Cynics who believe that every Senate investigation is a scandal hunt, that Senatorial inquisitors miss no opportunity to make a headline, were last week surprised and shocked at the backwardness of Senator Gerald Nye's munitions committee in coming forward with its facts on President Roosevelt's second son. The Nye committee had spent months blackguarding the du Fonts, Britain's late George V, a handful of Latin American dignitaries, Woodrow Wilson and the House of Morgan. But not until last week did the press smoke out of its files a two-year-old secret about Elliott Roosevelt's scheme to sell airplanes to Russia. Even then, Chairman Nye, one of the Senate's smartest hands at investigation publicity, loudly deplored the disclosure as "an attempt to smear the President" and as "not designed for any honest and constructive purpose." Nevertheless, the same public that had watched this North Dakotan "smear" the President's enemies now had a glimpse at the way a President's son may plan to make some quick money.
Origin of last week's to-do was an article signed by Publisher Frank A. Tichenor which appeared in the October issue of his Aero Digest. In it this stern critic of the New Deal told two complicated, interwoven tales of intrigue. The substance of Tale No. 1:
In 1934 Elliott Roosevelt, aided by a business associate named Grenville W. Stratton, made an agreement with Anthony Fokker to sell military planes disguised as commercial types to U. S. S. R. Young Roosevelt was to form a company which was to receive a $25,000 retaining fee from Fokker. Son Elliott personally was handed four $1,000 and two $500 bills as a down payment and gave a receipt for them. The 50 planes which it hoped to sell Russia were to be priced to yield $20,000 profit apiece, half of which was to go to Elliott or his firm. Salesman Roosevelt showed a model of the planes (Lockheed "Electras" modified for easy conversion to military use) to a delegation of Russian aeronautic engineers. Roosevelt, Fokker & friends worked up a telegraphic code in which the President was "Rochelle," Elliott "New Rochelle," military "industrial," Amtorg Trading Corp. "Ruyork," Moscow "Mosely" etc. After the Russians balked at the price (nearly $58,000 per plane, without motors, etc.), the contract was canceled though Elliott Roosevelt was allowed to retain the first $5,000 down payment. The Bureau of Internal Revenue wrote Fokker that Son Elliott denied having received the $5,000, saying that Stratton had received it. Herbert Reed, an associate of Fokker, declared that Stratton had approached him to recover the receipt given by Elliott Roosevelt saying, "I have personally assured the President that all papers involving Elliott have been destroyed." In December 1934 a process server of the Nye committee got from Fokker's agent a file of papers relating to the Roosevelt contract.