irit and has kept in
line.

I say this notwithstanding the various investigations that have since
taken place, nearly all of which have dealt with incidents that occurred
several years ago.

And in this connection I would add that it is difficult to imagine
anything more unfair than the theory and method of these investigations
as all too frequently conducted.

The appeal all too often is to the gallery, hungry for sensation; the
method--to wash as much soiled linen as possible in public (even, if
necessary, to make clean linen appear soiled), and to use a profusion of
soap and water quite out of proportion to the actual cleaning to be
done.

To innocent transactions it is sought to give a sinister meaning; what
lapses, faults or wrongs may be discovered are given exaggerated portent
and significance.

The Chairman is out to make a record, or to fortify a preconceived
notion or accomplish a preconceived purpose.

Counsel is out to make a record. The principal witnesses are placed in
the position of defendants at the bar without being protected by any of
the safeguards which are thrown around defendants in a court of law.

To complete the picture, I must--saving your presence--add this other
patch of black: The reporting is very frequently, if not generally, done
by young men not very familiar with matters of finance and in search of
incident and of high light rather than of the neutral tints of a sober
and even record; and the job of headlining seems somehow to be entrusted
always to a mortal enemy of the particular witnesses of each session,
selected with great care for his ingenuity in compressing the maximum of
poison gases into a few explosive words.

It may all be legitimate, according to political standards, but it is
not justice, and what of benefit is accomplished could equally well be
obtained, whatever of guilt is to be revealed could equally well and
probably better be disclosed, without resorting to inflammatory appeal
and without, by assault or innuendo, recklessly and often
indiscriminately besmirching reputations and hurting before the whole
world the good name of American business.

I do not know of any similar method and practice and spirit of
conducting investigations in any other country.

By all means let us delve deep wherever we have reason to suspect that
guilt lies buried. Let us take short cuts to arrive at the truth, but
let us be sure that it is the truth that we shall meet at the