Show washington I 1 n gt L digest 0 I 1 national ma topics interpreted C t d A no an nd by WILLIAM BRUCKART JI NATIONAL tl elks washington A tinghoi tING TOi DC P C f washington A routine war department order came through ille the other day w which aich said crap thunder t tl cally over hagood by direction of the president maj 10 gen johnson lagood U S A Is relieved from assignment to the command of the eighth corps area and further duty at fort sam houston texas major general alagood will proceed to his home and await orders each day there comes from the yar war department anywhere from flora t wo or three to a couple of dozen orders by which army officers are from one post to another from one assignment to another or given diew new instructions it Is not unusual at all that Is why I 1 said bald at the outset of this item that the order respecting general hagood was routine but it was routine only in the language that was used otherwise it was significant 1 just how significant it will prove to be remains as a secret t to be unfolded byrhe by the future suffice to say that be seldom has one minor incident of government administration created such a storm as this army order because it has become a political issue general hagood Is 13 the third ranking officer in the united states army ile he lias has been in the service something like forty years hla his record Is generally regarded as distinguished bualat the same time he hits has never been a pussyfoot ile be has spoken boldly sometimes too boldly and sometimes out of turn yet I 1 think it Is generally agreed that general hagood Is sincere but to go back of the routine army order by which lie was summarily relieved of at the important army post of fort sam houston we find a record of general hagoods hagoodd Ha goods testimony before an appropriations committee in the house of representatives in that testimony general hagood spoke with ft ath his usual bluntness ile he apparently offended somebody when he did it nis his testimony has been criticized and commended the war department and secretary dorn dern have been attacked and defended and even president roosevelt hits has been dragged into the controversy because som somewhere somehow new deal opposition has become convinced that president roosevelt and secretary dorn dern punished general hagood by removing him from his post because he dared to point out flukes and flaws and ridiculous aspects in new deal policies of handling taxpayers money 4 0 general hagood was called before the he appropriations committee by its chairman and told speaks to express his can freely did id sentiments his honest convictions and any constructive suggestions he might have respecting improvement of the united states army the general eral somewhat blusteringly related to the committee that the army must have additional housing facilities he ha related conditions in many army posts and asserted that many persons on relief were accorded better places to live than uncle sams soldiers that thai part aroused no particular controversy t tro but when general hagood told the committee of the difficulty the responsible army authorities have in getting money with which to provide better housing for the soldiers he stepped on administration toes by saying that it was more difficult to go get t five cents for it a pencil than a thousand dollars with which to trach teach civilian chilian conservation corps boys new hobbles or boondoggling ile he said he could get re a hundred dollars to build a gravel walk and a rose garden but could not get ten dollars with which to repair a broken steam pipe in an army barracks the next nest outburst by the general brought forth his description that money being handled by relief administrator hopkins was stage money that nothing worth while or of a permanent character was as being done with that money and the explanation that he called it stage money because it Is being handed around and you c cin in do nothing with it in the end his plea was that some of these funds which he said were being otherwise wasted should be employed to build structures of con concrete crete and steel that can he be shown to our granach grand grandchildren ch ildren 50 years from now 11 in hearing general hagoodd hagoods Ha goods testimony I 1 the understood that the war department had given him permission to speak freely indeed such assurance had been passed along to tile the committee from the war department part ment but apparently the anvar var department part ment did not know what general hagood had on on his chest if it had known it certainly could aae expected exactly such expressions because general hagood never has pulled his punches he hassall nas has said sald each time what he be thought f by saying what whai he thought however he undoubtedly moved across th line nt discretion army officers must guard their speech they we n re under disciplinary regulations it has to be so BO otherwise we would oui see frequent outburst arsts a by army officers in oppose i tion alon to established policies rules and regulations and it tak takes esno no stretch of the imagination to see what a disordered mess would result 0 t on the other hand general hagood was certainly privileged to believe that his observations were were then the being made only for storm broke the committee of congress before which w h ich he be appeared the doors to the committee room were closed ind and locked and only committee members were in attendance it happened however that subsequently we the stenographic record of 0 the committee hearings was made public and when that happened the storm broke almost simultaneously with the removal of the bond of secrecy on the committee record the war department order older de horning general was written when that tha t happened ened the politicians literally blew up tip they shouted charges of censorship terrorism by the president had and I 1 Setre secretary tary dern dictatorship I 1 political punishment and half a dozen other vicious accusations A few odthe of the administration spokes mentin congress defended the war department part ment action almost in the same breath these administration spokesmen sought conferences with secretary dern and others in en an attempt to persuade F the president and the war secretary to soften the punishment but those moves were futile and representative blanton BI anton texas democrat shouted on the floor of the house that the hagood punishment would cost the tha democratic party a million votes totes unless it were withdrawn As a part of the defense of the war department action gen malin craig c hief chief of staff of the army made public his memorandum to the secretary of aar war respecting general hagoodd hagoods IIa Ha goods attitude and his testimony before the congressional committee in the course of this 2000 word memorandum general craig described general hagood a as s a wisecracker wise cracker and he be was probably a correct in so far as general ha goods remarks about stage money were concerned yet I 1 have hae found very few among the washington observers ob servera whose opinions are worth while who saw lu in the craig memorandum any real justification for the seve severe re punishment meted out to general hagood the order still stands general hagood is going to his home in charleston S 0 to await orders no one familiar with the army procedure expects that general hagood ever again will be given an army assignment he will be sixty four years old next nest year and at 4 that time automatically retires from active duty so there Is 13 hardly any question but that general hagood has held his last command the whole situation suddenly come to be known as the hagood case la Is bound to be multiplied and mirrored it will figure in the coming political campaign because however justified the war department action may have bebenin been in the interest of discipline and good array army administration there are thousands of individuals who never will be convinced I 1 that the hagood removal a was for any purpose other than as punishment because he be criticized new deal spending policies although there Is and can be no connection between tile the two it was th the basis for a really huu US S at reaction that dallas fair during the time tIm when ewhen the controversy raged over general hagoodd hagoods Ha na goods removal from his texas army post a federal government committee was busily engaged in making plans for federal participation on in the texas centennial exposition which opens at dallas june 6 uncle sam Is spending the largest sum congress ever has authorized for federal participation in such a show so that twenty odd government agencies can display to exposition visitors what the government has done with its billions BInce ethe othe cards were shuffled tor for the new deal the agriculture department its as usual a will be represented by the largest of all federal exhibits tile the commerce department and the state war navy Tren treasury sury justice post office interior and labor departments will have their booths or buildings the federal housing administration and the farm credit administration will be there with displays of their wares and the public health service will attempt to further the cause of health in its usual splendid fashion one unusual feature of the governments participation wll will be a negro building in which it will tell the story of the negro race and its progress since the first slaves were brought into america plans call top for the use of negro labor la the construction of this exhibit building and as far as pos negroes negroes will prepare the exhibits 0 western newspaper union |