Evening star., 1934-02-18
White House Gets Findings.

Accordingly. it was not Mr.. Dern,
Secretary of War, but Mr.. Collins of
the Lower House of the Congress
whoEdid the finding and the reveal
ing Of the War Department incidents
which have attracted the anxious
attention now not only of the De-
partment of Justice and not only of
the grand jury, but of the White
House itself.
Mr.. Collins, as chairman of the
subcommittee of the House Appro-
priationS Committee for the War De-
partment, took his information re-
garding these incidents to the White
House direct. He was prepared, if
the White House did not investigate
them, to investigate them himself
through his subcommittee in the
course of public hearings on Capitol
Hill. The situation was that the
administration had to wash the dirty
linen of the War Department in the
recesses of the secret chambers of a
grand jury or have it strung on a
clothes line in complete public view
on the high ground at the other end
| OF pennsylvania avenue
In these circumstances the admin
istration's choice was easy. The Presi-
dent preferred a selective admins
| trative scrub to a promiscuous con-
gressional laundry. He chose admin
istrative Standardization" This fact
should not obscure the infinitely more
important fact that the initiation of
| the measures which will now pre-
sumably purify the purchasing meth
ods of the War Department came
from the parliamentary" region Of
the Capital City.
But how was it that the plump and
smiling and irritable and combative
Mr.. Collins of Mississippi was the per-
son who performed that useful initia-
ton? Why, it's his job.
As chairman of the subcommittee
of the House Appropriations Com
mittee for the War Department, Mr.
| Collins has 1t for his job to appro-
| pirate money to the department and
then to watch the methods and man.
ners of the expending of that money
| in order to know how much money
| to appropriate next year. He can
| accomplish this job without any re-
gard for Secretaries of War or for
chiefs of staff or for any other ad-
ministrative employees. He derives
his post in Washington from the peo-
| pie of the fifth district of the State
Of Mississippi. He has a party as
sociation with the administrative ma
| chine, but he also has a personal as
| sociation with his constituents and
a personal responsibility to them.
Party Discipline Suggested.
This is the virtue and genius of the
so-called parliamentary" system. 1t
| gives us personalities who in some
considerable degree are independent
of the personalities of the admins
| trative machine and who therefore
are in a position to turn upon them
the f1oodlight of examination and
reformation 1t might be advisable
to contemplate that truth with some
care before abandoning "parliamen-
tary" institutions altogether and be-
fore committing ourselves-as many
advanced philosophers now suggest
to the sole power of an omnipotent
and uncorrected executive branch.
The second moral readily derivable
from our current scandals Is that it
would be wonderful-wonderful in
deed-if our American political parties
could discipline party members as
they are disciplined In, for instance,
Italy by the Fascists
The Fascists are enemies. certainly,
| to the parliamentary" institutions