Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-09-16

the people. They
know him, to be sure, as a name and
it Is name which carries a unique
prestige. In a vague sort of way, they
may understand that as Chief of Staff
he is ranking officer of the United States
Army.
But as a public personality, COM
pared, say, with Macarthur, Eisenhower,
Halsey or Patton, he is almost negative
Like his opposite number in the Navy,
Admiral King, he makes few public ap-
pearances and few speeches. He is coll
orful and facile in extemporaneous
speech. Yet relatively few have heard
him at his best, for in public appear
ances he follows a prepared text He
gives no interviews. He makes no corn
ments for publication. He is never
quoted, by permission, unless he has
written out what he is going to say He
never coins pat phrase to adorn a
headline.
When Mr.. Byrnes, addressing some
$50 editors of leading American news
papers two and half years ago, paid
his tribute to Gen. Marshall the editors
rose to their feet and cheered. The rea-
son for SO unusual demonstration on
their part was that they had met Gen.
Marshall for the first time the day be-
fore and under circumstances that most
of them will remember for long time
to come
They had come to Washington for a
war meeting" Gen. Marshall, to most
of them was merely the man who hap
pened to be Chief of Staff Few had
ever seen him, nor did they know
enough about him to form any esti-
mate of what sort of man he was.
They were gathered in the Depart
ment of Labor auditorium for an off,
the-record discussion. Gen. Marshall
was introduced from the platform. In
stead of reading prepared paper from
the lectern, he left the platform and
came down to the auditorium floor to
stand among his audience. And then for
over an hour, without consulting a note
or pausing for word, he gave his lis
teners an outline of the war, of our
triumphs and our setbacks, our hopes
and disappointments, illustrating his
tale with anecdotes that would have
made fascinating reading matter.
When he left. the newspaper editors
were singing his praises as the outstand-
ing personality in Washington. They
could write nothing about him or what
he said, but when the editors got back
home to their Offices and their type
writer's the generals stature began to
assume more definite proportions in the
eyes of newspaper readers. He has had
a consistently friendly press ever since.
The editors might slam the War Depart
ment or the Army-but not Gen. Mar
shall.
Perhaps the impression he made on
the editors was not unlike his effect on
his British military colleagues at meet
ing in the boardroom of the Federal
Reserve Building on Constitution avenue
in late December of 1941-a few weeks
after Pearl Harbor. Winston Churchill
had reached Washington December 49,
bringing with him his top army, naval
and air force commanders. The mill
tary men of newly allied Britain and
America sat down and looked at each
other across the long, shiny table, highly
impressed by the elegant furniture used
by the bankers. Parenthetically, it
might be added that the meeting place
later was changed to the Public Health
Building, the boardroom of the Federal
Reserve Building being abandoned, ac-
cording to one explanation, on discovery
that an accessible fresh-air vent at the
ground level outside could make 1t pos
sible for an imaginative Axis agent with
a supply Of poison gas to wipe out the
top-ranking military men of two nations
at one fell hiss.
At this meeting, Gen. Marshall took
the floor and spoke on the theme that
victory would require unity of COM
mand. There must be not only COM
bined staff organization, but there must
be a man at the top-one man to give
the orders. Some of the men at the
table probably looked coldly down theii
noses at this American Army officer,
threatening to disturb the repose of
Drake, q Frobisher or Nelson by voic-
Ing the unutterable thought that His