(4 of 5)
Brewster went on chattily: "In Novemher, twice in the last two years, Mrs. Brewster and I have occupied for one week at Thanksgiving time this small place of five rooms. The Pryors were not there. I paid the cook $5 a day . . . bought groceries and the turkey. I left the place pretty well stocked up with canned goods." Yes, the Senator had accepted other Pan Am hospitality. He had had three breakfasts at the house on Washington's F Street which Pan Am maintains as its executives' headquarters. That house, said the Senator, is also "very modest," in contrast to T.W.A.'s "palace" in Arlington, Va. (a 20-room affair with eight bars, he said). He did not like to be critical of Pan Am, but he wished the committee would go and look at Pan Am's F Street place—"It has a toilet on the first floor that is always out of order . . . more than any other I know."
"Trick-Shot Artist." Back in the witness chair, Airman Hughes took off again. In scrawling longhand he had written a statement and he read it challengingly: "The public has witnessed two men getting up under oath and saying things which contradict each other. ... It stands to reason one of us is telling something which is not the truth. I have been reprimanded for using the word liar, so I shall try to avoid using the word.
"Nobody kicks around in this country without acquiring a reputation, good or bad. ... I may be a little unkind in what I have to say. . . . Brewster has been described to me as clever, resourceful, a terrific public speaker . . . one of the greatest trick-shot artists in Washington."
Then Texas-born Hughes went on to describe himself: "I'm supposed to be capricious, a playboy, eccentric, but I don't believe I have the reputation of a liar. For 23 years nobody has questioned my word. I think my reputation in that respect meets what most Texans consider important."
"Side Issues." Abruptly, Accuser Hughes attacked Senator Brewster because of a story which the Senator had given to the press—that a T.W.A. hostess had refused to travel alone in a plane with Hughes. The aviator produced an affidavit from Hostess Harriet Applewick. She called the Senator's remarks "ridiculous."
By now the hearing was getting considerably out of hand, and Ferguson was looking hard for some way to get it back on the track. At one point, exasperated by Hughes's free-swinging charges, he lectured the witness: "If you believe that because of your great wealth and access to certain channels of publicity you can take control over the committee, you are mistaken. ... It is apparent that you are trying to discredit one member . . . but your prime motive is to discredit the entire committee." Angrily, Ferguson added that there would be no more "side issues." By the end of that day, Hughes and Senator Brewster, facing each other across the table, decided to call quits to their feud.