Summaries of Telephone Conversations

CO SUMMARY Washington, D. C. July 19, 1945 9:46 AM LEO CROWLEY to TOM CORCORAN. The following conversation took place: T - I thought you'd like to know that I had lunch with PRICHARD yesterday and after I talked over a great many things in which he wanted help and I gave him help, I just laughingly said, "How's your feud with LEO coming?" Then he turned red and said, "You know, goddamn it, he's been saying that all over town, but I have no feud with him." He says, "All I want to do is to make something out of a completely "ballixed" up and hopelessly ineffective organization. And then we went on and we argued it for a little while and then he burst out and he said, "And, damn it, he (CROWLEY?) kept FRED VINSON off the Board of the Export-Import Bank.' "Well," I said, "I don't believe that's so. I happened to hear him say the other day how he had gone to Senator BARKLEY with the idea that the amendment would be put on, and BARKLEY asked that no amendments be put on the bill because it might give the other side a chance to snarl it up in conference." He says, "Oh," he says, "It was done long before that.' He says, "He arranged in the House to have FRED kicked off the Board of the Export-Import Bank." Then I told him that as far as I knew at the time it came up in the House, and I don't know whether I'm right about this, MORGENTHAU was still the Secretary of the Treasury. L -That's right. T -He says, "Well," he says, "I think the timing was off." "Well," I says, "is that all that you've got that's bothering you?" and he says, "Well I assure you, he said, "this isn't personal at all. It's just that I think the organization is ineffective in its present form." And then I went on and gave him a little lecture about the fact that this imminence of V-J day meant that you've got to hold all crowds in this administration as hard as you could and that you go tinkering with loyalties and people right now and you'll all be out on your tail in 1946 because the boys are coming home to vote wrong. I'm passing the whole thing on to you because I just simply wanted you to know that that Export-Import Bank thing was still under their craw over there. L - Yeah. Well, of course, FRED wasn't Secretary of the Treasury, you understand, and we had no way of knowing that he was going to be. T - That's right. That's what I told him. L - And afterwards then they might fix it up in the Senate, I doubt it very much because BARKLEY is afraid of any amendments. T - Well, I told him that. L - But anyhow, TOM, I appreciate that. As far as that big fathead is concerned (PRICHARD?) T - Well, he'll lay off of you for a while now. L - He isn't running my business, and if he doesn't quit interferring in my business either he's going to run F.E.A. or I'm going to run F.E.A. T - Yeah. Last night, I wanted to tell you, I was out with BILLY MAYBANK (BURNET R. MAYBANK (?), Senator from South Carolina) and he wanted me to tell you that if there are any breakers ahead on the kind of an issue we're talking about that, by god, he was ready and all the Senate was ready.