The Wilmington Morning Star

ICKES STICKS TO
PAULEY CHARGES
Former Interior Secretary
Says Nominee Did Use
"Improper Methods"

WASHINGTON, March 6.-(P)-
Former Interior Secretary Ickes
insisted in a sharp exchange with
Senator Tydings Wednesday that
Edwin W. Pauley used "improper
methods" in opposing a suit to
determine government ownership
of tidewater oil lands.

Then, under pointed questioning
by the Maryland Democrat, Ickes
explained that he did not protest
directly to President Truman over
Pauley's nomination as undersecretary
of the Navy, because the president
did not ask his advice.

Gaudy Show
The Ickes-vs-Tydings clash was
as gaudy a show as the Senate
Naval Affairs committee has witnessed
in its weeks of hearings on
the disputed nomination. At one
point the former cabinet officer
stuck out his finger at the Marylander
and referred to him as
"Mister Pauley's counsel." Tydings
shouted back: "Don't try to
bamboozle me!"

Other highlights of the session,
the third Ickes has attended:

1. Ickes said he told the late
President Roosevelt in 1944 that
"sooner or later you are going to
have a scandal on your hands" if
an oil man remained treasurer of
the Democratic National committee.
(Pauley formerly served in
that capacity).

Asks Removal
2. Tydings demanded that Ickes'
son, Raymond W. Ickes, who was
serving as his father's counsel,
leave his side at the witness table.

3. Ickes asserted that Welborn
Mayock, an attorney for Pauley,
"worked in the oil procurement
business from Democratic National
headquarters in 1944 until President
Roosevelt intervened at Ickes'
request and he was "packed off to
California."

4. The former cabinet officer declared
that if a California oil conservation
bill supported by himself,
President Roosevelt and Pauley in
1939 had remained on the statute
books, some 150,000,000 barrels of
oil might not have been drained by
private interests from under the
Elk Hills Naval oil reserve.