Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-04-21
A CoIumnis+
Eulogizes
Colleague
johnson Hard Worker
PeeIer Declares
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

HUGH JOHNSON worked
- harder than any other man
! ever knew.
He was better qualified by ex.
perience and education for the
role of eosmic colurnnist than
any other journalist in the coun-
try.
He was so tenaciously devoted
to his Job that he would not take
vacations and, as the paper said
in the dispatch from Washing
ton, he wrote his last column in
bed a few hours before he died.
OF course, he was very ex.
ceptional man, but his diligence
and his survival to the age Of
SO under the strain of long
hours and intense application
TO many tasks points the mawk.
ish. absurdity of the contention
that the law of diminishing re.
turns begins to run against the
efficiency Of human beings after
they have put in five working
days OF eight hours each in 4
calendar week.
TH1S poisonous political fall
l. lacy. dreamed up by some
soft-handed study-boy of the
New Deal Ivy League in the
early days of President Roose-
velt's first administration, had In
the beginning the worthy pur-
pose Of spreading the work and
the pay among the many. but II
never had any truthful basis and
Johnson flouted ii every day
his life. as do many other gov
ment administrators In
Washington today.
II the President. himself.
worked only eight hours a day
and only five days out of the
seven he would be so far behind
in his job that as of today he
would be boning up on the COM
plexities of the middle months
OF his second term or there
abouts.
WHEN Johnson was running
w NRA he often went "a
hours with no more than four Of
five hours off the job and after
he left he had so much energy
beyond the requirements of his
newspaper job that he went
bouncing all over the country
by plane filling lecture dates,
carried on a regular practice rs
a radio commentator and ground
out good articles for such an ex-
acting magazine as the Saturday
Evening Post.
He ran WPA In New York
and once. having time on his
hands, he holed up in the st.
Regis Hotel and from there ran
the Mile of Dimes Campaign for
the Infantile Paralysis Fund.
He gave his country more
service than he received credit
for and, although he was per-
sonally on the outs with the
President for some time before
he died, he was still as loyal to
the office OF the presidency and
10 his country as he was the day
he entered the Military Acad-
envy as an ungainly and slew
footed plebe.
His patriotism was the pure.
sentimental devotion Of the pro-
fessional army and navy which
cannot express itself in words,
and persists through all di
agreements with any policies o.
any passing administration com.
posed OF mere men.
T SUPPOSE we will have 10
L charge against him the fact
that he really made John l.
Lewis back in his NRA days,
but we can be very lenient. be-
cause Lewis then was playing
the role of a leader OF labor
and a fighter for labor's rights
and welfare.
In the same way. Hugh de-
veloped a terrific crush on Wen.
dell Willkie and wrote two
quite boastful articles which
boiled down 10 Il saw him first"
But one hero, at least, stood
up in Hugh's estimation TO the
end. That one is Bernard Ba-
ruch, to whom he maintained
the devoted and respectful at
titude of youth to a wise and
kindly elder.
In the early days Of the New
Deal, Hugh was belligerent
New Dealer and gave aggressive
service TO the President when
other men might have f1inched,.
as. for example. the time he took
10 the air TO fight both Huey
Long and Father Coughlin.
MOST men in politics were
NA afraid Of this vituperativs
and uns upu lous pair. but
Johnson tore into them, know
ing full well that they would
fight him back with all the dirty
tricks of which Huey was and
the cunning Detroit politician
remains a master.
On terms of truth he would
have licked them. but you can't
box a rattlesnake according to.
Queensberry rules, and Hugh.
lust sacrificed himself for III