Virtue Rampant

Nobody has been very surprised by the testimony of gamblers and gangsters before the Kefauver Committee, nobody except Senator Tobey, Governor Dewey, and Mayor Impellitteri.

Everybody knows that people bet on the horses, and everybody knows that the police know who takes the bets. Arrests are few, and the reason will startle no one: key men in police departments and city and state administrations have promised to leave the bookmakers alone, and the whorehouses, and the petty-rackets. These promises, as everybody knows, are in repayment for donations of cash or influence.

Senator Tobey may be excused for his ignorance, because he is from New Hampshire, which has only one large race track. But Governor Dewey and Mayor Impellitteri are familiar with politics in the biggest city of them all. And not until the Kefauver Committee put the facts on the record did either of them see fit to try to mount the White Charger of Clean Government. Now they are vowing to dismiss all political appointees who are familiar with gangsters.

Dewey will have to resign, if he wants to make good his threat. He put Lucky Luciano in jail and then let him out again; he can hardly claim that he is not familiar with Luciano. He accepted money for his presidential campaign from the same John Crane whose contributions to Mayor O'Dwyer will be the object of criminal investigation. As Frank Costello put it, you are bound to rub elbows with all kinds of people in New York.

It was also brought out at the Kefauver Committee hearings that gambling operations are carried on openly at Saratoga, New York. Here is something concrete for the crusader. As yet, however, Governor Dewey has ordered no raids or investigations of gambling in Saratoga.

Nobody will accuse Governor Dewey of extraordinary dishonesty or political corruption. His administration of New York State has been far from scandalous. And if he should now wage successful war against crime in New York, he will be doing the nation an inestimable service.

But watch out for the White Charger, Mr. Dewey. Are you sure you can reach the stirrup?