Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-26
THE EXTREMELY TRYING FIX OF
ATTORNEY GEN. DAUCHERTY
Question Of Whether He Should Retire
or stay and Convince the Country
by Overcoming His Enemies
10 Hard to Decide

A LMOST since Mr.. Hardins's inausura.
"A tion day the Democratic guns have been
feeling relentlessly for a weak spot in the
Administration lines. The gunners believe
they have found 1t at last in the Attorney
Generals Office, and the rising uproar Of
the attack holds a note of furious jubilation
rather than any promise of compromise or
peace.
1t is clear now that Mr.. Daugherty took
a risk when he entered the Cabinet. Mr.
Harding took a greater one in appointing
him Attorney General. For Daugberty had
a Past. A Past in national politics is likely
to be us troublesome to man as Past may
be to lady climbing wearily for the higher
social levels.
The Attorney General used to be a po-
who apparently did not hesitate to use his
political influence and friendships in behalf
of clients. The type is familiar everywhere
in the United States. There are political
lawyers in the Senate, In the House and in
every important political machine They
do, as matter of routine, much as Daugh-
erty did. But they seldom accept Offices that
bring them into the glare of partisan search
fights and into the direct line of fire Of
enemy guns.
This newspaper had little enthusiasm for
Mr.. Daugherty at the beginning of the Ad-
minstration. It had none at all with the
furtive juggling through which the Attor-
ney Generals Office attempted to intervene
in the case made out by Assistant United
States District Attorney Walnut against
former Prohibition Director Mcconnell
Properly, though, a Past, If 1t is no worse
than the average, ought not to be called up
against a man. But the Present matters
greatly, especially in relation to an indi-
vidual who holds the enormous power for
good or evil that lies in the Office of the
Attorney General of the United States. 1t
still remains to be seen whether Mr.. Daugh-
erty carried the ethics of political lawyer
to his newer Office in Washington. An at
tempt to use the powers of the Attorney
General for political purposes could result
only in a double edged catastrophe. Ulti-
mately it would politically ruin those re-
sponsible for it. And. of course. it would
be terribly damaging to the prestige of all
Federal law.
This. oddly enough. is what Mr.. Daugh-
erty's assailants want him to do. The
Democrats are being aided by the Associated
Powers of Darkness. Because the Attorney
General Is vulnerable they are attempting to
gag and hobble him.
If the Senate had not ordered a wide
spread investigation into reports and rumors
| of war graft under the Democratic Admins
| tration, If $500, 900 had not been appro-
priated for the use Of the Attorney General
and the Department of Justice in this work,
there would have been no concentration of
fire upon an ordinary politician in an ex-
traordinary place.
Only the other day Mr.. Gilbert, telegraph
ing to this newspaper from Washington,
declared that the past records of all men
who may have anything to do with the
preparation of the Government s case against
war grafters were being raked over by secret
agents appointed to frighten or even dis
grace them. A Cabinet member should have
been able to read such news with entire
equanimity. Daugherty evidently cannot
The Presidents position. therefore, is as
trying as that of mis- Attorney General. If
he sacrifices his friend and humiliates him,
he must do so knowing that the forces to
which he surrenders are even more sinister
than the forces typi6ed by Daugherty, the
political lawyer.
Can the Attorney General proceed with
a devastating expose which may involve some
| of his own most powerful friends? Has he
| the strength and the temperament necessary
to so hard task? Whether he advances
or digs in, he will be at a terrible dsad-
vantage.
OF course, he could retire and do a patri-
otic service and turn the tables on his
enemies by making way for a man so able,
determined and ruthless that no CRATER, no
blackmailer no traitor and no thief of the
war period could ever hope to escape the
light Of day when hearings are begun to
identify and punish the men who set about
Systematically to rob the country at a time
when the country was too busy fighting for
its life to keep watch upon them. But will
Mr.. Daugherty do 1t?