Evening star., 1939-08-12

Tullng, however,
has caused many David Lawrence.
person to ask if the ATTORNEY
General has not made surrender to
the cause of political expediency in
his first major conflict with the in
ner urge of the party versus the
spirit of a statute whose meaning
and purpose has been almost unan-
imously supported by the public
opinion of the country.
The Attorney General says. first.
that the 100000 non-civil service
employees are free to express polit-
ical preferences publicly-by radio
II desired-but that the 100000 COW
cred by civil service rules are not.
1t is true that Mr.. Murphy does
not write the civil service rules and
that they can be changed overnight
by an executive order of the Presi-
dent so that all Federal employees
are covered by the same ban,
whether or rot they are in the civil
service. They can also be changed
back overnight so that civil service
employees can enjoy the same privi-
leges which now are to be given to
non-civll service employees.
The next thing the Attorney Gen
eral says is that because the writer's
of the law did not say explicitly that
political preferences shall be eX-
pressed privately, it means any form
OF public expression is permitted.
Relies on Part of Message.
Anybody who knows politics at
all recognizes that the essence of
public campaigning is public eX-
preston so as to influence other
voters. If 100000 Federal employees
can go about expressing their prefer
ence publicly, the citizenry will not
long be left in doubt as to how the
persons with official authority in
their respective communities would
like to have them vote.
Mr. Murphy relies on a paragraph
from President Rncs9velt's message
to Congress interpreting the Hatch
law. In that message the President
said:
I have been asked whether they
Government employees would lose
express their opinion or preference
publicly-orally, by radio, or in writ
1ng-without doing so as part of an
organized political campaign. The
answer is no"
In that foregoing Interpretation.
Mr.. Roosevelt went on the assump-
ton that to speak over the radio is
like a private conversation or that
even If it is public conversation,
the statements made can be de-
tached from any organized political
campaign.
Mr.. Roosevelt will be criticised by
many people as indulging in
strained Interpretation of the law so
as to benefit offlceholders in the
Democratic party. Whatever the
President said in his message about
the Hatch bill being step in the
right direction" will be open to at
tack if he insists on the interpreta-
ton that a radio speech can be
private affair
Yields to Executive.
What is most surprising however,
hereabouts is that the Attorney Cen
eral, who manfully withstood all
pressure from the politicians to hold
that the Hatch bill violates the Con-
stitution now has yielded to the Ex-
ecutives Interpretation of the sup
posed difference between a public
and private radio speech. 1t may be
that Mr.. Murphy examined the law
and saw that the only penalty for
violating the particular provision in
question was the loss of job for the
offending officeholder and neither
imprisonment nor fine. Under such
circumstances he may have said to
himself that dismissal is an eXecu-
tive prerogative anyhow, and, if Mr..
Roosevelt chooses to say he will not
fire an employe for this or that Of
fense, he can do so because there is
nothing in the law which dismisses
the Attorney General for breach of
duty nor is there any compulsion
upon an Attorney General to repri-
mand President for making a po-
lltical decision in interpreting his
function as an employer
The country as a whole, however,
will begin to pass judgment on Mr.
Murphy as a dispenser of justice
and will ask if he is beginning to
yield to political expediency. The
actions of the Department of JUS
tice in other fields would then be-
come suspect. The Attorney Gen
eral has thus far made an enviable
record of standing for strict inter-
probation of the law without politi-
cal influence. The Hatch bill is big
enough as a matter of principle so
that were such an issue presented
between a cabinet secretary and the
Prime Minister in Great Britain the
former would resign rather than
accept an Interpretation plainly
contrary to what the people wanted
and Congress insisted upon when
1t adopted by overwhelming vote
bill designed clearly to keep Federal
lobholders out of politics Congress
did not sanction the use of tech
nicalities to whittle away a statute
designed to make for clean govern
ment
AS was said in this column
when the Hatch bill was passed, the
measure isn't worth the paper it is
written on if it isn't enforced and
the first indications are that the
Department of Justice-the enforce
ment agency-is agreeing with the
politicians in the Democratic party
in weakening the effects of the new
law by public statements narrowing
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