Evening star., 1947-02-03

Frank II. Kent. opportunity 10
discover exactly what kind of man
the late Mr.. Roosevelt really was
will be lost through the clashlng
opinions of his dearest friends.
Here was Mr.. Morgenthau on the
verge OF revealing hundreds of intl-
mate incidents concerning the late
President, along with extremely
personal White House talks between
himself and his revered chief, to
say nothing of hundreds OF unin-
hibHed dictaphone-recorded con-
versations of totally unsuspecting
Treasury visitors. And then, just at
the critical moment, his great plan
is subjected to a whitening fire from
practically every quarter.
Morgenthau I'm Dilemma.
Probably Mr.. Truman Is sound
In his view that official documents,
etc., including recorded converse
tions and photostatic copies, are
the property Of the Government and
not of any retiring official. Further,
it is contended that decision as to
the propriety of publishing-par-
ticularly for pay-should rest with
the Government and not with the
retiring official.
Certainly that seems right. New
ertheless. Secretary Snyder's request
that Mr.. Morgenthau return to the
Treasury such copies of documents
and conversations, as clearly should
not have been taken nor now pub
lished. confronts Mr.. Morgenthau
with a rather horrid dilemma.
Either he can ignore the Govern
ment's request and print all the hot
stuff he has, thus subjecting him
self to great deal of justified cr1ti-
cism and, if Senator Ferguson gets
action, possibly to legal prosecution;
or he can eliminate or return the
more spirited conversational records
and the more interesting sdocu-
ments, thereby making his diary
the dullest as well as the longest In
history.
It is anything but a pleasant pre-
dicament for the well-meaning Mr.
Moreenthau. Nor is it made more
so by the vitriolic attacks of other
self selected defenders of the Roose-
velt memory who were almost as
worshipful as he. These are in a
high fever over the general accept
ance as completely accurate OF Mr..
Morgenthau's account in the f1rst
diary release of the manner in which
Mr. Roosevelt fixed the price of gold
(by picking lucky number-"2l"-
out of the air); by his reference to
Mr.. Acheson as "lightWeight";; by
his calling the head of the Bank of
England "Old Pink Whiskers," and
other similar wise and witty re-
marks.
Defenders See Roosevelt "Tease."
With vast heat, these troubled
souls denounce those who hold that
Mr.. Morgenthau's revelations along
these lines are interesting and sig
nificant as "ghouls" and "gravedig
gers" bent upon the desecration OF
the Roosevelt memory. They insist
that, of course, when Mr.. Roosevelt
talked that way to Mr.. Morgenthau
he was just teasing" him, merely
pulling his leg; that he had his ton
que in his cheek all the time and a
merry little twinkle in his eye. In
other words, it was just lot of
good, clean fun and Mr.. Morgenthau
is depicted as a humorless donkey
for not realizing 1t.
Mr.. Morgenthau is further in
dicted as a dolt for taking Mr.
Roosevelt seriously and, especially
for making public these innocent
frivolities Of heavily burdened
man, thus making it possible for the
"ghouls" and "gravediggers" Chow
they do love those words to distort
and misrepresent.
Thus, there appears a distressing