Show GENERAL J JOHNSON J C Ii I traer r Cant Can't Tell About Dictators Stalin Order Sit Down Might l Roosevelt Cabinet Now Chiefly From New v York By HUGH S. S JOHNSON WASHINGTON As suggested some weeks before the Finnish campaign cam cam- campaign campaign the Russian army has a mush-like mush quality which offsets some of the weight of its overwhelming numbers A government cant can't expect its sol sol- soldiers soldiers sol sol- soldiers diers to respect and have confidence in their generals and other officers if it has no confidence in them it it- it itsel self sel That Mr Stalin has no such confidence he has dramatically proved by liquidating one army leader after another and other gen gen- generals generals generals by platoons It is reported that subordinate officers have been executed or dismissed All AU important im im- important important commands are accompanied by political commissars You cant can't operate an army on such a plan Comrades cant can't be permitted to debate whether they will attack stand fast or run Not Enough Equipment Considering everything Joe Sta Sta- Stalin's Stalin's Stalin's lins lin's military outlook is not so hot Nevertheless we should not fool our our- ourselves ourselves ourselves selves about the gallant and master master- masterful ful defense of Finland As more facts become available it appears to have been on the part of Mar Mar- Marshal Marshal Marshal as brilliant a campaign as there is on record But in the very nature of things military that kind of thing cant can't go goon goon goon on forever Lee and Jackson made monkeys out of the Union generals for three years but except for the possibility of outside intervention the end was certain Overwhelming numbers and weight of metal are very likely to decide the issue in any long pull Anything Might Happen appen Furthermore brilliant as was the Finnish defense in this campaign the to day-to-day news of it was mis mis- leading It sounds as though the Finns were completely destroying a new Russian division daily They did mop up one and handled others roughly but so much annihilation simply isn't possible in that kind of ofa ofa ofa a war Some of this exaggeration was due to overlapping stories but it is a safe bet that the good news did not suiter sulTer any at Finnish hands If It it were not true that anything might happen under the dictators you could say on all the precedents that Russia will simply have to tune up a real steam roller and crash through any resistance that the Finns can Finns can raise But these gorillas dont don't seem to know what is written in the book of rules Comrade Sta Sta- Stalin Stalin Stalin lin might settle with Finland for some saving face-saving sop or he might just dig in and sit It would be no nomore nomore nomore more strange or unprecedented than the sit-down sit war in the west S e e With the appointment of Bob Jack Jack- Jackson Jackson Jackson son as attorney general there will willbe willbe be five members of the cabinet from one state state New New York York York-or or if you count Mr Edison who at least used to live there six Secretaries Hopkins Perkins and Farley and now the attorney gener gener- general al all hail from the Empire state There is little to be said for forthe forthe forY Y the fetish of terri terri- territorial representation oil off the cabinet if there is a question 4 of the best brains and ability a b it it y to t 0 be b e weighed against a aka ka H question of domicile But when there js no noNO noNO NO DOUBT such Question there is a precedent hoary e I Secretory Secretary to tono wi with age in favor o of Am Sins no doubt d giving some recognition u i a o woman woman f tion to Q the various territorial divisions None of the five or six except Mr Jackson and Mr Farley is burdened with fitness for the job The President President President dent could have selected as well from any place in the nation nation nation-in- in including Samoa and Guam Harry Hopkins is a good egg but buthe buthe he doesn't have the foggiest notion about commerce Mr Roosevelt is his own secre secre- secretary secretary secretary tary of f the treasury and of the navy and insofar as it is the partisan political job of the cabinet his own postmaster general Mr Farley has eaten the smoke of his own inward fires taken his wounds done his job as as far as he was permitted and never released a squawk In that case alone it was a question between ability and locality and if there had been eight other New Yorkers Jim couldn't have been omitted Then there is Perkins but she is there to represent not a state but a sex There is no doubt that she is a woman Mr Roosevelt doesn't care much much for able men but he does care pain pam painfully painfully fully for complacent men If a man manis manis able and a good his ability might not disqualify him unless it happened to be so great that he took some of the spotlight Then Mr Roosevelt would crack him down or sew him up as he did so cleverly to Pretty Boy Paul McNutt who has been as neatly and completely bun bun- bundled bundled bundled as a caterpillar in a cocoon Mr Jackson falls in the first class discussed here here great great ability and fit fit- fitness fitness fitness ness for the job and second to none as a |