The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-12
Fair Enough
BY WESTBROOk PEGLER

NY uISuedCten1ng revelations OF corruption ana
greed and the current disclosures of the Gar
son enterprises, sordid as the facts are, are
just a beginning. Others will ensue rapidly if
the Mead Committees investigation of profit
eering is pressed conscientiously There will be
scandals in lend-lease and Chinese squeeze, in
alrplane deals involving relatives and personal
and political friends Of mighty personalities in
the Roosevelt government, in the sale of in
tluencs and pressure and in the sudden e1eva-
ton Of low-grade hangers-on to wealth and So
clal Importance in the night life of Washington
and New York.
l have heard some republicans express puz-
element at the conduct OF Senator Mead, of
New York. a democrat he. in embarrassing
Congressman Andrew J. May, of Kentucky,
another democrat, in the Carson deals but
l think the explanation is plain.
Politicians, naturally would dismiss offhand
the possibility that Senator Mead may be ami
mated by honest motives and look for Interior
purposes with a political explanation. Without
accepting this cynical attitude toward Mr..
Mead, still think he is playing sound poll
tics even though he might subject some of his
democratic colleagues to much worse distress
than mere embarrassment
The democrats want to win over Tom Dewey
IN New York In which case they would head
him off in 1948. Mead hopes to be the man to
beat Dewey and the publicity and the apparent
indifference to politics indicated by the con-
duct OF the Carson case are good political
propaganda for him. It will be recalled that
Governor Dewey, himself, made his reputation
as a prosecutor and that Mayor O'Dwyer fol-
lowered similar course. So. the victory in
New York which Mead and the democratic
party are striving for would be well worth the
sacr1t1ce OF a few individuals.
However, there will be no really thorough
public revelation of grafr, both corrupt and
legitimate. and of profitable favoritism which
cannot he assailed on legal grounds, until the
republicans get control of Congress and thus
OF the committees. If that should happen this
year the show would begin right awav and
teapot Dome would become a case of petty
larceny by comparison. The longer the repub.
llcans are kept at bay. so to speak the less
violent the explosion will be. Men are dying
OFT who might be witnesses or defendants,
records are being stored away and. possibly.
lost or destroyed. Time always favors the
guilty III such matters. as all concerned, in
Guiding the reublicans, vel, know and a post
ponement for two years would serve the PEG.
pie whose principal motive in joining the war
effort" was to get rich even though they wasted
TABOR AND materials in going through the mo-
lions Of production.
mere are so many cases to be investigated
that again the thought occurs that there is
need ct some new body in the government
when might be likeaed to a grand jury, a
national grand jury, If you like, to relieve
congress OF the exhaustire and time-cons,,n.
ing work of running inquiries into crimes and
other misconduct. Under present conditions.
men whose principal job is to study and enact
leglslatlo1 are forced to act as private de.
tecuVes carrying on great correspondence
with lnformants and running down tips, dig
glng into old and obscure files and exannining
Witnesses. Being human. most of them eniov
tnls type OF work which is more exciting
tnan the tedious brain-work of studying. saw,
the economic facts and theories Of BRETON
Woods and the British loan. But it does com.
pei the neglect OF other duties which nobody
else can perform whereas the national grand
jury probably could handle the Investigations
capably.
Inc corruption and the white grat which
await the searchlight in Washington arc not
by any means confined to the war period.
PROBABLY the first indication of the ethics and
MOOD Ut the great reform movement. hardly
notlced at the time, was the selection of
+ oroes Morgan, the uncle of Mrs. Eleanor
roosevelt. by the whiskey industry as its
arbiter, meaning, in more honest sneuage
its lobbyist. at 500, 900 a year. This was On,
tlrely legal and the jndustry's pay-of to the
oemocratc part for the great boon of repal.
Historians have found that when Abraham
Lincoln was In the White House his wife was
so extraVagant and so careless of ,roprietv
that some of her purchases Cor the mansion
were questionable or downright illegal. When
the Hoovers were in residence there vas some
small gossip to the effect that they lived
extensively at the taxpayers expense which
was dispelled by later disclosures that Mr..
Hoover had failed to cash his salary checks.
But nobody has ever known the cot to the
taxpayers of the years the Roosevets spent
in the White House and there is a definite
mystery about the spending of the emergency
funds placed at Mr.. Rcosevelt's disposal.
One relative gets a 500 900 a year sinec,re
another gets a sheet OF paper emitting him
to a long. interstate righ1 of way for a nine
line, worth s1oo, 900, again a legal opration
And, a1se1 the Presidents death cane the
story OF EIiotts loans from John Hartford
washed out by Jesse Jores at no cost tn
Elliott and with the Presidents active coon
Grafton at both ends of the deal.
Possibly the American people are so cynical
by now that the majority will regard such
matters as the Carson deals as smart hus;.
ness. They have had plenty of examph from
on high. ~
E6ifOrio1 Co~~o4