Reprimand

When the Army's dismal performance with the airmail caused a public outcry last year, the Administration felt constrained to find a scapegoat. It had been the opinion of Major General Benjamin Delahauf ("Benny") Foulois, Chief of Air Corps, that the Army could fly the mail. Major General Foulois was investigated by a House Military Affairs subcommittee, which indignantly demanded his dismissal.

Prime basis for the demand was that he had procured Army aircraft through negotiated contract instead of competitive bids. Among other things, he was charged with "dishonesty, gross misconduct, inefficiency, inaccuracy, unreliability, incompetency, mismanagement." Major General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff, promptly stripped General Foulois of most of his powers, turned them over to Lieut.-Colonel Frank Maxwell Andrews as commander of the newly-organized General Headquarters Air Force.

Last week the War Department completed its investigation of General Foulois. Instead of removing the Chief of Air Corps as the House Military Affairs subcommittee wanted, Secretary of War Dern let him off with a reprimand to the effect that he "did depart from the ethics and standards of the service by making exaggerated, unfair and misleading statements to a Congressional committee."

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