The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-03-03

LuG 1NOVcMDCT C1CCt1Ou Win IL
to confess nor any load of Dal
Such is the idea and such is the
policy toward which the Republican
party in Washington is tending to.
day as the Senate begins another
week Of busy toll in its capacity
as the national invesigature.
Daugherty's Attitude.
Attorney General Daugherty's
own personal attitude toward the
complicated subject Of his resigna-
ton may now with absolute condi-
dence be understood to be as fol-
lows:
He has been confronted with four
different sorts Of proposed reSigna-
tons.
First, there is the immediate vol
untary resignation to be given in
response to a mere request by the
President and to take effect at
once. This sort Of resignation Mr..
Daugherty has peremptorily re.
fused to consider.
Next there is the pre.dated or
forward-looking resignation to be
written out now and to take effect
at a given and specified later time.
This variety Of resignation was for
O brief moment considered by Mr..
Daugherty as possibility but after
Continued on Page 2. Column A.
a conference with hts closest friends
he was moved toward rejecting 1t
and did reject it definitely.
His reason for rejecting It was
and is that II he should say now
that he was going to resign on any
given later date the Investigation bv
the Senate would thereupon become
a faint.hearted and almost farcical
performance.
Senators would find It difficult
and in fact would find II absurd to
investigate an oeflceholder and to
try to prove him unfit for his office
when all the while they were we'll
aware that he was just about to go
out Of office.
Wants An ed.
Attorney General Daugherty is de.
termined to have a complete in.
vestigating surgical operation Der.
form.
he wants the investigating Sen.
ators TO get out their knives and do
their worst. He, therefore, finally.
oe1lnltely refused to accept the sug.
gest1on Tor a pre-dated resignation.
The third variety of resignation
pressed upon Daugherty's attention
by his loving friends was the oblig-
atory or enforced resignation to
consist OF a letter by him subnis.
s1vely accepting an outright writ
ten dismissal from the President,
This variety of resignation
Daugherty was always ready to
consider and to produce. He is
ready today to produce a resignation
for which President Coolidge shall
take full complete open RESPONSE
biIity.
This responsibility, however, the
President so far has refrained from
taking. especially since Daugherty
has made it clear that he is de-
termined to get Investigated and
exonerated somehow and some
where, and that If the President
dismisses him he will start off on
a sort of Chautauqua lecture tour
of the whole country and bite the
Republican party in vital spots
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Problem for Party.
Accordingly the knotty problem
Of how to deal with the human
porcupine in the Department Of
Justice and Of how to get him out
of his present position without get
ting the Republican party all stuck
full Of quilts and wounds has re-
solved itself into a final thoughtful
consideration IF the fourth species
Of resignation and disappearance.
This fourth and concluding
species might be called the tenta-
tive delayed.pass resignation. 1t
consists Of a Republican effort to
exonerate Mr.. Daugherty and of
then thereafter a graceful per-
sonal fadeaway by Mr.. Daugherty.
According to this plan, in the
view Of Mr.. Daugherty's friends,
Mr.. Daugherty will thus save the
Republican party twice.
In the first place, he will go
before the Brookhart senatorial in.
vestigating committee and will clear
himself, he asserts, Of all those
charges which make him out to
be criminal. He may be forced
to admit that his department, in
some ways. has been conducted
inefficiently.
Confident Of Results.
He may be forced to admit that
in some ways it has been conducted
politically. He will be able. how
ever, he confidently asserts and be-
lieves, to prove that the charges
Of corruption and criminality
against him are false.
He thus, as he and his friends
look at 1t, will clear the Republican
party OF the charge Of having had
a criminal Attorney General.
There will remain the charge that
the Department Of Justice could be
better managed by somebody else.
To meet that charge and to make
room for that somebody else, Mr..
Daugherty will then hand in his
resignation and it will
be accepted by g relieved President
ana q grateful Republican party.
The party. having helped Mr..
Daugherty to exonerate himself aud
to exonerate 1t of all jail.worthy
offenses, will bid him good-by with
double pleasure. once Tor the exon.
GRAFTON and once for his departure.
Mr. Daugherty Is willing to de.
part on these terms, and since they
are the only terms on which he Is
willing to depart except though an
outraged dismissal. which the Presi.
dent refuses to issue. 1t became in
creasingly clear today that presently
a large part Of the Republican party
will be rallying-and Is already be-
ginning to rally--to do its best for