Evening star., 1924-03-24
Time to Legislate.

parently is much aggriered because
The Star and other newspapers have
criticized the Senate for permitting its
various Investigations to delay and
jeopardize legislation vitally necessary
70 the welfare of the country. And he
seems especially hurt at the sugges-
tion that desire to make political capi-
sfal has prolonged the inquiries and
taken them far afield from their proper
purposes and into paths which can
lead nowhere but to petty scandal
and titue-tattle. The Star has not
complained, and it knows of no reputa-
hle newspaper which has complained,
because wrongdoing has been dis
closed. All decent men have been
shocked by these disclosures, but any
regret this newspaper has expressed
has been that the wrongdoing existed,
not that it has been uncovered
The Star has commended the en-
ergy and skill OF Senator Walsh in
uncovering the indications of the
tall-Doheny corruption and in help
ing to transform these indications
into legal proof upon which our
criminal and civil courts can act
II has recognized the great public
service rendered by the investigation
but it has asserted, and now reasserts,
that cheap politics has been played
and that at times and in spots the
inquisition has degenerated from a
cleansing and purifying OF national
foul places into partisan or factional
competitive oil-slinging, with the domi-
mating purpose not so much TO put
criminals into the penitentiary as to
put some partisan or favored faction
ist into the White House.
And The Star has not been able to
applaud the campaign in so far as it
pursued without discrimination those
accused of guilt and those conceded
10 be guiltless: in so far as it failed to
differentiate between bribery. fraud or
conspiracy to defraud and differences
Of opinion in constituting a law or in
shaping wise public policy. and in so
far, for example, as it made no dis.
tinction in vigor and venom of as
sault between a Fall and DENLY, and
even attempted to bespatter an hon
estly cooperating Coolidge.
The Star thinks that the work ef-
fectively initiated by Senator Walsh
will with the quick disposal of the
issues affecting the Attorney General
be completed so far as wholesome re-
tEa+
is at. hand when further prosecution
must in the public interest be left in
the main to the criminal courts. while
the national legislature. quitting time
consuming and resultless elimination
and recrimination in discussion, re-
sumes it's basic function of legislating
wisely and constructively. There is
vitally important work of this kind for
Congress to do.
further fnducement to the Senate
to turn from grand jury" work to
that of legislating respecting the vital
concerns of over a hundred million
people may be found in the discovery
that even slight bungling by the
congressional Investigators may give
the investigated an immunity bath
and thus facilitate the escape from
punishment Of the guilty, and that this
danger forces a confession of i'm
potency whenever a witness under
suspicion refuses to testify.
The Star has no serious complaint
against senators of any party or fac
ton because they have sought rea-
sonably to capitalize the disclosures
for partisan or factional advantage.
So long as politics and human nature
are as they are nothing else is to be
expected. What The Star has com.
planned against is that at times the
making of political capital has seemed
TO be the paramount purpose of the
jnquisitions, days and weeks being
devoted to the merest piffie. And in
the meantime the legislative business
of the government suffered.