Evening Star Newspaper, January 15, 1937, Page 13

Commissions Protectors of Rights Delegated Power Neces- sary in 20th Century Government. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. HEN it is announced that the Federal Government is to be ‘“reorgamized,” the word has for the average man an unspectacular and drab meaning. But the truth is the aver- age man has a deep and fundamental relationship to the problem of Just how the gov- ernmental struc- ture is reorgan- ized — for his rights and lib- erties may be di- rectly and con- cretely involved. So vast is the Pederal machin- ery and so tech- § nical are some of its many aspects that it may not be apparent at first glance just 3 why such a thing as a commission or & board has been established in the first place and just what results may flow from the abolition of the so- ealled bi-partisan boards. David Lawrence. President Roosevelt’s committee of | experts who have just proposed a far- reaching plan of reorganization have touched lightly on just what is to become of the commissions and boards, simply noting that they would y have their activities placed under one " or the other of the 12 major depart- ment heads. But the commission idea in gov- ernment is & definitely created entity for a specific purpose and the rights and privileges of the citizen are in- separably interwoven in the fate of the commission principle. Long Been Advocated. Thus, it is proposed now to sep- arate the so-called “administrative” functions from the “quasi-judicial” functions. This is a good thing in it- self and has long been advocated by Republican as well as Democratic Presidents. But what does it mean? Merely that, in the case of the In- , terstate Commerce Commission, for example. all such work as is done by the Bureau of Locomotive Inspection would go into a regular department of the Government along with steam= noat inspection, airplane safety in- spection or any of the other tasks that fall upon the Federal Government and « 40 not involve any particular ques- tion of rights except after a dispute arises, but are concerned primarily with enforcement of & statute, A “quasi-judicial” function is ex- ercised when matters of freight rates are to be adjudicated. Here the com- missioners really sit as a court. The administrative work properly belongs in the executive departments, but the quasi-judicial duties do mot. *he more the latter can be divorced ‘rom political government and the ias that arises in the ordinary rou- « ‘ine of a political administration, the detter it is for the citizen. Represent All Interests. As a matter of fact, Congress, throughout the last 50 years, would never have delegated its several pow- ers to the executive branch of the Fovernment were it not for the feel- g that a commission would repre- sent both the majority and the mi- aority interests in our democracy and thus would provide a check within its ewn walls against arbitrary use of political power. « Now it is proposed, in effect, to pake all commissions subservient to + cabinet officer, who is & political efficer of the Government. In an- sver to that charge, the statement is made that the commissions will be s independent as ever, but only their hudgets will be subject to supervision by a cabinet officer. Nothing is dis- cosed as yet as to the manner in s+ vhich appointments and removals are made. This is the vital part of the problem. Safeguards will be urged, no doubt, so that, while the President has the power of appoint- ment and the advice of the Senate still will be necessary for confirma- tien, the grounds of removal may be even more specifically stated than heretofore. Ever since the Supreme Court, by unanimous decision in reference to the unjustified removal of the late ‘William Humphreys from the Federal Trade Commission, said that Con- gress had a right to specify the grounds of removal and only those causes could be cited in a removal case, there has been a recognition of the power of the Congress to stipu- late freedom -and independence for the governmental commissions. Power of Officials. Many of these commissions, like the Federal Communications Com- mission, the Federal Trade Commis- sion, the Interstate Commerce Com- mission and the Securities and Ex- ehange Commission, could easily be relieved of their administrative bu- reaus and their energies concentrated , on judicial disputes. But, if a cabinet officer has any control, direct or in- direct, over these commissions, if he ean exercise by patronage any in- fluence on them whatsoever, if he ean control the compensation or the tenure of office of the commissioners, then Congress will come face to face with & question of whether all the powers heretofore delegated shall be revoked or whether statutes hereafter, when delegating power to the execu- tive departments, will grow more and more detailed. Unless Congress makes its instruc- tions specific, executive bureaus