Evening star., 1953-11-10
White
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w uuNS
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edged seeing a report on Feb
ruary 5, 1916. This was
the day before the Senate
confirmed White, then an Assist
ant Secretary of the Treasury.
to be United States executive di-
rector of the international Mon
etary Fund.
Mr.. Byrnes said he arranged
a White House conference with
Mr.. Truman the following day
Questioned on Action.
"I told President Truman I
had received a copy of the re-
port sent to him by (FBI Direc-
tor j. Edgar Hoover. that I was
shocked by its contents, and
asked what he intended to do
about it." Mr.. Byrnes said.
The President stated he had
read the report and that he also
was surprised.
when I asked the status of
the nomination of Mr.. White,
he said it was still pending in
the Senate. 1 told him. in view
of the charges contained in Mr.
Hoover's report, l thought he
should Immediately ask the Sem
ate to withhold action and then
withdraw the nomination.
'The President had a mem
ber of his staff telephone Leslie
Biffle, the Secretary of the SEN
ate. The President asked Mr..
Biff1e the status of the nomina-
ton, but did not give Mr.. Biffle
any reason for his inquiry. Mr..
Biffle the nomination had been
favorably acted upon that after
noon.
The President apparently
was as disappointed as / was
by the statement of Mr.. Biff1e.
In further discussing the matter,
I suggested to the President he
might ask some one in the Sen
ate about moving to reconsider
the vote by which the nomina-
ton was approved. He did not
think we'll of this suggestion.
Il then suggested to him that
the only other thing he could
do would be to refuse to issue
a commission to White. He said
he had been advised on a pre-
vious occasion that once the
Senate had acted he could be
required to sign a commission.
II told him if he should send
for White and tell about Hoover's
report. White would never re-
sort to the courts.
Il got the impression that the
President was disposed to fol-
low that course. However, he
said he wanted to think it over"
Mr.. Byrnes related that the
late Chief Justice Fred Vinson,
then Secretary of the Treasury.
also was quite worried about
the situation and said he was
going to talk to Mr.. Truman
about it.
Il heard no more from either
of them about the matter" Mr..
Byrnes said, but later 1 noticed
in the press that White was COM
missioned by the President and
became Executive Director of
the international Monetary
Fund"
Mr.. Byrnes' statement, issued
from the Governors Office in
Columbia, S. c., referred to the
FBI report of February, 1916.
He said he did not see the re-
port in December because he was
out of the country.
Two Versions of Break.
There are two versions of the
break between Mr.. Byrnes and
Mr. Truman. one given by each.
In an article in a national
magazine last year, Mr.. Byrnes
said he got along we'll with the
former President until 1949. In
that year, he said, he criticized
some of the administrations
domestic policies, and that
brought an explosion from Mr..
Truman.
In the book, "Mr. Truman"
written by William Hillman, Mr..
Truman indicated the break
came when the President in
1916 scolded Mr.. Byrnes, then
his Secretary of State. for his
work at the Moscow Conference
IN 1945. Mr.. Byrnes disputed
that version when the book came
out last year.
In any event, relations be-
tween the two former friends
have been frigid in recent years.
Spruille Braden, Assistant Sec
retary of State under Mr.. Brynes,
told The Star, however, that he
received a document similar to
the one Mr.. Brownell described
as the December report. He