Nincompoops at Work

Out of Frankfurt last week came the kind of story that more & more headlines are made of: the Army had investigated TVA Chairman Gordon R. Clapp, and found him unfit for a temporary occupation job in Germany. The officer who leaked the story would not let his name be used, but he was willing to make a few large remarks under the protection of anonymity. ". . . Why would he be permitted to remain as head of TVA?" he asked. "I think it is a terrible situation and ought to get an airing."

It was indeed a terrible situation, but not quite in the way the officer meant it. In Washington, an Army officer, also anonymously quoted, confirmed the story: Frankfurt had proposed Clapp for a 90-day A.M.G. job, but Army Intelligence had notified Frankfurt he was "unemployable." Would the officer give details? "Further comment," he said importantly, "should come from Mr. Clapp.

Gordon Clapp, quiet, competent 43-year-old boss of the Government's $800 million public-power empire had something to say, all right. He had never been asked to serve in an Army job, did not even know he had been considered for one, and would not be interested if he were; TVA duties take up all of his time. Next day, the Army, realizing it had been guilty of irresponsible character assassination, beat a hasty retreat. "The Army," said its new Secretary, Gordon Gray, "has never investigated Mr. Gordon R. Clapp and has absolutely no derogatory information about him which would warrant his not being employed by the Army for security or any other reason ... I most sincerely regret any aspersions upon the character or loyalty or integrity or ability of this outstanding citizen."

The Army tried to explain what had happened. A junior officer in G-2 ("Some damn fool of a nincompoop," said new Army Secretary Gordon Gray) had sent an unfavorable report on Clapp to Frankfurt without clearing it with his superiors. Apparently his only sources of information were newspaper reports of TVA-hating Senator Kenneth McKellar's shabby attack on Clapp when Clapp was made head of TVA; the Senate, disregarding old Spoilsman McKellar, had confirmed Clapp. The explanation didn't satisfy Tennessee's Senator Estes Kefauver. Said he: "This business of smearing the names of good citizens has gone too far."

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