The Wilmington morning star., 1947-01-31
As Pegler Sees 1t
Bv MYSTERIOUS PEGLER

The Roosevelt boys Jimmy and Elliott, have
earned historic importance of a sort by their
spectacular adventures in business and finance
during their fathers long presidency. They
were young men of luxurious appetities to
whom the ethical restraints which their indul-
gent father sometimes acknowledged FOR the
political record, were artificial, fastidious and
invalid. The record Of the presidency from
Washington down to Truman shows no COM
parable conduct by members OF any other
Presidents family in lines of business and
promotion that we're questionable at best, and
in some cases, flagrantlv cynical and under
handed. President Grant fell into trouble after
he had left office and shaved until his death.
sacrificing even his sword to pay debts which
he had incurred IN innocent association with a
swindler.. Harding never was accused OF taking
a dishonest dollar for himself or suffering the
presidency to be exploited for the financial
profit of anv relative.
Although the Roosevelt administrator is now
notorious in this respect, although the War In
vestigation committee of the Senate has re-
vealed lesser scandals, the only official con-
gressional. investigation into any OF
these activities of members of Presi-
dent Roosevelt's family was a negative ana re-
luctant sitting of the Ways and Means Com
mittee of the House on the subject OF Elllott's
defaulted loans. The committee. then controlled
by the Democrats. did not call a single Wit
ness. 1t took 10 testimony. 1t relied entirely on
a record presented by the Treasury. which
conducted an inquiry in a sympathetic atmos-
phere and it ruled only on the question Wheth-
e1 John Hartford and other lenders had had a
right to write off their loans as bad debts.
The committee even tried to make the Trea-
sury's record unavailable for study by limit
ing to about a dozen the copies OF the report
that were released for the press. The report
never was printed.
H. ;-,o co%;oo ~ this Nh n 1T tho praei.
dents chara cter. and his character and honor
certainly were involved. has been conducted
entirely by private initiative. The results, al
though thew were obviously incomplete, con-
%stitute. an indictment of Mr.. Roosevelt mas
much rs he obviously knew what his boys and
his wife were doing and the enterprises in
question plainly flouted his own protested prin-
ciples and ethics Mrs. Roosevelt's adventure
as a radio broadcaster on the so-called coffee
program. under auspices which promised the
cooperation of the State Department, was an
episode in this record.
We have been reading lately OF an amazing
diary kept by Henry Moreenthau. who as sec
rotary of the Treasury would seem to have
had no time for anything else so great is the
volume of his memoirs This record should
tell us about Jimmy Roosevelt's brief term as
president of the National Grain Yeast Corpora.
ton, Of Belleville. NJ. j., and of Morgenthau's
own official activity in the incident. More like
ly. it won't.
Hitherto, no thanks to any official agency.
it has been established that in 1885, when
Jimmy was % years old. he suddenly became
president of this corporation. whose boss was
then and is today one Frank ]. Hale, who
had been a prohibition agent in the Coolidge
administration. Old government officials who
had to keep still when Roosevelt was President
and until they retired now are less reticent.
One of these. who had a high position in the
treasury over many years. recently stated that
Hale, during a golf game with his chief in
the prohibition service. had promised to make
this man rich by Investments. He said that
some time later this superior officer was call
ed into the office of the Secretary of the
Treasury. confronted with this report and dis
missed. Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, then
assistant United States Attorney General n
charge of prohibition enforcement. testified be-
fore a Senate committee investigating cam
paign expenditures in 1928 that Hale himself
had been "summarily dismissed from the
service. ...',.
Hale later bobbed up in the yeast company
and hired Jimmy Roosevelt at SIS. 600 a year.
Jimmy knew nothing about the yeast business.
He was only five years out of college.
His job was announced on July y, 1885,
and on Nov. 20. his resignation was reported.
Whether he was paid in full for a year or for
the term of his contract the latter announce
ment did not say.
lust before repeal m.ny questionable op'
orators applied to the Treasury for PERMITS
to manufacture alcohol. Hale's company mao
made such an application in 1929 ana hao
been turned down, AS soon as .Jlmmys new
Job was announced. five agents of the Treasury
were rushed from WASHINGTON to Newark and
Belleville, N. j.. to investigate the yeast com
pany. its owners and Jimmy's new lob. In a
&C.,. low. %bau ~ olo , rnnOrf Of S1rh urgent
importance that it was flown to Washington.
Jimmy had invited his new associates to HYDE
Park for a picnic at his fathers estate on Fri
day of that week. When the agents report
WIS read in Washington, the picnic was called
off.
If this was a legitimate job at $500 a week
for a youth of %. earned bv his own extra
ordinary ability and reputation when thou
sands of excellent executives were on the
market and millions were poor. whv did he
quit abruptly? Are Treasury agents. in bunch
es of five, paid salaries merely to conduct
confidential investigations of the business con-
~nections of a Presidents son? The announce
ment of Jimmy's resignation said the "di-
%rectors" of the company felt that he could
have given better results if he had given
more time to the lob. so then it was lust
a part-time lob that was paying him $500 a
week at the age of %.
In Ell1otts testimony given TO the treasury
he said at one point that he resrained from
asking members of the family to lend him
money because as children they had fought
over nickels. Nevertheless he said be hae
received a gift Of SO. 1000 or $4,000 from Jim
nv. They had fought over nickels .as children,
but he couldn't rereroher whether the
amount was $4,000 or 81, 900, or the date Of
the gift.
In Jimmy's own story in Golfers. publishes
in 1888, %purporting to reveal his financial af-
feirs under the title "1'm Glad You Asked
Me-" he listed bad debts of So BOSS. No .ex-
nlapation was given in Golfers. as the dead
beat debtor was not identified.
Allen Treadway. a congressman from Mass
achusetts, complained at the time when the