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Show pf General CO HUGH S. R1 JOHNSON f! Jour: Washington, D. C. WRITER'S FEID I think there is a new voice among political commentators in our country. coun-try. It has not been silent in other fields. Clare Boothe has made her-xv.-- -aaro- self felt important-5;,- Yv ly in drama, literals litera-ls ture and as a pub-s pub-s t. licist. Only in her Is indignation about the war hysteria ot s fT-s cent political out- s; - , Jt s i bursts has she taken to the hustings. She s hasn't just taken to , YK J them. She has them. 1- 1 Her book, "Eu-k "Eu-k -'"Aki rope in Spring," is Gen. Hugh the most revealing Johnson on the fall of France. It wasn't political. It was poignant but the terrible experiences from which it was derived didn't suggest to the poised Miss Boothe that she drag her own country unnecessarily into that bloody shambles. When she got back to this country, to find that another foremost American woman writer of great heart and mind, Miss Dorothy Thompson, had completely blown up emotionally, Miss Boothe began analyzing psychology. psy-chology. She showed from her correspondence correspond-ence in France that Miss Thompson had actually wangled permission from a French artillery battery to fire three shells at the Germans. Miss Boothe was indignant. By all the laws of war, Miss Thompson was a non-belligerent, an American, a sniper in uniform perfectly protected pro-tected against reprisal. If any one was killed, it was murder, no less such a deed as the intellectual Dorothy would never dream of in her normal mind. That aroused Miss Boothe to make one of the most effective speeches yet delivered on our war hysteria. With no personal feeling whatever, she used this incident as an example exam-ple of the mass madness into which we are being whipped. ELLIOTT 'RESIGNATION' As this column said, in criticizing Elliott Roosevelt's appointment, it is inconceivable to me that Elliott gave a thought to its destructive implications. implica-tions. Elliott resigned in order to register for the draft, giving as his reason the injurious effect of his appointment on the selective service program. In my opinion, that was a courageous and proper thing to do. It is harder to acknowledge an attempt at-tempt to retrieve an error than it is to bull it through. But it is much manlier and, in this case, more patriotic. I believe that the resignation was in good faith and that it relieves Elliott from any criticism criti-cism except his original misinformed misin-formed judgment. Not so much can be said of General Gen-eral Echols' "refusal to accept" the resignation. As a matter of law, Echols has no more to do with that than I have. A resignation goes to the appointing authority, who alone can accept or reject it. That authority is the President, Pres-ident, here represented by the war department, not Echols. The success of the draft depends absolutely on popular confidence in its administration. In this respect it differs from any other department of the war effort. Experience has proved over and over again that you can't get away with conscription in an Anglo-Saxon country without an almost religious popular and patriotic faith and zeal. I believe more blame is due to regular air corps officers in not properly advising Elliott in the first instance than to Elliott himself. That blame still continues in General Echols' rejection of the resignation "on my own responsibility." He has no responsibility. This rejection is pure bunk. It will fool nobody. If these regular officers had a purpose pur-pose either to serve or please the President in the original appointment appoint-ment or in this false move, they are doing the reverse of both. Washington Highlights: "Price chiseling" on materials for the defense program is under a broad investigation at the present time, according to word from Chairman Chair-man Burton K. Wheeler (Dem., Mont) of a senate interstate commerce com-merce subcommittee. The committee commit-tee is co-operating with the national defense commission and the department depart-ment of justice. The investigators would scrutinize the entire price field carefully and also check into the reasons for industrial bottlenecks bottle-necks that might eventually hamper the defense program. Senator Wheeler says that there "isn't going to be any witch hunt though, and nobody who is co-operating need be afraid of it" Renewed efforts to bolster America's Amer-ica's defenses in the Far East were revealed by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox recently. He stated that the army has ordered substantial reinforcements, including two airplane air-plane pursuit squadrons, to the Philippine Phil-ippine islands. Meanwhile, preparations have been made to start work on the United Unit-ed States military base at New-foundland. New-foundland. The base will be located somewhere on the southern coast, but its actual posiVin will remain a rnilita secret |