The Pittsburgh Press (May 1, 1941)
General answers Roosevelt –
JOHNSON BLAMES ‘DISLIKE’ FOR LOSS OF COMMISSION
Washington, May 1 (UP) –
Hugh S. Johnson said to President Roosevelt:
You don’t like me anymore – and I don’t blame you.
Gen. Johnson revealed today that during the controversy over his application for renewal of his reserve commission as a brigadier general – which the President had refused – he wrote a letter to the President which included that statement. It also said:
I respectfully submit that withholding it [the reserve commission] in these circumstances is neither very wise nor very consistent with what at least used to be a very close and precious friendship.
Gen. Johnson took vigorous exception to the “so-called reasons” advanced by White House Secretary Stephen T. Early for the President’s refusal, but avowed his willingness to serve the nation in any position “from corporal – up or down.”
The President’s action was announced yesterday. The reasons given were Gen. Johnson’s age – 58 – and the fact that he has not been in active service for many years.
He was director of the World War draft and commanded an infantry brigade in 1918. He became a brigadier general in the Reserve Corps after the war and headed the NRA in the early days of the New Deal. He is now a newspaper columnist and a vigorous opponent of the President’s foreign policy.
Gen. Johnson said:
I have no criticism or complaint about the President’s failure to renew iuon my application my third five-year term as brigadier general… No man has a right to demand such an appointment any more than he has to be consecrated a bishop.
That is the President’s business as Commander-in-Chief and no good soldier would have a word to say.
As a matter of fact, acceptance of a reserve commission is just an expression of willingness to serve at the call of the President in a particular grade. My condition is altered only in this: That my government gave me both my military and legal education and every chance I ever had in life.
I would serve it at any moment, at any call, in any grade from corporal – up or down.
During a press conference yesterday, Mr. Early said the War Department had waived physical condition in Gen. Johnson’s case. Asked whether that implied Gen. Johnson was physically unfit, Mr. Early replied emphatically in the negative, explaining that he had not the slightest idea whether he was fit or even whether he had taken a physical examination.
Unable to reach party
Gen. Johnson’s subsequent statement said he had been advised by reporters that Mr. Early had said he was physically unfit; that he had attempted to telephone Mr. Early to confirm the statement but was unable to reach him.
On the War Department’s desire to call him, Gen. Johnson said:
I have been repeatedly told by War Department officials that my name was near the top of the list to be called on these specialties [industrial and manpower mobilization].
On lack of training:
Reserve officers have no opportunity for training except a they are called by the War Department for training. I have never been called.
On his age:
I am younger than most of the general officers in the Army, including the Commander-in-Chief…
Gen. Johnson’s letter to Mr. Roosevelt on April 16, inquiring as to the process of his application, said in part:
…I have the reverse of any selfish interest in seeking reappointment. But I have a horror of having it said that I tried to escape an obligation to immediate service by any device – including a lapse of my commission.
Ready to serve
I am sure that you don’t like me anymore – and I don’t blame you. But I am, equally sure that you know in your heart, more confidently perhaps, than about some other people that in whatever you might ask me to do, I would serve you faithfully and loyally – as I have always done.
What I am trying to say is that I am sure you have, on any personal basis, neither the intention of disqualifying me to serve my country, if an appropriate occasion should arise, nor the heart to do so. The reserve commission means nothing to me of either prestige or advantage – nothing at all otherwise except a standing one-way ticket to potential grief.