The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-02-26
By WEsTBROOk PEGLER
Copyright, 1915, by King Features Syndicate

BY WESTBROOk PEGLER
Copyright, 1915, by King Features Syndicate)
I'VE cannot tolerate those who put on a
false 'front.' who are not honest and sincere
and employ their offices as decoy and cover
up for personal gain through devious means.
In this charge to a Federal grand jury
about to investigate reeking corruption in the
building of a great army embarkation camp
at Orangeburg, N. Y, Grover M. Moscowitz,
might have been referring to the Roosevelt
government from March 4, 1888 to the date of
these presents. The inquiry is limited, how
ever, to Camp Shanks, a minor though faith
Jul example of the same sordld, greedy cyni-
csm which has explained the very presidency,
itself, for personal gain through devious
means in which the profiteers reasonably
may have thought they had the benefit and
blessing of distinguished precedent. The De-
partment of Justice, belatedly. and not until
the horse has been stolen, fried and eaten,
has now taken critical view OF such conduct
on this narrow sector. For that, possibly, the
people should be grateful. We may doubt, how
ever that Judge Moscowitz expressed the gen
eral policy of the D. of j., and one fears that
his sweeping disapproval of the exploita ION of
office "for personal gair through devious
means will be entered in hi. dossier and held
against him should he ever be proposed for
promotion to the court of appeals. This does
smack OF IeSe mdJeSle.
Justice has moved deliberately, not to say
reluctantly, in this case. 1t was a stencil two
years ago whose fumes were waited up the
Hudson river as far as NeWburgh where Ed
ward G. ONeiu representing the attorney
general of the state of New York, was in
vestgating the colossal shakedown of muck
ers and handbook men, miners and variety
of other toilers by two of the foulest union
rackets of the Roosevelt adherence.
No Union
had gone more than 30 years without a con-
vention or a legal election of officers and the
Operati ting Engineers Union dominated by
William E. Maloney, Of Chicago, and Joe Fay,
drunken thug and politician of the Frank
Hague chapter Of the party of humanity. For
years these rackets had robbed and perse-
cuted the common n. for whom the heart of
Henry Wallace ever bleeds while in his politi-
cal character, he readily accepts the help Of
their oppressors. They were toling danger
ously far underground on the Delaware aque-
duct, a tunnel Worming under mountains and
rivers to bring water to New York, financed
largely with federal money. The total cost
was $500 900 and much Of it was shake
down and graft. Although this was a violation
of Federal law, the Department of Justice took
no interest.
Not until the latter days of his administra-
ton did Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Roose-
velts New York satrap, bethink himself of
this outrage, then SO long established as to
have become an institution. Then, with Tom
Dewey about to move in behind him, Lehman
sent ONeill, Democrat down to Newburgh
to root the rascals out. O'Neill is politician
Of his own and, as sideline while running
his inquiry, he conducted a radio program on
a local station looking 70 his own future as a
personality and and an influence, available for
private practice and public office in the re-
gion Whereabouts.
Quit h.
liminary stages of his inquiry when time ran
out for the Lehman administration and Dewey
was forced to choose between disorganizing
a Job under way to turn out Democratic
holdover, and permitting him to carry on with
both his official duties and his sideline. Dewey
kept him on with an additional appropriation
and O'NcilIs results, finally, were a compro-
mise between success and failure. He reached
down into Frank Hagues nearby Jersey duchy
to grab and convict professional criminal
who once had performed the worthy political
service OF driving the socialist, Norman
Thomas, out of Newark when Thomas attempt
ed to make speech, by pelting him with
eggs. He broke up the union racket on the
aqueduct job just about the time that the job
was petering out anyway. Some of his convic-
tons failed on appeal but meanwhile Mr. o.
Neill had thoroughly famiiarized himself with
not only the aqueduct graft but the looting of
the treasury at Camp Shanks.
Although the Shanks situation has been
matter of common knowledge for two years,
being first exposed by initiative newspaper
reporting, the Department of Justice has only
now begun to present the facts to a grand
jury. O'Neill, himself has been working quiet
ly for the Department Of Justice ever since
Dewey finally sawed him off. His acquaintance
with the crookedness goes back further, how
ever, because the queduct and camp Jobs
overlapped both in time and in guilty person
mel. Actually, he was learning about Shanks
while working on the aqueduct mobs
In normal times, under conditions of STAN
dard morality and official ethics and consci-
ence 1T could be taken for granted that in
the present case the DEP artment of Justice
was determined to investigate thoroughly and
prosecute regardless of politics. However, the
Department of Justice has never seen the day
whether IN the time of Grant Harding
When its standards were as low and it's politics
SO cynical and contemptuous of right and the
public interest they are today. Therefore,
the charge Of Judge Moscowitz to the grand
jury, sincere and righteous though it was, may
be flouted in the final results even though con-
victions may be had. There can be reversals
on appeal and failing that, there is always
the example of presidential clemency to Earl
BroWder
Camp Shanks is political suburb of the
Hague machine, a respected and valued SUBJ
division of the party of Roosevelt, Hopkins,
1ckes, Wallace and Sidney Hllman. The De-
partment Of Justice doggedly refrained from
interfering during the commission of the
o~tr, I u