Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-23

~DAUGHERTY.

CcANDAL and rumors Of scandal
- continue to roost around the
doorstep of Attorney General
Daugherty. The refusal of con-
gress to proceed with the investi-
CATION of these scandals after start
ing in to do so on the insistence of
several republican members Of
congress has added to the feeling
that they fear that there is good
cause to investigate. Attorney
General Daugherty was a lawyer
politician who took an active part
in the REORGANIZATION campaign,
and the president named him as at
torney general as a reward for
party services. Our impression of
him is that he is not a high class
nan and never was. Our political
correspondence from Washington
gives a vivid idea of the feeling
aroused in the national capital over
this Daugherty incident. 1t says
that the republican leadership in
the house has degenerated to that
point where it can hardly be de-
scribed without the use of the word
maudlin; from the days and dimen-
sions of men like Reed and Cannon
to the times and antics of Mondell
and Campbell it is surely a far
cry. Campbell's mystified maneuv-
ers anent the Woodruff Johnson
resolution calling for congressional
investigation of Daugherty's laxity
in prosecuting war graft are very
suggestive of a muddled mind and
a monumental cowardice. The logic
dwelling in the average mans mind
causes him to wonder what knowl-
edge of guilt on the part of big
republicans may aus the leaders
to refuse at all cost to permit the
shifting of the veil which partly
covers the doings of the depart
ment of justice.
1t will be recalled that when the
republicans. with the aid Of every
interest that could not use Presi-
dent Wilson, carried the house in
1918, the first thing they did was
to create the Graham smelling COM
mittee, whose purpose was to dig
up enough democratic venality in
connection with war contracts to
damn the party for forty years to
come. That committee sat and la
bored through winters now and
summers sun and finally reported
that the finger of suspicion pointed
in the direction Of one great cor
poration-the Standard Steel COM
pany of Pittsburgh, controlled by
Andrew w. Mellon, who, shortly
thereafter, was appointed by Presi-
dent Harding to take complete
charge of the peoples funds in his
capacity as secretary of the treas
ury. The ardor which the repub-
licans showed in creating the Ora
ham committee and In giving it
plenteous funds and sweeping au-
thority is sadly missing when it is
now proposed to investigate one
of the members of the republican
cabinet.
After the committee on rules had
favorably voted the Woodruff
Johnson resolution out of the COM
mittee, pressure from some high
source must have been exerted
upon Chairman Campbell to cause
him to at first fail to report the
resolution, and later to refuse to
report it and finally to have the
committee vote to rescind its action.
It must be humiliating to repub-
licans in the county to read of such
performances on the part of the
men they elected to congress.
When the matter came up in the
house two democrats signally dis
tinguished themselves by the
power. lucidity and ability of their
utterances-Finis Garrett Of Ten
nessee and Walton Moore of Vir-
ginia. Their speeches pointed out
clearly the merits of the contro-
versy and held the republicans up
to a richly merited ridicule. Mr..
Garrett concluded with these
words:
"Mr. Speaker, 1t is extremely
painful to have to indulge in this
sort of talk, but I wish it under
stood here and now that never at
any time during the democratic ad-
ministration, or now, has there
been an objection from any individ-
ual, from the former president of