The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-07-12

One man they have in mind is Fred Searls, IT,, who recently con- tributed $2,OOO to the Dewey cam- paign, but who has an office in- side the White House as the right hand man of Justice Jimmy Byrnes and Will Clayton. He is No. aide in the disposal of vital surplus war property for which all the big companies are scrambling.
 Last week, Senator Scrugham of Nevada and his subcommittee on small mining business issued a scathing blast against Fred Searls, charging him with holding up the production of U. S. minerals for the benefit of big foreign mining firms. Searls is a heavy inves- tor in mines in Africa and Can- ada which compete with Ameri- can mines, and the committees in- ference was that SearlS was help ing his own foreign companies.
 Searls is the handspring of the Newmont Mining company. con- sidered a J. P. Morgan concern, which controls 28 large mines in Africa. South America and the Orient. He is also directcr of a half dozen other African, Can adian and Oriental mines.
 SEARLS' INFLUENCE
 Before coming over to the White House, Searls was with the WIPE facilities bureau, where he could grant, or deny facilities to mining firms. The Senate committee. in criticizing him, quoted from a letter written soon after Pearl Harbor in which, as a WIPE of- ficial. Searls opposed any increase in U. s. production of copper, zinc and other scarce metals.
 "This," according to the Sem
 ate committee, twas certainly
 placing the cart before the
 horse with a vegeance. Un-
 fortunately, this Searls policy, which could only have been
 based on a short-war viewpoint,
 was adopted by and steadily in- fluenced many of the War Pro- ductiOn Board mineral divisions ... its committees and its sue. cessors to date.
 "As production adviser to 0f-
 flee of War Mobilization Direc-
 tor Byrnes, continued the Sen-
 ate report, "it is not to be ex-
 pected that Searls' influence has
 been less than 1t was in his
 previous inferior position"
 Actually. Searls. simultaneously with being one of the ten largest contributors to Dewey, has been promoted. He is now right-hand man to Will Clayton in dispos- ing of surplus properties. Work ing closely with him is another J. P. Morgan man and an official in the Newmont Mining company, Franz Schneider.
 Acting with Clayton, former head of the worlds largest cotton firm, these two have virtual final word over what is to become of U. s. Government war plants that have cost the taxpayers millions. "OLD ARMY" ARMSTRONG
 When U. s. B-29's rained explo- sives on Japan's steel works. there was a story behind the scenes re- garding the officer who trained those expert pilots.
 That officer is Brig. Gen. Frank A. Armstrong, one of the most daring and best-loved of ficers ever to fly a plane over Germany. For months, Arm- strong, based in England. was in command of raid after raid over enemy territory and led them himself. At that time. he held the rank of colonel. Several times, planes were almost shot out from under him, but he kept on fly- ing.
 Coupled with his daring, "Old
 Army" as they call Armstrong,
 had an unusual knack of getting
 close to his men. They woF-
 So General Hap" Arnold wise Iy decided to capitalize on this by bringing Armstrong back to the U. s. A. to train the crews which were to undertake the most difficult bombing missions of the war over industrial Japan.
 Knowing that Armstrong might be shot down sooner or later if he insisted on flying with his men over Germany. Arnold or- dered "Old Army" home and out to Grand Island. Nebraska. There. above the prairies of Kansas and Nebraska, he has been training the men who Faided Japan and