 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world honored Lawn Jean. Good evening, this is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Mr. William Bradford Huey, editor of the American Mercury, and Mr. James H.R. Cromwell, former United States Minister of Canada. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the Honorable Kenneth B. Keating, United States Representative from New York. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Mr. Keating, our viewers during the last few months have been disturbed about some of the forced stealing that's been going on in the Justice Department. And you're a distinguished Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee. And I believe that you are a member of the subcommittee which has been investigating the Justice Department. Is that correct, sir? Yes, I was the author of the resolution to do that and I'm the ranking minority member of that committee. Well, then you're just the man to tell our viewers something about the Justice Department and what's been going on there. Now, sir, as a first question, what is the primary purpose of the Justice Department in our government? Well, the Justice Department has to do with all of the legal matters in the government in a broad sense. The prosecution of federal crimes or the lack of prosecution, the defense of the government and civil claims or the lack thereof. All of the matters pertaining to alien property, immigration and naturalization, there are a great many other matters. The Justice Department today has broadened its scope so that it is probably, in many respects, the biggest and most important department in the federal government. Now, this department has been headed in recent years by Mr. Tom Clark of Texas, Mr. McGrath of Rhode Island, and now more recently by Mr. McGrannery. That's correct, isn't it? That's right. There was a short interim period when there was an acting Attorney General, Mr. Perlman, just before Mr. McGrannery's appointment. And now for the last three or four months, your subcommittee has been investigating this entire department. Now, sir, what do you think is the most important accomplishment of your committee today? What is the most interesting thing that you've discovered in your investigation? Well, I think perhaps the most constructive thing to date in our accomplishments is that there are great many matters which should have been attended to before they were by the Justice Department, but due to the activities of our committee have been brought to a head to illustrate the chairman, one of the members of the Veterans Affairs Committee of the Congress, a congressman from Texas testified before us a week or so ago in which he said that he had written letters to the Justice Department about various veterans fraud cases involving these schools, some of these fly-by-night schools. He couldn't even get answers to his letters. When our committee got after it and asked for the files, then he said things began to happen, and he gave to our committee the complete credit for that. Now, we're not after scalps so much as we are to bring about constructive accomplishments, and that's one phase of our activity. What's the story about Newbold Morris? Why did he fail? Well, the Newbold Morris episode is another matter that I should have mentioned in answer to Mr. Huey's question. Mr. Morris was appointed, as we brought out in hearings before our committee, at a time when it was known by the top officials of the Justice Department that he was then under investigation for alleged violations of the criminal statutes. Now, of course, I don't know whether those took place or not, but here they appointed a man who at that time was under investigation in the very department that he was supposed to investigate. I call that a sham. I say it's a fraud on the American people to tell them there's going to be a great new era of decency, and there's going to be a great clean-up campaign, and then to appoint to head that campaign a man who is himself under investigation at that moment. And it was known to them that he was. Are you telling our viewers that the President of the United States and the Attorney General, Mr. McGrath, knew that Mr. Morris was under investigation at the time he was appointed to that position? We have no evidence taken before our committee that the President knew it, whether he did or not, I don't know. We do have evidence that Mr. McGrath, the Attorney General, knew it and other high-ranking officials in the Justice Department. We took that evidence and it was made public. And the reason you called that a fraud on the American people is that obviously if Mr. McGrath knew that this investigator was under investigation himself, that he could be controlled by the people he was supposed to investigate. Nothing to fear from, in other words. That is certainly a fair conclusion to draw. Well, do you think that Mr. McGrath is going to be a better Attorney General than Mr. McGrath was? Do you think that he will do a better job than a predecessor? I think I'd prefer to reserve judgment until Mr. McGrath has been in office a little longer. I will say this, that shortly after his appointment, the chairman of the committee and I had a long discussion with him in which he told us he would cooperate with our committee. He was just as anxious to clean up things that were wrong in his department as we were to have it cleaned up. And there has been some improvement in the way of cooperation since he went in, in the way of getting files on pending cases and that sort of thing. But I would prefer to let Mr. McGrath reserve a little longer before I made any final commitment. You don't know whether he's going to have a whitewash or whether he really means business in cleaning up the department. I think it would be better to wait until he's been there longer. It's an opportunity. I think that's very fair. Now, sir, in general about the Department of Justice, isn't it true that nations that have fallen into