vir- tually have a law-making power. Commissions have not been so much eriticized for this before because they follow certain standards prescribed by Congress and there is always a right of appeal to the Federal courts. There may be many useless com- + missions and boards in Washington, and these ought to be abolished, but there are also many useful commis- sions which represent not a “fourth pranch of the Government,” as the President’s committee characterized them, but true agencies of the na- tional legislature, whose members realize that statutes cannot be writ- fen to cover every contingency but must make allowances for examina- tion in judicial fashion of the facts as they arise in disputed matters. Delegated power has become neces- sary in twentieth century government, put the bi-partisan commission is the only assurance the people have, through the action of the national ture in creating and controlling such commissions, that rights and lib- erties will be protecied against po- NING _STAR News Behind the News France to Adopt Firmer Diplomatic Stand—Speech- less Congressmen Amaze Washington. BY PAUL MALLON. ATCH for France to adopt & new and firmer stand in European diplomagy. Until last week, she had been playing the beggar's game. She groaned constantly about poor France being menaced by Germany. In the Moroccan case she suddenly swerved, dropped her fright, and began to assert herself in somewhat the same grandstand manner as those eminent leaders of the grandstand- ing arts, Messrs. Hitler and Mussolinl. The purpose, of course, was to im- press not only her home folks, but her Moroccan colonists, It worked perfectly. You may set it down as more than a semi-official guess that la Belle France henceforth will attempt to be a new woman. That probably means bigger and better weekly crises in Europe. With all the European outfielders playing to the grandstand, they are bound to bump into each other sooner or later. * ok k% This appears to .be the strangest Congress ever assembled. The House had nothing to do this week, so Floor Leader Rayburn passed around an inside invitation for all members to get speeches out of their systems now. Only two accepted the invitation during the first three days. Imagine, if you can, 435 Congressmen, With .o noreyp only two speeches in their sys- EXPECT METO TALK tems. WITH TWIS THING ) Some authorities suspected the AROUND MYNECK? epidemic of speechlessness might have been caused by spread of Winter colds, but evidence indi- cates the Congressmen are hale, if not hearty. Apparently it is only an epidemic of Rooseveltitis. The President’s opening message invited action from the court rather than from Congress. The budget was 50 puzzling that few Congress- men can or will speak about it. The White House reorganization message failed to awaken latent imaginations. The defect may be remedied too soon. * x x % The quiet exodus of the smart young men behind the big officials here is continuing. Latest to go is Treasury Actuary A. S. McLeod. He is virtually unknown to the world at large, but on the inside, he is recognized as the brains of the Federal estimating system. As a Hoover holdover he had more experience than the New Deal newcomers and was of great help in putting the new corporation tax system over in Congress. Like the other secondry authorities who are departing, he is going into business as an investment counsel. No excuse was offered, but it is understood McLeod sought more congenial suroundings. Equally significant is the fact that the undersecretaryship of the Treasury has been vacant for about a year. It is @ joke among New Dealers that Secretary Morgenthau asks every one he meets to suggest some one, but no satisfactory man has been found who will take the job. Reports are current that Mr. Morgenthau will soon start advertising in the help wanted section. Government service apparently is not considered what it used to be. Best bet for the new chairmanship of the Securities and Exchange Commission is Robert Jackson, the young attorney who distinguished himself in the preparation of several Government cases before the Supreme Court. The Justice Department borrowed him from Internal Revenue for the Associated Gas and Electric case, and then borrowed him permanently as an Assistant Attorney General. Present Securities Chairman Landis will become dean of Harvard Law School in September, P Congressional leaders are having a hard time keeping their publie statements straight with Mr. Roosevelt. The day before Mr. Roosevelt nounced his “if and when” bal- Wg\‘.