Ickes punishes an office aide in letter quiz
Hopkins-Willkie missive ruled a forgery; paper traced
Bulletin
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes testified today before a federal grand jury investigating authorship of the mysterious “Hopkins letter.”
Washington (UP) –
White House stationery – of the same type on which the so-called Hopkins letter was written – has been and is now available at the Interior Department, it was learned today as a federal grand jury moved ahead in its study of the political-explosive document.
The grand jury was expected to call soon on Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, who sought permission to testify after he suspended George N. Briggs, an assistant identified by Senator William Langer (R-ND) as the man who obtained a letter written on White House stationery, purportedly by Harry L. Hopkins, the No. 1 adviser to President Roosevelt.
Forgery tale upheld
My. Hopkins was also expected to appear before the investigating body to repeat his denial of having written the letter, which represented him as believing that Wendell L. Willkie would be the 1944 Republican presidential nominee.
Justice Department officials back up Mr. Hopkins’ assertion that the letter was a forgery. Briggs will remain suspended from his Interior post without pay pending outcome of the grand jury investigation.
Senator Langer entered into the controversy by producing photographic copies of alleged correspondence between Briggs and C. Nelson Sparks, former mayor of Akron, Ohio, and author of the anti-Willkie book One Man – Wendell Willkie.
Stationery checked
Mr. Ickes has denied any knowledge of the letters purportedly written by Briggs’ aid and which linked Mr. Ickes’ name with the “Hopkins” letter.
A United Press correspondent visited Briggs’ office in the Interior Department and saw there White House stationery which an employee said always had been on hand. This stationery, it was learned, is generally supplied to various government departments for use if officials who occasionally prepare letters for the President’s signature.
Justice Department officials were attempting to determine whether similarities in typing noted in the so-called Hopkins letters and letters allegedly written by Briggs were significant or mere coincidences.
The two typewriters in Briggs’ office – one for his own use and the other for his secretary – were removed yesterday on orders from Mr. Ickes’ office.
Ickes is irked
Briggs, who did not appear at his office yesterday. Issued a statement from his home charging that Senator Langer’s action was part of a plot to “wreck” Mr. Ickes. He and his wife later left their apartment in nearby Arlington, Virginia.
Mr. Ickes declared that he knew “nothing whatsoever about the alleged events” referred to in the purported Briggs’ letters.
He said:
I do not relish the bandying about of my name in connection with a matter which seems to be as bizarre and absurd as it appears to be contemptible and vicious.
Justice Department Attorney Henry A. Schweinhaut, who characterized the Hopkins letter as a “definite forgery,” said he “wouldn’t be surprised if the forger turned up shortly.”
A Senate elections subcommittee postposed for “two or three days” a decision on Senator Langer’s proposed investigation of Willkie’s 1940 Republican presidential nomination pending a check on the committee’s legal authority.