Going-Away Present

Boston's ex-Mayor and ex-Congressman James M. Curley, setting out on a seven-week Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome, received a nice going-away present. As he boarded the liner Italia last week, the announcement came that the President had granted him a "full and unconditional" pardon of two convictions for which he had served jail time. The pardon covered convictions for 1) fraudulently taking a letter-carrier examination for a friend in 1903 (60 days in jail), and 2) mail fraud in mulcting $60,000 from clients on the promise of getting them Government contracts (a six-to 18-month sentence which Harry Truman commuted to five months in 1947).

The usual effect of such presidential pardons is to restore a convict's civil rights, but under the law of Massachusetts, Curley had not lost his rights. Nevertheless, from somewhere at sea, 75-year-old Jim Curley sent word to Harry Truman that he was "deeply grateful."

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