"Who Believes in Honest Government?" (Cont'd)

Robert Worth Bingham, onetime lawyer, from over the mountains in North Carolina, had never been inside a newspaper office until he bought the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times in 1918. Year before his wife, who had been the widow of Henry Morrison Flagler, died and left him $5.000,000. Last year President Roosevelt made Publisher Bingham U. S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's and proud indeed was Kentucky to receive this finest feather of diplomatic patronage. Last week, Ambassador Bingham was feeling thoroughly at home in London and thinking he was being a credit to his state and his nation when the Kentucky Legislature petitioned President Roosevelt to recall him immediately and oust him from his job.

Reason for the Legislature's action was a letter published in the Courier-Journal last fortnight, signed by "One Who Believes in Honest Government, a, member of the House of Representatives." Headlined as a "Psalm of Politics" this communication roundly flayed the legislators who since its publication had been vainly trying to identify its author (TIME, March 19). The resolution asking for Ambassador Bingham's recall was only one of the tricks the House had used to pry out of the Courier-Journal a name which that paper felt honor bound to withhold.

After throwing the Courier-Journal's close-mouthed Acting Editor Vance Armentrout into jail for an hour, a special House Committee tried him last week for contempt, fined him $25 and costs. Said Editor Armentrout: "I am not guilty of contempt and I expect to find my vindication in the courts. . . . The Attorney General will have to sue me which will give me an opportunity for justice. This action was a 'face'-saving maneuver for the first committee which threw me in jail without a trial . . . and utterly without authority."

Before the resolution for Ambassador Bingham's recall was accepted the House had a roll call. All 97 members present vigorously denied the charge. Roared Representative Robert E. Webb: "There has been a lie ... either by the paper . . . or by a member of this house. The time has come to take drastic action."

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