The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-05

NAV not always harmonic
with it's position. The Editor.
NEW YORK, Oct. Al an IN
debted to the Democratic national
committee for the text of todays
sermon, the same being k e n
from Tuesdays publicity release
and reading as follows:
'The most cynical band Of po-
litical corruptionists who ever de-
based the nations honor swept in
to Washington in the spring of 1921.
They took over the Justice depart
ment and bsrtered immunity in
exchange for bribes."
To all of this I would say
"Amen!" or "Ain't it the truth?"
except that 1 would insert a catch
to the effect that the Harding ad-
ministration was the most cynical
band of corruptionists who ever
debased the nations honor until
the New Deal swept into Wash
ington, IL years later. Crooked as
they were, they didn't hold the
championship long.
1t really isn't necessary to go
back over the record of the Ohio
gang, for I will agree to anything
the New Deals publicity says and
mark it stet, which is a printers
or copy desk word meaning leave
be" or "folo copy" whose orr
gin I have never troubled to look
up.
Old-Time Crowd
Heavenly days! What a rude and
raucous crowd of old-time, chew
tobacco crooks they were, to be
sure, and how we, the people, did
go on about them when the facts
began to come out! And, although
l have great respect for the Jour
nalism of Washington, except in it's
new keyhole and pipeline particu-
ars , which r reminiscent of the
semi-official news-poisoning prac-
tees of the old world capitals at
their worst, I have always thought
that the Washington corps of that
era must have been unpardonably
fat-headed not to have smelled out
the dirty work while it was under
way. They certainly did kick one
there, and by the time the ball
had rolled through the outfield and
under the fence and had become
relayed back by slow stages the
thieves had run up a tremendous
score.
Mr.. Harding, however, never has
been shown to have accepted any
valuable perquisites or white graft
such as phony philatelic rarities
which a be manufactured arti-
ficially by the post office depart
ment and were SO manufactured in
the early days of the New Deal
and distributed among a few ia
vored recipients who were fully
aware of the great pecuniary val
ue of these gifts, and 1 am pretty
sure it never was even charged,
much less shown, that he put any
member of his family on the pub
lie payrolls, either in the guise of
secretary or interior decorator, for
the American embassies abroad.
AS to Mr.. Harding's intimate,
secretariat my recollection is dim,
so there may have been some
transaction comparable on the
score of propriety with the reten-
ton of Charlie Michaelson by a
big radio corporation as a Wash
ington front" at a salary of $780,
COO while he carried a latchkey
to the White House and was SO
folksy with the president that he
used to sit in on the regular press
conferences, right under the flag.
How do you like the idea of a cor
%poration front" man practically
living in the White House?
When you speak of the corrup-
ton of the Harding crowd, you are
confined to the selfish and cynical
acts of a relative few ignoramuses
and white-collar roughnecks who
we're just S t 6 government
property, but the corruption of the
New Deal affects the citizenship