Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-30
Presidential Commissions.

When President Hoover announced
that he proposed to appoint commits
sion to study law enforcement and law
observance and the lack of it, he started
something. Other important commits
sions followed, including one to study
conditions in Haiti. Immediately arose
an outcry in the press, which was
promptly taken up in the Senate and to
less extent in the House. Mr.. Hoover,
1t was said, proposed to govern the
country through commissions. This, of
course, was absurd. Mr.. Hoover did not
propose to do any such thing. What he
proposed to do. however, was to see that
the responsible agencies to which is
delegated the running of the Govern
ment should have as full and as correct
information as possible. The President,
who is the Chief Executive of the Ma
ton, is one of those who require very
full information to carry or their jobs
successfully. The Congress, which
makes the laws for the country, is also
entitled to the very fullest information
Through its own committees and joint
commissions Congress does obtain a
great deal of information. But it is
obvious that with a heavy legislative
program in hand, Congress must rely,
too, on outside help in order to gain
the fairest and most correct view Of
conditions with which it must deal.
And the statisticians have dug UP
some interesting data regarding the ap-
pointment of commissions Temporary
commissions and fact-finding bodies
by other and earlier Presidents. Presi-
dent Hoover himself has made public
facts regarding commissions appointed
by his predecessors, not as an excuse for
his own appointments, but merely to
show that it is a practice which has
BEEN followed by former Presidents with
advantage to the country. Going back
to the days of Theodore Roosevelt, it
was found that he created one hundred
and seven temporary commissions, and
Mr.. Taft, who served only four years as
President, appointed sixty-three such
commissions. Who have pointed the
finger Of derision at Mr.. Hoover and his
commissions so strongly as the Demo-
Gratis? Yet President Woodrow Wilson,
during his two terms as President, ex-
elusive of the wartime commissions,
appointed a total of one hundred and
sixty temporary and fact-finding COM
missions. President Harding had a record
of forty-four commissions appointed dur
ing his short service in the White House,
and his successor, Calvin Coolidge, ap-
pointed a total of one hundred and
eighteen. Mr.. Hoover so far has ap-
pointed eighteen commissions and fact
finding bodies. But the President has
made it quite clear that he does not in
tend to stop with eighteen. He believes
in commissions to ferret out the facts
and make them available to the Presi-
dent and to the legislative branch of the
Government. He is going on appoint
ing commissions whenever, in his opin-
ion, they may be necessary. Not all the
brains in the country are In the regular
Government service. frequently the
Government can be aided materially by
calling on the brains of Americans who
are just private citizens.
In view of the hullabaloo over the
Hoover commissions, the records of his
predecessors in the appointment OF
commissions rather take the wind out
Of the critics sails. 1t will be recalled
that the Senate was so impressed with
the need of not going on record as IA
voring the use Of temporary, non-gov-
ernmental commissions that it amended
the House resolution providing for the
appointment of the commission to study
conditions in Haiti. The Senate was
willing to appropriate the money to be
used by Mr.. Hoover and his commission
in Haiti, but it was unwilling to go on
record as favoring the appointment OF
commission.