Evening star., 1933-01-22
FIVE COMMISSIONS
OF HOOVER remain
Only Four Will Exist After
March 4 of 81 Named in
Last Four Years.
~ the Associated Press.


The oft-discussed list Of Hoover
commissions" has dwindled to total
Of sand Democratic SharpshooterS al
of the four such bodies that will exist
after March 4.
One after another, the committees.
boards and commissions named by
President Hoover have reported on the
particular problems that were their rea-
son for being and have gone out OF
existence.
Today only one of the 16 bodies Gre
ated by Mr.. Hoover without congres:
sional assent--the Interdepartmental
Mail Contract Committee-haS its
name listed in Federal offlcialdom. All
In all, 81 so-called commissions have
been appointed during the Hoover
stewardship, "a of them being created
directly by the Chief Executive or upon
his recommendations to Congress. The
remaining 38 were created by Congress
itself without specific recommendation
by the President.
Earlier Commissions.
Data collected recently in semi-ofh-
cial administration quarters relate that
President Wilson's administration saw
the existence of $50 commissions, boards
or committees, many of them the crea-
ton Of Congress, and that during the
years Calvin Coolidge spent in the
White House, 118 such bodies were
named, IA of them created by Congress
upon its own motion. ,
Recent days have seen a number OF
Mr.. Hoover's own commissions pass out
Of existence, notably the Research
Commission on Social Trends, with It's
voluminous report; the Committee on
the Cost of Medical Care, the Natlona!
Advisory Commission on nliteracy ana
the White House Conference Tor Chlld
Health and Protection.
After March 4, when the inter-
departmental Mail Contracts Com
mittee will fold its tent, there will be
left of the entire list Of so-called COM
missions named by the President only
the Power Commission, the Farm
Board, the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation and the Home Loan Bank
Board.
Some of the Democratic Senators
and Representatives, whose party Will
be in undisputed control of the Caplto1
after March 4, have declared their m
tention of abolishing the Farm Board
at the earliest opportunity. Both me
Home Loan Board were designed
purely as temporary bodies, possibly
leaving after their eventual death only
the Power Commission as monument
to the list of Hoover commissions, II
the Farm Board goes.
Wickersham Most Famous.
Most famous of all the commissions,
of course, was the Wickersham Com.
mission, or more properly, the Natlonai
Commission on Law Observance ana
Enforcement. Its report upon prohibi-
ton with a summary declaring In
favor of the eighteenth amendment,
but with a majority of the II members
individually declaring against prohlol-
ton in its present form, has become
an historical document.
Other commissions appointed by the
President, but less well known, include
the California Water Commission, the
Advisory Shipping Commission, the
National Drought Committee, the San
Francisco Bridge Commission. the
Emergency Unemployment Committee,
the White House Conference on Home
Building and Ownership, the Advisory
Committee on Education and the
Timber Conservation Board, which
still exists as a name, although defunct.
The total of eight commissions
created by Congress upon recommenda-
ton of the President includes the four
that now remain as well as such bodies
as the London Naval Conference Dele
cation, the Haitian Commission and the
Committee on Conservation and Ad-
ministration Of the Public Domain, all
now out Of existence.
In his recent message to Congress
upon the regrouping OF Federal agen-
cies, Mr.. Hoover recommended that
abolition Of such bodies as the Screw
Thread Commission, the District Of
Columbia Park Commission and others
named before he became President.