davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1951-12-23

times more strenuous than might
be considered seemly. The Ala
baman, a master of the non
Sequttur who told the House some
time ago that Lamar Caudle's name
shouldn't be besmirched because he
belonged to an old North Carolina
family, offers the observation
tried and true under all circum-
Stances-that Everything is made
for love-"
David Lilienthal, former head of
the Atomic Energy Commission,
seems to hold with Secretary Saw
yer that no decalogue is needed. The
crux of the problem, Mr.. Lilienthal
says, "is to find specific ways and
means of attracting to the public
service people of native integrity
and developed sensitivity to what
is right and wrong" Acknowledge
ing that "the Government has it's
share of lightWeights, windbags and
crooks" Mr.. Lilienthal asserts that
"the proportion of men of unusual
talents and ethical standards in
both the Congress and the executive
department is remarkably high"
Evening star., 1951-12-23
By Gould Lincoln

the distillers were compelled to kick
in large sums Of money. ostenSibly
to be used as a campaign fund to
procure a second and third term
for Grant.
McDonald's salary was $4,000
year, but he gave President Grant
fine pair of horses and road wagon
which cost $1,750, and to the Presi-
dents private secretary. Orville E.
Babcock, a diamond stud valued at
$2.400. Secretary Bristow secured
the conviction of three officials and
journalist in st. Louis, and one
official in Washington.
He became convinced, too, that
John Babcock. collector at st. Louis,
was member OF the ring and
shared In the profits. Grant. shown
letter accusing Babcock, wrote on
it-"Let no guilty man escape" and
said: IF Babcock did this, there is
no man who wants him so much
proven guilty as ! do. for it is the
greatest piece of treachery to me that
man could possibly practice"
Grant Convinced
However, Babcock, personal
friend Of the President, was able to
persuade Grant he was innocent,
and Grant gave q voluntary depo-
sition that Babcock was an honest
mana statement which undoubtedly
had It's effect on the jury that tried
and acquitted Babcock.
During Grants campaign for
second term. the New York Sun
charged that In the construction
Of the Union Pacific Railroad Oakes
Anes had distributed bribes amount
ing to $4,000 shares Of Credit Mo-
bilier (the construction company
stock worth so million to fifteen high
officials. allegedly including Vice
President Colfax, the Secretary Of
the Treasury, two senators, two for
mer senator's, the Speaker, six other
members of the House and one for
mer member. The charge might
have influenced the election had
the contest been close, but Grant
was far out ahead of his Democratic
opponent, Horace Greeley.
Congressional investigations fol-
lowed. and the charge was shown to
Evening star., 1951-12-23
The Douglas Plan

Senator Douglas, Democrat of IL
llnolS is a controversial figure in
many respects, but not where his
personal probity is concerned. He
has been studying the problem of
ethics in Government for some
time. and two months ago sub
committee headed by him came up
with a possible solution.
The Douglas group would estab-
lish watchdog board over ethics;
require top-level people to declare
income sources; tighten up admin
istrative procedures, and put sharp
er teeth in bribery laws. The COM
mittee says that ethical standards
of public officials are probably
higher than those prevailing in
business or other walks in life"
To this last statement, many
observers add a fervent amen. It
has been pointed out-not as an eff
fort to excuse officials misdeeds-
that for every crooked deed on the
part of an officeholder there is a
crooked proposition from an out
slider.
Up to Truman
The question of what to do about
ethics in Government is primarily
one for the President to ponder
whether or not Judge Murphy or
some one else does the spade work
for him. What undiscovered
rascalities will be turned up in
1852. no one can know as yet. Nor
is it revealed what Mr.. Truman will
say when, early next month, he
addresses Congress on the state Of
the Union. He told newsmen re-
Gently that the subject would come
up in his message; beyond this, the
President would not comment.
viii corruption in Government
be an issue in the 1852 elections?
Mr.. Truman processes to believe it
will not; that the mess will have
been cleaned up to the public's
satisfaction by the time election
day rolls around. But this may be
wiShful thinking. The adrninistra-
ton has, over a period of 10 years,
unwittingly loaded doubie-bar-
relied shotgun, one load containing
left-wingers and the other ques-
tionable offlceholders. The shot
gun has fallen into the hands of
the lean and hungry Republican
Party.
The G. o. P. can be depended on
to use the shotgun to the most
telling advantage.
Evening star., 1951-12-23
Not the Principle

