The Pittsburgh Press (October 16, 1944)
‘Battle of the Statler’ –
Officers blamed in affidavits
Remarks called ‘unrepeatable’
Washington (UP) –
Affidavits of witnesses to the celebrated “Battle of the Statler” will show that the fisticuffs started when the two naval officers involved made “unrepeatable remarks” about President Roosevelt, Drew Pearson asserted in his radio broadcast last night.
One of the officers, LtCdr. James H. Suddeth, 33, of Greer, South Carolina, denied Mr. Pearson’s statement. The other, Lt. Randolph Dickens Jr., 23, of Bradenton, Florida, could not be reached immediately for comment. Lt. Dickins, a battle fatigue patient at the Bethesda Medical Center at the time of the fight, has been released for active duty and now is in Bradenton on leave.
Officers blame Teamsters
In their account of the incident, the only detailed story given thus far, the officers contended that at started in a hotel corridor the night the President addressed an AFL Teamsters Union banquet when several teamsters demanded to know if they would, vote for their commander-in-chief and were told it was “none of your business.”
Mr. Pearson said affidavits by two women – Mrs. Frank Lee, wife of a Washington bank vice president, and Mrs. Helen V. Roland, a stenographer – would show that the officers were actually the ones who wanted an answer to that question.
‘Grabbed by arm’
Their statements, he said, were that “long before the fight started they [the women] were peacefully going to the powder room at the Statler when one of the naval officers grabbed Mrs. Roland by the arm and demanded to know how she was going to vote.”
Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Roland declined to discuss Mr. Pearson’s statement, referring all inquiries to Joseph A. Padway, general counsel of the AFL. Mr. Padway said his office had obtained some affidavits for the Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee but that he did not know their contents since he has been out of town.
Mr. Pearson said the committee, which will meet Wednesday to decide whether to conduct a formal investigation into the fracas, has other affidavits showing that “the naval officers were making unrepeatable remarks about their Commander-in-Chief.”
‘Going to have new one’
“When they were reminded, they were talking about their Commander-in-Chief,” he added, one of them said:
“To hell with the Commander-in-Chief, we’re going to have a new one in January.”
He said the affidavits relate that the officers were “quietly asked to leave but persisted in staying” and that during the ensuing fisticuffs, one of them “was rushed into a nearby phone booth, kicking and biting. until the Shore Patrol arrived.”
Chairman Theodore F. Green (D-RI) of the Senate Committee has declined to discuss the affidavits, explaining that the committee will have to consider them first at Wednesday’s meeting.
Naval officers called sober
Washington (UP) –
In a story relating to the disturbance involving members of the AFL Teamsters Union and two naval officers on the night President Roosevelt addressed a union banquet at the Statler Hotel. the United Press on Oct. 12 erroneously attributed to Fulton Lewis Jr., radio commentator, a statement to the effect that hotel Officials had said the officers were intoxicated.
Mr. Lewis’ statement was that the officers were not intoxicated. The MBS commentator discussed the incident from Station KFRC, San Francisco, in part as follows:
The hotel officials who were present at the time tell me positively that the naval Officers were not intoxicated. One hotel official went so far as to say he was quite sure that neither one had even had a drink.