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Discipline. Chief of Staff Craig, reading General Hagood's testimony in the Washington Star, wrote his subordinate to ask whether he had really said what was reported. Fourteen days later "by direction of the President" General Hagood was deprived of his Corps Area command—a terrific slap for an officer of his rank. What happened in those 14 days kept Washington guessing last week. New Dealers, doubly sensitive in a campaign year to such catch phrases as "stage money," were incensed at General Hagood. Harry Hopkins was supposed to have protested violently to Secretary Dern that the Army should not allow such an attack on his WPA. The War Department undoubtedly felt that General Hagood had been talking out of turn too long. Republican Senator Metcalf hung full responsibility for the Hagood ouster on President Roosevelt by declaring on the floor of the Senate, and it was not denied, that the General's case had been discussed at a recent Cabinet meeting at the White House. To take the curse of politics off its action, the War Department resorted to the extraordinary procedure of publishing a memorandum from Chief of Staff Craig to Secretary Dern. It cited all the black marks on General Hagood's service record for the last 18 years—"eccentricities," "intemperate statements" "flippancy." Said General Craig:
"In stating that [Hagood] was instructed by me that he was free to answer any question or to make any statement which he might choose, common sense, of course, should have made him understand that political comments and criticisms, never proper in an Army officer, might not freely be made. ... I am strongly of the opinion that disciplinary action is called for. ... A mere reprimand would be no more effective than it has been in the past."
Right v. Wrong. Having received his orders to surrender his command, General Hagood last week wired the War Department, got permission to remain a month in San Antonio to wind up his personal affairs before retiring like a bad schoolboy to his home at Columbia, S. C. In Washington Senator Byrnes and Representative McSwain, head of the House Military Affairs Committee, both of South Carolina, protested vigorously but in vain to Secretary Dern. So did Representative Blanton who got General Hagood permission to testify "freely." Republicans in the Senate made a political holiday of the case. Senator Metcalf called it "typical New Deal terrorism," asked for a Senate investigation. Senator Robinson, as angry as only that Democrat leader can get, pointed out that the late Brigadier General William Mitchell had been court-martialed by a Republican Administration for publicly criticizing his superiors.