Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-06-01
DAUCHERTY TOSTAY
IN CABINET DESPITE
PERSONAL ATTACKS
President H as Unlimited
Confidence in Man Who
Got Him the Nominationsin
Chicago in 1920
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
(Lcased Wire Service to The Journal.)
Copyright, 1929


WASHINGTON, May 31.--Attor-
ney General Daugherty will not re-
sign. President Harding has not
asked him to do so and he never
will. Mr.. Harding has unlimited
confidence in the integrity of his at
torney general, and does not believe
him guilty Of anything wrong in the
Morse case.
This is the inflexible attitude Of
the administration as revealed today
after the president and his advisers
return from a cruise on the May
flower, where the impression caused
by the attacks in the senate against
the attorney general was the sub.
ject of informal discussion.
Practically everybody in the adj
ministration group admits that Mr..
Daugherty handled his own defense
poorly, and that the mixup between
him and Senator Watson, Of Indiana,
was most unfortunate. But on the
basis Of what has happened to date
| the administration feels no less con-
fidence in Mr.. Daugherty nor does 1t
| feel that when all the facts and in
fluences attempting to injure the
attorney general are exposed in the
forthcoming war prosecutions the
public will have an unfavorable i'm,
preston of the man at the head OF
| the department of justice.
More Than Friendship
There's something more than per.
sonal friendship and loyalty to Mt.
Harding's attitude toward his life.
| time associate and political mentor.
It's true that to Harry Daugherty.
more than anything else, Mr.. Har-
ding sowes his nomination in Chi.
cago in 1920, which was equivocal
to an eection, 1t IS true Mr.. Har.
ding is under obligation TO Mr..
Daugherty, but it also is a fact
that Mr.. Harding knew in the fall
of 1920 everything ABOUT the part
Harry Daugherty played in obtain
| ing a pardon for Morse under the
Taft administration and that he did
not consider it bar to the appoints
ment of Mr.. Daugherty.
If Harry Daugherty had come
out Immediately after his connec-
ton with the Morse case was men,
toned in senate debate by Mr.. Car
away, Of Arkansas, and said:
eyes, I was an attorney for
Morse and helped get him a par.
don-I was a private lawyer and
had right to defend my client" no
one would have thought any more
about the incident. But in a tele-
phone conversation between Harry
Daugherty and Senator Watson, or
Indiana, misunderstanding oc-
CURED. This correspondent is pre-.
sentins the verion of that CONVEX
sation, which is told by friends OF
Mr.. Daugherty.
History of Case
Senator Watson had communi-
Gated by telephone the fact that Sem
ator Caraway had revived the Morse
case. Mr.. Daugherty, who had been
hearing about the Morse case for
eleven years, was not perturbed by
it. In Ohio politics Mr.. Daugherty
has some violent opponents, as well
as staunch friends. The skeleton
of the Morse case has ratified every
time Mr.. Daugherty has been In the
public eye.
When Mr.. Watson, OF Indiana,
told him it was up again, the attor-
ney general told him not to worry,
as he hadn't received cent from
Morse. Mr.. Daugherty imagined
that the conversation related to
whether he had received any money,
and he authorized Mr.. Watson to
deny it. During the course of the
debate Senator Watson went a step
farther and indicated that the at
torney general had denied his con-
nection with the case altogether.
In support of the contention that
the attorney general couldn't have
claimed any such thing, administra-
ton supporters insist that Mr..
Daugherty never would deny what
had been common knowledge and
what had been printed in the news
papers at the time. of his connection
with the Morse pardon.
The error in judgment which Mr..
Daugherty made in ignoring the sem
ate proceedings for nearly three
weeks before issuing a statement OF
explanation now is freely admitted
by the administration group, but
this was due as much to Harry
Daugherty's own feeling that moth
ing new had been developed and
nothing injurious as it was to the
feeling of others in the administra.
ton circle who believed the whole
thing a tempest in a teapot, which
would blow over if let alone