Not Guilty

For a full day last week the Senate Military Affairs Committee skillfully frisked the records of Franklin Roosevelt's two appointees to the Surplus Property Board, only to come up emptyhanded. There was no skulduggery, the Senators agreed, in the business dealings of thin, sharp-nosed Lieut. Colonel Edward Hellman Heller, or of Connecticut's moon-faced ex-Governor. Robert A. Hurley. From this standpoint, both were qualified for the big job of disposing of an estimated total of $75,000,000,000 in surplus U.S. war property.

This scrutiny of Hurley and Heller centered around their connection with the Narragansett Machine Co. of Pawtucket, R.I. -- Hurley as a $12,000-a-year vice president, Heller as the Army finance officer who had arranged a $2,000,000 Government-guaranteed loan for the financially queasy company, and a loan renewal (TIME, Dec. 4). Heller, who denied knowing Hurley at the time, had a War Department official and an Army colonel testify to his honesty in the deals. Such testimony seemed enough for the Senators.

But many Senators were worried about the nominees' ability. Asked for a statement of his specific duties under the Surplus Property Act, Heller fidgeted, said vaguely that it should be administered so as to get the most possible for the Government without damaging business. Hurley had no clear idea, either.

Strongest opposition to the appointees will come from the Senate's 37 Republicans. Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio pointed out that Hurley, defeated for reelection in 1942 and this year, was a "lame duck twice rejected by the people of his state." Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg tartly added: "We are dealing with surplus property, not surplus politicians." Democratic confirmation of Hurley and Heller seemed assured.

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