Evening Star Newspaper, May 14, 1940, Page 34

* McCarran Sees Test Of Legislative Rights InC. A A. Issue Senator, Speaking in Forum, Points to Agency’s Accomplishments Senator McCarran, Democrat, dis- cussed President Roosevelt's proposal to transfer the functions of the Civil Aeronautics Authority back to the Commerce Department in an ad- dress in the National Radio Forum last night, on the eve of a Senate vote on the issue. Senator McCar- Tan was in charge of the Senate legislation which created the C. A. A. His forum address, arranged by The Star, was heard over a coast-to-coast network of the National Broadcast- ing Co. 4 The text follows: The Senate is now debating an issue of transcéndent importance to the welfare of our country. Tomor- row (Tuesday) it will vote on that {ssue. The issue is: Shall the Civil Aeronautics ‘Authority be preserved as an independent agency of Gov- ernment, or shall the regulation and development of the great civil avia- tion industry be returned to the mercies of the Commerce Depart- ment? . House Backs C. A, A. The House already has acted on this issue and overwhelmingly voted to maintain the Civil Aergnautics Authority as Congress créfited it. There is not a State in the Union from which editorials have not poured forth during the last four ‘weeks since Reorganization Plan IV ‘was first proposed, unanimously con- demning the suggestion that the regulation and development of civil aviation be returned to an exeoutive department. The airlines, and the airline pilots, those brave boys who sit at the controls of the magnificent new liners of the air, join in the acclaim of the record which the Civil Aero- nautics Authority has made since it was formed in 1938 and plead that that record shall not be disturbed. The thousands of miscellaneous operator's and the private flyers from coast to coast have vigorously voiced the demand that civil aviation be left alone to develop as it has been developing with such amazing strides since the Civil Aeronautics Authority was created. Civil aviation is daily becoming 8 matter of more immediate and intimate concern to every one of us. Last year the airlines carried more than 2,000,000 passengers and have by now become a regular and accepted means of transportation, used by men and women and their children throughout this land. Family Plane Coming. And the day is rapidly approach- ing when to the family automobile will be added the family airplane. Private flying is no longer a rich man’s hobby. Nor is its enjoyment confined to a few rash young men. Of all those thousands who today, in their own airplanes or in rented airplanes, go out for a spin in the air exactly as the average family takes an auto ride on Sunday after- noon, & recent survey shows that the average income is only '$2,100 & year and the average age is 30. Thus, with millions using the air- lines regularly, and their number is growing week by week, and with the small pleasurs aircraft being used by thousands more of mature age and of humble station, any- thing affecting the regylation and development of civil aviation is of direct and vital concern to every one of us. Furthermore, as the President so forcefully said in a recent comment upon the Civil Aeronautics Act and the work of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, civil aviation is the backlog of our national defense. ‘The Norwegian sun was eclipsed with the wings of hundreds of huge aircraft transporting a conquering horde to occupy with deadly swift- ness strategic points far in the in- terior. Across the tulip flelds of Holland there fell the shadows of hundreds of air transports bring- ing far behind the front lines lit- erally thousands of armed men to strike to the very heart of that little nation. Should Learn Lesson. We in this country, secure today, but with tomorrow uncertain, should learn well the lesson of these events. Even as the President has said, we should learn that the vast carrying capacity of huge commercial air- liners, the skills acquired by thou- sands of young men in piloting air- craft, and the factories necessary to construct civil aircraft, can and must be put to the use of defense against attack in kind. And only if through sound and stable regulation and development our great civil airliners are increased in number, only if the young men who have the skill to fly and service civil aircraft multiply year by year, and only if our civil aircraft factories are kept con- stantly expanding can the defense this Nation so vitally needs be pro- vided when the day of reckoning may finally be upon us. It was after 20 years of bitter experience and 32 different official investigations and hearings dealing with civil aviation that Congress created the Civil Aeronautics Au- thority. The act setting up that authority in 1938 was the product of five years of the most intensive drafting, consultation and consid- eration of evidence. The act itself was approved by six of the great executive depariments and was sought by the President. The record made by the Civil Aeronautics Authority has confirmed in every detail the foresight of the President in requesting the adop- —_— Amazing Proved Hygienic Protection Mgied Women tion of that act and the wisdom of Congress in studying and formu- lating its provisions so carefully. For during the past 14 months under the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the airlines of the United States have had not a single accident resulting in death either to passengers or to crew. And in the great program of civilian pilot training which the authority has undertaken with the co-operation of schools and uni- versities, the authority’s record of safety has been as high as 71 times fi good as the safety record made pilot training under other aus- pices. Conservative Finance Attracted. Moreover, since the creation of the authority, even conservative in- surance companies have come for- ward