Evening star., 1924-02-16
VANDERBILT EPISODE
). HELD. !. AS Warming
Failure Of Marion Star
Charges Regarded. Lesson
n for Chin Waggers.
ny FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Frank A. vanderlip's complete fail
ure to substantiate the Harding
Marion Star gossip before the senate
oil committee is regarded py puplic
men in Washington as one OF the most
salutary episodes in contemporary
times. They expect it to prove an
effective lesson for rumor-mongers'
They believe men and women hence-
forward will be scrupulously caretui
about traducing people in hlsh sta-
tion, whether dead or alive. The
necessity to face an inquisition before
a congressional committee, amid pltl-
less publicity, is designed TO oeter
irresponsible takers, just as the hoei
laws restrain newspapers ana news
writer's from uttering chatter or pure
ly hearsay value.
Congress Prone to Err.
While politicians and federal ofh-
cials rejoice over the prompt actlon
taken by the oil investigators 10 nan
the Harding yarn, 1T is admltteo IN
the same breath that congress ilstii S.i
is prone to lend ear to 1dle reports
often a member of the House or the
Senate, acting in entire good faltn,
is spurred to demand an lnVeStisa
ton of this. that or the other alleSeu
wrongdoing in federal affairs. WASH
ington during. the past twenty years
has had Investigations without num-
her. VoluminouS hearings are held
Great excitement is worked up De1ore
and during the time they are In prog
resS. Heavy expense to the govern
ment is entailed. Weeks and months
of time, which members of ConSres ss
might have devoted to really I'M
portant national affairs, are wasted.
Regulations Ruined.
Frequently regulations are injured,
and sometimes blasted. The mere
word Investigation" has come to
suggest indictment and, thouSn
many indicted men are acquitted and
their names fully cleared, the stigma
of once having faced investigation
often remains. 1t is commonplace
on Capitol Hill. too, that only rarely
do congressional investigations get
anywhere" Too often they are orig
inally conceived in political motives.
They usurp the limelight for brief
spell. The newspapers headline day
by-day developments. Witnesses, some
ranted aspersions. The investigation
ends with nobody convicted of any
thing. but, perhaps, with any number
of worthy people indelibH besm1rched
in some way or other. All that re-
mains, in addition, is a bulky volume
of proceedings, printed at government
expense and high cost. recording hear
ings which, in seven cases out OF ten:
authorities say, might just as well
never have been held.
Loose Talk Rampant.
Small talk and loose talk are Away
rampant in Washington. In the, guise
of being Interesting" or entertaining,
hundreds of people habitually indulge
in it. The Capital long since has been
known as the whispering gallery of
W. Love
shining marks. In latter-day times no
men suffered more cruelty at their
hands than did Woodrow Wilson and
Warren G. Harding. Short of felonious
misdemeanor that the tongue, of aos-
ship did not allege against them.
Pressed for evidence of their malicious
chin-wagging, the gossip
usually took refuge in the alibi that
they'd heard" this-and-that on ''ab-
solutely reliable authority" They, sell
dom could be induced to quote the
source of their misinformat ton But
that did not induce them, ordinarily, to
stop circulating it,
One Notable Incident.
On one occasion. known To this
writer, it was suggested that a Presi-
dent of the United States ought to
go to court to put an end to some
scurrilous stories persistently max
ing the rounds i'll Washington. 1t
King of England. George V. did not
shrink from taking such steps on a
similar occasion. For years there
had circulated in Great Britain a cir
cumstantial report that. before as
cending the throne and while still a
young prince. George contracted a
morganatic marriage and had an
other wife and family living. The
story was universally banded about
and was believed by millions of
people Finally some adventurous
scribe dared to put it into print. The
law officers of the crown, in the
kings name, sued him for criminal
slander. a
The defendant was compelled to
knowledge whatever on which to base
his allegation. Having heard 1t for
years, he came to believe it, but
possessed absolutely nothing in the
way of facts.
Evil of TaIe-Bearing.
Tale-bearing and the consequence
1t often leads to in Washington-a
congressional investigation--is seri-
ously affecting the federal service. A
member of President CooIidge's cab
met told the writer within the past
month that it is becoming increas-
ingly difficult to induce first-class
men to enter the governments en-
ploy because they're afraid of losing
their regulations at the hands of ir-
responsible takers. If the Vanderlip-
Harding affair leads to more discre-
tion upon the part of people fond of
juggling with the names of public
men it will turn out to have been
blessing in disguise.
Copyright, 1924)