Monday, Aug. 05, 1935

Honesty, Integrity, Devotion

According to the ancient code duello, the seconds in an affair of honor fight beside their principals. According to the modern version of the code, seconds must try to effect a reconciliation satisfying to the honor of all parties. In the political duel which began month ago before the Senate Committee on Territories & Insular Affairs over the honor of the Virgin Islands, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and Maryland's Senator Millard Tydings followed the ancient code. They joined the combat in support of their respective principals, Virgin Islands Governor Paul M. Pearson, accused of maladministration, and Virgin Islands Judge T. Webber Wilson, accused of sabotaging Governor Pearson's administration. Hardly had the seconds exchanged a round of vituperation when the affair was brought abruptly to a halt (TIME. July 22). For each of the seconds had a second and he was Franklin Roosevelt. If Second-Second Roosevelt followed the ancient code he would merely stick a rapier into himself. Instead, last week, after the brawl was over, he announced the terms of an honorable settlement: Measure for Measure. With even-handed justice, the President found new jobs for Governor Pearson and Judge Wilson.

To Governor Pearson he wrote: "The current investigation of the Virgin Islands has developed no facts that reflect upon your honesty, or integrity, or devotion to duty. . . ."

To Judge Wilson the President wrote: ''The current inquiry into conditions in the Virgin Islands has developed no fact that reflects upon the honesty, integrity or devotion with which you have performed your duties. . . ."

To Mr. Pearson the President expressed the hope that he would accept in place of the $8,000 job of Governor the $8,000 job of Assistant Director of PWA Housing in charge of Public Welfare, "a post of honor."

To Judge Wilson he expressed the hope that in place of a $7,500 judgeship he would accept a $7,500 seat on the Federal Board of Parole, "work ... of major significance."

Of Judge Wilson's fitness for his new job, Attorney General Cummings declared: "You may rest assured, he wouldn't have been appointed if he hadn't been fully qualified."

Promotion. Not so uniformly satisfying to all parties however were the effects of the President's Solomonic decision. When Franklin Roosevelt nominated Lawrence William Cramer to succeed Dr. Pearson, Mr. Ickes joyfully announced, "I'm satisfied," but Senator Tydings rushed to the White House, if not to protest, then apparently for no purpose at all.

Four years ago Lawrence Cramer, a tall, blond young man in his early 30's, author of The Diplomatic Background of the World War, was an instructor in govern-ment at Columbia University when he was picked to be the first civilian Lieutenant Governor of the Islands. As his particular province he was given the management of St. Croix, an island larger, more agricultural and more poverty-stricken than St. Thomas, the capital. He and his young wife Aline ferried across the 40 miles of open sea, were put ashore in their official rowboat (manned by convicts and flying the U. S. flag). The young couple installed a bathroom in St. Croix's Government House and proceeded to make a home for themselves with the help of large consignments of household goods from Sears, Roebuck.

An outspoken liberal. Lieutenant Governor Cramer made some enemies, especially among Catholics who did not approve his social philosophy, but gained popularity with St. Croix's dusky natives. Since Repeal he has been busy helping the quasi-governmental Virgin Islands Co. revive St. Croix's dead rum business. Principal opposition to him last week came from those who felt that as Governor he would merely carry on the policies of Governor Pearson.

One juicy talking point his critics found for opposing confirmation of his nomination. To the Senate Committee on Territories & Insular Affairs was displayed a copy of a book, Among the Nudists, published five years ago. Its authors, serious-minded Frances & Mason Merrill, declared : "All the nudists ask is tolerance for their doctrines, respectability for nakedness and the right to undress without interference and scandal." What brought the Governor-designate of the Virgin Islands into the picture was one sentence in the foreword: "We wish to express our gratitude to John W. Flynn and to Dorothy Pearson* and Aline and Lawrence Cramer for assistance and for moral encouragement in facing the disgrace of this scandalous confession." After reading these words, the Senate Committee called Mr. Cramer to appear, kept him waiting an hour while it pondered, then told him that it might want to hear him later.

Ouster. Also affected by the President's decision was Dr. Amy N. Stannard, onetime psychiatrist on the staff of the Government's St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington. In 1930 President Hoover appointed her a member of his new Federal Board of Parole. Though a civil servant, her job was not under civil service and when Attorney General Cummings began looking around for a $7,500 job for Judge T. Webber Wilson, it was unfortunate for Dr. Stannard that she was a Republican. The Attorney General requested her resignation in order to create a vacancy. She resigned. "You have discharged your duties with intelligence, devotion and fidelity," Mr. Cummings wrote, and then in an aside to the Press added that it was very embarrassing to a woman to have to hear testimony about some of the U. S.'s nasty male prisoners. While Republicans made a great hullabaloo over this raw ouster for political purposes, Dr. Stannard tartly rejected the Attorney General's chivalrous gesture: "There was nothing embarrassing to me. . . . The facts speak for themselves."

* Niece of outgoing Governor Pearson.

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