BRASS-HAT LOGIC BAFFLES WILSON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R001100670096-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 14, 2013
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: April 19, 1953
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R001100670096-5
APR 1 9 1953
The Wasilainllgtom Nicnory= Go-Reiximel
BraSS-Hal Legie
0
By Drew Pearson
OCCASIONALLY, hard- working Defense
Secretary Charlie Wilson gets all tangled up
trying to follow some of the brass-hat reasoning
at the Pentagon.'
? . ?
start peace offensives all over the world, in-
cluding Europe, for their effect on the Italian
elections, the. coming Japanese elections, and
the French vote on the European .army. .
This European peace bid, significantly, got
started in the. West before it got started in
Korea.?
? Furthermore', some of our _exPerts are now
convinced that the death of Stalin has. had
.nothing -whatever to do with the change of.
policy in Russia. The present peace propaganda
'was planned some time ago, it's believed, ? in
order to lull the West into complacency. Stajin's
death' was merely a happy coincidence that
didn't change things at all.
?
;. Those are the different intelligence reports. If
You're an armchair strategist,- you .can step up
'and take your choice.
Payroll 'Repercussions
IT DIDN'T COME OUT in the' open, but Re-
publican House leaders faced a delicate prob-
lem in selecting the new clerk of the,House of
'Representatives. ?
Ordinarily the job should have gone to Irving
Swanson, the minority clerk under the Demo-
crats. Normally, the minority clerk moves up to
the top spot automatically when his party takes
over control of Congress.
Last year, however, this column revealed that
Swanson's wife, Margaret, had been put on the
payroll of Rep. Ernest K. Bramblett (R-Calif.)
at $4700, though not working for the Congress.
man either in his home district or in Wash-
ington. .
Bramblett and Swanson were close .friends,
and Swanson was fully aware of the gravy-train
?lob his wife held' at the taxpayers' expense.
Other data unearthed by this column about Rep..
,Bramblett's fancy payroll juggling was later
!turned over to the Justice Department, and
Dramblett now faces grand jury action.
Republican leaders also knew of the "Dram-
'blett story" .and of Mrs. Swanson's connection
iwith it. Therefore, When the time came to
choose the clerk of the House, Speaker .Toe
Martin was faced with the choice of either
following tradition and appointing Swanson, or
avoiding possible embarrassment by selecting
.somebody else.
Calling a meeting of other Republican, lead-
ers, including Leo Allen of Illinois, chairman of
the Rules Committee', Speaker Martin outlined
the problem. Finally it was decided that tradi-
tion Was less important than political storms.
So Lyle Snader, former secretary to Leo Allen,
was named clerk of the House.'
AFL-CIO Talks ?
?
'While Wilson has one of the most complex
jobs in the world, ?the generals ?and admirals
sometimes make it even more complex with
their upside-down logic. Once, says Wilson, he
ran into the same backhanded logic when he,
was running General Motors.
"Some years ago," Secretary Wilson recalls;
"we thought GM was in danger of losing its
supply of ,rubber. So another fellow and ? I
scouted around trying to buy up as muchrubber
as we Could.find,
"One day I happily told my associate that I'd
located thousands of tons of rubber?we could
have it at once for 10 cents a pound.
PI was flabberpsted, however, when he said
10 cents was too high a price. Despite all my
pleas, he insisted on paying less.
"A few days later he walked in and said he'd
changed his mind about the price question. He
now agreed that 10 cents was a pretty .good
figure. Then he explained his change of heart.
" 'Well, Charlie,' he said, 'over the weekend
I went into a store to buy some sheep manure
for my garden. Believe it or not, I had to pay
20 cents a pound for that manure. That got me
thinking, and I finally decided that if sheep
manure is 20 cents a pound, rubber is certainly
worth 10 cents a pound.'"
Probabilities of Peace .
THE HARDEST THING in the world is to
find out what's going on inside the Kremlin or
to fathom relation's between Russia and her
chief Far Eastern. ally?Red China.
linited..Statesintelligence is not considered
as 'good as the British on this subject, so .we
lean heavily on the ? British, the Indians, and
the Yugoslays. The latter seem to be pretty
good at finding out what's happening inside Rus-
sia,-?probably because Tito's top men once served
in Moscow and still know a lot .of ? people in
Communist countries.
Bearing these difficulties in mind, here are
various evaluations of how genuine is the Corn-
min-lists' desire for a truce in Korea:
The Indian Embassy in Peking reports the
Chinese wanted the Korean war to end last fall,
now are taking the lead in forcing the .truce
talks.
The American Embassy in Yugoslavia sends
the same report. Ft's based on Tito's own intelli-
gence agencies.
United States reports from Far East head-
quarters merely speculate that the Chinese may
be taking the lead in the truce talks. It's pointed
out that:, last year at the .U. N., Andrei Vishinsky
took the lead .in vetoing the Indian truce plan,
and it was not until two days later that China
echoed Vishinsky. Now, however,' Chinese For-
eign Minister Chou En-lai was' first to do the
talking. Two days later, Moscow' did the echo-
ing.
However, prevailing , belief, in Washington,
based on CIA evaluations, is that Russia is still
dictitingah th?oves in Korea: T#P. Kc";an. lie4e
bid; it's S"...!11 Pattern
-6-6oFes r
7 / (Tpia
v
REALISTIC CHIEFS admit privately
that the chances of AFL and CIO unity at this
time, or even this year, are slim.
'Some positive steps toward merging the two
big labor groups nonetheless were taken at a
closed-door huddle of AFL-CIO top brass f.'n
other day. As one leader described the meet-
ing: 'Despite the obstalces that must be ironed
? out, it was the closest step we have ever taken'
toward unity." ?
For the first time, there was a joint under-
: standing by bah sides to Up their due7
647-7,A.6.0
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R001100670096-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R001100670096-5
7.has been off , limits in?the? fiaStTleading':;to';
charges of "paper membership." ? ; ..;
;. However, big rub will come in handling (1) ;
?. jurisdictional conflicts between CIO and; AFL
?. unions working in the same industry, (2)?mem-:
; bership raiding, which both sides are slow to
admit, and (3) organizing the millions of non-
t-
union workers under either the AFL or CIO.;
Joe Beirne, of the CIO Communications ?
; Workers, and Bill Doherty, boss of the AFL Let-
ter Carriers, insisted the obstacles could be
overcome. The, big needle trades unions would ;
.- be no problem, they argued, because the CIO ?
(Amalgamated Clothing Workers) already has
solidly organized the men's clothing industry,.
while. the AFL (International Ladies Garment':
Workers) is equally strong in the women's cloth-
ing field.
"This merger of labor, so we can have a solid:
front equally as .strong as management forces,
?arrayed against us, is s must," declared Doh--
.erty. "It has been delayed long enough." ? .
; "It is an economic necessity to the working-'
Man," spoke ?up Harry Bates, president of. the;
AFL. Bricklayers. "I pray that we will' never'have another economic crisis .as we -did in the
: early '30s, but we must prepare for any emer-.
?gency.by uniting our forces." .
(See Drew Pearsnn's staff conference at 9:49 p,
SatUrday on WTOP-TV, Channel 9. Hear Pearson on
WTOP-Radlo at 6:15- P. In. Saturday.) ?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R001100670096-5