The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-05-15


smear purity. The same thing goes
for men in public life. A correc-
ton never quite catches up with the
original version, and two recent in
cidents in Washington have strik-
ingly emphasized this maxim.
The first concerns Jesse Jones,
secretary of commerce. Six months
ago he unquestionably was one OF
the two or three most important
men In Washington. Then some OF
the Jones-made defense contracts
for aluminium and rubber and 9TH
er war supplies were criticized and
the people within the administra-
ton who didn't like Jones built a
lot of bonfires under the Jones seat
Of power
When the President transferred
some of the federal mortgage ac-
tivities into the new National
Housing Agency in an effort to CEN
tralize the woefully scattered ana
frightfully inefficient housing pro-
gram, the anti-Jones clique set up
O yell that Jones was repudiated.
When the Jones title Of Federal
Loan Administrator was abolished
and the agencies in that set-up were
transferred to the Department OF
Commerce, the cry was raised that
Jones was through.
When presidential order gave
the Board of Economic Warfare
the power to issue directives to
these loan agencies, the shout arose
that Jones was busted and the In
ference was that he should resign.
HE FOOLS EN-
Well, Jesse is still doing business
at the same old stands, only more
of 1t. He still controls his check
books and this matter of issuing
directives turns out to be nothing
more than the power to work with
the Jones agencies and tell them to
finance operations in places ana
situations they haven't been work.
ing before.
AS a matter of fact, the Board
of Economic Warfare had to take
little setback when Secretary OF
State Cordell Hull returned from
vacation and forced a showdown on
the principle that If deals were to
be made with foreign governments,
the State Department would have
to approve them and make them.
Even then the full story didn't
come out. BEW had to take the
rap of this chiseling In on state
Department functions, but others
were equally guilty. Among them'
the ONCE of the Petroleum Co.
ordinator-the Hon. Harold L. Ickes1
which had vast ambitions of rum
ming the worlds oil supply and
dreamed of sending out diplomatic
missions of its own to do 1t. The
slap BEW took in public really was
delivered behind the scenes to
Ickes.
The second case of Washington
legend never quite catching up with
itself concerns Lowell Mellett, d.
rector of the Office of Govern
ment Reports. Early in the de-
tense effort, a slick paper magazine
printed piece to the effect that
Mellett was to be chief censor, min
lister of propaganda, the George
Creel of the present war. All the
denials that Mellett has made never
have removed from him this brand
and stigma of an American Goeb-
bells.
KNOW THEIR ANSWERS
Currently, ONCE of Government
Reports has moved into a new IN
formation Center in downtown
washington, and everyone is dis
covering it is a great thing. At the
center big oval bar, actual, positive
answers are dished out to all sorts
of impossible questions about the
thousands of facets of the wartime
CAPITAL. Yet in the inception and
building of this center, Mellett was
subjected to a merciless barrage
Of brickbats, including the old one
that this was to be headquarters
for the ministry of propaganda:
From the beginning, Mellett mas
insissed he doesn't want that Joo,
he doesn't believe in censorship or
propaganda, he does believe IN
free press and free constructive
criticism of government. even
though 1t admits personal panning
of the President, to whom ne IS
intensely, devotedly loyal. In spite
Of ali this, Mellett's name is stu
mentioned as likely prospect for
the lob of overall boss OF the gov
ernment's information and CENSOR
shin setups. He'll never live 1t down,
for legends and rumors simply cant
way- a. ssnf rfnaa