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Show Can Son Succeed Father? i i VA?ft .'Vs If? nlvi'xA ' r Or . , m ' i v 1 :; m i limn ilTiihl-'j-tlTliTfilissslliH f' mrm si ' ' ' " t ' & J, ,. 'WsRkssssm FAMOUS FATHER WITH NOTED SON Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., la recent picture taken in Los Angeles MRB ATTACK BYOOETTIGER TOLD PROBERS Roosevelt's Son-in-Law Resented Order as Unjust WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UP) The house committee investigating investi-gating the national labor relations rela-tions board disclosed today that John Boettiger, son-in-law of President Roosevelt and Seattle publisher, said he complied with a board order against his paper primarily to avoid embarrassing the Roosevelt administration. Committee Counsel Edmund M. Toland put In the record a "personal "per-sonal and confidential" memorandum memoran-dum front N L R B Regional Director Di-rector Elwyn J. Eagen of Seattle to Secretary Nathan Witt which said.. In part: "Boettiger stated that he was very sympathetic with the act, but that when It was administered by a board which made the kind of decision It made in this case, that he didn't blame employers for complaining about the board. Baling Seared "He stated very definitely that he did not Intend to take the matter up with the president, that he never used his family connections connec-tions to accomplish anything In which he might be personally interested. in-terested. "He Indicated, however, that he would see that his Information reached the proper authorities. He Indicated that he did not Intend to publicize his feelings or to make them known generally. He asked me not to do so, but Inferred that he thought I would communicate the substance of his conversation to the board. "He stated that he thought the board's order was based upon a distortion dis-tortion of the facts produced at the hearing and Illogical Inferences, that he personally resented the decision very much and was only complying so as not to embarrass the administration and to avoid prolonging the controversy." Ceuneel Rebuked Boettiger Is publisher of the Hearst-owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His views were revealed as the committee also: 1. Characterized as "presumptuous" "presumptu-ous" a suggestion by Labor Board Counsel Charles Fahy that Board Members J. Warren Madden and Edwin S. Smith and Board Secretary Secre-tary Nathan Witt be called Immediately Imme-diately to offer a rebuttal to charges by Board Member William Leiserson. 2. Placed In evidence voluminous reports of a board investigation of Its own Los Angeles office including includ-ing charges of drunkenness and other material concerning the private pri-vate life of Towne Nylander, recently re-cently resigned N L R B Los Angeles An-geles regional director, 3. Received evidence that Harry Bridges, west coast CIO leader, tCoaUno ran Four) (Columa Flv, ) T IVLRB Probers Heard His Views 'BOETTIGER'S ATTACK ON ORDER OF NLRB REVEALED AT PROBE enca of Boettlger'i attorney and two representatives of the American Amer-ican Newspaper Guild (C I O). Toland read a lengthy report of an investigation conducted by 1 George Pratt, chief trial exam- j Iner for the board, and Gerhard I Van Arkel of the board's legal i staff. Leiserson said board attaches had twice investigated Nylander'l administration, ad-ministration, charges of drunkenness drunken-ness and other phases of the director's di-rector's personal life. Distrusted by. C I O Leiserson said that Ml - one instance in-stance a C I O official, named Robertson, Rob-ertson, met Nylander by appointment appoint-ment in a Phoenix. Ariz., hotel. Robertson, Leiserson said, found several A F L off icials in Nyland er's room and much evidence that the group had been drinking. ' i- r 7f (Coatlnaed from Pas Oae led a campaign to remove Nylander Ny-lander from office. The Boettiger memorandum quoted the president's son-in-iaw as saying "he did not want to do anything which would Jeopardize the very fine relations which he had with the newspaper guild." "He made some rather extensive remarks about the trial examiner's unfairness and the .fact that the board would not consider the company's com-pany's protest in regard to the trial Examiner who, he was later informed, in-formed, had been discharged for unfairness," the memo said. The memorandum, dated September Septem-ber 18, 1939, said Eagen tried to convince Boettiger that "there certainly cer-tainly was no intention on the part of the board to penalize him because be-cause he happened to be the son-in-law of the president, as he had Inferred in his conversation." "I told him that I assumed that many times subordinate officials did things which would not be in keeping with the policy of the management, but were, none the less, violations of the act," Eagen forth a torrent that the board had veryJeebly tried toexcusehlm and place the blame on a subordinate sub-ordinate when as a matter of fact neither of the two discharges was made before had fully considered the matter and had personally agreed that the discharges should take place." Order Obeyed Leiserson was on the stand as Toland read the memorandum. He did not sign the NLRB decision ' against Boettiger's paper and Ea- : gen reported that Boettiger made , a reference to this and declared "that he (Boettiger) hoped that ' this was some indication of a , change in policy." Eagen said that Boettiger's re- 1 marks were made after the paper I had "fully and completely com- , plied with every section of the board's order" and that the con- j venation took place In the prea- I PRESIDENT'S SON-IN-LAW QUOTED j John Boettiger, Seattle newspaper executive |