Evening star., 1951-09-28
BeIoted Awokeninq

1t is highly gratifying that the President
even though his awakening has been slow in
coming, has finally acted to combat the alarm
ing decline of public confidence in the integrity
OF his administration.
Mr.. Truman says he has been told that
people all around the country are getting a
mistaken and distorted impression that the
Government is full of evildoers, full of men and
women with low standards of morality, full of
people who are lining their own pockets and
disregarding the public interest" He suggests
that this, far from being true, is the result of
something amounting to deliberate effort to
diScredit the Government Service"-to false and
exaggerated attempts to create the impression
that graft and corruption are running rampant
through the whole Government"
This is what might be called fighting exag-
geration with exaggeration. The Government is
not full of evildoers Most of its employees are
honest people If anybody actually has tried to
create the impression that graft and corruption
are running rampant throughout the whole Gov
ernment, he has been guilty of exaggeration.
But, in an inverse way, 1t is equally an exag-
geration for Mr. Truman to suggest that the
feeling that there has been an alarming decline
in moral standards in Government is terrible
distortion of the true facts"
The popular distrust of the integrity of the
Government, and of many people in the Gov
ernment is not product of overly excited
imaginations or the work of vicious distorters
of the truth. 1t is distrust which springs from
one disclosure after another of conduct ranging
from outright dishonesty to shady deals that
stay just within the law These disclosures
should have aroused Mr.. Truman to vigorous
action long ago. Instead, in cases where there
was no clear violation of law, and especially in
cases involving persons close to him personally
or closely allied with his administration, he has
tended to brush aside the evidence and to at
tribute the disclosures to hostile political motives.
AS an example. one need only recall the "asinine"
label that he tried to pin on the Fulbright
committees RFC investigation.
The message which Mr.. Truman has sent to
Congress indicates, however, that he is now fully
aroused to the political implications, If not to
the actual revelations of disgraceful official con-
duct within his administration. And the recon-
mendations which he has submitted should be
accepted as designed to make cheating and CHS
cling more difficult in the future.
In brief, the recommendations call for the
publication of all sources OF income, including
gifts and loans, Of all Government officials earn
ing more than $4,000 year, of the sources Of
income of persons holding principal positions
Of responsibility in the major political parties,
and of the sources of income in excess Of 81 O00
other than salary, of Federal workers earning
less than $4,000 year.
Members of Congress may gag at requiring
themselves to disclose their own sources of in
come. But they should remember that there
E~vc been cases of corruption in Congress as
well as in the executive branch
Certainly, if the disclosures recommended by
the President were to be required by law. there
would be fewer cases of bribery, direct or in
direct. And if brbes were given and accepted,
it would be easier to detect the offenders The
mere knowledge that this was the case would
do much to restore the shattered confidence of
the people in the integrity of their Government