THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW ANOISY row which seemed at first like another personal squabble in President Roosevelt's official family erupted this week into a major Government controversy whose implications...
...But Mr...
...A Congressional investigation of the great military disaster at Pearl Harbor Dec...
...SEC Feared Leaks "The Attorney General telephoned to me at 5 p. m. on May 14 to ask about settling this case," Littell declared, "and I said it was unusual to have settlement negotiations initiated from the top down—that they usually came from the bottom up in the form of recommendations for settlement from me to the Attorney General...
...Rep...
...They must have soon found that Mr...
...Last Summer, in appearances before the Senate War Investigating Committee, Littell told how the Association had "secured key appointments" in the Army real estate section and surplus property disposal staff...
...Biddle was furious with Littell for taking the controversy to the Committee, but in his statement on the case, denied that his demand for Littell's resignation was in any way motivated by his assistant's statement before the Mead [formerly the Truman] Committee...
...The death last week of Justice E. C. Eicher halted, for the present at least, the turbulent mass sedition trial of 26 defendants accused of conspiring with the Nazis to overthrow the Government of the United States...
...President Roosevelt himself took a leading part in the clash when he stepped in and fired Littell for "inexcusable insubordination" after the latter had shown no eagerness to accept Biddle's demand that he resign...
...Walter C. Short, the commanders at Pearl Harbor who were promptly relieved of their commands...
...The findings of the special Army and Navy inquiry boards, on which Forrestal's decision and also Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson's similar action were based, will be suppressed for the duration of the war...
...Star Chamber...
...The U. S. Department of Agriculture predicted this week that 1945 meat production will be 2,000,-000,000 pounds less than this year...
...Subsidy...
...Ferguson charged that the Administration's action against Littell "strikes at the very heart of our Committee if we cannot get testimony freely and frankly from members of executive departments without fear of later discipline...
...This action resulted in a prompt demand for a full investigation of the whole affair, but the Mead Committee showed great reluctance to undertake such an inquiry...
...The House investigators have heard sensational charges that Administration officials brought great pressure to bear on the then owner of radio station WMCA in New York to sell out to a friend of Harry Hopkins, Presidential adviser, who subsequently sold out himself and took a $405,-000 profit...
...Biddle, a close friend of Corcoran, interfered in the Justice Department's condemnation suit against Savanah Shipyards in behalf of Corcoran...
...The New York Telephone Company has hired 26 Negro telephone operators—the first in the firm's history—partly as a result of pressure brought by the Fair Employment Practices Committee...
...In a statement issued after President Roosevelt had fired him, Littell charged that powerful real estate interests, with representatives in the Government, were trying to control disposal of $15,000,000,000 worth of surplus Government-owned real estate...
...FDR...
...THE WEEK IN REVIEW ANOISY row which seemed at first like another personal squabble in President Roosevelt's official family erupted this week into a major Government controversy whose implications might have far-reaching political effects...
...Mr...
...Littell's reckless and unfounded statements, or to enter into any controversy with him in the public press," the Attorney General said...
...Jerry Voorhis, California Democrat who is one of the most forthright progressives in Congress, rose on the floor of the House to assert that he was "shocked and astounded" to learn that the Administration had forced the dismissal of Littell, whom he characterized as "one of the most outstanding and fearless public servants in the entire American Government...
...That was fairly straight between the eyes and from the irritated tone of his voice, he did not like it...
...It is important for a Secretary of State to have the ability to see ahead...
...Appointed to serve with Stettinius were Joseph C. Grew, Undersecretary of State, and William L. Clayton, Texas Tory, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and Archibald Mac Leish, who will be Assistant Secretaries of State...
...He denied that the aggressive prosecutor had been guilty of insubordination in presenting his statement on the Corcoran-Savanah case to the Committee, pointing out that Littell's memorandum was submitted at the direct request of the Senate Committee and was made public by it, and not by Littell...
...Littell's unwillingness to resign led to his ouster by President Roosevelt...
...The War and Navy Departments disclosed last week that they had no plans to court-martial any of the officers involved, especially Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Maj...
...If he is planning the world peace in the same way, the children who had to collect scrap iron in this war will be carrying arms in the next war...
...Littell contended that pressure was brought on him to settle the case out of court, and that he refused "as a matter of principle" unless the defendants "were willing to accept the Government's estimate of the value of the property (about $985,000) when appraisals were completed...
...The Committee might just as well fold up if it is going to let a responsible Government official be punishable for answering questions...
...Does The Firing These statements by Littell, and many another, were part of a 26-page memorandum submitted to the Senate War Investigating Committee, headed by Sen...
...Burton K. Wheeler last week demanded that the Federal Trade Commission launch an immediate investigation of, the cigaret shortage among civilians and members of the armed forces...
...I do not propose to discuss Mr...
...I have been asked many times in recent years, 'What has Tommy Corcoran got on Biddle?' The Attorney General charges that I am disloyal and have made disloyal remarks...
...Langer also complained that the appointment of Stettinius brought the total of New Yorkers in the Cabinet of 10 to five—Miss Perkins, and the Messrs...
