Hair-Pulling in the Seraglio

Perhaps it was just a routine flare-up of personal pique, perhaps a touch of war-weariness had made the Palace Guardsmen snappish. Whatever the cause, stories of White House bitterness and intrigue crackled through Washington last week.

Said insiders, behind their hands: Harry Hopkins was mad because Jimmy Byrnes had not shown him his report before it went to Congress. And Henry Morgenthau was mightily put out because Byrnes had not consulted him on the tax proposals. In retaliation. Jimmy Byrnes's enemies began circulating the story that it was he who had let the famed "Clear it with Sidney" crack leak out during the Presidential campaign. Meanwhile, Sam Rosenman was reportedly sulking in his tent, sorry he ever left his New York judgeship to take up residence in the White House.

Caught in the middle of this spite war, like an innocent bystander, was mild Ben Cohen, almost the only early New Dealer left in Washington, and for the past two years chief counsel for War Mobilizer Byrnes. Having done much of the spade work on Dumbarton Oaks, able legalist Ben Cohen had coveted the now-vacant job of counselor to the State Department. Furthermore he had been offered the job by Secretary of State Stettinius.

But suddenly, after a hurry-up Stettinius visit to the White House, the offer was withdrawn. Cohen's friends had their own explanation: Harry Hopkins had cast the blackball. Incensed, Ben Cohen resigned from Government service, was persuaded to stay only after an hour's conference with Franklin Roosevelt himself.

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