Evening star., 1944-12-05

question of the charges against the
Attorney General made by his ousted
assistant. Mr.. Littell has put his
allegations on % pages of paper and
the proper committee of Congress
should have no difficulty in deter
mining whether those allegations
require answers from the Attorney
General Meantime here is the sit
uation as seen by many in the Gov
eminent
The Attorney General is legal ad-
wiser to other members of the cab
met. 1t is his duty to give to any
department the views of his depart
ment on legal questions. If he desires
to carry his opinions further he can
take them to the President as the
proper person to decide any differ
ences. Francis Biddle, as Attorney
General, has followed that practice.
Jealous Servant.
Mr.. Littell, assistant in charge of
the lands division, has seemed to
have a different concept Of Gov
ernment operation. believing instead
in government by public ruckus A
jealous public servant himself, he
has not always been disposed to
credit other members of the admin
istration with an integrity equal to
his own. Rather than a conference
with a party he considered at fault,
he liked a conference, preferably
public, with a committee of Con-
gress. The results obtained were
usually the same save that his
method promoted bad feeling rather
than good
There was the case of Secretary
Knox and the Elk Hills naval oil
reserve. Doubt concerning the con-
tract being made with the Standard
Oil Co. was first expressed by Abe
Fortas, then solicitor of the In
terror Department, in a memoran-
dunn to Secretary IckeS. Mr.. Ickes
presented this to Secretary Knox,
who promptly put it before the
President. The President referred the
contract to the Attorney General
and the latter turned it over to the
expert attention OF Mr.. Littell. Mr..
Littells finding was the same as
that of MI. Fortas. The Attorney
Generals course in the circum-
stances was to present his finding
to the Secretary of Navy, giving
the Secretary an opportunity to
take the necessary action, there
being no question of the Secre-
taryS readiness to do SO. Mr. Lit
tells course, however, was to take
the story to a committee of the
House and create public sensation.
The contract was Cancelled, of
course, as most certainly would
have happened in any case.
There was the case of the Break
ers Hotel in Palm Beach. Mr.. Lit
tell, with excellent reasons, OBJ
jected to the abandonment of the
famous resort as military hospital.
Having prepared memorandum at
the request of Gen. Somerveil, he
asked that it also be sent to the
Secretary of War. Solicitor General
Fahy forwarded the memorandum
to Secretary Stimson but was sur
prfSed to learn that Mr.. Littell al
ready had given it to the Truman
committee. What Secretary Stim-
son might have done in the light
Of Mr. Littell's memorandum, there
is no way of knowing, since he had
to act instead in the glare of a
public explosion. Mr.. Stimson
doubtless didn't care any more for
this manner of doing business than
had his fellow Republican. Mr..
Knox, in the instance cited above.
Costly Blunder
Jealous as congressional COM
mittees properly are of their pre-
negatives, they may still see some
thing in the point of view of the
cabinet members.
OF the other allegations contained
in Mr.. Littell's statement, the one
to excite the headlines, naturally,
is that charging undue susceptible
ity on the part of the Attorney
General to the influence of Thomas
G. CorcOran. Mr.. Corcoran was
one of the attorneys representing
the Savannah Shipyards Co.,
against whose property condemna-
ton proceedings were undertaken
by the Justice Department for the
Maritime Commission. The at
torneyS for the company sought to
obtain settlement without going to
trial-a very usual procedure-and
the Attorney General is charged