The Daily Alaska Empire

The Washington
Merry-Go-Round
By DREW PEARSON
(Continued from Page 1)
...been a lot redder than those of
Senators and Congressmen if all
the facts about airplane rides by
bigwigs were aired to the public.
In late July, for instance,
the
Dewdrop, built by the Air Force
for "President" Dewey, made
a
special trip to the annual jubilee
at Bohemian Grove, California, with
a cargo of special friends of Sec-
retary of Defense Johnson and
Undersecretary Steve Early. John-
son's friends were New York busi-
nessmen, while Early's friends were
officials of the Pullman-Standard
Car Manufacturing Company, of
which Early was once vice-presi-
dent.
The passengers included Champ
Clark, president of the Pullman-
Standard; D. A. Crawford, a di-
rector of Pullman-Standard; Rob-
ert Lea, President of Johns-Man-
ville; and James A. Jackson,
120
Broadway, New York. Steve Early
and Undersecretary of State John
Peurifoy were the only government
passengers aboard.
Upon reaching San Francisco, the
plane flew back to Washington-
at a cost of $130 an hour. Then it
took Johnson and Secretary of
State Acheson on a separate and
special trip to the jamboree at Bo-
hemian Grove-again at a cost of
$130 an hour.
If the above passengers had se-
cured free passes on the railroads-
with the exception of the Pullman
officials-it would have been against
the law. For long ago the railroad
pass scandal got so bad that Con-
gress passed legislation forbidding
it. Meanwhile the free airplane
ride scandal has become worse.
AIRPLANE RUN-AROUND
Believing the public is entitled
to know who uses their tax money
on these free rides, this columnist
queried the Air Force officials.
Spokesman, Steve Leo.
He replied
that
all
flights
of
"executive
planes"
were
handled
direct
by
Secretary Johnson's office and re-
ferred the query to Col. Kenneth
Kreps in Johnson's office.
Col. Kreps, polite but jittery, ad-
mitted he knew something about
these flights, but referred the query
to his chief, Gen. Leven C. Allen.
Gen. Allen, in turn, referred the
query to an official Defense De-
partment spokesman who
squirmed,
hedged, blushed
and
said
abso-
lutely nothing.
Careful notes
were
taken,
and
here is the transcript of the con-
versation:
Spokesman: "I don't think you
are going to get any
information
from
us.
Secretary of Defense
Johnson would like to consider the
incident closed, as to who is going
to ride in military aircraft, and he
doesn't want to furnish a list of
names to anyone. A decision has
been reached as to who can ride
and under what circumstances, and
this will be rigidly adhered to."
Columnist: "Is the information
we want available?"
Spokesman: "I should think so."
Columnist: "Is it classified infor-
mation; that is, is it a military
secret?"
Spokesman: "There couldn't be
any military secret about it . . . It
is no more a military secret than
a jack rabbit running across the
street."
Columnist: "As I understand it,
your office is supposed to furnish
information to the public.
Are
you also supposed to censor infor-
mation?"
NO CENSORSHIP
Spokesman: "We are not set up
to censor information.
The only
censorship is that which involves
military security."
Columnist:
"Does a trip
to
a
musical show at Bohemian
Grove
involve military security?"
Spokesman:"No."
Columnist: "In that case, if the
information is available, if it is not
a military secret, and if you are not
supposed to censor anything except
military secrets, why can't you tell
the public what's it's entitled to
know?"
Spokesman (fumbling for words):
"There you get into a very person-
al thing.
In government
you
should get an honest answer while
it will not embarrass . . . "
(his
voice trailed off.)
TOO EMBARRASSING
Columnist: "That is an important
point. The question is whether
government officials, who are paid
by the taxpayers, should be allow-
ed to suppress information-just
because it may be embarrassing to
them."
Spokesman: "I didn't say
this
would be embarrassing to
them.
But it might embarrass other peo-
ple."
Columnist:
"Now,
let's
not be
naive.
Whoever was invited to ride
in an Air Force plane might be
embarrassed if his name were pub-
lished, but
his
embarrassment
wouldn't be as great as the official
who invited him-Secretary of De-
fense Johnson, in this case."
Columnist (continuing): "Does
the Defense Department consider
that the taxpayers are entitled to
know how their money is spent-
as long as military security is not
involved?"
The spokesman refused to ans-
wer.
When an attempt was made to
query Johnson personally, it was
found he had flown to Clarksburg.
W. Va., in a special government
plane to play golf. Steve Early,
also queried, was out of town.