Evening star., 1951-12-23
Presidents S Tolerance
Hondicops Murphy
Writer Doubts Judges Success
In House Cleaning
By Fronk R. Kent

A President in the kind Of Jam Mr..
Truman Is and, prodded into action
repugnant to his soul, perhaps may be
pardoned II he does not see the full
implications of his efforts to extricata
himself. The selection of Judge Thomas
F.. Murphy to head commission to clean
up the corruption with which the ad-
ministration is saturated is an example.
Editors note: This article was
written before publication of reports
that Judge Murphy may decline to
head the commission)
Judge Murphy is an honest and able
man whose record in the Hiss ease and
more recently as police commissioner
was extremely good. He convicted Mr..
Hiss and vigorously shook up the graft
ridden New York Police Department.
Now he is asked by the President who
appointed him judge to leave the bench
for an indefinite time to clear up the
rottenness in Washington, only part Of
which has been revealed -Assuredly this
is job Mr.. Murphy did not want But
he was in no position to refuse a per-
sonal plea from the President to whom
he owes the judicial position he wants
to hold. The only advancement for
which he can hope is to a higher Fed
eral court. and that must come from a
reelected Truman or Democratic sue
ceSsor.
See, now, the position in which Mr.,
Truman has placed the judge First, he
has violated the principle to which many
thousands of thoughtful citizens-and
nearly all ljudges-subscribe, that Presi-
dents should not detach Federal Judge
from his judicial duties-particularly to
deal with a problem tinged with politics.
True, Mr.. Roosevelt twice set prece-
dent by detaching justices of the Su-
preme Bench for non-judicial assign
mentS.
In the second place. the odds are
against Judge Murphy doing this job
In way to satisfy Mr.. Truman the
Republican Party, all Democrats, or the
country as whole. 1t is all very well
for Mr.. Truman to say "you have free
hand" and "let the chips fall where they
may" What else could he say? How
could he expect Judge Murphy or any
one else to touch the job If he didn't
say, at least, that? How would tha
such proclamation? But, one very clear
fact is that the circumstances are such
that Judge Murphy cannot have wholly
Tree hand at all. For example, many
persons firmly believe-and with reason
the basic cause of rottenness here is
the incurable tendency of Mr. Truman
to surround himself with second and
third grade men, who, in turn. pick
fourth and fifth grade men for minor
Federal posts and go into the influence
business" The President has a lot Of
these close to him-"fiye percenters,"
deep freeze boys" mink coat receivers"
and influence peddlers." When these
have been caught red-handed in I'm
ethical conduct, instead of sweeping
them out he has reiterated faith in
them.
However, the important point is how
is Judge Murphy going to do real job
when obviously he can't 60 into the
inner White House circle of unsavory
counSelorS and indict Mr. Truman as
responsible for corruption because he
continues them in favor? Every in
formed man knows that the basic cause
OF the administration corruption is the
Truman tolerance-his insistence that
Senator Fulbright'S RFC revelations
were aSinine; that there was no basis
Tor the King committees charges; that
he has no intention Of firing Gen.
Vaughan, Mr.. Dawson, Attorney Gen.
eral McGrath, Secretary of the Treasury
Snyder or any one else who has been
spotlighted by the various investiga-
tions excepting only the silly Mr..
Caudle); that it is all newspaper nom
sense; that it will all be forgotten by
next fall
Beyond question, this Truman toler-
ance has encouraged the crooks in his
administration and made the "influ-
ence peddlers" feel safe. Yet, how is
Mr.. Murphy going to bring this out2
How is he going to bare the facts?