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Show General HUGH s. Johnson Jour: Uniwd fmiMtm Jf WNV 941 AMATEUR AMBASSADORS So the Germans say that Bill Bullitt Bul-litt said that if war should break out we wouldn't take part in the begin-ning begin-ning but "will In the finish?" So what? Mr. Bullitt wasn't ambassador ambassa-dor to Poland and he wasn't speaking speak-ing as ambassador to France or in any responsible oftlcial capacity. He was just shooting off his face. Everybody Ev-erybody who knows him, knows he is strongly pro-ally and militant too, which is more important than this incident. The notable thing is not Bill's alleged al-leged sound-off, but the resulting Washington commotion about it. Why should it instantly be bally-hooed bally-hooed as a German attempt to horn into our presidential election? If it was, it was a sickly try. If true, it would only show that the President Presi-dent likes to pick amateurs for ambassadors am-bassadors with a strange preference for plutocratic playboys. But it didn't need any German white book to tell us all that It Is one of the outstanding facts in all New Deal history. Joe Davies, after aft-er a career conspicuous for its unfailing un-failing inanity, married General Foods and so became a top-hole I -J y ! AMBASSADOR BULLITT "lie was just shooting off his fare." diplomat, so tactful and suave that he went to his first post, the proletariat prole-tariat government of Soviet Russia, convoyed by a luxury yacht as big as an ocean liner loaded to the gunwales gun-wales with General Foods groceries. grocer-ies. He bounced from there to Brussels Brus-sels and then back home as adviser on diplomacy and European affairs and the kept fat cat of the New Deal party. Tony Biddle, is another marrying fool like a fox. He also swore to love honor and cherish a vast female fe-male fortune and so qualified as ambassador to Poland. He didn't stay long. When the German army came he forgot his stranded nationals, na-tionals, decided that Hitler had declared de-clared war on his Warsaw country estate and got the hell out of his post of duty with an account of his hasty retreat that sounded like Eliza crossing the ice or General Putnam's Put-nam's escape from the Hessians by riding down Breakneck Hill. Then there is Jimmy Cromwell, who married not one but two of our foremost unearned increments and after making an ass of himself in all respects save matrimony all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, became be-came minister to Canada and did it there also. There is but what's the use? It is all stale. Bill Bullitt has a little less dough and a little more sense, but he is not exactly qualified to steer us away from war as ambassador ambas-sador to his beloved France. THE GANG BUSTERS This column is no pre-convention booster of the candidacy of Mr. Dewey. His bid rests largely on his reputation as a brilliant criminal crimi-nal prosecutor. To that, all hail! He did a swell job in New York cleaning up gangsterism, the judiciary judi-ciary and the office of public prosecutor. prose-cutor. Neither do I carry any torch for Mr. Roosevelt's third term candidacy. can-didacy. Yet, I believe that the smash against the backwash of filth and corruption of the prohibition era was sparked by the President himself. him-self. Certainly the ending of the era was his alone. He laid the job out in his 1932 campaign. He promised to clear the mess. Whether under Attorney General Gen-eral Cummings, Murphy or Jackson, Jack-son, there has been no let-up. I hate some of the methods. Of the result there can be no question kidnaping is almost out, gangsterism gangster-ism is on the run, judicial peculation pecula-tion and low ethics at the bar have become too dangerous to practice much. I give the New Deal credit for this, notwithstanding that I could name a few places that have been soft-pedalled. In general, the atmosphere at-mosphere has been greatly cleared. I doubt whether, without this presidential presi-dential trail-blazing and fog-clear- i ing, even Mr. Dewey could have j done what he did. j However that may be, there is ' splendid credit enough for all and there is no occasion to balance merits. mer-its. But, as a lawyer, I don't believe be-lieve that the mental attitude of A-l public prosecutors is a proper one for Presidents. |
