Rumbles in Puerto Rico

Handsome Tom Hennings has always been easy to get along with. Son of a St. Louis banker, he went through Cornell University easily, practiced law easily, dabbled cheerfully in politics. In Congress for three genial terms, he gave up certain re-election in 1940 to return to St. Louis at the Democratic machine's urgent bidding. The machine needed a man to be circuit attorney. Last fall Tom Hennings eased into the Navy, went on active duty as a lieutenant commander. He was assigned to Puerto Rico as naval aide to crisp-curled Rexford Guy Tugwell, the original brain-truster, who is now Governor of that jungled, swampish, feverish, rum-ridden, slum-ridden island "paradise."

Few days before he left for San Juan, Tom Hennings married Mrs. Josephine Halpin, a St. Louis radio announcer who specialized in "the woman's angle." Tom and Josephine Hennings were more than merely decorative. For dreamy, reform-minded Rex Tugwell, extrovert Tom Hennings made an ideal trouble shooter. Sleek Mrs. Hennings, used to a busy life, poured her bubbling energy into civilian defense, which was headed by determined, energetic Mrs. Tugwell. The two ladies did not get along well.

Earnest Rex Tugwell is not noted for his tact. Gradually the more formal Puerto Ricans began to grumble at his blunt, abrupt handling of affairs. Sugar interests griped at his close association with swart, spaniel-eyed Luis Munoz Marin, liberal President of the Senate (who once warned his followers forcefully: "Distrust all politicians--even me''). Officials' wives complained that Mrs. Tugwell was aloof.

As the Tugwell popularity receded, the stock of the Henningses went up. Spanish-language newspapers boomed Tom Hennings as the next Governor. The Henningses' names appeared less & less often on the lists of functions at La Fortaleza, the highceilinged, white-walled Governor's mansion.

Fortnight ago, Tom Hennings was suddenly transferred to Pearl Harbor, some 6,000 miles away. Over the rum swizzles in San Juan's bars went rummy gossip. In Washington, testy Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes, who arranged the transfer, said: "A man has as much right to select his own naval aide as he does to select his own wife." Governor Tugwell, in Washington also last week, was mum.

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