Discomfited General

Planemaker Howard Hughes had taken all that the Senate War Investigating subcommittee had thrown at him, and had given as good as he got. Last week the committee heard from Lieut. General Barney Giles, wartime A.A.F. Chief of Staff, who backed up Hughes.

The Hughes F-11, he said, had been ordered by General Arnold as the best plane available at a time when makeshift photo-reconnaissance planes were taking heavy combat losses. Low priorities were primarily responsible for Hughes's failure to deliver. Elliott Roosevelt was "well qualified" to recommend the plane. Although the plane had been ordered over the opposition of the Army's technical command, there had been no favoritism. If there had been, said General Giles, "I should have been in a position to know."

With that the committee ended its Hughes investigation and turned to a more inviting target. While deaf Howard Hughes listened impassively, with an earphone clapped to his good ear, Michigan's Homer Ferguson grilled the discomfited Benny Meyers, Major General, U.S.A. ret., the man who had approved the original $70 million contract for the F-11.

Profitable Deals. Fellow officers had known Benny Meyers as the sharpest man with figures that the Air Forces had. He received the Legion of Merit for devising the wartime system of production controls and scheduling. One top-ranking officer declared: "Without Benny we would not have had the 6-29s when we wanted them."

But Benny Meyers had few friends. Gimlet-eyed and sharp-tongued, Benny was not interested in the romance of flying. While other officers spun yarns of the wild blue yonder, Benny studied stock reports. He was murderously good at poker, insisted on high stakes that sometimes ran to $3,000 pots. For an Army officer, he seemed unusually wealthy. He liked to flash $100 bills, recently bought a big, colonial house on Long Island.

Last week Benny Meyers would have been better off at 30,000 feet with a Zero on his tail. Hughes had testified that Meyers had asked him for a postwar job, and for a $200,000 loan to buy some $10,000,000 in war bonds on margin. Neil McCarthy, ex-Hughes executive, declared that Meyers told him "he had the same kind of deal with other people."

Other testimony made Meyers' spot hotter. An anonymous letter dated 1945 (which the A.A.F. had managed to "lose" in the files) charged that for ten years Meyers had made a practice of buying stock in companies as soon as he got their bids on contracts, that he held control of a Cleveland company which was buying large amounts of Air Corps supplies.

Pointed Suggestions. Lawrence Bell, president of Bell Aircraft Corp., testified that in 1940 Meyers had recommended the Aviation Electric Corp. of Dayton for $1,053,000 in subcontracts. Benny Meyers had had an interest in Aviation Electric. Major General Oliver P. Echols stated that he had made pointed "suggestions" to Meyers in 1940 that he "disassociate" himself from this company. Meyers, who protested that he had held its stock only as collateral for $34,000 worth of loans, admitted that he had not complied. Instead, he had lent the company another $20,000.

At intervals during the week, Meyers stomped to the stand and shouted denials. He reiterated that Hughes had repeatedly offered him a job, with a house thrown in, and had proffered not $200,000, but $250,000 as a loan on the bond deal. He admitted speculating in war bonds, said he once held $4 million worth on margin. Benny Meyers' cigar sagged from its cocky angle; his face was-noticeably paler. He told reporters that he had asked for a court martial "to prove my guilt or innocence," but had been refused. The matter, said the A.A.F., was now out of its hands.

This week an embarrassed young man named Bleriot H. Lamarre, president of Aviation Electric, testified that Meyers had put up all the money for the company, that he had owned all its stock, fixed its prices, and dictated minutes of directors meetings that were never held. In 1941 Aviation paid Meyers $58,000. Of his own $31,000 salary, Lamarre said, he had to kick back $28,000 to Meyers, leaving him about $50 a week.

Things looked bad for Benny Meyers.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.