}fm""g{‘? ancing of the budget, House Appro- 2 K priations Chairman Buchanan said the budget would not be balanced for four years more. The same thing happened to Speaker Bankhead and Senate Leader Robinson, who were quoted in favor of a constitutional amend- ment shortly before Mr. Roose- velt sent up his message against it. The incidents are accepted in the cloak room as indications that the White House has not been telling the leaders much. A good many labor authorities outside the C. I. O. now are saying John Lewis should mot have hopped into the auto strike so soon. They believe it was premature and therejore very bad strategy, but they do not blame Lewis. He was forced into it by the auto unions As they see it, Lewis cannot afford to lose, because failure would severly injure his chances of organizing the steel industry for another year, if not indefinitely. ‘The White House decorations for the Supreme Court reception were composed mostly of snapdragons, but none of the justices was injured. Absentees included Justice Stone, who is ill; Justice Brandeis, who rarely goes, and Justice Sutherland, who looked well on the bench the day before. (Copyright, 1937.) YOR Nourishing A&P Bread Helps Keep These Youngsters Hale and Hearty for Any Kind of January Weather. “Last year we were sick a lot and didn’t seem to have the energy and pep it takes tokeep going in cold weather.” I “Oh, boy! Vl‘e like winter, for we've plenty of energy to keep us warm and healthy. We eat A&P Bread regularly.” 2 WHITE-RYE-WHEAT-RAISIN AND OTHER VARIETIES WASHINGTO. 'RIDAY, 'HE opinions of the writers on'this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may de contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. Absentee Employers 350,000 G. M. Stockholders 81 Per Cent Out of Touch With Strike Trouble. BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. OES any one really know how those who, in the last analy- sis, are the “employers” in General Motors actually feel about the larger issues of employer- employe relationships? One has been asking the leaders of the Automobile Workers’ Union to prove that they speak for a majority of the workers. But is it quite certain that Mr. Sloan or Mr. Knudsen have been speaking for & majority of the stockholders? Or, if they do, is there a minority who feel differently? Have any of them been asked? Does anybody know? There are about 350,000 holders of common and preferred stock in Gen- eral Motors, and 81 per cent of T them own less than 50 shares. ' They are all, in this remote sense, mployers.” In an infinitesimally modest way my household belongs to these General Motors employ- ers. We, of the 81 per cent, are almost totally ir- responsible. We are absentee own- ers, drawing our Dorethy Thempsen dividends or not, as the case may be, and knowing little or nothing about conditions of workers in the 67 plants which make up the industry. This is one of the most curious and im- portant phenomena of modern life. ‘This is what makes the clauses of the Constitution which were written for the protection of property so strangely | unreal in the twentleth century. For when the Constitution was written 80 per cent of the people owned property, | and used that property as the means of making their livings. But today 80 per cent of the people do not own property from the use of which they earn their livings. I own my type- writer, and make my living from that. | I am responsible for what I am writ- | ing on it at this moment. But I do | not, in the same sense, “own” Gen- eral Motors stock at all. Information Lacking. I cannot recall that the managers of any of the corporations which pay ‘l me dividends and send me handsome ; embossed reports from time to time, | and often during the last years have | warned me that my interests were be- | ing menaced by legislation in Wash- | ington, have ever written to ask: | What attitude would you like your mansgement to take on the labor | question? Would you like to see your factories recognize trade unions? We ’ have paid out so-and-so much this | year in wages for so-and-so much.‘ Are you in favor of splitting some of those profits with the men who helped earn them? And in what proportion? I do not know and cannot know the detalls of management of these vast | industries. I cannot comprehend all | the difficulties and problems involved. | But I can adopt an attitude toward general policy. Thus, I shall not con- 3 “Now we eat A&P Bread every meal. It tastes so goodandhelpsgive usstrength and health for any kind of weather.” tinue to sit down, but to express that attitude. I believe in the organization of in- dustrial employes into trade unions. I believe in it as a right, and as a necessity, both for justice and, in the long run, for efficiency. I am totally unmoved by the argument that the worker in mass production plants has the right as a free man to bargain with his employer (the management chosen by the 350,000 stockholders) all by himself. That is an unreal right. The wages that each indi- vidual man gets, the hours he works, are not a matter which he can indi- vidually arrange with his boss. A worker on a conveyor belt cannot say to the foreman: “My wife is going to have another baby and the mort- gage is due on the house, and how about a little raise?” The