To many taxpayers, when the
scandals hit Internal Revenue, it
wasn't the principle, it was the
money of the thing. A big operator
could buy his way out of hundreds
Of thousands in tax liability, but the
$60-a-week millhand would be in
trouble If he held back cents from
Uncle Sam.
What's more, the millhand hardly
could do more than complain. Out
Of his pay, the Government every
week got its $3.50 before he col
lected the remainder. He had no
unvouchered expense accounts for
the purchase of minks or for en-
tertainment Of Federal officials.
To the millhand it was Just a
Grass matter of somebody else get
ting his. The pious nouthings
didn't come from the hearths of
Youngstown and Pittsburgh, they
came from Washington-in some
cases from men whose hands, as it
developed, might stand a little
washing.
Whited Sepulcher
That the Federal Government
bore some resemblance to a whited
sepulcher had been evident for
some time. If starting date for
such public knowledge is needed.
August, 1949, is as good as any.
That was when the Hoey Senate In
vestigations subcommittee opened
hearings on five-percenters-those
little men-about-t town who will get
you, for a fee, that which you are
entitled to gratis.
The charges struck embarrass-
Evening star., 1951-12-23

toms receipts to finance his land and
railroad operations.
Congressional investigations al
ways have been responsible for many
revelations of corruption in govern
ment. Often they prove themselves
the watchdogs, when the Executive
branch, either through ignorance or
desire to avoid embarrassment, has
failed to act. Too often, Presidents
have been too trusting. and some
have stuck to their friends" even
after seemingly conclusive proof has
shown these friends guilt.
Belknop Coss
It was so in the days Of President
Grant. A congressional committee
reported evidence of malfeasance on
the part Of Secretary Of War Will
liam w. Belknap. and involving the
Secretary's wife.
The testimony was that in 1870
Mrs. Belknap suggested to a New
York friend that if he were to apply
for and get post leadership on the
frontier she would not refuse to ac-
cept a portion of the emoluments.
In complicated deal, Marsh got the
Fort Sill contract and paid of the
Belknaps to the tune of $4,000.
Mr.. Clymer instituted inpeach-
ment proceedings one afternoon In
1876. But Belknap rendered his
resignation to President Grant on
that morning and later pleaded that
the Senate lacked jurisdiction be-
cause he had not been Government
official at the moment Impeachment
was voted. The necessary two-thirds
vote for conviction was not obtained.
It was one Of Grants own Secre-
taries Of the Treasury, Benjamin H.
Bristow, who stirred up the Whiskey
Ring Scandal, however. BristoW
found that the Government was not
getting the full amount OF the
Whiskey distillation tax from num-
ber of cities in the West-but par
ticularly in st. Louis. It was esti-
mated that the whiskey ring had
mulcted the Government of $2.786,-
600 over six-year period.
The ring was composed Of internal
revenue officers and distillers in st.
Louis with accomplices In Washing
ton. Both Government officials and
distillers got part Of the take-but
Evening star., 1951-12-23

although not on loan matters.
incidentally, MIR. Boyle's Republi-
can opposite number, Guy G.
Gabrielson, was mentioned about
this time in connection with RFC.
But he hardly could have been
considered a White House IA
miliar)
A legend was created, and
phrase coined, during the Hoey
hearings when q witness discussed
taking favors from persons outside
the Government. He had, he
acknowledged. accepted hams and
such-but not real big hams.
Pressed for dividing line between
the ethical and unethical, he said
he figured a 12-pound ham was
about the biggest q civil servant
could properly accept. The H.
pound ham instantly became part
of American political imagery.
On Again. Finnesan
1t was the Hoey group that
brought out the possibility that all
might not be rosy in Internal Reye-
nue.. James F. Finnegan, former
collector at st. Louis, was a witness
in the Lithofold case, and testimony
revealed the startling news that
some tax officials in New York and
New Jersey had enjoyed positions
simultaneously on the Government
and Lithofold payrolls. There was
the intimation, too-still to be
brought out in detail-that an alco-
hol tax unit agent with life-or-
death power over liquor distillers'
Evening star., 1951-12-23

