The daily record., 1952-03-10
Sokehky

THE TAN OF THE TIGER

90. not Know how Well PreSl-
dent Truman knows Newbold Nor
ris. but when he took on the New
York reformer to purify his Ad-
ministration, he took chance on
Morris eventually going after the
President himself.
Newbold possesses no penchant
for partisan regularity. He calls
himself a Republican, as was his
father before him, but he has been
in and out of Republican regulari-
ty, often being a Liberal and al
ways closely associated with Fiore-
llo La Guardia. He was a fight
ing, one might almost say, an OBJ
streperous President of the Coun-
ell in New York City. He has run
Independently for Mayor and has
been defeated.
How he managed to get himself
picked to purify the Truman Ad-
ministration is puzzle Perhaps the
Trumanites were seeking for a Re-
publican to envelope them in an
ectoplasm of sweetness and light
Whatever it is, they could not have
expected Morris to send out a ques-
tionnaire invading the privacy of
everybody who works fo~ the gov
ernment. He is quite right in his
position that public man has
chosen public life; yet why should
men have to explain why their
wives wear mink coats and dia-
mond rings? Maybe, they were
bought on the installment plan.
Back in the good old days of
Cooiiage and Hoover, it was nec-
essary to clean up the messiness of
the Harding Administration. AS re-
CARDS the Teapot Dome scandal.
eight men were involved. Three of
them committed suicide, four were
convicted. The eighth, Attorney
General Harry M. Daugherty, was
let off by two hung juries. All the
property involved, Teapot Dome
and Elk Hills, was restored to the
Government.
1t was really such simple mat
ter back in those days. because the
Administration functioned by due
process of the law. No special puri-
fiers were set up to do the job; no
queStionnaireS were sent all over
the. place indiscriminately.
It was assumed, as it always has
been i'll our law, that every man
is innocent until he is proven gull
ty, and that it is the business of
the law enforcement agencies to
get their. own information.
The widespread issuance of the
questionnaire pres:ines that every
body is crook unless he can es-
tablish his innocence. Perhaps that
is what the socialized society in
which we live postulates.
Certainly, questionnaires, in
quiries, inspectors, all sorts of
means have been employed these
many years to keep business men
full of ulcers.
Now the tables are turning and
the same attitude and the same
methods are being applied to pub
lie officials. Does your heart bleed
for them? 1t can only be said for
Newbold Morris that he is doing
what the Administration has reg
ularly done to everybody else They
will not like it and on the basis of
American law, it is altogether
wrong. But they started it.
1t will be exciting to see what
Newbold Morris does with all this
authority and power Congress has
withheld from him the power of
subpoena and the right to grant
immunity, but he threatens to re-
sign if he is crossed. 1t is difficult
to know what that would do to the
President politically, although the
Republicans. would use it to prove
that everybody who did not answer
Morris QUESTIONABLE is self-con-
fessed crook, which may not be so
at all.
In another era, most self respect
ing men would refuse to answer,
and be damned to you, sir! But
these DAYS, we are all so suspicious,
what with our best friends getting
tankers and their wives wearing
mink coats on small salaries.
We ought to have lots of amuse-
ment out of all this. because New
bold Morris is not only cantanker-
Gus but his sense of humor is not
of the strongest. He will undoubt-
edly try to purify the Administra-
tion in Washington as he tried to
purify the City of New York. His
chlorination here left the city
more crooked than ever, the smart
boys somehow feeling secure in
their smartness. 1t was the District
Attorney of Brooklyn, Miles Nc
Donald, and the Kefauver Commit
tee that really showed who the
crooks were and how much they
were stealing. And the funny thing
about it is that the crooks never
stopped doing business to this day.
The flexible mind takes advantage
of every situation, often because
nobody really cares.