rate is set and his personal needs and difficulties have nothing to do with it. I believe in independent trade unions, affliated with other unions in other industries, for the same rea- son that I believe in the necessity of an American Manufacturers’ Associa- tion. I should like to see one trade union in an industry, and not half a dozen, for reasons of efficlency if for no other. I should like to have an employe’s or- ganization which is competent to speak for all of the employes, so that when it says something, that some- thing has meaning. Union Responsibilty. But, of course, given such a situa- tion, I should like that trade union to be responsible. It ought to be in- corporated and subject to the law, which can hold it responsible for its contracts. It ought not to be allowed to call a strike without a two-thirds’ vote of its membership, which would mean a two-third's vote of all the workers in a given industry. And there ought to be some sort of impar= tial arbitration mechanism to which both management and employes can appeal in case of an impasse. Obviously, such a state of things cannot function unless it exists, It would come into existence a great deal more quickly, first, if the independent trade unions of the country would agree, and, second, if the management of industries would also agree that this is a desirable state of affairs. I think it is desirable because I have just come from a country where indus- trial relations are extremely stable, and they are stable on this basis. That country is England. manufacturer inserted an advertise- ment in the Times last year urging his | workers all to join the union quickly | it makes negotiations so “because much easier.” And if such a state of affairs ex- isted, my conscience, as an absentee employer, would be easier. (Copyright, 1937, New York Tribune, Inc.) Miners Make Playgrounds. Scottish miners of West Wemyss, in Pifeshire, working with pick and shovel after hours, have turned two acres into & beautiful village play- ground. In England a| JANUARY 15, 1937. This Changing World Bill Bullitt Talks “Sense” to Blum and Delbos, While Dr. Schacht Is Only One Silent. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. HIS is the week of diplomatic talks. The French are falking to the Germans about commercial relations, Mussolini is talking to Her~ man Goering about his undying love for HMitler and the Reich. Eden is talking to everybody, as are American Ambassadors abroad. Bill Bullitt is talking “sense” to Blum and Delbos. Dr. Schacht is the only one who keeps silent. % ‘Whether these conversations will bear fruit is a matter which the future will tell. A commercial agreement between France vide Hitler with anything tangible. If the French were to throw a few colonies in the bargain that would be a different proposition. And although Blum is quite willing to do so, it is doubtful whether he will be permitted to remain in office should he ask the French to make territorial sacrifices while the British kept all their post-war loot, L B ‘The Mussolini-Goering conversations are somewhat more important. Nobody in the Reich was worried that Mussolini would sell out to the British . . . at this time. The interests which bind Italy to Germany are stronger than the new profession of friendship of Eden, who only a few weeks ago still maintained an antagonistic attitude toward Il Duce, But what is important in the Rome conversations is that Mussolini and Hitler’s number one man will lay the course of the Juture activities of the two totalitarian states in regard to Spain and the U. S. S. R. Both dictators are in agreement that peace ought to be preserved in ‘Western Europe, provided that, the Soviet menace is stamped out. Con- sequently, if the French and their associates agree to throw the Madrid government overboard and put no further obstacles to Pranco's victory, Hitler and Mussolinl might agree to come to some sort of an arrange- ment for a non-aggreesion pact in Western Europe. But Russia, they say, must be left out. Hitler must be aliowed to handle that situation in the way he likes. It will be difficult to obtain France’s consent to such an arrange- ment. A large number of French people look toward the Soviets as their only hope in the event of & Franco-German conflict. Wise men tell them they are wrong because Russia will not be able to do for France more than it did in 1914. But wise men’s counsels do not carry much weight these days. % xx Blum has apparently found a politician to accept the job as Am- bassador to Washington. ‘The PFrench premier has been in search of such & man since last July, but could find nobody to tackle the job of “reconstruction of Franco- American relations.” All the politicians realize that they would be work- ing under a severe handicap unless the debt question is settled. And what the practical means of settling that question are, nobody can quite see. The French are in bad