The Receiving End

When it comes to investigations, Matthew J. Connelly is a veteran. He went to Washington in 1938 as a special investigator for the WPA, soon moved over to work for a congressional committee that was investigating the WPA. Then he became head of Harry S. Truman's Senate Committee staff investigating U.S. war spending. His skillful work there made Investigator Connelly one of Truman's most trusted aides, and when Truman moved to the White House, Connelly went along as appointments secretary. Last week Matt Connelly, 48, now a New York public relations counselor, was on the receiving end of an investigation: he was indicted by a federal grand jury in St. Louis that accused him of accepting money to help fix a tax case in the period 1948-52.

Also named in the grand jury indictment were Theron Lamar Caudle, the one-time Assistant Attorney General who rocked Washington in 1951 with his revelations of tax-fixing, and former Kansas City Attorney Harry Schwimmer, who was already under indictment for perjury before the grand jury.

"Power & Influence." The charges, as set forth by the grand jury, left a good deal yet to be explained. They arose from the case of Irving Sachs, ex-president of Shu-Stiles Inc., a wholesale shoe company in St. Louis. In 1951, Sachs pleaded guilty to evading $118,142 in federal taxes, and got off with a $40,000 fine on a showing that his health would be impaired by imprisonment. The grand jury last week said that Lawyer Schwimmer, acting for Sachs, had purchased the "power and influence" of Matt Connelly and T. Lamar Caudle to help get Sachs off. "It was an essential part of the conspiracy," said the indictment, "that co-conspirator Sachs, having willfully evaded and defeated large amounts of income tax . . . should nevertheless escape indictment, and, if indicted, should escape prosecution, and, if convicted, should escape imprisonment."

The grand jury listed 24 "overt acts" attributed to Schwimmer, Connelly and Caudle, many of them having to do with telephone conversations and personal conferences with one another. A key specification: that "on or about Jan. 14, 1952, Defendant Harry Schwimmer caused the sum of $1,650 to be paid to Defendant Matthew J. Connelly in Washington, D.C."

"Nothing But Good." Informed of his indictment, Connelly said: "There is a little group of willful men now in power in Washington. They have called Harry S. Truman a traitor. Now, because of my association with him, they are calling me a crook . . . I shall recommend that people in high places should read the Bill of Rights." Caudle was more succinct. Wailed he: "I never did anything but good."

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