ingly close to the White House.
The name of Harry H. Vaughan,
the Presidents aide, came up in
connection with the receipt of
deep-freeze appliances. There was
a clamor for Gen. Vaughan's scalp
a clamor which Mr.. Truman ig-
nored, if calling some one an IS. o. b."
can be considered ignoring an issue.
The general sat tight and quoted
an aphorism of his boss: IF you
can't stand the heat, get out of the
kitchen"
Other White House names came
up as time went by: Brig. Gen.
Wallace H. Graham, Mr.. Truman's
doctor, exposed as a commodity
market player shortly after the
President had denounced specula-
tion; Donald Dawson, top-level
aide, revealed as having accepted
an expense-paid vacation in Florida
at hotel which had been the bene-
ficiary Of Reconstruction Finance
Corp. loan; Matt Connolly, the
Presidents appointments secre-
tary, recipient of a camera from
another RFC borrower, the Amer
lean Lithofold Corp.
Lody in Mink
Then there was Mrs. E. Merl
Young, White House steno, the first
lady In mink. Her husband, who
only few years earlier had been
civil service messenger, had set
himself up as an "expediter" for
people wanting an in with RFC.
Mrs. Young's natural royal pastel
mink coat, worth somewhere
around $4,000, was paid for with
checks signed by a lawyer who
represented clients seeking RFC
loans. Mr. Young, incidentally, was
indicted last week on. a perjury
count growing out of the RFC in
quiry.
Others, not officially in the
White House family, were men
toned, too There was Johnny
Maragon, the immigrant boy who
had made good as Washington
name-dropper and apparently as
a close friend of Gen. Vaughan.
And there was William M. Boyle,
jr., then head of the Democratic
National Committee, who had rep
resented Lithofold as q lawyer
Evening star., 1951-12-23

one-time prospecting partner. Fall
was eventually convicted of accept
ing bribe of 100000 in connection
with the Elk Hills lease and served
nine months and 10 days in the New
Mexico penitentiary. Doheny was
acquitted of rendering the, ,1bribe.
The oil lease scandals developed
from Senate investigation. insti-
gated originally by the late Senator
Bob La Toilette of Wisconsin. Re-
publican. and pushed through by the
late indefatigahle Senator Tom
Walsh Of Montana, Democrat. Fall
had retired from public Office some
time before he faced charges.
Attorney General Dougherty
Another member Of the Harding
cabinet. Attorney General Harry M.
Daugherty. long time friend of the
President, came under Investigation
by a Senate committee proposed by
former Senator Burton K. Wheeler
of Montana. Democrat. Irregularities
in the Veterans Bureau, for which
Director Forbes served prison term.
plus the oil hearings, brought Daugh-
erty under suspicion. The Wheeler
investigation caused President Calvin
Coolidge, who had succeeded Hard
ing In the White House, to fire
Daugherty. The Senate investiga-
tion linked Daugherty with Jess
Smith. reputed to have great power
in the Department of Justice. Smith
committed suicide In Mr.. Daugherty's
apartment here. Eventually, Daugh-
erty was indicted on charge of con-
spiracy, but the indictment was dis
missed after two unsuccessful at
tempts to convict him.
The most serious charges Of Gov
ernment corruption in the Franklin
Roosevelt Administration grew out Of
political use Of the WPA.
Charges of Government corruption
did not prevent a second election of
President Grant. but they nearly re-
suited in throwing the Republicans
out Of control of the Government in
the presidential election Of 1876, when
Hayes was the Republican candidate
and Tilden the Democratic. Nor did
the oil scandals win for the Demo-
Gratis in the election Of 1924. Presi.
dent Coolidge had acted promptly to
clean up the mess which he inherited
from the Harding administration.
Evening star., 1951-12-23

out Of Government, apparently on
the nlake-or at least, unable to
say no?
To these questions there was no
simple answer. Some Cassandras
thought they knew: The whole
moral fiber of America had weak
ened;- faithlessness had become a
way of life. Others blamed eco
nomic pressures; Attorney General
McGrath asserted that some Justice
Department lawyers have to wash
dishes in restaurants at night to
make ends meet; he was quoted as
approving acceptance by his ousted
assistant, T. Lamar Caudle, of q
$1,000 airplane sale commission be-
cause Mr.. Caudle had a large fam
lily to care for. Still other persons
thought the public servants con-
cerned were just weakened medi-
ocrities who were pushovers for
fast, ingratiating talk and the "a"
treatment in Washington or Florida.
Policy Is Set
Last week, Mr.. Truman set policy
for Government employees policy
which ruled out 12-pound hams un-
less sliced and served, a portion at
a time. His ukase came in a letter
approving rule OF guidance for
Federal Housing employees rule
which forbade acceptance of "any
favor, gift, unusual loan or discount,
gratuitous service, entertainment or
any other thing of value" excepting
only lunches, and these only when
they will not result in embarrass-
Evening star., 1951-12-23
Government Is Major Administration Problem
VTIRTUE in Government, a.

