Alas!

Most Washingtonians seemed to read accounts of the Hughes hearing with mixed feelings of amusement, anger and dismay. One who was moved by a different emotion was the New York Times's boss capital correspondent, Pundit Arthur Krock. As he read the testimony, he seemed to be overcome with a certain sadness. Wrote he:

"The capital feels let down, ignored, disregarded. It was the center of planning and procurement during the war. It is the continuous host of Congress, from which all appropriations flow. Yet, except for a few baubles given to the womenfolk of important officials when they smashed bottles on the sides of ships, and the occasional loan of an automobile and a 'C' card, Washington saw nothing of the saturnalia of wartime on which the Senate committee has lifted the curtain.

"Now and then a lady, consequential for her beauty or for her connections with an administrator of power, secretly showed a few nylons to her closest friends, and it was understood they came from the kindly representative of a war manufacturer. But no 'wham' girls in flesh-colored bathing suits appeared as party accessories.

"This correspondent, who mingled considerably during the war with these agents, never found a stone wall between him and a check in bar or restaurant; never was offered a free airplane rate to places of appointment, for purposes hymeneal or otherwise, with expenses paid end to end; and never was a guest at a nightclub gathering, or saw one in Washington. No war contractor's agent ever offered this correspondent a gay evening in the hope of getting a helpful piece in the paper."

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