Evening star., 1947-01-31
Morgenthou Diary
Ethics Questioned
Was Writing Done During Time
Paid for by Uncle Sam?
By David Laurence

Was Writing Done During Time
Paid for by Uncle Sam?
By David Laurence
Whether former Secretary Of the
Treasury Morgenthau had right to
take from his ofice certain memoranda
and arrange them for subsequent pub
lication as diary" or as compila-
ton of papers for display in library.
is question involving legal rights as
well as ethics.
The problem Is not new. It has arisen
not only In. this country in the case OF
Presidents of the United States but also
in connection with the publication re-
Gently by winston Churchill of secret
speeches made to Parliament when he
was Prime Minister of Great Britain.
The rules of law say that any letter
or communication written by . public
official in an unofficial sense, either
marked personal" or even published,
is his property. Thus, Mr.. Morgen-
thau has legal right to produce a
diary and has legal right to sell 1t
for publication.
The ethical questions arise when It
Is asked whether the diary was writ
ten in . governmental ONCE during
time paid for by Uncle Sam, and also
whether letters written on the letter
head of the Secretary Of the Treasury
to other Government officials or to
citizens transacting business with the
Treasury can ever become the property
Of the ofiicial In question when he
leaves the Government service.
Recognised by Stinson.
Former Secretary Of War Henry l..
stimson to some extent recognized the
ethics Of the situation when he made
public last week some official back
ground ON the events leading up to the
dropping Of the atomic bomb While
he gave the article to Harper's Maga-
zine. it was stipulated that the article
could be published In full by anybody
without compensation to Harper's, but
with credit to that magazine. There
Is no prohibition, legal or moral, against
giving . particular magazine or news
paper an exclusive story provided there
Is no compensation involved, and pre-
sumably there was none here.
When Franklin Roosevelt was in the
White House he published his papers
and addresses and included therein
the transcripts or paraphrases Of notes
OF conversations he had each week
with the press. This was public prop
erty and part Of the proceedings Of
the White House itself and never
should have been included in any books
or periodicals sold to the public in a
commercial venture.
When Presidents have left the White
House, they usually have carted away
their papers. They do not, as a rule,
have time to separate the ofiicial from
the unofdcial or personal, so much
material gets mixed up without any
intent to take undue advantage of .
Presidents public position.
While MIR. Morgenthau's diary has not
been made public except as some news
paper reports have quoted excerpts, IL
may be doubted whether the biggest
proportion of the material is really Of
ficial In the sense of being Government
property A committee of Congress
could at any time subpoena the whols
thing and make it public, but one sus-
| poets that this will never be done be-
cause 1t might prove boomerang. Mr..
Morgenthau doubtless expressed him.
self pretty freely about public officials
and, while the Republicans might get
some amusement over the comments on
Democrats, the chances are that there
must have been few comments about
Republicans, too
Rights Well Established.
Property rights with reference to let
ters written by public men are fairly
well established. After the late Presi-
dent Wilson died, periodical was about
to publish an article containing ex-
cerpts from some of Mr.. Wilson's un-
published letters. A request to the
magazine In question brought a halt to
the publication OF the article, and the
legal grounds given were that the let.
tiers, even though in the possession of
the recipients, nevertheless were the
property OF their author because they
possessed literary value. But in this
instance the letters were plainly per-
sonal and unofficial and had no bearing
on public business.
SO II q President or a cabinet officer
writes letter, the document itself is
the property of the recipient and the
right to publish automatically Is retained
by the author The news in a particu-
lar letter can be published by q news
paper but any collection Of letters which
as group, possesses literary value can.
not be published even by the persons
who actually received the letters and
to whom they were originally addressed
Maybe the Supreme Court of the
United States, which seems to be 50
solicitous about measuring compensa.
ton for the time spent walking from
time clock to work bench in q factory.
will some day decide how much OF a
public officials time given over to poll.
tics or personal affairs can be com.
mercialized and how much of the pro.
ceeds Uncle Sam might be entitled to
collect on the ground that the work was
performed during office hours while the
individual and his staff were paid BY
the Government to transact the public,s
business. This phase of the question
never has been clarified.
tkNproductIGn As--..s, Reseryedl