Evening star., 1950-01-22
Departure of Clifford
Described as q Gain
Writer Says Presidential Adviser
Was Costly to Country
By Frank r. Kent

Was Costly to Country
By Frank r. Kent
Like number of other unadmirabls
habits established by the Roosevelts during
their years of power, that of capitalizing the
White House connection for personal pecu-
mary advantage continues under the Truman
administration. 1t is true. members OF the
Truman family have not individually prof1ted
in tile brazen and shameless way that marked
the individual Roosevelts. For that they
deserve credit.
Nevertheless intimate members of the cur
rent White House 'inner circle" have begun
to follow in the seductive footsteps Of the
Roosevelt insiders. These, after a period Of
enthusiastic advocacy of the redistribution Of
wealth theory and other similar New Dealish
notions, decided that the smart thing to do
with their accumulated influences was to step
out and gather in some wealth from those
who have 1t without waiting for an exceed
ingly dubious redistribution. In the Roosevelt
administration the most notable Of these "for.
ward-looking" men was Thomas c. Corcoran
(Tommy the Cork, gifted speech writer for
the President and handy man about the
White House, In the Truman administration.
Clark Clifford. Truman's speech writer, ad-
wiser and close friend, is the principal White
House figure to do Corcoran." AS In the
case of Mr.. Corcoran. friendly journalists
rushed to justify his entrance with his presi-
Dental intimacy as chief asset into the
lucrative Washington law field
y
1t was unfortunate that these friendly
journalists pictured Mr.. Corcoran as "a great,
unselfish public servant" just before he quit
the public service and hotly began to chase
dollars wherever he could find them. Mr..
Clifford has not left his literary sriogists
out on such q limb as that, and they have
done = good Job Of greasing him He n
portrayed as \ noble young man who made
great financial sacrifice" 10 serve his
country when he gave up . a3o,o0o-a-yeaY
law practice in st. Louis to become Mr.. Tru-
mans aide at q miserable $4,000. It Ii
said he could not live on that-or even on
the $40. 900 year he now receives. In order
to pay his debts and take care of his family,
he Is now forced to leave the public service
and open a law firm here The estimate In
that with his White House connections he
will make q minimum of 100000 q year.
The moral Is that we cannot expect to keep
-big men In the Government service unless
we pay them more.
OF course, all that Is nonsense. Neither
Mr.. Corcoran nor Mr.. Clifford made any
financial sacrifice when they entered the
public service-quite the contrary. Many men
find 1t possible to support families on $l2, 900
year without eating roots" and many
others do it easily on $20.o without going
into debt. Supreme Court justices get very
little more and members of Congress a rood
deal less. -
Exactly why we should be asked to weep
because Mr.. Clifford supposedly is not able
to make both ends meet on $4,000 q year is
not clear. The fact seems to be that Mr.
Clifford, like Mr.. Corcoran, ID leaving the
public service not because he is underpaid
or can't live on what he makes, but because,
like Mr.. Corcoran. he nightly yearns for the
heshpots and because the prestige. influence
and friends he has made % White House
aide Offer . marvellous means to crafty this
yearning. Mr.. Clifford, like Mr.. Corcoran, is
an engaging, intelligent and decent young
man. But 1t = absurd for his Journalistic
masssurs to insist that his departure Is q blow
to the Republic and to allege that all thought
ful Americans should be apprehensive and
ashamed. That is complete drtvel. It Ii per.
fectly natural that Mr.. Clifford like Mr..
Corcoran, should want to do the best he can
for himself and his family. But there is no
sense In being hypocritical about It, no reason
to distort the facts.
There was q time when what Mr.. Corcoran
has done and Mr.. Clifford proposes to do
would have seemed pretty dreadful. But the
Roosevelts destroyed the ethics that once
restricted White House exploitation and
Knocked down most Of the surrounding moral
standards. The result is That what 20
years ago would have been regarded as inn
proper on the part Of the individual is now
considered not only correct but actually can
be used by q certain class of writer's to lecture
the American people upon their alleged
faults OF omission. The case Of Mr.. Clifford
is made more striking by the assertion that
1t was he who worked night and day to per-
suade Mr.. Truman his only chance to avoid
ruin OF his political fortunes was to embraces
the so-called Fair Deal" In brief, without
Mr.. Clifford, there would be no Fair Deal"
today. with Clifford gone" his eulogists cry.
what will happen to the Fair Deal is any
body's guess" Well. considering its appalling
cost and the direction IN which it is taking
us. plenty will say that II Mr. Clifford acting
as the Truman political strategist, is respon-
sible for the Fair Deal" the country could
well afford to give him many times his
100000 minimum to get out.
wants to dispose of the ilsands, and 1t Ii
also understood that Germany would like
to get possession of them. This Government.
with the Monroe Doctrine, stands in the way
of the sale by Denmark to any European
power inasmuch as no such power cares at
this time to make the purchase In the face