Evening star., 1951-10-26
There Are None So Blind

Internal Revenue Commissioner John B.
Dunlap seems to belong to that company of
whom 1t Is said that there are none so blind
as those who will not see
Mr.. Dunlap, through no fault of his, has
been pushed into the center of as rotten a
scandal as this country has seen in long time.
In recent months six collectors of internal
revenue have resigned or have been suspended.
TWO are under indictment. Half dozen deputy
collectors have been given the gate, dozen or
more smaller fry are under investigation, and
there is no indication that the end is in sight.
Yet Mr.. Dunlap was blind enough to get up
before the Press Club two days ago and say that
while he is unhappy" over the "few blemishes"
that have shown up, he is, on the whole, proud
of our record"
And as If that were not bad enough he
went on to say that the time has come when "all
OF us better draw back and think of the conse-
quences that you are going to pay and that am
going to pay If we don't think little more deeply
and realize that when this next filing period
comes and our people have no confidence in your
internal revenue service, this country is going
to be faced with very severe crisis"
In the first place, 1t is preposterous for
Mr. Dunlap to be pointing with pride to the
overall record of his bureau. Most of its en-
ployes no doubt are honest. But too many of
its officials, and highly placed officials at that
have been shown to be dishonest for Mr. Dunlap
to be talking with seeming complacency about
few blemishes.
It Is also preposterous for Mr.. Dunlap to be
suggesting, or appearing to suggest, that the
investigation of his agency be called off or soft
pedaled lest the taxpayers get the idea that they
are handing their tax money over to a bunch
of boodlers, and decide that they the tax payers,
will do whatever cheating is to be DONE
Nothing could do more harm now than for
the taxpayers to get the idea that any aspect
OF this reeking mess in the Bureau of Internal
Revenue is being covered up or hushed up.
Instead of offering half-hearted apologies and
lame excuses Mr. Dunlap should be personally
outraged by the faithlessness of the thieves in
his bureau. And he should be saying in the
strongest possible language that the situation
is national disgrace and that he is not going
to let up until every crook in the agency has
been booted out and sent to jail If that is
possible.
And he should be joined in this by the
President. Instead of expressing doubt as to
the wisdom of doing away with patronage
appointments in the bureau, Mr. Truman should
tell the people that there is definite and highly
suspicious connection between the appointment
of political hacks collectors of internal revenue
anl the widespread corruption that has been
exposed in recent weeks. He should acknowledge
a debt of gratitude to those in Congress who have
been primarily responsible for making the. dis
closures, and he should give assurance that
henceforth the collectors will be appointed solely
on merit basis under civil service and not
because they have worked in the vineyards of
the Democratic political machines in st. Louis,
Boston or some other city.
There is, perhaps, some reason to worry
about the reaction of the taxpayers under our
voluntary system Of tax reporting. But there
will be great deal more reason for worry unless
the situation within the bureau is recognized by
the responsible officials as an outrageous be-
trayal of trust, and treated accordingly.