shape financially. The national defense ex- penditure is 30 huge that there is little left for war debts. Blum does not want to send a career man to Washington. They are not sufficiently “elastic.” They stick too much to routine and tradition. He understands that in order to appeal to the American people he must have here a man with a diflerent outlook on life and individuals than e man brought up in the somewhat stultified “diplomatic” atmosphere, Georges Bonnet, who is reported to have finally consented to come to Washington, might be the man to present the French “case” to the people of this country. He is & politician, was several times in the cabi- net and has ambitions of becom= ing some day France's prime min- ister. Politically, he is at present on the fence. He is not a devotee of Leon Blum, but for the time be- ing while the French people seem satisfied with the manner with which Blum is conducting their af- fairs, there is but little chance for any politician to disiodge the So- cialist premier. s Hence, Bonnet, it appears, does not mind accepting the somewhat unthankful job as Ambassador to the United States. If he can be successful here, there is 50 much to be gained for his political future, In any case he can watch developments from Washington and return to France at the psychological moment. The chances are that he will be a good representative of France. Advertising Agents Meet. Approximately 50 members of the Classes in Esperanto will be held American Association of Railway Ad- ' each Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the page vertising Agents assembled at the | boys' school room at the Capitol, be- Mayflower Hotel today for the an- | ginning tonight. Gerald F. Small, nual convention of the association. | former president of the Esperanto Club The convention will close tomorrow of Washington, which is sponsoring | Esperanto Classes. | the daughter night. the classes, will be the instructor. Headline Folk and What They Do S. E. C. Chairmanship Possibility Has Steel Trap Mind. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. ‘T OUR village swimming pool Ernest Angell used to climb about 20 feet up the side of the cliff and dive into the rocky basin, 6 feet deep and about 15 feet across. He was then in his 40s, & lean precisionist who never made a mistake. He was my neighbor down the country road for quite a stretch, and I admired tremendously both his intellectual and diving poise—he had the same take-off in both. ‘The talk is now that he may sue- ceed James M. Landis as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commise sion. He is a New York lawyer, ap- pointed regional administrator of the New York office of the commission last March 14. His ability disclosed in this office has advanced him toward the chairmanship. Although Mr. Angell is & native of Cleveland, he is, I believe, of New England descent. At any rate, he has what might be called New England reserve and would be embarrassed by any adequate appralsal of his mind and capacities, One may say, how- ever, that it is a steel-trap mind. Knows His Economies. Mr. Angell is a liberal, who knows the economic facts of life. His maga- zine articles on political and economic subjects have no loose ends nor ravel- ings. They reveal a detachment com- parable to his mathematical diving trajectory—or the excellent timing and even pace of his tennis, which is his favorite game. He was uated from Harvard and from Harvard Law School in the class of 1913. He practiced in Cleve- land from 1913 to 1917, was a captain in the World War and thereafter es- tablished himself in New York. Heis s member of the law firm of Hardin, Hess & Eder. He has an intellectual integrity which makes one think San- tayana picked the wrong man to pose for “The Last Puritan.” and of current political values was exemplified upon her arrival in this country in the interest of her weekly magazine, Time and Tide, when with a negligent gesture and a casual sen- tence or two she dismissed a chapter in her life which other English women would savor and remember in detailed accuracy throughout their earthly days. ‘This was her brief term in jail for dropping bombs in a letter box. Tall, handsome, dynamic, an ex- ponent of outdoor sports, she found her athletic ability an asset when, as & passenger on the ill-fated Lusitania, she went down with the ship. Fight~ ing to the surface, she swam to & plank and so was saved. Now in her forty-fourth year, she i of the late David Thomas, Welsh industrialist, who was created viscount in 1918. Educated at Somerville College, Oxford. ahe reaches back on her paternal side into English delvers of earth and on her mother's side into noble English blood. (Copyright, 1987.) $600,000 Insurance Paid. Trustees of London’s Crystal Pale ace, recently destroyed by fire, have been paid $600,000 insu o B ¥Bak jove—ivhat beastly luck—sow I'll misg lusch and wy cup of Wilkins Coffee”