidacy.
BY temperament a conservative, Col.
Donovan was well equipped for that role
in the fabulous 'twenties He talked
winningly of the antitrust laws which
called, he said, for traffic cop rather
than big stick. But the traffic cop
that Col. Donovan put on the antitrust
the growing monopoly concentration
which went with the boom. Prohibition
made the headlines.
Col Donovan became extremely active
in promoting Herbert Hoover for Presi-
dent. In the handsome Georgetown
house he had acquired by Bushrod
Washington, a nephew of the first Presi-
dent-he held repeated off-the-record
meetings with political groups interested
in promoting the candidacy of the Sec
retary of Commerce. Mr.. Hoover got into
the habit of using Col. Donovan and his
house. He would telephone to say that
he was bringing eight for luncheon or
a half dozen for dinner. 1t was a con-
venient hideout where the lines were laid
that led finally to victory.
Triumphant, Mr.. Hoover departed on
a battleship to escape importunate job
seekers. Every one assumed that, of
course Col. Donovan would be Attorney
General in his cabinet. Toward this his
career had been pointing. In magazines
and newspapers anticipatory articles ap-
peared recounting Col Donovan's career.
Then to every ones amazement President
Hoover passed him by and named Will
liam D. Mitchell to be his Attorney Gen.
eral
When he broke the bad news, Mr..
Hoover is said to have got from Col.
Donovan q tongue-lashing such as he
had never had before. According to
!