Time and Truth

From an office in Washington to a hotel suite at Atlantic City, Harry M. Daugherty went. He faced the future jauntily, faced reporters with banter. Behind him he left his resignation as Attorney General and a Senate investigation whose boiling died into simmering as he drew farther away.

The final break with the President, so often foretold, came at last on a by-issue. The Senate investigating committee requested authority for its representative to go through such files of the Department of Justice as it might designate. The Attorney General refused the request on the grounds that it was contrary to the public interest; that it would be misleading to" permit "a general fishing expedition among the files of the Department" bringing out documents piecemeal, unless entire files were examined and presented with proper explanation by the official in charge of each case.

The President did not approve of this reply of Mr. Daugherty. He called him to the White House twice to confer about it. Finally, the President wrote. He declared that he approved the principle that information detrimental to the public interest should not be given out; but, he pointed out, in the case of these files, he was obliged to rely on the Attorney General's opinion as to what was detrimental to the public interest. Said the President:

"I do not see how you can be acting for yourself in your own defense in this matter, and at the same time and on the same question acting as my adviser as Attorney General.

"You will readily understand that it is not now my intention to prejudge the issues which remain to be developed in this investigation. I recognize that you are entitled to a full and fair hearing. But as there is no way by which you can divest yourself of the interest you have personally in the investigation, I can see no way but for you to retire as Attorney General, and I am therefore compelled to request your resignation."

To this, on the following morning, Mr. Daugherty replied: "Solely out of deference to your request, and in compliance therewith I hereby tender my resignation. While you do not state when you desire my resignation to become effective, I most respectfully request that it become effective forth-with."

With those words, Mr. Daugherty became a private citizen, and without, as it were, laying down his pen, addressed a long letter to the President of which the following extracts give the general tenor: "Your suggestion that an attack upon a Cabinet officer disqualifies him for further official service is a dangerous doctrine. Mr. President, all the pretended charges against me are false. But, whether true or false, if a member of the Cabinet is to be incapacitated or disqualified by the preferment of charges against him, no matter how malicious and groundless, and he is compelled to give up his responsible position and sacrifice his honor for the time being because of such attack, no man in any official position is safe and the most honorable, upright and efficient public servant could be swept from office and stable government destroyed by clamor. . . .

"I cannot escape the conviction, Mr. President, that your request for my resignation is also most untimely." Without further ado, Mr. Daugherty boarded a train and went to Atlantic City. There he was awaited by a bevy of reporters with open notebooks. He went to the Hotel Traymore and was besieged by the press. He smiled gayly if a bit ruefully. "Don't come too close, boys. . . You'll be contaminated. "Don't call me 'Dockerty.' Call me 'Daugherty,' pronouncing it Doherty... "I will let you look at me walking on the boardwalk, but I don't expect I will have anything to say about anything at all. . . . "I would like to see somebody else's name in the papers now and then--Jack Dempsey's or John Ringling's. . . . "I would go to a motion picture show if I could be sure I would not see pictures of an ex-Cabinet officer. . . . "If a man is too solemn, they'll think the whole weight of the world is on his shoulders. If he is gay, they'll think he is frivolous. The only thing to do is 'be ourself.'. . . "I have not a sore head or a sore toe. . . . "I have no personal feeling against the President. I am yet his dependable friend and supporter. . . . "No one need waste any time worrying about the ex-Attorney General. He will take care of himself until reason is restored and time and truth fully vindicate him, as they surely will. . . . "Nobody's feelings are much hurt, if they are hurt at all. It doesn't amount to anything. . . . "Now is the time for cool heads, considerate counsel and help by all." A few of the candidates put forward by prognosticators as "possible successors" to Mr. Daugherty: JAMES M. BECK, of Pennsylvania, U. S. Solicitor General.

CURTIS D. WILBUR, of California, the now Secretary of the Navy.

WILLIAM S. KENYON, of Iowa, U. S. District Judge.

WILLIAM E. BORAH, of Idaho, U. S. Senator.

CHARLES EVANS HUGHES, of New York, the now Secretary of State.

HARLAN FISKE STONE, of New York, one-time Dean of Columbia Law School.

ALEXANDER J. GROESBECK, of Michigan, Governor.

FRANK SIGEL DIETRICH, of Idaho, U. S. District Judge

SILAS H. STRAWN, of Illinois, onetime President Illinois Bar Association.

JOHN G. PRICE, of Ohio, onetime State Attorney General.

ARTHUR PRENTICE RUGG, of Massachusetts, Chief Justice State Supreme Court.

CHARLES FRANCIS CHOATE, JR., of Massachusetts, regent Smithsonian Institution.

JOHN McCRATE, of New York, Judge, judicial district of Long Island.

NATHAN L. MILLER, of New York, ex-Governor.

FREDERICK E. CRANE, of Brooklyn, Associate Justice of the New York Court of Appeals.

GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER, of Pennsylvania, U. S. Senator.

ROSCOE POUND, of Massachusetts, Dean of Harvard Law School.