Too Insecure a Sense ...

Obviously, with the boss himself shooting blows at Paul Douglas, the Senator from Illinois was fair game for the rest of the Administration. Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer took aim at him with a peashooter.

Secretary Sawyer had been asked for his opinion on a bill Douglas is earnestly trying to write, to set up some kind of ethical standards of conduct in Government. Douglas, though a Democrat, makes no bones of his distaste for recent chapters in Truman Administration history, especially the ones headed Deepfreezes, mink coats and questionable RFC loans. But Secretary Sawyer is unimpressed; a listing of reprehensible practices would have little effect, he said last week. "There are public officials who will not accept a cigar on the theory that they might be compromised. This, it seems to me, indicates too insecure a sense of rectitude...

"The adoption of a code of ethics, while harmless, will do but little good. Any man who must look up his code of ethics to find out what is proper or improper for him to do is too innocent to be around Washington." As a matter of fact, Sawyer concluded heavily, if Senators really want to study reprehensible practices in Government, they might start in with congressional committees and their questions, which keep Government officials up late of nights, getting the answers together.

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