...In fact, out of thousands of condemnation cases, this was the only settlement about which the Attorney General ever called me...
...Meat...
...Benjamin C. Marsh, executive secretary of the People's Lobby, charged in a statement last week that "unearned fortunes in capital and accumulated incomes of industrial and financial combinations would pay at least a sixth of the national debt...
...There"was much doubt whether the trial would be resumed at all...
...In at least two meetings attended by the hierarchy," Littell said, "it was admitted that I had licked them by my exposures before the Mead Committee last August, but they would 'get' me yet—politically...
...Here, in greatly telescoped form, is the background of the present row: Littell, a scrappy Government prosecutor and one of Biddle's highest-ranking assistants in the Justice Department, has been getting in the hair of some Administration officials by alert exposure of what he regarded as irregularities and raids on the public purse and interests...
...Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal said he plans a further investigation, but he announced that evidence now available "does not warrant any general court-martial proceeding against any person or persons in the naval services...
...A Republican member of the Committee, however, Sen...
...The dismissed prosecutor said that counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was investigating Savanah's parent corporation, Empire Ordnance, told him that the SEC did not allow its information to reach the Justice Department for fear it would leak out...
...Stettinius, under the benign influence of Harry Hopkins, did not display that kind of judgment in the two years preceding our entering the war...
...Littell, who was head of j the Justice Department's land div-sion, asserted that the National As-sociation of Real Estate Boards has vowed to "get" him politically because he was standing in their way...
...Confirmation...
...William Langer, North Dakota Republican, who delivered a 140-minute attack on the new Secretary of State as a representative of Wall Street financial interests...
...Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., former head of J. P. Morgan-controlled U. S. Steel Corporation, was confirmed as Secretary of State last week by a vote of 67 to 1. Sole dissenting vote came from Sen...
...As the head of the Department of Justice I must take responsibility for its operation, and will not tolerate such serious disloyalty and insubordination, from any member of the Department even if he thinks it is his public duty to remain in office after he has been asked to resign...
...Sen...
...John J. Sirica, committee counsel, promptly resigned, asserting that he did not want "it on my conscience that I submitted to a whitewash...
...Hpmer Ferguson, Michigan Republican, who has long sought a thoroughgoing inquiry into the Pearl Harbor disaster, called for immediate submission to Congress "of the evidence obtained by the Army and Navy boards...
...Quiz...
...The FTC accepted the challenge, announced its determination to get at the bottom of the business...
...With an eye on "the gold in them thar hills," he said last week, the Association is working through what he called its "Washington.hierarchy...
...Names And Notes In The News Probe...
...James Mead, New York Democrat...
...It was admitted by one of the counsel for the SEC that the real reason why they had consistently evaded providing full information to the Department of Justice was that they did not trust the Department of Justice because of Tommy Corcoran's known intimacy with the Attorney General and Jim Rowe (Biddle's former assistant...
...He denounced proposals to have the Government "underwrite" the transition of big corporations to a peace economy...
...7, 1941, may be the only-means by which the public can get the complete story of the amazingly successful Japanese attack...
...Trial...
...The Real Estate Raid Voorhis demanded an immediate, searching investigation of the whole controversy, and there was some indication at mid-week that the House Judiciary Committee might undertake such an inquiry if the Mead Committee continued to shy clear of the ease...
...The case involved the Savanah Shipyards Company, a subsidiary of Empire Ordnance Company, both of which Corcoran represented...
...Littell not only has organized one of the most efficient agencies in the whole war effort, but over and over again in his six years of service has courageously resisted special-interest pressures and has stood for the public interest in the protection of oil reserves, disposal of Government-owned lands, and in countless other instances...
...The House committee investigating the Federal Communications Commission voted last week to close the hearings to press and public...
...In the course of his activities, Littell has occasionally clashed with his chief, Biddle, and their feud broke out in violent form recently in a showdown over a case in which Corcoran, once a top Roosevelt brain-truster and now an influential Washington lobbyist, was greatly interested...
...Biddle was already predisposed in the same direction...
...The public is entitled to the facts," he declared...
...Our relationship suffered a very sharp deterioration at that point...
...Principals in the dramatic battle are Atty...
...Hello Girls...
...Francis Biddle and one of his top assistants, Norman Littell, while just off stage was a third leading actor, one whose name has often made news in the nation's capital—Thomas "Tommy the Cork" Corcoran...
...Stimson, Forrestal, Morgenthau, and now Stettinius...
...Was it disloyal to answer such a question by saying 'I do not know' when such an answer was the truth...
...Homer Ferguson, entered the fray on Littell's side...
...They felt that the information, if given to the Department of Justice, would pass right through to Tommy Corcoran...
...Referring to a subsequent conference at which Biddle again sought to win him over to a settlement of the case, Littell asserted that the "Attorney General explained that he would like to settle this case in view of his past relationships with opposing counsel...
...Littell charged that Atty...
Vol. 8 • December 1944 • No. 50
