Missing Witness

After seven weeks of studying the peculiar Washington species known as influence-peddlers, the Senate Investigating subcommittee had discovered some distinctive markings and characteristics. The finest specimens claim Missouri as their habitat, have at least a nodding acquaintance with Harry Truman, a much chummier relationship with his aides and advisers, and can buzz in & out of the White House at will. They also have a great fondness for crisp currency.

Last week Senate investigators had a chat with a quietly dressed Washington five-percenter named Glenn P. Boehm, who had such characteristics in abundance. Not only is he a Missourian, he also knows Harry Truman and is a friend of Presidential Cronies Donald S. Dawson and Major General Harry Vaughan. Under questioning, Boehm reluctantly disclosed a few of his successful Washington deals. Among them was arranging a $200,000 RFC loan for a Philadelphia paper concern, picking up a $10,000 fee for promising to help a Mississippian sell a submachine gun to Army Ordnance, and helping a "client" who wanted to buy surplus war property by forming a partnership and splitting a $25,000 fee. The fee was split with Herschel Young, a fellow Missourian who was an employee of the War Assets Administration and a brother-in-law of Mrs. Merl Young, the ex-White House stenographer, who got the famous pastel mink coat.

Boehm freely admitted that he had not done much to earn some of these fees, but he stoutly denied that his friends in the White House had ever helped him. One exception, he recalled, was a meeting he arranged between a group of pro-Truman Mississippians, headed by state National Committeeman Clarence S. Hood Jr., and Donald S. Dawson. As a result of the meeting, the Mississippians were eventually placed in charge of dispensing federal patronage in the state of Mississippi--until they were kicked out two months ago after an investigation into federal job-selling.

Boehm's testimony increased senatorial curiosity over what White House Aide Dawson might say for himself if he would only talk. Last week the Fulbright subcommittee, investigating the RFC, issued its second invitation to Dawson, and this time worded it a little more urgently. The subcommittee hoped to shame him into appearing; subpoenaing him would create a legal hubbub about legislative v. executive authority, which the Senators might lose. At week's end, Dawson, acting on the orders of Harry Truman, still had not replied to the subcommittee's request, and, furthermore gave no sign of intending to do so.

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