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Show KA! ))V DREW PEARSON Washington, D. C. WIRE TAPPING Few people, even inside the government, gov-ernment, realize the extent to which telephone wires are tapped today. The good old days when wire-tapping was done only by big-time gangsters are gone, and almost no telephone line around Washington is safe today. Even the private wire from Secretary Secre-tary of State Hull to the President of the United States was found to have been tapped some time ago by an unfriendly newspaper. The FBI, which has been doing the job of chasing down criminals for years, is scrupulously careful about wire-tapping. But with outfits out-fits like naval intelligence or military mili-tary intelligence, which suddenly have come into lush funds and have inexperienced men spending them, it is a different matter. Latest wire-tapping development is the system of tapping the wires of army and navy officers by the army and navy itself. " For instance, here is the transcription transcrip-tion of a dictaphone recording in the navy department of a conversation conversa-tion on May 26, 1942, between Capt. John D. Crecca of the Boston navy yard, and Comdr. E. E. Roth of the bureau of ships in Washington, regarding tank landing boats. Higgins Landing Boats. The conversation shows that the navy finally yielded to Andrew J. Higgins of New Orleans, who had a long controversy with the bureau of ships over the design of tank landing boats. The bureau of ships had designed de-signed its own boat, called the "Bureau "Bu-reau tank lighter," which Higgins claimed was not practicable, and the two designs were tried out at Norfolk, Nor-folk, Va., on May 25. Here is an excerpt ex-cerpt from their conversation: Captain Crecca (in Boston) : We just got some disconcerting information infor-mation regarding a possible change in the design of the tank lighters. Commander Roth (in Washington): Washing-ton): Possible it's a sure thing. Yes. Isn't that a blow? Captain Crecca: It's terrible. Commander Roth: We can't afford af-ford it. We had a test down in Norfolk Nor-folk yesterday. Captain Cochrane ' went down, Commander Daggett (Comdr. R. B. Daggett of the bureau bu-reau of ships) went down. The army went down (telephone connection interrupted) in-terrupted) . Commander Roth: Well, they had a showdown at Norfolk but a little breeze blew up. They got up to about 13 knots. The Bureau tank lighter almost capsized. They couldn't steer it. They just drifted around. They had to pack with the thing. Almost lost everybody on board, almost lost the tank. Higgins' tank lighter came through fine, upside up-side in and made the beach and the poor old Bureau tank lighter was out there wallowing around. Captain Cochrane came back this morning and he saw the Chief and everybody every-body else concerned and they sent out did you get a copy of the dispatch? dis-patch? Commander Roth: Commander Daggett is coming in late tonight and I guess he's pretty .well tired out. It's a pretty hard blow for him, you know. He's sponsored this all along. WOUNDED IN WASHINGTON , Two crippled soldiers drove up to the Shoreham hotel in a taxi. A friend was taking them to dinner, to bring a little cheer into their lives. One soldier carried his arm in a brace, the other had lost a foot. Both were officers of the air corps. As they were getting out of the taxi, a limousine drove up behind them, and. out stepped Jesse Jones. The big Texan watched the crippled crip-pled soldiers for a moment, then took off his hat and stepped forward for-ward to open the door of the hotel. He held the door open as the fliers passed, and when they had gone, he said to a passerby: "Gee, that hits you below the belt, doesn't it?" GLASS STOVES Next time you try to buy a kitchen kitch-en stove, the salesman will probably proba-bly ask: "What kind do you wish, madam a terra cotta stove, a cement ce-ment stove, or a glass stove?" Stoves made of iron and steel are disappearing from the market, and manufacturers are trying to make stoves out of substitute materials. Many manufacturers have gone out of the stove business some because be-cause they can't get the iron and steel, others because they have converted con-verted to production of war materials. materi-als. Of the country's 275 stove plants, half have been closed or converted. con-verted. - a CAPITAL CHAFF C Jim Farrey hasn't lost his interest inter-est in politics. He called friends in Atlanta long distance about 20 times during the recent Georgia primary pri-mary which finally defeated Gov. Gene Talmadge. I C Super-G-Man J. Edgar Hoover has been trying to discover who the mysterious admirer is in Hartford, Conn., who sends him small wooden dogs symbolic of the fact that he is a faithful servant. C Harry Hopkins has a great yen for the New York gossip columnists. |