Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-05-29
DEFENSE COUNCIL
MAY Be REVIVED
Increasing Pressure Being
Brought on White House
to Restore Agency.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


Although President Hoover maintains
his resistance to the proposal that the
Council Of National Defense, instituted
by Congress in 1916, be revived to meet
the depression emergency, reports per-
sist that the Summer months may see
it, re-establishmenu. ~ IL learned that
Mr.. Hoover for some weeks past has
been under pressure to set the council
to functioning again. Congress has
never repealed the act by which the
body was created on August 20, 16
years ago, as the United States Coun-
Gil Of National Defense.
The council is still listed in the Con-
gressional Directory. The chairman Is
the Secretary Of War, and the other
six members are the Secretaries of the
Navy, Interior. Agriculture, Commerce
and Labor Col. Alvin c. Voris, Signal
Corps, United States Army, Is desig-
mated as custodian Of records.
Not War Measure.
The Council Of National Defense
first called the Council of Executive
Information, was not created during
the World War as war measure. 1t
was intended to function continuously
In the interest Of the national security
and welfare; for the utilization Of in
dustries, resources and civilian activi-
ties to this end through subordinate
organizations under its Advisory Com
mission; for the maintenance Of the
Nations eficiency. teamwork and
morale In any major emergency: for
the orderly linking Of these civil forces
In an Immediately effective way with
the executive side Of government; and
for the coordination. through the
council itself, Of the departments and
bureaus over which the cabinet men,
bers Of the council presided.
proponents OF the councils revival
gain the impression. from their conf
dental soundings In Washington. that
the administration Is now pinnig its
principal faith on the Federal Reserve
district committees under process of
formation In various parts of the coun-
try. At the White House firm belief is
expressed that these committees, such
as the one first organized 10 days ago
at New York under the Craftsmanship
OF Owen D. Young, are destined to prove
highly effective in starting frozen
credit wheels to moving If the Federal
Reserve organizations fail to accomplish
their appointed purpose. the view pre-
walls in certain well informed quarters
that the Council Of National Defense
scheme will be invoked. At least three
or four members of the Hoover cabinet
are represented Is favoring the councils
revival
Clifford First Director.
Walter 8. Clifford, now chairman of
President Hoover's Committee on Tn
employment Relief, was the first direc-
Authorities who are convinced that the
underlying purpose of the council ap-
plies as fully to conditions in 1882 as it
did to those existent on the verge of
our entry into the World War cite from
Mr.. Gifford's second annual report of
National Council operations. These
citations are said to have had almost
prophetic reference to things in the
United States as they are today. Par
ticular emphasis Is laid on the State
Councils Section" Of the National
Council, Of which at one time there
were we'll over 100000.
Through this decentrAlized system"
reported Director Clifford, 1.-The council
has been able to bring home to each in
dividual citizen the meaning of the
policies Of the Government and the OPP
portunities for service In the war in
way possible only to local agencies.
This network of voluntary governmental
agencies has been and still remains a
most useful instrument for national CO.
operation which may well prove as vAlu-
able in the difhcu1t days Of readjust-
ment As In war"
Copyright, 1887