Summaries of Telephone Conversations

Washington, D. C. CO SUMMARY August 1, 1945 3:45 PM CHARLES HORTON MURCHISON (Attorney from Jacksonville, Florida) to CORCORAN that he is at the Senate and had a nice visit with CLAUDE (PEPPER ?). CORCORAN said, "I've got a message for you to give him when and if you see him again. Tell him that the great enemy is leaving at the end of the summer. So I want CLAUDE to pass on to the friends they had lunch with yesterday as he, CORCORAN, was trying to pass on himself right now." CORCORAN continues, "If the worst comes to worst, all he'll have to do is to hold this thing over and he'll have two new men and the fellow we had lunch with, will be the head man." M - Do you think number one will leave? C - I know he will, at the end of the summer. M - Do you think he'll go along with us in the meantime? C - I don't know; that ain't the point. I am told he's going to; the main thing is to get the message to the fourth man at the table; if he proves that he won't. Then push the thing over. Because you're sure he isn't going to be in your way. M - In other words, hold our lines if necessary. Have you learned anything else lately? C - No. M - BEDELL may be back this afternoon. He called me from Pittsburgh yesterday to find out what was what and said he may be back this P.M. I told him we didn't know whether they were or not, and were led to believe they weren't, so we'd been in there pitching ever since, hoping it'd work out O.K. I suggested to our friend over here that he ought to follow up and see what the reaction was - don't you - between number one and number one. He said he'd call again tomorrow, he's waiting before the Senate for a chance to speak. C - When is he leaving? M - He said he wouldn't leave until next week and then he was going to North Carolina to meet his mother. He'll be there a week. I'm planning on leaving tonight. C - Check with me before you leave. I want to make sure that this message gets in. M - You mean, about the man leaving? C - That's right. I'll follow up on the other. 4:00 PM MR. THOMAS (New York City) to CORCORAN. THOMAS said the "Treasury thing" came out the way it was set up originally. THOMAS asks what the Little War Plants did about the thing. CORCORAN replied that what MAURY (MAVERICK, W.P.B. ?) tried to do was pull out on the thing, but before he got himself the way out, your people came through and CRAWFORD came over to me and said it was so god damned good, to leave it alone. THOMAS agreed it turned out wonderful. CORCORAN said, "You got four million and three didn't you?" THOMAS didn't answer, but stated, "That's mostly due to our Russian friend," and mentioned he had read a notice in the paper regarding ANACONDA that had scared hell out of the Russians, and that the list of war criminals (in the paper) included the Russians as the number one war criminals. THOMAS said he had a note for DWIGHT. CORCORAN said,