Brewster's Burlesque

Few campaign promises have been better kept than that of the Republicans to begin the Eightieth Congress with a prayer and end it with a probe. Scarcely a day of the session passed that did not witness exploratory jabs into some phase of the past or present activities of the Democratic administration. The pertinent facts of the May-Garsson scandal were public knowledge by the time that the GOP took up the reins of Congress; but Republicans can hog most of the credit for the smear "investigation" of David Lilienthal and the recent brief and abortive attempt to discredit the security measures of the Atomic Energy Commission. The grand finale is now under way.

Senator Owen Brewster of Maine is holding high his torch, attempting to illuminate the sex, sin and Scotch with which he claims Howard Hughes and his press agent Johnny Meyer enticed a willing Elliott Roosevelt into handing them a juicy war contract. Pin-up addicts, tabloid readers, and desk bound Washingtonians should be duly grately to the Senator for bringing a spot of joy to dull summer routines. The sex-saturated poses of the scarcely clad "Wham Girl" that have enlivened newspapers and magazines are better than Saturday night at the Old Howard; and Hughes' picture, showing him haggard and emaciated as the result of a near fatal plane crash, can hardly fail to call up visions of successful procurers you have known.

But unless Senator Brewster comes up, and fast, with some new facts, his little investigation will be far from adequate fare for those who are scarching for the "deeper implication of things." His work to date is only a very funny burlesque of the Senate War Investigating Committee, whose activities saved the Government-billions of dollars and put Harry Truman in the political limelight. So far the worst that can be said of Hughes is that he used on a grand scale the same tactics that any small business man adopts when he invites a potential buyer home for dinner in the hope that the good cooking and flattery of the "little woman" will turn the trick. Hughes was not on a "cost plus" basis as were so many other contractors Any money his publicity man splurged on entertainment was simply bread cast upon the waters, and could not be charged to the Government.

In one way it is regrettable that the Senators are expending so much effort in an investigation that so far has only confirmed the old suspicion that gentlemen prefer blondes. During the war the relations of government and business were so extensive, the number of contracts so vast, that there are bound to be numerous dark corners that need to be looked into, plenty of shady deals that could not bear the light of day. The committee could do the country a real service by uncovering them. But this particular investigation has its own merits from the point of view of the Republicans. For the magic name of Roosevelt is involved. FDR's administration will in time become a rosy myth, and the name Roosevelt will in time be envoked by aspiring Democrats with the same reverence that Republicans use in referring to Lincoln. By attempting to discredit the late President through his son, Brewster's probe may have the effect of delaying the day when the Roosevelt myth becomes an effective political weapon. That, and little more.