Evening star., 1933-10-15
'HOMPHREY OUST|NG|
MAY CAUSE BATTLE
Supreme Court Likely to Up.
hold Removal by
President.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

President Roosevelt,s removal Of VIII
liam r. Humphrey as . member Of the
Federal Trade Commission Is likely to
be sustained, If Mr.. Humphrey decides
to carry the matter to the courts. as he
has proposed to do, it was insisted here
yesterday.
Mr.. Humphrey was out Of the city
over the week end. He has made no
statement Of his plans for / suit against
the Government to retain his old post
since he made formal announcement In
letter to the Trade Commission that
he considered the Presidents order re-
moving him invalid" In the mean
time his successor, George T. Matthews
Of Wisconsin, has been in Washington
for . short time ana has returned to
the Middle West without having taken
the oath Of office. He plans to return
to Washington October "a to be sworn
in and take over the duties Of trade
commissioner.
Despite the fact the removal order
has raised the criticism that 1t Is an
attack upon the independence Of the
Federal Trade Commission and that
the commission was set up by Congress
to be an independent agency Of gov
eminent, free from dominance by the
White House, the likelihood that Mr..
Humphrey will be able to sustain his
contention in the courts that the Presi-
dents action was invalid seems TO be
small In view Of past decisions Of the
Supreme Court.
That the incident will lead to much
controversy, both in Congress and in
the courts, however, Is expected.
First Move Of Kind.
Never before has q President under
taken to remove q member Of the Fed
eral Trade Commission since its Gre
alton by law in 1914, although Presi-
dent Coolidge sought to have placed in
his hand the resignation Of member
Of the commission, to be used apparent
ly at his discretion, as condition Of
his appointing the commissioner. The
commission has worked as a non-par-
tisan and independent agency.
When President Coolidge demanded
the resignation Of Bert E. Haney, q
member of the United States Shipping
Board from Oregon, in August of 1925,
Mr.. Haney declined to resign. Mr..
Coolidge. however, did not issue an Or
der removing Mr.. Haney. He merely
waited. Mr.. Haney resigned in the fol-
lowing February, having served under
. recess appointment given him by Mr..
Coolidge, an appointment which would
have expired at the conclusion Of the
session Of Senate which opened In De-
cember. 1925, and closed in 1926 unless
Mr.. HAney had been confirmed. He
was q Democrat. He could not possibly
have been confirmed. He said in his
letter Of resignation that he had been
informed the President would not reap
point him. and that he had been watt
ing for some months for the President
to reAppoint his successor Also Mr.
Haney desired to run for the Senate
In Oregon. So the Haney case was dis
posed Of without an appeal to the
courts.
Same Argument Used.
However, Mr. Haney in his letter to
President Coolidge refusing to resign,
insisted that the Shipping Board was
set up by Congress as an independent
agency Of the Government. bipartisan
agency, responsible to the legislative
body, and that its members were re-
movable only for causes specified In the
act. This is the same line of argu-
ment advanced by Mr.. Humphrey in
his denial Of the right Of the President
to remove him from the Federal Trade
Commission.
The Haney case cropped up before the
decision Of the Supreme Court Of the
United States in the case Of F. 8. Ny
ers, postmaster at Portland, oreg
whose widow sued for tho salary At
tached to the ONCE for the remainder
Of Mr. Myers term after he had been
removed On order Of President Woodrow
Wilson. Myers was removed on Febru-
ary 2, 1920, and 1t was half dozen
years before the case was finally dis
posed Of. The court upheld by q 6 to 8
decision the power Of the President to
remove Q postmaster. although the act