BLUE EAGLE FALLS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 263, 6 November 1934, Page 7

BLUE EAGLE FALLS

EXIT GENERAL JOHNSON THE MAN AND HIS JOB A MEMORABLE FIGURENEW YORK. Oct. 10. General Johnson has passed from the stage of public life, accompanied by his sorrowing Blue Eagle, his special chick, whose incubation he supervised tenderly. Unlike a racehorse, whose greatest test comes in his third year, the Blue Eagle apparently does not flourish beyond the yearling stage. Next to the presidents, and ahead of baseball pitchers, the most publicised man of his crowded year of life. General Johnson will not easily be forgotten. Though people may say he resembled the Scotsman in the song—“l don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way” —they will remember ais charm, his exuberant humour, and his devotion to his job. He was as one with the medieval knights who pur sued the Holy Grail, and who appeared so frequently in his speeches. General Johnson averaged one fulldress speech a week. Almost every time he spoke, his words were carried ou a national radio network to the remotest hamlet in the nation. All listened, friend and opponent alike, and were never more diverted than when he was dealing with critics of 'b.c Deal, the Eagle and the Code. Onesuch he sacrificed as ••'this writer, in whose veins there must flow rodent blood.” He had no patience with the “caned comment of professional critics on matters from which they stood ns far remote in practice as a mail-order and correspondence school cowboy from the sweat and effort of a Wyoming round-up.” His faith in the N.R.A, was at its zenith in the first month. ‘‘Theoretically. if all would pull together, we could do this job to-morrow, and the depression would end. That isn’t any hifalutin’ theory—that isn’t even an algebraic formula, like the square of x plus y; it’s just plain horse sense and barn yard figuring like 2 plus 2 equals 4.” For some months the people were glad to regard the bluff, honest General as a New Deal Horatius. guarding himself and Rome from the thrusts or sly Etruscan pundits. Tests of Chivalry. His critics were unscrupulous to a degree. Once, when he was attacking big corporations for not admitting that thev paid salaries of a hundred thousand dollars, he observed. 44 I’ve made more than that in my time, and I’ll make it again.” They delved into 1 is history and declared that one year in business ended him in bankruptcy, bankruptcy. When a storekeeper had his Blue Eagle taken away from him, Johnson described the punishment thus:—“As happened to Danny Deever in Kipling’s i regimental hanging, N.R.A. will have 1 to remove from him his badge of faith I and business honour, and ‘tykin’ of ’is buttons off’ and break the bright sword

■ of his commercial honour in the eyes • of his neighbours and throw the frag- | ments in scorn in the dust at his feet.” He chided the coal mine owners for refusing to confer with the strike leaders. “I would talk to the Devil himself if I thought it would make Hell any cooler.” he said. Business men he compared to heroic defenders of a besieged city. “Military history has shown that battle is not the most effective test of chivalry; a siege is. There is little excitement, less glory. Rations are slowly cut down, (so that men may share and live. Then j petty, mean hoarding shows up. j Nerves cannot take it. Hidden sclfishj ness in figures hitherto covered with • medals and shining repute. Suppiica-

tion tor surrender. Treachery, desertion and treason.” As a unique tribute to his genius, they decorated his £l5OO-a-year girl secretary with the honorary rank of Kentucky Colonel, which she will share with Mae West and Jack iDcwpsey.