Paying the Debt

For weeks the rumors had raced through Washington: Jesse Jones was going to get the ax. Last week he got it.

The President has rarely fired anybody, but he swept aging Jesse Jones out as head of the Commerce Department, the RFC, and RFC's eight potent subsidiaries.* The reason was purely political and Mr. Roosevelt made no bones about it. It was to give a job to lame-duck Vice President Henry Wallace.

The President's letter was a "very difficult letter" to write, said Franklin Roosevelt. With his left hand he praised Jesse's "splendid services" to the Government, but with his right...

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