The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-08-21

l dAll EACoo docONAd- tions plucked certain pages out of context in such way as to make it appear that he was blasting bus inessmen."
 Well, there can be no doubt about that. National Association of Manu- lecturers has just compiled a broadside labeled what editors think about 1CKES and business men," on which are reproduced about six square feet of clippings of editorials, all of which take Ickes to task for his alleged remarks.
 In short, this speech bounced, and the secretary would now like to suck 1t back or correct whatever false impression it may have given. LOOK AT THE TEXT
 To be perfectly fair about these things, all you have to do is go back and look at the text to see what MT. Ickes really said. Follow ing is one of the paragraphs on which he was so unjustly banned:
 Ut isn't the New Dealers who have been running this war. I chal- lenge anyone to name names and fix responsibilities. If know any, thing about Washington 1t is that the dollar -a-year men have been | running the war-men like Knud- sen, Nelson, Stettinus, and many others whom I might mention. These are the men to whom the President has given vast powers" Toward the end of his speech, Ickes touched on this subject again to drive home his point, saying:
 T would remind you that as an indication of its intention to con- vert (the government to war) as quickly and as noiselessly as pos sible, the President did not turn the job of conversion over to a New Dealer 'bureaucrat' such as myself He summoned to Washington some of the greatest names in industry and put the owners of them to work. have sometimes ventured to think-all by myself, of ocurse- that this sudden and great influx of men who, while highly competent in their own fields, were inexperienced and untrained in and unsympathe- tic with government procedures, was not as well-advised as it appeared to be-"
 Well, there's the evidence. Was Harold taking the businessmen for a ride, or was he, in his inimitable manner, praising them with faint damns? And who should eat whose Words?-the editors or MT. Ickes?
 SECRETARIES
 SARCASM BACKFIRES
 But why all the anxiety to suck back on this speech?
 True, Ickes has 8 couple of grade A tycoonS working for him in Ralph D. Davies, of Standard Oil, now deputy petroleum administrator for war; and Carl E. Newton of c. and O. Railroad, now deputy coal mines administrator. If this type of ap- pointment has not turned out as we'll advised as it appeared to be, then Secretary Ickes as good up- standing bureaucrat should be the first to remedy the situation by re- moving his two subordinates from business and appointing in their places other bureaucrats like him. self. He isn't likely to do anything of the kind, and that of course is the best proof of the point that he thinks businessmen are okay.
 If that's what Secretary Ickes in tended to say in the first place, the ensuing argument can only be ex- plained by saying that his sarcasm is slipping. If so, no wonder it back fired.
 Big Business names are all over Washington, as Ickes says. If these businessmen let the Palace Guard and what's left of the New Dealers take the country away from them, it will be their own fault. Maybe Ickes shouldn't try to suck back on the original interpretation his re- marked called forth.