The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-13
AS Pegler Sees It
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright. by King Features Syndicate, Inc

By WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features syndicate, 1nc.)
NEW YORK, Aug. 12-Elliott Roosevelt
has detained an emotional denial that he
ever used his fathers influence to get con-
tracts for the Hughes company, which PAID
more than 81, 400 Of the expenses of his third
wedding. He said substantially the same thing
shortly after his father died, when the fact
was disclosed that, with the old mans comfy
ance and help, he had chiseled 5000, 900 from
John Hartford. In the same season of good
hunting he took $50 900 from David G. Baird
and $25, 600 from Charles HARDWOOD. HarWood
frankly expected Roosevelt pere to make him
a judge of the United States District court.
Elliott dead-beat. most Of this total Of $275, 90,
but Harwood couldn't be gypped. Elliott's old
man didn't come through with the judicial
job and old Charlie refused. to give up his
collateral.
AT the time of this revelation, Elliott Roose-
welt was a brigadier general. He then hur-
ried out of the Army before the war with
Japan ended, rather than try to reconcile
his default of his just debts with military
law. However, he might not have been tried
because the Roosevelt brass was still mighty
and a democratic Congress was doggedly con-
cealing corruption which only now is begin
ming to come out.
In the present instance, Elliott says his
promotion to brigadier was rejected twice by
General Marshall, then Chief of Staff, after
it had been recommended by Generals Spaatz
and Eisenhower. He was temporarily turned
down, said he, because sit was unusual for
a man to have as rapid a rise and because
I was the son of the President"
1t was not merely unusual but disgraceful
that such a man should rise to the rank of
brigadier in a highly technical and scientific
branch in view of the fact that he had barely
the equal of a patched-up and pieced-out high
school education. He was a long-division boy
in a league of astral physics and he was
not a qualified military pilot. Spaatz and
Eisenhower were jumped from colonel and
lieutenant-colone respectively to the dazzling
ranks OF full general and general of the
armies. Roosevelt was good to officers who.
pleased him but vindictive to men who re-
fused to adjust their professional judgments
and their ethics to his. Admiral ]. O.. Rich
ardson was canned from of the
Pacific fleet because ne foretold Roosevelt
that it was suicidal to base the fleet at Pearl
Harbor and, in effect, told this bathtub Mel
son that he was just a mama's boy splashing
about with celluloid ducks under the eyes of
his nurse.
In his book, "As He Saw IT, by which
Elliott exploited his relationship to the cleo
ton returns for another $50, 900 in royalties,
the young tosspot boasts, between accounts
of drunken brawls of the gods of war, that
he personally got the Legion of Merit for
Eisenhower. He put the idea in his old mans
head and was delegated to see that General
Bedel Smith drew up a citation North
African campaign, Sicilian campaign, all
that'-as the President casually put it to
his cub.
On the very next page he is back again
on Topic A, booze. There he reports that
eight Navy chief cooks and stewards had
turned up at Cairo and that Il was not
needed to fill empty highball glasses for those
that wanted a drink"
1t could have meant little to Spaatz and
Eisenhower to recommend this hard drinking
young master Of moochery and household pol
itics for a rank in which he was so unim-
portant that he could be spared for historic
debauchery in Cairo and Teheran and long
spells of "relaxation,'' as he calls his pub
crawling, in New York, Washington and
Hollywood. Meanwhile, the young pilots who
flew the lone missions and, in many cases,
went down., lived in comparative squalor and
never got home to "relax." Spaatz and Eisen-
hover would have courted trouble had they
refused to recommend the promotion. 1t will
be observed that General Marshall did not
persist in his belief that this promotion would
embarrass the President but gracefully gave
in.
Inc menlal officers VINO Vlndlcated ROOSe-
welt and Marshall and lynched Kimmel and
Short in the inquiries after Pearl Harbor
WentSup to dizzy heights Notwithstanding the
grievous guilt of some of them.
Amos Immediately after the disclosure of
the gyp Of John Hartford, who was finally
trimmed of S196, 900 by Elliott and then bilked
of his collateral on false representations that
the stock was worthless, Elliott's counsel
turned out a press release which said that
any statement that his father ever had ''pro-
nancial dealings was "a deliberate, infamous
lie"
His lawyer at that time was Randolph Paul.
a new dealer, who had been general counsel
of the U. S. Treasury. Elliott had a new
mouthpiece at the current senatorial inquiry
into the cheesecake social life of the tarnish-
ed brass in Hollywood. Mr.. Paul may have
been misled by Elliott but, at any rate. it
was absolutely proved that President Roose-
welt did bird-dog John Hartford like any I'M
derworld chump-hustler along Broadway, and
personally rugged the scheme to gyp Hart
ford OF his security and turned it over to
Elliott's divorced wife, for alimony.
A few days later it was further shown that
Elliott arranged a dinner party with his pa
rents at the White House for Hill Blackett,
a Chicago advertising man. whom Elliott was
Fostering for business for his rattletrap radio
network. Blackett said, II assume the reason
I was invited was business. Like, you know
what I mean. I don't have to spell II out
for you. I have been entertained by lots OF
people who wanted business"
In still another job of White House rack
cheering, Elliott wrote Steve Early to defer
decision on an important public utility case
IN Texas until he. Elliott. could come to