Policeman's Lot

Periodically there erupts in the U. S. A. a campaign to smear John Edgar Hoover. Among his ill-wishers are some newspapermen who believe Hoover is conceited, arrogant, publicity-hungry. They do not like him any better because Columnist Walter Winchell is continually claiming the inside track on crime stories. Last week, newshawks and other critics erupted again:

> The New York Daily News, remarking how Policeman Hoover dallied in Miami, recalled his recent report that a shortage of personnel had left his department with 7,448 unassigned cases, plus 7,736 on which no work had been done for the last 45 days.

> With a caustic reference to Hoovers past visits to nightclubs ("a Stork Club detective"), Congressman Vito Marcantonio of New York declared: "The FBI should be stopped from engaging in inquisitionlike tactics in handling crimes no more serious than stealing a bag of peanuts."

> Various newspapers squawked that Hoover's headquarters in Miami Beach had been a villa on The Nautilus (hotel) grounds, a palm-shaded island guarded from the world by a moat and a cop stationed at the bridge, and quoted rates for the villa at $175 a week, meals not included.

> Nebraska's aging George W. Norris rose in the Senate and declared: "Frankly I am worried about the activities of this Bureau." What worried him were recent arrests by G-Men in Detroit of 16 persons on charges of having assisted volunteers to enlist in the Loyalist Army in Spain.

> Columnist Westbrook Pegler, repeating an incessant Washington rumor that accused FBI of collecting secret dossiers on most of official Washington, snarled: "The FBI cooperates with police departments which tap wires of family telephones and even, in one incredible case . . . took phonograph records and moving pictures, on suspicion, of conversations and scenes within the bedroom of husband and wife."

Last week, Policeman Hoover whose men eliminated the Baby Face Nelsons, John Dillingers, Pretty Boy Floyds, broke the kidnapping business of half a dozen years ago and blasted Public Enemies No. 1 as fast as they arose, returned to his spacious office at FBI headquarters. There a huge model of a cop's nightstick leans against the wall, a photograph of his mother, who died two years ago, rests on the desk and on a radio stands a framed sentiment, "The Penalty of Leadership," which says: "In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. . . . When a man's work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. . . ."

Policeman Hoover said he was gratified with the results of his trip. His tour had been all business. One proof: though he looked well-fed and robust, as usual, he showed no trace of suntan. The other: the results.

Two Sundays ago Friend Walter Winchell twanged over the radio: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation G-Men swung into action at daybreak and arrested over 30 people in the Federal drive against Miami vice and white slavery. The higher-ups who will be named eventually will shock the State of Florida."

Besides these arrests, Hoover and six agents had arrested 48 others: bank embezzlers, impersonators, parole violators, auto thieves, escaped convicts.

The rest of his rebuttal:

> At Nautilus Villa, the rate he paid was $12.50 a day, meals included. The Government allows him $5 a day traveling expenses. He paid the rest out of his own pocket.

> "Pegler has mental halitosis."

> His boss, Attorney General Jackson, had answered Senator Norris. Absolving himself from responsibility for the Detroit arrests (they had occurred during the Attorney Generalship of Frank Murphy; one of Jackson's first acts was to quash the indictments), and absolving Hoover from any misconduct, Jackson had written Senator Norris: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation will confine its activities to the investigation of violations of Federal Statutes. ... I have asked and been promised the continued and efficient service of Mr. Hoover."

> Of cracks made in Manhattan: "Communists at a meeting yesterday in New York have instructed two of their best writers to portray me as a Broadway glamor boy and particularly to inquire into my affairs with women in New York City."

Policeman Hoover has never been known to have had any woman-affair in New York City. A bachelor, he is seldom seen without a male companion, most frequently solemn-faced Clyde Tolson, his assistant. His reason: his dread that someone, some day, somewhere, will plant a naked woman in his path, try to frame him.

It remained for the nation's No. i tattler, Friend Winchell, to reveal Policeman Hoover's only romance. Said Winchell: "The only girl he really adores and sends gifts to is a famous movie star who makes more in a fortnight than he does in a year.

. . . Her initials are S. T."*

* A movie star who in turn adores and admires Policeman Hoover, and whose initials are S. T.: Shirley Temple.

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