VRTUE in Government, as
v Christmas drew near, had
the bedraggled look of a synthetic
mink.
The mink, in fact, had come to
be the symbol of all that is cushy-
and reprehenSible-in Government.
Actually, the mink himself
mustrela lutreota of the weasel
family-was hardly blameworthy;
If anything, he had suffered more
than the taxpayer who banded the
word mink" about as synonymous
with Federal corruption.
Unfortunately for both the mink
and the taxpayer, m. lutreota has
soft and silky fur, highly priced by
ladies whose champagne tastes
often are installed with their hus-
bands beer incomes.
Hence the mink, which is only
a midcentury parallel to the little
black bag of the 1920s.
The mink coat, the 12-pound
ham, the expense-paid vacation,
the deep-freeze and other seeming
perquisites of high Federal Office
had, over the years, warmed public
opinion almost to the boiling point.
Ten days ago, in a donnybrook
press conference, President Tru-
man said not action, but continued
action, was being taken against
wrongdoers who, in his words,
shave no house with me-"
Judge Thomas F. Murphy, prose-
cutor of Alger Hiss, had been
approached to take the difficult
task of roofing scoundrels out of
Government. All last week it had
seemed cut and dried that he would
doff his judicial mantle temporarily
and become again the nemesis Of
evil. But by Saturday, he was
reported to have decided that he
wanted no part of the job.
Even at the height of the Hiss
mbers-Coplon-Bentley Red ex-
poses, there hardly had been as
much shock and concern over what
was happening in America. There
was, for this upsurge OF public
opinion, an apparent reason.
For years, Americans had lived
with men who, on the municipal
level and frequently higher planes,
valued their public trust lightly.
Larceny in Government was an old
story. Financial scandals were
readily credible-even when they
extended into areas of legendary
probity like Internal Revenue. Un-
like the other-worldly Red cases,
the new ones we're something Amer
leans could easily sink their teeth
into; something they could get mad
about.
Evening star., 1951-12-23

ment to the agency" or the employe
concerned.
This is the nearest, to date, that
the executive branch has come to
issuing a code of ethics for officials.
There has been some clamor for a
sort of Ten Commandments to
guide Federal employees around the
pitfalls of unfair exercise of au-
thority-but to such suggestions
Secretary of Commerce Sawyer
once said. not unreasonably, that
any one who needs code of ethics
to find out what is proper and I'M
proper is too innocent to be around
Washington.
East Wind Blowing
Much of the talk about a Ten
Commandments has blown down on
the east wind from Capitol Hill,
where Congressman UNDERSTANDABLE
are more loath to limit their own
activities than to curb those of
bureaucratS downtown. Some sug-
gested codes have been put for
ward as applicable to the legisla-
tive and executive branches alike.
Two codified as decalogues are
those of Senator Benton of Con-
necticut on one hand and Repre-
sentatives Boykin of Alabama and
Lantaff of Florida, jointly on the
, other.
Representative Boykin, Incl
dentally, has been named as press
ing for benefits for beleaguered
constituents-as, indeed, virtually
all lawmakers do. But Mr.. Boykin's
efforts, 1t is charged, have been at
Evening star., 1951-12-23

be greatly exaggerated. The investi-
cations. however, were followed by the
censuring of two members of the
House-one of whom was Ames-and
a recommendation that Senator be
expelled.
The so-called gold conspiracy of
1869 came close to the White House.
Jay Gould and Jim Fisk plotted to
corner the gold market and shove the
price sky-high. Gould, in order to
keep the Government from spelling
his plan by selling its gold in the
market. convinced Grant that the
price Of wheat should be safeguarded
by not forcing down the price Of gold.
Gould worked on this line through
A. r. Corbin, a New York speculator
and brother-in- Of the President
Gould started buying gold in large
quantities, including purchases In the
interests Of Corbin and others in Of
fetal life in Washington-some of
whom Immediately repudiated the
transactions. Grant became convinced
that something was wrong, and Cor
bin told Gould he was through and
to close him out. Then began wild
scramble on the stock exchange. with
Gould selling and Fisk buying gold,
and forcing the price to $l62. The
exchange was q shambles on ''black
Friday"
It was almost q half century later
that another presidential admins
tration was shot with scandals and
charges Of corruption-th Harding
administration. The Arthur admin
istration had earlier been clouded
with the star route mail frauds, but
the magnitude of these scandals did
not approach those of the Grant and
Harding administrations.
Harding Seondols
Harding entered the White House
in 1921 and into Washington came
the "Ohio gang" The chief govern
mental offender, however, hailed
from New Mexico Senator and
Secretary of the Interior Albert B.
Fall. Taking over the Department
Of the Interior. Fall engineered the
leases Of two naval oil reserves, Tea
pot Dome and Elk Hills. The first
was leased to H. F. Sinclair and the
second to Edward L. Doheny, Falls
Evening star., 1951-12-23

