Contested Kudos

"Princeton University, mindful of the part which it has been her privilege to play in the life of the State for nearly two centuries, today affirms her allegiance to the State of New Jersey in conferring this degree [honorary LL.D.] upon a son of New Jersey three times chosen Governor of the State, a trust and honor never before conferred by the electorate on any citizen."

Most college citations for kudos are longer, more laudatory. But there were reasons why Princeton University said no more this week as she honored Governor Arthur Harry Moore.

Princeton's trustees decided last year to give Mr. Moore a degree but postponed it because he was then campaigning for election. This April the trustees confirmed their decision before Governor Moore's political godfather, Boss Frank Hague of Jersey City, was spotlighted for suppression of C.I.O. and civil liberty in Jersey City. A Princeton trustee mentioned the decision to Federal Judge William Clark-who is presiding over Jersey City's civil liberties suit. Judge Clark dropped the news in conversation at the 19th hole of Princeton's golf club.

When the Princeton campus heard the news, 123 faculty members signed petitions of "consternation." The undergraduate Liberal club, spurred by Socialist Norman Thomas, Princeton '05, collected 600 signatures protesting "the tyranny and intolerance" for which Hague and "his puppet" Governor Moore stand. The Daily Princetonian called the award "a mistake" but counseled letting it go through "in an honorable way." The University, unable to withdraw its invitation, went uncomfortably ahead to make Harry Moore an honored son.

In Judge Clark's court at Newark, the trial of Boss Hague ran through its third week. Besides being New Jersey's Democratic boss and Jersey City's mayor, Frank Hague is Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which gratefully accepted $270,000 from C.I.O.'s cornerstone, the United Mine Workers of America, for its 1936 campaign. Alert C.I.O. Lawyer Morris Ernst asked Vice Chairman Hague if he would repudiate, for example, the C.I.O. supporters of Democratic Senator Alben Barkley in Kentucky, of Democratic Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan.

Snapped Vice Chairman Hague: "As an individual ... I repudiate them."

Mr. Ernst: "Now, would you also reject any contributions from the C.I.O., made to the Democratic National Committee, or any part of the committee, in which you had a voice?"

Mayor Hague: "I would!"

* Before a Senate subcommittee which last week considered the President's nomination of Judge Clark to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals (Philadelphia) appeared Democrat George S. Silzer, onetime Governor of New Jersey. No friend of Judge Clark, Mr. Silzer called him "unjudicious," "unfit to hold office," also "a smart damn fool." The committee approved, the Senate confirmed the appointment.

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