SLATTERY GETS THE SMEAR TREATMENT

...The Cooperative Movement Slattery Gets The Smear Treatment By Miles MeMillin THERE can be little doubt that the Roosevelt Administration has decided that the best way to slip out of the jam on the Rural Electrification Administration is to concentrate its big guns on REA Administrator Harry Slattery and keep firing...

...Becker also charged that a Department of Agriculture investigation of alleged pressure brought by REA officials to have copper used in REA projects instead of cheaper aluminum had been "whitewashed...

...He denied that the appointment was dictated by political considerations, although he admitted under questioning that he had consulted with no one from the Republican National Committee...

...Both Wickard and Slattery are expected to be called back for further questioning, at which time the latter will be given an opportunity to defend himself against the charges of the Administration...

...He also got into trouble with the committee in his discussion of the appointment of deputy administrator William Neal, whom Slattery charges usurped his duties...

...WMAC, New York, recently purchased by Nathan Straus', former head of the Federal Housing Administration, has lowered the bars and will sell time to co-ops and labor unions...

...Becker stuck to the memorandum report although Craig had previously denied discussing the plan with him...

...Appearing before the subcommittee and admitting that he spoke with the approval of the President, Wickard read a 6,000-word statement in which he asserted that he had reason in the last three years to doubt Slattery's integrity, veracity, and ability...

...The business forces organized for a drive against co-ops in this country because they give patronage dividends have a counterpart in England...

...Secretary Claude Wickard of the Department of Agriculture, whose Nagency is responsible for the administration of REA, served notiee that the Roosevelt Administration has called a halt to the kid-glove treatment of the REA chief and that from now on no punches will be barred in the fight to oust him...

...But in addition to such economic benefits, we see in well-formed and well-operated cooperatives great social, educational, and moral advantages...

...The President also sent a eor-dial message...

...Although Roosevelt's supporters have denied that the White House was backing the Association on the theory that it might play a big part in this year's campaign, it was noted that when the organization held its annual convention in Chicago recently, Eugene Casey, political contact man for the Administration, spoke at the meeting...

...A prominent public official has seldom been publicly smeared as Slattery has been smeared by Administration officials appearing before the Senate Agriculture subcommittee investigating REA...

...He told committee members that he had evidence of these things long before the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a voluntary group of REA coops whose officials launched the public move to throw Slattery out, began its campaign...

...Becker Sticks To Memorandum Neal, the secretary said, was selected after a conference with Ambrose O'Connell, vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee...

...WMCA Lifts Ban On Co-ops At least one radio station in this land of "free enterprise" has the courage to defy the National Association of Broadcasters' ban on selling time to the coops...

...From the statement of principles adopted at the wartime meeting of the executive committee and advisory board of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference: "Organized on a democratic basis and controlled by democratic methods, cooperatives are among democracy's best defenses...

...A saloonkeeper's group in the Manchester district has objected to the renewal of the license of the only co-op "pub" in Britain because it pays patronage dividends...

...They are organized primarily to achieve economic purposes...

...Observers took these gestures to mean that Roosevelt would stick with the Association despite the battle now raging in REA...

...John A. Becker, former REA official in Wisconsin, appeared as a witness also to testify concerning the now-famous memorandum concerning the National Association which he said he prepared after an alleged conversation with Robert Craig, former deputy REA administrator...

...Wickard could offer no satisfactory reason, when questioned by committee members, why he failed to act on the evidence before the Association began agitating to get rid of the REA administrator...

...Becker charged in the memorandum that Craig had declared his intention to organize a nationwide political group through REA channels...