totalitarianism, that one of the agencies of government that's become totalitarian or a tool of totalitarianism, has been the Department of Justice? Isn't that one of the key agencies that shows deterioration? Absolutely. A dictator must get control of the Justice Department and the police, the interior. So if our own country, as many people fear, if our own country should ever fall into totalitarianism, the Department of Justice would be one of the first failures, wouldn't it? It would be an absolutely essential cog in such a machine. I don't want to have it appear that I'm charging that there's any such thing underway. But it would be an essential cog to get hold of the Justice Department. The Justice Department today has displaced the Postmaster Generals Department as the most important political department in the government. It affects the lives of the everyday citizen more than any other government department. Mr. Keating, I believe that our viewers, and I might say the American people as a whole, are very profoundly concerned over the tendency or we might say the drift in this country in the last decade towards government by executive decision or decree as compared to government by law. I think we all realize, as Mr. Huey says, that that is a tendency or a drift towards totalitarianism. Now, what can be done about that to halt that drift? Well, of course, the fundamental answer is elect a Republican president and have a Republican administration. Now, to get a little more specific, we will never get away from this continual centralization of government in Washington. Until there is a change in the administration. I say that very seriously because in these times and as our party systems have developed, the Democratic Party has become more and more the party of centralization of everything in Washington. The Republican Party is more and more inclined to place greater responsibility upon the states and the individual localities. And in my judgment, at least now, that is certainly a desirable trend. Well, Mr. Keating, what we need in the Justice Department, of course, are very able and sincere lawyers in the policymaking positions, don't we? That's absolutely essential. Now, in the old days we had outstanding men as the Attorney General and Solicitor General of the United States. Men of great ability and the highest integrity. We must return to those days. The last three that we have had, Mr. Tom Clark, Mr. McGrath, and now Mr. McGrannery, are those men who were distinguished lawyers or distinguished in the legal profession before they became Attorney General? Without any reflections on any one of them, I don't think that anyone has ever accused them of having been distinguished lawyers before they took this position. Now, Mr. Justice Clark is now Justice of the Supreme Court. I have the most profound respect for the Supreme Court of the United States. It may be that he has acquired a great deal of experience. But at the time of their appointment, every one of those three men was primarily a political appointee. And is it fair to say that most of the lawyers, the government attorneys, the U.S. attorneys over the country now, are men who are perhaps less able lawyers than they once were in those positions? I think that's unquestionably true, and that's always going to be true when the accent is put on politics rather than on ability. Now, what, sir, as a final question, what, sir, is the next step that your subcommittee investigating the Justice Department will take? Well, we have some very interesting hearings coming up next week in which we're investigating certain antitrust violations which for some reason were suddenly called off in the Justice Department. We want to know why they were called off. We believe that the evidence which we produce will indicate that. Then we're going into a number of alien property cases. There are a great many other cases involving the Justice Department, which we now have under active investigation. Well, Mr. Keating, I'm sure that our viewers appreciate your very forthright statements tonight, and thank you, sir, for being with us. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Mr. William Bradford Huey and Mr. James H.R. Cromwell. Our distinguished guest was the honorable Kenneth B. Keating, United States representative from New York. Now, the problem confronting the manufacturer of an article of extreme precision such as a Laun Jean is to deliver it to its eventual owner in the same perfect condition in which it leaves the factory. For that reason, Laun Jean watches have always been distributed directly from the factory through a limited number of jewelers qualified by knowledge and experience to handle watches of Laun Jean quality. Now, these jewelers are our authorized Laun Jean Wittner Jeweler agencies. And in this way, you're assured that the Laun Jean watch which you buy is a worthy representative of the only watch in history to win ten World Fair grand prizes, twenty-eight gold medals, and highest honors for accuracy from the leading government observatories of the world. Now, when next you buy a watch, either for yourself or for an important gift occasion, see Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, sold under our factory guarantee only at your authorized Laun Jean Wittner Jeweler agency. Throughout the world, no other name on a watch means so much as Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, premier product of the Laun Jean Wittner Watch Company, since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. We invite you to join us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening at this same time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour. Broadcast on behalf of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Laun Jean. This is Frank Knight reminding you that Laun Jean and Wittner watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem agency for Laun Jean Wittner watch. C. Crosby & Hope, Saturday night on the CBS television network.