The Washington herald., 1922-12-20
H0UsEINQU|RYi
ON DAUGHERTY
NEARCOLLAPSE
Impeachment Case Expected to
Come to End Today Unless
New Prosecutor Appears
MATTER UP TO WOODRUFF
Hearings to Be Suspended It
He Decides Against Pushing
the Aircraft investigation
ny Univer..i Service.

ny Universal Service,
The Daugherty Impeachment
case appears to be on its last legs
and tottering. Its complete col
lapse is expected today.
The only support left it yester-
day was the possibility that Rep
resentative Woodruff, Republican,
of Michigan, would assume the role
Of prosecutor and attempt to sus-
tain subdivision 4 Of specification
II, Of the Keller charges, alleging
failure. to prosecute aircraft war
fraud cases.
HITS WAR DEPARTMENT.
Representative Woodruff, with his
attorney. II. L. Schaife, spent yes
terday afternoon at the Department
Of Justice. going over records In the
Wright Martin and Standard Aircraft
cases, to determine whether there
was ground for Impeachment in
these matters. He will report his
decision to the House Judiciary Com
mittee at IL o'clock this morning.
II Woodruff declines to go ahead
and present evidence there will be
no one left to prosecute. unless some
one unknown to the committee
comes forward and volunteers to
assume the responsibility. .
Representative johnson, Repub-
lican. of South Dakota. who, with
Woodruff. appeared before the COM
mfttee yesterday, disclaimed any
responsibility for the Keller charges.
and stated that he had no bill Of
complaint to bring against the At
torney General, since active prosecu-
ton of war fraud cases had begun.
His complaint. he said. was against
the War Department. He said:
In the Department Of Justice
the condition complained Of in my
speech on the floor Of the House
last April has been cured, since
the Attorney General was given
the s500.000 war fraud appropria-
ton and started active prosecu-
ton Of war fraud cases. But as
for the War Department, II has
not been / think a lot OF those
officers ought to be courtmartialed
instead Of being promoted. / went
through the war In the service. l
saw the graft go on at home, in
the cantonments and In France.
PRAISES ACTION.
When Mr.. Woodruff and I in
troduced our resolution in the
House we were satisfied these
fraud cases were not being investi-
gated. We began to get action
two weeks later. when the Attor-
ney General came to Congress,
through the Budget Bureau and
the President, with a request for a
special appropriation to prose-
cute these cases. The department
did not have the lawyers to handle
these cases, and / knew 1t. Some
very able men have since been
brought In, and they are begin
ming to get somewhere. / think
John Grim would have started
prosecutions long before IL he had
been turned lose, but he could
not do ii all by himself.
Woodruff said he was present not
rs a witness, but as a member Of
Congress at the invitation of Chair
man Volstead. seeking to assist
the committee. He said he be-
heved there was evidenc to i'm
peach OIL subdivision of speci-
fication IA and he was ready tenn
porarily to assume the role Of
prosecutor. IL. after he and his at,
torney had consulted the depart
ment records in the aircraft cases.
the facts disclosed would sustain
that belief.
Both Woodruff and johnson were
questioned about reports that they
had been shadowed by Department
Of Justice agents last spring. John
son said he did not treat the mat
ter seriously. Woodruff said he
had reasons to believe he had been
shadowed. that his man had been
read and that papers had been
taken from his office, but his
evidence was wholly circumstantial.