outline diagram abov to the illustration
of the Numbered characters Democratic National
Chairman Frank Mckinney 2 White House Aide Donald
Attorney General McCrath ~ Theron Caud
Vaughan f6 Brig Wallace Graham ~
Adbamd
former Democratic National Chairman Bill Boyle;
Menktn and III her friend Abraham Teebaua Finnegan
(f3 Mrs MerI Young ~ Charles Ophnn
Administrator Larson; Johnny Maragon II you closely
IN Staff Artist Iueys also p hams cut-rate
ear cameras an oil @ teleuision set nnks and lamb from wch
tertues
estabHshnent-euena teD red her7inos
Evening star., 1951-12-23
What Price Probity?

What were the reasons for the
irregularities that were turning up
with such rapidity that John L.
Lewis last week refused to comment
on the scandals because II haven't
read the noon editions yet? Why
were so many people, both In and
Evening star., 1951-03-18

he must constantly distrust and screen"
Communist party members and the police
More great purges may seem imperative at
any time. A Red dictator's job is even
tougher and more uneasy than that of the
head that wears crown
A single fact betrays Stains pronounced
anxiety over maintaining control of his vast
party machine. Although an All-Soviet Party
Congress should legally be held every three
years, none has been convened for II years.
This is the one Soviet assembly where
differences of opinion and dissatisfaction can
be expressed. Emperor Joe is taking no
chances. Apparently he fears his own party
members almost as much as he fears the whole
Soviet people. Supposing he led these ex-
tremely war-weary people into another major
conflict? That would be the greatest gamble
of his non- gambling career. Stain can never
feel secure as long as he lives.
3. The menace of Titoss hexesy.
Marshal Tito first angered Stain in l945
when he declared: I'VE demand that every
one shall be master in his own house" Three
years later Tito and his Communists were
expelled from the Cominform. Since June
Evening star., 1951-03-18

Another authority is Commander William
T. Greenhalgh, faculty member of our Indus
trial College of the Armed Forces 'If the
United States relaxes not a minute in its own
industrial progress, he states, Soviet leaders
should consider armed aggression so obviously
Improbable that they would not venture it. -
Providentially, we are now committed to
boosting US. production by tens of billions of
dollars over the next few years. Percentage
wise, the Soviets should lose most of the
comparative gains they have made since
l945. In steel alone we will soon exceed
10000, 900 tons annually.
What we must bear in mind is that even
our enormous lead in steel could be thrown
away. Stain can devote 80 per cent or more
of Soviet output to military purposes, while
the United States might use only a small
fraction of its steel for armed strength This
is why we need controls and ALLEGATIONS in
key strategic industries. It's the only way
we can be sure of overtaking and passing
Russias lead in arms production. The
Soviets' overall inferiority in production is
Stains Number One headache. Only Ameri-
can negligence, or failure to discipline our
consumer desires for the sake of freedom,
can rid him of that great headache. This we
must never permit to happen.
z. Constant anxiety over the internal
security Of the Soviet dictatorship.
Men who rule by machine guns, block
spies, secret-police arrests and forced-labor
camps can never feel safe from plots and
assassination Commander Greenhalgh has
impressive support when he insists that "one
of Russias great weaknesses is the Soviet
government itself" Stains mammoth police
state increasingly spawns suspicious and
jealousies. fears and renewed expressions.
Edmund Stevens, of the Christian Science
Monitor" has worked in the Soviet Union for
many years. There are in Russia today"
he reports, 'legions of thinking. intelligent
people who chafe under the omnipresent
police state and long with their whole being
for freedom" Among 2OO,OOO,OOO people
countless millions are either deeply outraged
by personal injustices or fiercely hate the
system because of relatives sent without trial
into forced-labor camps, to brutal exploita-
ton or to death.
The Politburos tyrants know they have
made lifelong enemies of very considerable
sections of the Soviet population. They hold
power only through endless repressions and
eternal vigilance. They remember that mil
lions in the Ukraine first welcomed the Ger
mans as liberators. One of the greatest
Western authorities on Russia assures me
that, in his judgment, Stalin's chief worry is
intense preoccupation with the regimes
internal security" It's not only impossible
for Stain to trust the non-C Communist masses,