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"So Bald a Proposition." That was the sum of Hughes's charges —for the time being. It was Owen Brewster's turn. He plunged right in: "It is inconceivable to me that anyone could seriously contemplate that anyone who has been in public life as long as I have—in the State Legislature, as Governor, in the House and Senate—could, on such short acquaintance and in one short meeting, make so bald a proposition as he describes. It sounds a little more like Hollywood than Washington. I can assure you that I never did."
Bald Owen Brewster had his own series of events to relate and he spent more than an hour detailing them as Hughes hitched at his garterless socks, drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, cupped a hand to his deaf ear, and scowled at committee documents which the Senator offered as evidence.
Brewster reminded his listeners that the committee first got interested in inquiring into Hughes's big flying boat back in 1942, when Harry Truman headed the committee. He recited Army and War Production Board objections to it. As for pressures to drop the inquiry, it was Hughes himself who had come to him soon after he (Brewster) had been made the committee's chairman when the Republicans reorganized Congress last January. "He [Hughes] said he wanted a hearing right now." It was Hughes who had brought up "the matter of a possible merger involving Pan American—I hadn't heard of it before. Of what happened between Mr. Hughes and Mr. Trippe, I have no knowledge."
"A Trap for Me." The Senator got in strong, specific denials. "Not a word" had been said at the Mayflower luncheon about calling off the investigation. Then Brewster sprang his own sensation: the strong implication that Hughes had tried to scare him off the investigation. Brewster said that Hugh Fulton, onetime chief counsel of the committee (under Harry Truman) and later one of Hughes's lawyers, came to him "as a friend of Howard Hughes and a friend of mine." Hugh Fulton, said Brewster, suggested that the investigation might turn out to be a hot potato for the Senator. That, said Brewster, incensed him so much that he called in his stenographer and had her take down his scorching retort in Fulton's presence.
The Senator's voice broke and he seemed close to tears as he said: "They were seeking to lay a trap for me." Brewster recovered his control and closed on a stentorian note: "Let the chips fall where they may. I cannot and will not yield to a campaign of this character."
Quite a Few. According to the rules laid down by the committee, neither of the duelists was to have the chance to cross-examine the other. But when Brewster was finished and Senator Ferguson asked Hughes if he had any questions, the flyer snapped: "Yes—200 to 500 of them." If the committee had not sensed it before, here was conclusive evidence that unexpectedly pugnacious Howard Hughes believed firmly in the maxim that the best defense is a good offense. Senator Ferguson told him to put his questions in writing.