Evening star., 1952-05-23
KEN Asserts Truman
ATTENDED 194S Party
Given by Jack Cowari
By jones {. Roper

Senator KEN. Republican, of
Missouri, said today that Jack
Cowart, fired Agriculture Depart
ment official, moved in high DEM
ocratic circles. even serving as
host at party which President
Truman attended.
Senator KEN mentioned the
party as Secretary of Agriculture
Brannan started his third day of
testimony before the Senate
Agriculture Committee.
Senator KEN asked Mr.. Bran
nan whether he attended a party
January Z. 1948, which he said
Cowart gave honoring House
Speaker Rayburn with President
Truman attending.
Lets say I was there" Secre-
tary Brannan replied irritably.
Senator KEN had criticized Sec
retary Brannan for failing to act
in June. 1850, when he received q
| tip that Cowart was attempting an
apparent Shakedown against a
Texas cotton company then in
legal trouble.
did the fact that Cowart was
moving in these high Offices in
fluence your treatment of him?"
Senator KEN asked.
Calls Conduct Clear.
''My conduct toward Cowart is
Clear" Secretary Brannan replied,
lexplaining that he fired Cowart
August %, 1851, a few days after
receiving a formal report from
department investigators that
Cowart accepted an illegal plea
from people doing business with
the Government and also took a
kickback from warehouse COM
pany storing commodities for the
department. Committee Chair
man Ellender of Louisiana has
termed Cowart "a common crook. "
The 1850 tip against Cowart
came. from Washington attorney
Daniel L. O'Connor, lawyer for the
Port Compress Co., Corpus Christi,
Tex. The company at the time
had lost its license for irregulari-
ties with customers cotton.
According to Mr.. O'Connor,
Cowart said he could get the Ii
cense renewed within 80 minutes"
if the company leased its facilities
to him. He also said he could get
the legal proceedings against the
company dropped if he obtained
the lease, according to the O'Con-
nor account.
Checked Personally.
Mr.. Brannan said he looked into
the matter personally but did not
turn over the O'Connor memo
randum to the compliance and in
vestigation division which checks
on Irregularities in the depart
ment.
"You didn't think the memo
randum contained enough infor-
nation to warrant investigation?'
asked Senator KEN.
That's right" Secretary Bran
nan replied. "The O'Connor
memorandum constituted nothing
more than an alert to us that we
prosecute the Port Compress peo-
Iple aggressively-and we did"
Senator Ellender remarked
That's not the way I interpret it. u
Mr.. Brannan, needed further
by Senator KEN, said he thought
the memorandum reported only "a
lot of yakking between Texas
people"
THAT memorandum don't say
anything about anybody" Mr..
Brannan blurted.
Accused in "Kickback."
Committee Counsel Paul j. Cot
ter yesterday gave the Senators
the latest chapter in the saga OF
Cowart.
Committee Counsel Cotter told
the committee that, on Tuesday,
he called on Secretary Brannan
land the Secretary's personal aide,
Wesley McCune. Mr.. Cotter said,
at the time, neither Secretary
Brannar nor Mr.. McCune could
remember receiving the O'Connor
memorandum.
But when Mr.. Cotter started to
read a copy of the memorandum
Into the record. Secretary Bran
nan volunteered that he and Mr..
McCune had been able to locate
ha ORIGINAL.
i Secretary Brannan said he
could not remember the case two
days earlier because Mr.. Cottel
had characterized the incident as
la hake-down."
"This is not the case at ALL
Secretary Brannan said. "At the
time. I found that Cowart ha6
mo authority over Port Compress