Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-08-09
Wilson's Set to Leove
Turbulent Capitol Scene
BY the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press
Tart-tongued Charles Erwin
Wilson will be leaving WASH
ington in q few weeks, having
survived some turbulent times
in his AZ years as Secretary
of Defense.
The stocky, ite-haired. ST.
year-old former president Of
General Motors resigned last
Wednesday. President Eisen-
hover nominated another big
business man, Neil H. McElroy
of Cincinnati. to succeed the
Detroiter.
Mr.. Wilson will stay on few
weeks longer to help Mr.. Nc
Elroy get acquainted with the
complex job, which oversees
expenditure of billions every
year to keep America strong
and at least abreast in the
atomic weapons race.
Then, the son Of a Minerva,
Ohio, school teacher will take
a vacation and what his out
spoken wife Jessie terms a we'll
earned rest.
When Mr.. Eisenhower picked
Mr.. Wilson for his cabinet
shortly after the 1852 election,
the automobile magnate COM
mented he would give the Pen
tagon job the "darndest whirl
1t ever had"
BluntneSs Will Be Missed
Many will agree he did just
that, and made a good job of
it. Sometimes he had more
money to spend than he asked
for. At other times. as at pres
ent, he was forced to make
some cutbacks when Congress
gave him several billions less
than he wanted.
Some critics were saying last
year that he had outlived his
usefulness. But most will no
doubt agree that his salty and
outspoken. though, at times ad-
mittedly "inept." remarks. will
be missed and the Capital will
be the duller for it.
For all his bluntness, Mr.. !
Wilson stayed on more than
twice as long as any of his four
predecesSors-and longer than
al four combined.
The first Secretary. Jemes
Forrestal. resigned and, broken
by the immense burden of his
job. committed suicide. The |
second. Louis johnson, was
busted by President Truman
The third. Gen. George c.
Marshall. served out his assign
ment for a year. then resigned.
Mr. Wilson succeeded Robert
A. Lovett. who had announced
he intended 70 leave before he
knew the 1852 election would
bring a change in admins
tration.
Fight Over Confirmation
Mr.. Wilson's task was a
tough one from the very start. /
When he took over January
%, 1858. after a To-day bitter
fight over Senate confirmation,
he became a referee in a hot
feud over the strategic roles of |
the Air Force. Navy and Army
"a scrap which has not been
completely settled yet.
Further. he has had to lead
the armed forces into a new
era Of warfare-rockets, guided |
missiles and atomic power
while at the same time trying
to maintain an economically |
feasible organization capable of
handling all defense require
mentS.
He had to ride out the storm
whipped up by the late Sena-
tor Joseph r. McCarthy's
charges that the Army coddled
Communists. He also had to
allay the tempest stirred by re-
ports that Secretary Of the Air |
Force Harold E. Talbot used
his Government job to promote !
his private interests. Mr.. Tai
bott denied the reports, then
quit.
A former associate Of Mr.. |
Wilson at the Pentagon de-
scribed him as lone of the
greatest guys I ever worked
with" His Republican defend
ers in Congress say he has done |
a good job and should be |
judged on performance. not by
what one of them called his
mistaken" remarks.
Perhaps the biggest uproar
Of criticism this year for what |
some have called his "foot-in-
mouth" statements followed his |
January, remark that the Ma
tional Guard was a refuge for