Evening star., 1945-06-27

lIlS WllCUtlGI CIlllOlG 1GOOCCNClG lldo
reported as income or in any other
way the $4,000 which he was
ahead as a result of the transac-
ton.
And on Monday Mr.. Westbrook
Pegler, who first printed the svoly,
not only reiterated his charges but
asserted that Elliott, aided by his
father, had borrowed lot more
than the 100000.
From time to time other men,
bers of the minority party IN and
out of Congress will call attention
to this incident and reiterate the
demand. But apparently these de-
mands are going to get neither &C
ton nor information.
The Ways and Means Committee
Is interested in the matter solely
from the taxation angle as applied
to Mr. Hartford of the Atlantic &
Pacific Tea Co., who loaned Elliott
the money, and who, it is said,
charged the $4,000 off his income
tax as a bad debt AS neither in
terest nor principal had been paid
it would seem that if ever there
was a bad debt this was one.
That, however, is what the COM
mittee wants to make sure of, and
some time this week a report from
its tax expert on the subject is ex-
pected.
Desire to Forget Seen.
Beyond that there is no expecta-
ton the committee will go, and
there seems general desire to for
get the whole business. But this
seems not the kind of incident that
can be forgotten-or should be for
gotten-for it too directly involved
the late President. who was not a
private individual but a public off,
cial and whose acts were properly
of public concern.
1t has been publicly and repeat
edly stated without contradiction
that before the loan was made Mr.
Roosevelt talked with Mr. Hartford
over the telephone, called him by
his first name Though he had never
seen him), asked him to come see
him some time in Washington and
thanked him for the favor he was
about to do his son.
Three years later, presumably at
the request of the President, Mr.
Jones, then Secretary of Commerce
and head of the RFC, settled the
loan for $4,000. Who paid the $4,000
hoc MT Iico1ocoI
If these charges are allowed to
stand, as they now do, without con-
tradiction, impartial historians Of
Mr. Roosevelt are bound to include |
them in any account of his career.
AS they stand, they so obviously re-
fleet discredit that It seems strange
his family and friends should be
willing to let them sink into the
record without some sort of expla-
nation or defense. Yet, apparently,
that is what they intend to do.
In the past, Elliott Roosevelt, now
IN this country, has been voluble,
and even truculent, in issuing state
ments replying to members of Con-
gress whom he thought had re-
1lCSOCo QpOil 1lllIl vi LID D.
In the matter of the dogs which he
shipped by air to his wife from
Europe to California mis- side was
fully presented by himself and his
friends.
But in this case, while 1t was re-
ported over the radio that he had
engaged lawyer to look after his
interests" he has made no public
statement and has let the facts as
given by Mr.. Hartford about the
loan, about his fathers part in 1t
and about the settlement through
Mr.. Jones, stand without contra die
ton.
Friends at DISADVANTAGE.
This has left Mr.. Roosevelt's
friends at a disadvantage. With
nothing with which to refute the
charges, they fall back upon attack
ing Mr.. Hartford. They impute
self-protection and slightly sinister
motives to him in making the loan
and to Mr.. Jones in making the
settlement. They try to make it
appear something akin to sacrilege
to print the facts or discuss them
and those who do so are described
as "ghouls" and denounced as
Roosevelt haters."
None of this, however, is adequate
or relevant. 1t isn't even adult. To
dodge the issue and resort to abuse
is not a help to the late Presidents s
reputation-rather the reverse.
The way to deal with This is to
prove-if it can be proved-that Mr. !
Hartford was wrong when he said
Mr.. Roosevelt thanked him on the
phone for the favor he was about
to do his son, and to prove that
Mr.. Jones never was asked by the
President to settle the loan and
never did settle it for cents on
the dollar, and to prove that the
Congressman who said the other
day that there were other loans of
this kind that have not vet come
to light is also in error.
A real service ron he dopo tba 1.4.