ROOSEVELT’S ADMIRERS: THE "INNER CABINET"

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23744, 16 September 1942, Page 4

ROOSEVELT’S ADMIRERS: THE "INNER CABINET"

UNITED STATES AT WAR

[By ROSCOE DRUMMOND, in Who are the men most influential with President Roosevelt in the conduct of the war on both the military and domestic fronts? Washington correspondents are asked that question more frequently than any other and it is useful to appraise events in the terms of those who make them. At the moment two national magazines are polling newspapermen to set a composite judgment of the key figures in the Government. Tam not going to offer merely a personal opinion. The following list. represents the consensus of half a dozen colleagues who have known the Government and its changing personalities intimately for a number of .years. It also corresponds with the judgment of one high official who himself is m his “inner cabinet. As of to-day, then, we offer: Mr Hopkins Pre-eminent The Varsity team— Harry L. Hopkins undoubtedly ranks second pnly to the President himself in influencing the civilian and political and_ ftrategic course of the war. He is Mr Roosevelt’s personal chief of staff, an lowa harness-maker’s son and former social service worker in New York, who, as the President’s alter ego. is an intimate of prime ministers, generals, commissars. and kings. Mr Hopkins lives at the White House, eats at the White House, and works at the White House. He and Mr Roosevelt occupy adjoining rooms and spend many evenings and odd hours in consultation on virtually every major problem on which the President must make a decision. In the conduct of the war Mr Hopkins has adjourned social reform thinking more decisively than, any other high New Dealer, in the judgment of some of his closest non-New Deal associates. Mr Hopkins takes no soft attitude toward the war nor toward the sacrifices which every group- of Americans must make in order to. win the war. This viewpoint was gratifyingly apparent to his colleagues when Mr Hopkins served on the pre-W.P.B. Supply Priorities and Allocation Board and has been evident in his few conversations with correspondents. - Rear-Admiral William D. Leahy, former Chief of Naval Operations, lately Ambassador to France, has now been elevated to the unprecedented post of Chief of Staff to the Com-mander-in-chief, for which the President said he wanted a man in whom he has great confidence. Admiral Leahy, immediately an important figure, may become the most influential military man in the Governm General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, and his immediate aide, Lieutenant-General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Air Forces, and Admiral Ernest J. King. Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, pretty much run the armed services, subordinate only to the preSl< Donald M. Nelson. Director of War Production, who swam steadily to the top in wave after wave of 0.P.M., 5.P.A.8., and W.P.B. , reorganisations, continues to grow in standing with the

the "Christian Science Monitor.”] , White House. Harry Hopkins has con. tinuously supported him and he ha the confidence of industrialists ant New Dealers alike. His job is ok? duction and nothing else. The PrJT dent leaves him alone, and Mr Nelson mixes into neither policy nor stratew outside his field. " Embraced in this “inner cabinet* category but by no means decisive!? influential in the war are secretaria Henry L. Stimson and Frank KnS Mr Stimson is shrewd, balanced, mot* experienced in his job than most civil, ians. and his judgment is often asked by Mr Roosevelt. Colonel Knox diligent, hard-working executive who has speeded the upbuilding of the Navy and its morale, but neither he nor m Stimson i tally run their departments. General Marshall and Admiral jjj n « are the Army and the without much interference nk 2SL civilian heads They advise dent directly, not through the seer*, taries. j The .Vice-President Outsidfe of military matters, Vice. President Henry A. Wallace might well be considered the second most import* * ant adviser to the White House—sec. ond to Harry Hopkins. Mr Wallace eschews war strategy, although he ij well informed. He is primarily engaged in post-war plans, sees eye to; eye with Mr Roosevelt on the pattern of things to come, and is concerned with seeing that they do come. , ; Secretary of State Cordell Hulj re* mains a valued and valuable colleague, influential with the country and there, fore influential with the President, tin*: der-Secretary Sumner Welles, a .skilled diplomat of acute and perceptive judg. ment, is of great service to the Presl. dent. There is no more informed offl. cial in the Government in the whole, broad diplomatic-military world land-' scape. . 'T Itinerant advisers—no list of men round the President can overlook hfi two London representatives, Arabas*sador John G. Winant and lend-leasa expediter Averell Harjriman, who rank high in Mr Roosevelt’s esteem, and ; who are likely to 'become more influential rather than less. Second team—though not at the pin., nacle, this second coterie of advisers comprises officials who help shape vital decisions. Its personnel will fluctuate . from time to time. At the moment the “second team* would include at the very minimum Judge Samuel I. Rosenman, of New York, the last remaining member of the original Roosevelt “Brain Trust,? an administrative reorganiser and ar- ' chitect of numy presidential executive orders; LeontHenderson, Price Administrator; Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, confidant of the President; Archibald MacLeish, scholarly ' idea man and practical poet; Harold D: Smith, Director of the Budget, but more accurately the business manager of the Government, and Bernard M,. Baruch, adviser to President Wilson in. the first World War. Adviser-in-chief—in the final analysis let there be no mistake about it, • Franklin D. Roosevelt is the most in* fluential man with the President: he is his own closest adviser, . ■