4pQonT

EZRA POUND 315
mills, and praised Judge David Pine when that official put Truman
back where he belonged—with "his caste", as old Lampman would
say. For a time, Pound approved of George Sokolsky's daily pontifications.
Not long afterwards, he began to distrust Sokolsky, whose
references to the free enterprise system are uneven, and are apparently
based on a sort of tribal collectivism.
In the August, 1955 issue of Strike, Ezra contributed a note on
current Congressional investigations. He had followed these hearings
with great interest, for he regarded them as a feeble attempt
by the Congress to regain some of its lost powers, which had been
gradually usurped by the executive and the judiciary branches. In
this sense, the investigations aimed at restoring the system of
checks and balances among the three delegated powers, the executive,
the legislative and the judiciary, which had been so carefully
set up by the framers of the Constitution.
The examination of the Morgenthau diaries by the Senate Internal
Security Subcommittee was a crucial part of these investigations.
Ezra wrote,
"MORGENTHAU DIARIES: 1—These records, covering 'almost
entirely' Henry Morgenthau Jr.'s activities as Secretary of the
Treasury, 1934-45, are being examined by the Senate Internal
Security Subcommittee:
" 'A special meeting to promote Harry Dexter White, December
8, 1941. H.M. Jr. What I wanted to tell you people is this. . . . I
want to give Harry White the status of an Assistant Secretary. I
can't make him an Assistant Secretary. I want to give him the
status just as though he were and he will be in charge of all foreign
affairs for me. See? . . . (Edward H.) Foley (Jr., Treasury General
Counsel) will continue as chairman of his committee, but if it
is a foreign matter or something like that he wants to know about,
he will discuss it with Harry and Harry will come in to me with
Foley. In other words, the way it is now, nobody knows everything
that is going on except me and I don't always know. . . . I
want it in one brain and I want it in Harry White's brain.' "
The significance of this date on the memorandum, December 8,
1941, is that the commissars were openly assuming power over
the war machine, now that we were in it on the side of the Soviets.