Hopkins likely to fade fast as chief aide
But will be very important at first
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer
WASHINGTON – For the time being, Harry Hopkins, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s closest personal adviser, will be almost indispensable to President Truman in his dealings with our major allies.
For Mr. Hopkins is probably the only American who knows firsthand all the understandings among the Big Three.
He attended all the meetings of Mr. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin. He was Mr. Roosevelt’s agent on special trips to London, Moscow, Paris and Rome. For months he lived in the White House.
Hence, at first, the new President will have to depend upon Mr. Roosevelt’s most loyal – and most criticized – friend.
Changes predicted
After that…? Persons who know President Truman well insist that as soon as possible, in these circumstances, he will begin to make changes. Mr. Hopkins, they think, will be a figure in the earliest of these shifts.
Mr. Truman is the sort of man who will have his own “Kitchen Cabinet,” and already some men are being mentioned as possible holders of these important, but often unofficial posts.
There is Hugh Fulton, for example. He is the former Justice Department lawyer whom Mr. Truman employed as chief counsel of what was then the Truman Investigating Committee of the Senate.
Quit with Truman
The new President, while a Senator from Missouri and chairman of the war investigating group, leaned heavily upon this quiet, capable man. Mr. Fulton quit the committee when Mr. Truman became Vice President.
Another may be Democratic National Chairman Robert Hannegan, to whom Mr. Truman can give credit for making him Vice President. Bob Hannegan may become as powerful as Jim Farley was in the early New Deal.
Then, if President Truman picks advisors from the Senate, he may settle upon the quiet-mannered Sen. Carl Hatch (D-New Mexico).
Banker mentioned
The new President’s associates also mention an old friend from St. Louis, John Snyder, a banker there, to whom they expect the new executive to turn for advice.
Mr. Roosevelt had his own “kitchen cabinet” as his administration began, except that it was known as the “Brain Trust.”
With two exceptions, all these are either dead, or gone from official life – James Byrnes and Benjamin Cohen within the last few weeks.
As the years passed, Mr. Roosevelt’s “Kitchen Cabinet” dwindled in size.
Two regulars left
As the war progressed, it was reduced to only two regulars – Mr. Hopkins and Judge Samuel Rosenman. Mr. Hopkins became chairman of the Munitions Assignment Board, and Judge Rosenman took the title of special counsel to the President.
Like Mr. Hopkins, Judge Rosenman is not expected to stay long beyond the time when President Truman himself, or his own “Kitchen Cabinet,” learns the answers.