A General on Merry-Go-Round

The best luck that ever befell Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen was getting discharged from their respective jobs as Washington correspondents. "Bob"' Allen lost his with the Christian Science Monitor three years ago because his boss discovered he was one of the anonymous authors of Washington Merry-Go-Round, best-selling volume of capital tittle-tattle (TIME, Sept. 21, 1931). A year later More Merry-Go-Round appeared, and the Baltimore Sun dropped Drew Pearson, its able newshawk at War and State Departments. Pearson, who had written a chapter in the book scorching Secretary of War Patrick Jay Hurley, later charged that thin-skinned Mr. Hurley had had a hand in his dismissal by the Sun.

Neither tall, sober Drew Pearson (son of Governor Paul Martin Pearson of the Virgin Islands) nor small, sinewy, red-headed Bob Allen suffered. Publicity endowed them with reputations as ferrets of inside news and chit-chat to be feared in high places. They remained members in good standing of Washington's Press family. In December 1932, this team made a deal with United Features Syndicate to supply a daily Washington Merry-Go-Round column, treating the day's news and news-behind-the-news in the irreverent manner of their books. From six newspapers the first month, their clientele had zoomed by last week to 270--17 more than print the comic strip Tarzan. The Pearson & Allen incomes zoomed accordingly.

Meanwhile many a reader, noting the column's impudence toward public personages, wondered when Reporters Pearson & Allen would get into trouble. Last week brought the answer in the form of a $1,750,000 libel suit filed in Washington by General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff, against Pearson & Allen and Hearst's Washington Times, which prints their column.

To his friends General MacArthur is a dashing officer of the best Army type; to his critics he is an overdressed, supersensitive, ambitious strutter. In appearance, the General is tall, trim, darkly handsome, the youngest (54) first-rank officer in the service, youngest Chief of Staff since the War. Touchy about his prestige, he went from annoyance to displeasure to red-hot anger as he read what Washington Merry-Go-Ronnd had to say about him. Last week, when he could stand it no longer, he cited in his suit seven alleged offenses against his reputation, and told the court what he read into them.

Charge No. 1 --

Merry-Go-Ronnd: Two months ago . . . General Douglas MacArthur, swaggering Chief of Staff, was riding high, wide and handsome.

General: Meaning that the plaintiff is a ridiculous military character.

Merry-Go-Ronnd: Now the situation is reversed. ... His four-year tour of duty as Chief of Staff comes to a close soon. Army custom specifies that this job should rotate. . . . MacArthur, however, feels that he should be an exception to this rule. I And he has been pulling every conceivable I wire to this end. Wire pulling is one of the General's greatest arts.

General: Meaning that . . . plaintiff is | guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer . . . and contemptuous in the eyes of all ranks in the Army.

Merry-Go-Ronnd: In the Philippines . . . MacArthur chafed because he wasn't being promoted fast enough. He wanted to be a major general. So his wife, Mrs. Lionel Atwell, cabled her stepfather Edward T. Stotesbury, wealthy Philadelphia financier. Stotesbury, a heavy contributor to the Republican campaign fund, hammered on the desk of the late John W. Weeks, then Secretary of War--and MacArthur got his promotion. But now it is not so easy. General MacArthur got in wrong at the White House for the way he slid out of responsibility for the air mail fiasco. Also the grand jury, investigating Army purchases, smeared him for rowing with Woodring. So the other day the White House sent to the War Department an OK for the reassignment of General G. B. Pillsbury as assistant chief of engineers. Like MacArthur. Pillsbury already had served four years on this job, was reassigned to serve four more. But attached to the OK was a slip of paper on which was scrawled: "There are to be no further reassignments of general officers beyond the regular four-year period." Below the scrawl were the initials "F. D. R."

General: Meaning . . . that plaintiff had been subject of a personal reprimand from the President of the United States.

Wanted: $250,000.

Charge No. 2--

Merry-Go-Round: The other day General MacArthur proposed to some of his Congressional friends a new law requiring 19-gun salutes for former Chiefs of Staff.

General: Meaning . . . that plaintiff, lacking in soldierly modesty, seeks after superfluous military tribute.

Wanted: $250,000.

Charge No. 3--

Merry-Go-Ronnd: General Douglas MacArthur, famous evictor of the Bonus Army [General: Meaning . . . that plaintiff's act in removing the so-called Bonus Army . . . proceeded from personal desire and was clothed with unwarranted and unnecessary arbitrariness and harshness.] has devised a new decoration for those serving on the General Staff of which he is chief. It consists of the coat of arms of the U. S. superimposed on a blue enamel star. . . . NOTE: General MacArthur is to retire soon. [General: Meaning that plaintiff designed a decoration for his personal delectation and use at an early date.]

Wanted: $250,000.

Charge No. 4--

Merry-Go-Round: The drive to oust Harry Woodring as Assistant Secretary of War is becoming more intense. Spearhead of the drive is the general staff and its chief, General Douglas A. MacArthur. General Staff officers have laid down almost an ultimatum that Harry Woodring goes out. General: Meaning . . . that plaintiff was guilty of disloyalty and mutinous conduct, one of the most serious offenses in the Articles of War.

Wanted: $250,000.

Charge No. 5--

Merry-Go-Round: General Douglas MacArthur, dapper Chief of Staff . . . is the real boss of the War Department today. Although it went out over Secretary Dern's signature, MacArthur was the real author of the Army's $115,000,000 Public Works program calling for ammunition and ordnance purchases. General: Meaning . . . that plaintiff was dictatorial and guilty of insubordination and disrespect to a superior officer, the Secretary of War. . . .

Wanted: $250,000.

Charge No. 6--

Merry-Go-Round: Although one year has passed since General MacArthur drove the Bonus Army from the vacant lots on Pennsylvania Avenue, no start has been made to erect Government buildings on them. . . . This was the excuse given to get the BEF to evacuate. General: Meaning . . . that plaintiff's conduct toward said Veterans was unwarranted, unnecessary, arbitrary, harsh and brutal.

Wanted: $250,000.

Charge No. 7--

Merry-Go-Round: Harry Woodring, Assistant Secretary of War is becoming cautious. ... As he emerged from his last session [before the grand jury] . . . he was approached by a group of newspapermen. "Sorry," said Harry, "but General MacArthur has told me not to talk." NOTE: General MacArthur . . . is Woodring's subordinate but actually runs the War Department.

General: Meaning . . . that plaintiff was dictatorial, insubordinate and disrespectful toward his superior officer. . . .

Wanted: $250,000.

To Trial? If his suit goes to trial, the defense will doubtless put General MacArthur on the witness stand and cross-examine him in detail about his damaged dignity. Painfully aware that the country can easily be provoked to laughter by such an action, some of the general's brother officers on the General Staff begged him to drop his complaints. But he and his lawyers were adamant. Equally aware of the same ludicrous possibilities, Merry-go-Rounders Pearson & Allen engaged the most spectacular, publicity-wise lawyer to be found in Washington, dark, bombastic Ferdinand Pecora, investigator for the Senate Banking & Currency Committee. Hearst is represented by his resident counsel in Washington, distinguished Wilton John Lambert. United Features, a keenly interested spectator, called in the Scripps-Howard counsel, the law firm of Newton Diehl Baker, who, as Secretary of War, was General MacArthur's onetime chief. Numerous Senators, Representatives and one former Ambassador offered their legal services free to Pearson & Allen. Dozens of Washington newshawks were ready to swear that they had found the Chief of Staff "swaggering."

Editors throughout the land hoped for a trial, not only for its rich news value but for a test of the immunity, if any, of public officials from criticism of their public acts.

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