Van Waters' Victory

Miriam Van Waters is now back at her job. The last two months, during which her record as superintendant of the State Reformatory for Women was overwhelmingly vindicated, has been an enlightening interruption in a brilliant career. As Dr. Van Waters herself said, the fight against Commissioner McDowell has been useful in making the public concerned about the problem of female delinquents. Dr. Van Waters treated inmates at the Framingham institution as students working patiently back into society. The Commissioner, on the other hand, considered transgressors as prisoners who had to be forced to respect the law.

But McDowell unfortunately used highly dubious methods to try to got rid of the woman who was his opposite in penal philosophy. It might be fairer to the Commissioner to say that he allowed his deputy to use these methods. The activities of Frank Dwyer were continually on the lowest level. He never explained how two Boston newspapers obtained his false and sensational "report" last fall which made the Reformatory look like a riotous Bedlam. His means of gathering "evidence" were repugnant, to put it mildly.

Dwyer's performance as prosecutor was equally incredible. During the first hearing, when McDowell was the judge, Dwyer blithely put forth an Alice-in-Wonderland case, full of ghostly "evidence" and interesting inconsistencies. In spite of the vigorous protests of Dr. Van Waters' attorney, McDowell solemnly accepted his deputy's offerings, partly through his undeniable bias and partly through his lack of legal training.

The recent hearing before Governor Dever's Commission, however, was the exact reverse of the McDowell proceedings. The board was not only impartial, but two of its members were experienced lawyers. Under the competent hand of Dean Griswold, the irrelevancies and absurdities of Dwyer's case were properly tossed out. As the hearing progressed, the position of the prosecution withered. Nothing remained at the conclusion. Dr. Van Waters was cleared; her accusers were not.

The Griswold Commission, of course, was not primarily concerned with McDowell and Dwyer. But the Commission properly noted that McDowell had exceeded his authority in some of his orders to Dr. Van Waters last summer, and that Dwyer's 1948 "investigation" of Framingham "did not create a favorable impression"-- which seems to be an officially polite expression for a truly disgraceful episode.

One positive dividend seems to be shaping up out of the recent unpleasantness--the revision of state penal laws along the lines of Dr. Van Waters' progressive techniques in rehabilitation work. The present Commissioner is opposed to such techniques and would be opposed to any forward revision in the laws. But the state legislature passes legislation, not public officials; and if future penal codes are not to McDowell's liking, he will have a face-saving reason for resigning.

That would be something few people would be sorry to see. McDowell and his deputy presented a picture of inept and narrow public disservice that grew with each day of the hearing. The case they sought to make against Dr. Van Waters has boomeranged upon them disastrously, and will go down in history as a defeat for mangy and unprincipled politicking and a victory for progressive social welfare.