Mixer

Ever since roly-poly Howard Hopson was caught lobbying against the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, nothing so delights official Washington as seeing his vast Associated Gas & Electric Co. caught off-base. SEC is trying to delist A. G. & E. stock from the New York Curb Exchange because of alleged "false and misleading" statements in its prospectus. Last week its investigation turned up a choice tidbit which SEC promptly speared.

In a list of its salaries submitted to SEC, A. G. & E. recorded paying one Ben Grey $55,000 for eleven months' work in 1937. Promptly SEC raised an astonished eyebrow. Who, it asked was this mysterious person and what service had he performed for A. G. & E. to earn such a fat fee? Last week A. G. & E. Vice President Fred F. Burroughs appeared unhappily before SEC to explain. Fidgeting, he told SEC Lawyer Lewis Dabney that Ben Grey was a short man with a blond mustache whose job had been "to mix with the right people" in Washington. No, Mr. Burroughs stoutly declared, Ben Grey was not a lobbyist.

Ben Grey may not have lobbied for A. G. & E. but in Washington he is considered a lobbyist. A steely-eyed gentleman of 45, he is one of that populous capital group who appear to know everything about everybody but tell nothing about themselves. He has been variously a newshawk, an ambulance driver for the A.E.F. in France, an adviser to the coal interests when they drew up their NRA code.

His first public-relations job was for President Harding, who wanted a brewing scandal in the Veterans Administration hushed. About 1928 he hooked up with the Democratic Party, now would like to have it believed he stands in well with Franklin Roosevelt. He is a trustee of the National Home Library Foundation, brags he has an entree to the liberal group surrounding Louis Brandeis. He wears thick-lensed glasses when he reads, plays the piano, has two children and a handsome apartment on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. He calls almost anyone he meets by his first name or nickname within five minutes, if they are girls, he calls them "Dear."

This week SEC will call Ben Grey to explain himself. At last week's hearings A. G. & E.'s Burroughs told Interrogator Dabney that among the men on whom Ben Grey reported was Lewis Dabney himself.

"What did he tell you about me?" asked Mr. Dabney.

Snapped Witness Burroughs: "He told me you were out for publicity and that you were issuing news releases to improve your own position."

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