The Press: Vanderbilt Truth

Last week, just as the fuss over Major General Smedley Darlington Butler's "Mussolini Speech" had nearly died away. up popped Cornelius ("Neely") Vanderbilt Jr. in Los Angeles. Mr. Vanderbilt stated that it was he who had supplied the rambunctious General with the anecdote of Il Duce's alleged hit & run motor drive, for relating which the General was reprimanded by the Navy Department (TIME, Feb. 9; 16). But the imaginative young publicist was very wroth because General Butler "took a story of mine, twisted it around to score a point for himself, and made me the goat." Mr. Vanderbilt then gave newsmen the "real truth": "I was riding with Mussolini, who drove. A small child ran in front of the machine . . . and was hit. I looked back to see if the child was hurt. Mussolini placed his hand on my knee and said: 'Never look back, Vanderbilt, always look ahead in life.' "

As "twisted" by the General, the child was killed, and Il Duce's comment was:"What is one life in the affairs of a state?" The point of the two versions seemed much the same and, in any case, General Butler's lawyer could not recall that he had ever mentioned the Vanderbilt name in connection with the story. But the onetime tabloid publisher spoke of suing General Butler, hinted darkly of the revelations he might make.

In Rome the Foreign Office wearily reiterated that Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. had never ridden in a motor car with Benito Mussolini.