to lend money to this new in- dustry. Already during the present calendar year $25,000000 have been borrowed by the airlines and it ap- pears now that before the end of the year the total borrowing for construction of new equipment and improvement of facilities will have reached $50,000,000. But now we are faced with a pro- posal to return civil aviation to-the Commerce Department, to make the present Civil Aeronautics Au- thority- a mere subordinate hoard in the department and to, abolish the Air Safety Board, whose func- tions of independent investigation of -aircraft accidents have con- tributed s0 much to the shining record of the last 14 months, This preposal is contained in a plan of reorganization, submitted to Congress under the Reorganiza- tion Act adopted & year ago. The proposal is based upon a hasty and superflicial study made by a divi- sion of the Budget Bureau. Unless the Senate joins the House in dis- approving this proposal, it will be- come the law of the land. Thus by a mere executive decree would the labors of Congress during five years of intensive study and effort be undone. Congress, under our Constitution, is the law-making body. . It cannot surrender its duties or its responsi- bility—else our constitutional de- mocracy would come to an un- happy end. In the exercise of that constitutional power it adopted the Civil Aeronautics Act and created the Civil Aeronautics Authority as its agent independently to admin- ister the policies set forth by Con- gress in the law. And now that law would be set aside by virtue of recommendations —_— e Bien Folie makes waistlines excitingly long! ® Bien Jolie has smoothed away the bulged-hip of yesterday’s fancy . . . now it's @ longer, slimmer, softly curved line from bust to thighs. Fashion asked for it . . . Biea Jolie gives it to you with glovefitting smartness. At all better stores and corset shope. ; © Figured batiste corsette, semi-hook. ing, petite lace uplift bra.§5.00 500 Bien Jolie models for all Aigure types, $3.50 to $25. Bras, $1 10'$S g Suily SENATOR PAT McCARRAN. ; ~—Harris & Ewing Photo. from & division of the Budget Bu- reau, which, unlike Congress, pro- ceeds without public hearings and without responsibility to the people. This proposal is no mere minor adjustment within art executive de- partment. It amounts to an out- right repeal of important and fundamental features of the law which Congress adopted. Let me illustrate. After intensive investi- gation by the Senate Committee on Commerce, resulting from an air- plane crash in which & member of the United States Senate lost his life, that committee of the Senate found, on the basis of a voluminous record accumulated during months of hearings, that the old Bureau of Air Commerce in the Commerce Department suffered from faults in- separably connected with its lack of independence and with its subor- dinate status in a large and cum- bersome executive department. Among other things, the Senate committee found that in investigat- ing accidents the Bureau of Air Commerce, instead of condemning its own regulations where they were at fault, whitewashed itself and too often took the easy way out— the way of blaming the dead pilot, who could not defend himself. The director of the Bureau of Air Com- merce himself admitted in his tes- timony that such a system of in- vestigating accidents by the very /7//////’_\"/\ Congress that the investigating board should be independent of the agency with regulation, But now, ynder the reorganization, that independent. board would: be entirely abolished and the investi- gation: of leddenuwvu:h be turned over altogether e agency charged with the duty of adopting safety regulations. . In short, by executive decree based upon s brief study by ivision of the Budget Bureau,, the deliberately formulated legisiation of the 88 ‘would be repealed. In this issue there is a principle | This involved more important even than the continued free and. safe de- velopment of civil aviation, vital as be| to withdraw trying times, of peculiar significance. It involves not” alone the wise and |, safe regulation of civil aviation, It involves also & principle deeply em- bedded in the traditions of our con- stitutional democracy. Citizenry of America, you and I are looking into a trying hour in our national history. The world is look- ing into a trying hour.. Civilization is looking into chaos. And Chris- tianity is looking upon its darkest moment. 2 It has been established beyond question of doubt that the defense of nations rests on that facility of man’s movement known as aviation. was unknown in wars of the past; but, as you have listened to the radio and read the press re<s ports of the past weeks, you know QUALITY You GELIT PAYS % Olds prices begin at $807 for Coupes, $853 for Sedans, deliv- ered at Lansing, Mich. 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Or should w2 rely on an independ- terrain, equip planes to travel by night, and take this great American activity out of politics and permit it to continue as a forceful agency for America’s future? ‘The queestion before this country Senate right against all odds, and against all conditions. The disapprove the reorganization of the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The press, the people, the airlines and the pilots of those airlines sus- tained this resolution. The God of Liberty sustains it. SMOPTLOOK! READ! HERE IS PROBABLY THE REFRIGERATO[% VALUE THI! FAMOUS METER MISER that cuts cur vent cost to the bone. MOISTUY R HYDRAT and veqetables. SEAL QUICKUBE TRAYS, for fruits wit speciai lever that es cubes. BEST FULLY EQUIPPED DELUXE FRIGIDAIRES Made by “General Motors”—Model 4-39 Orig. $159.50 You Save $50! '109.50 Less Liberal Allowance for Old Automatic Refrigerator —Just imagine, being able to buy a genuine “General Motors” Frigid- aire at such an unusually low price . . . 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