The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-08
HONESTY THE ISSUE

In spite of the exposures revealing dis ton of positions of high official trust, it is encouraging to Americans to re- member that the rank and file of clerks and federal employees in Washington do not change with successive administra- tions, but, holding their positions on merit as shown by their records and their ability to meet civil service tests, con- tinue steadily and faithfully in the per- formance of their duties. The achieve ments of the various departments are due more to these unnamed public serv- ants than to the political appointees who come and go, often leaving little impress upon the actual and permanent pro- grams of their departments. As long as such a situation prevails the country's affairs are reasonably safe. It is only when the civil service regulations are disregarded, as in the alleged conduct of the postmaster general in this respect, that there is any ground for apprehen- sion as to the rank and file of public employees.
 All the more reason, therefore, that the people of this country should punish that party which has allowed men of no principle to enjoy high position and to stand like vultures over the fruition of honest endeavor. Particularly harmful to this country was the administration of the department of justice, which was in many respects so conducted as to block rather than advance the enforce ment of law. There are more men and women of integrity in the department of justice than there are those who would use their positions for personal gain But that only makes more glaring the record of MT. Daugherty and his cro- nies. As the Worlds Work editorially remarks: "Whether the particular things alleged to have been done by the Jesse Smiths, the Roxie Stinsons, the Gaston B. Meanses were true is really not the important point. The point is that these dubious characters were shown to have close official relations or personal asso- citations with the attorney generals of- flee. The kind of atmosphere that per vaded the high office during the Daugh- erty incumbency was accurately DOT trayed." It, is quite evident that MT. Daugherty was the sort of official who found his most congenial companionship among those whose position was on the shady line between morality and crime, to say the least.
 To be sure, the Daughertys, the Falls and the Forbeses are out of it. It has been the effort of the Republicans to point to this fact. The president has even declared that he took measures to detect the wrong doing and to reform the cab inet, as we'll as to seek the restoration of properties illegally wrested from the government. But such claim is mo- toriously at variance with the record. The president, according to Senator Thomas J. Walsh, actually sought to impede the disclosure of high official wrong-doing, resorted to the measures of which he boasts only at the last moment, and has not yet recovered one unit of the prop critics stolen from the public domain. It is quite evident that the president was far more concerned with the political effect of the disclosures than, he was with correcting the conditions complained of. It is of record that in the whole history of federal administration there has never before been so much corrup- tion among high public officials enjoy ing office by political preferment. The Grant scandals and the Taft scandals pale beside those of most recent dis covery.
 It is not pertinent to say that MT. Coolidge was not responsible for the choosing of these officials. It is perti- nent to show that MT. Coolidge was most reluctant to oust them when their con- duct had become a public outrage. There is only one safe course for the people of America to follow, and that is to re- buke the Republicans for their com placence in the face of crime in high places by ejecting them from office. There can be no safe public compromise with those who themselves have com promised with the betrayal of high off cial trust. Honesty is the issue, and hon. esty has not been consistently found in the Republican record. The people will never have a better chance to record their will with respect to the sanctity of public trust.