Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-20
Acts After 0usted Officer
Says Cuttings Life Might
Have Been Saved if Air
Bureau Had Functioned.'
INSPECTION HELD LAX
IN MORO CASTLE CASE
Former Assistant Secretary of
Commerce Implies to Senate In
vestigatOrs That Two Shipping
Board Officials Had Been Forced
to Resign.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Attorney General Cummings today
said the Justice Department will make
full investigation" of charges Of
"inefhciency," graft" and "favoritism"
in departmental bureaus made by
Ewing Y. Mitchell, ousted Assistant
Secretary of Commerce, regardless of
the outcome of an investigation by the
Senate Commerce Committee.
This announcement came soon after
Mitchell had ended his second day of
testimony before the committee with
assertions that proper efficiency in the
Air Commerce Bureau and steamboat
inspection service Of the Commerce
Department might have prevented the
recent airplane crash IN which Senator
Cutting of New Mexico was killed and
the burning Of the liner MORO Castle
with large loss of life.
He acknowledged under sharp ques-
tioning by openly hostile committee
members, however, that he had no
actual facts to support his charges.
keenan, to Direct.
The Attorney General said the de-
partment's investigation was being
handled by Joseph B. Keenan,, As
sistant Attorney General in charge Of
the criminal division. who was present
at the committee inquiry yesterday.
Mitchell, he said, would be given OPP
portunity 20 "amplify his charges at
any. time"
Cummings asserted the Mitchell
charges first were referred to him by
Secretary Roper on April %, and that
Roper, the Commerce Department
head, supplied him with Mitchell's
material on May Is or IA.
I'VE have not gone far enough to
determine what course should be pur-
sued" the Attorney General said. THE
investigation will not be limited to
reading what Mr. Mitchell has to say,
but an attempt will be made to get
all the facts.
I'VE will find out whether there has
been any dereliction of duty or merely
an administrative matter that can be
DCIIlC0 "1bA1OAI CAAS c4l VA bA4C 4CRG4t-
ment of Justice"
Two designations Claimed.
Previously, the ousted ofhciaI had
implied to the Senate Commerce Com
mittee that as a result Of his COM
plants two officials of the Shipping
Board had been forced to resign.
Asked why he didn't do some
thing" about the conditions Of which
he now complains, Mitchell said: Il
was as much ignored as If hadn't
been in the department. I was ostensi-
bly, in charge, but I had no power.
1t was known I had no authority.
But I can present memorandum after
memorandum to show what I tried
to do"
Mitchell said that pressure" from
airplane companies had brought lax
ity in safety inspection that might"
have caused the airplane accident.
He conceded under sharp question:
ing by Senator Johnson, Republican
| of California, close friend Of the
late Senator Cutting, however, that
he had no knowledge of the details
of the crash to back up his statement
that the lives Of those who died
might have been spared.
Under insiStent questioning by
Chairman Copeland, Mitchell also
| acknowledged he had no facts to
support his assertions concerning the
Moro Castle disaster.
The former Assistant Secretary. ap-
pearing for his second day to testify
in support of his charges Of "appar-
ent corruption" and graft" in the
department, ran at once into some
of the same sharp questions he en-
countered yesterday from committee
members.
Mitchell told the committee that
last February he filed % charges
against Admiral H. I. Cone, a Ship
ping Board member, based on asserted
revelations by the Black Ocean Mail
Investigation Committee.
Had Been Warned, He Says.
The charges we're filed, he said. in
spite of warnings it would get him
''in bad with the President" If he
pressed them.
Gone retired from the board 80
days later, Mitchell said, adding:
Il understand there was pressure to
get him to resign"
Taking up another case, Mitchell
declared j. w. Barnett, an official of
the Shipping Board bureau, also had
resigned after charges of "favoritism
to steamship companies" were filed
against him.
He charged that Barnett accepted
passes for his family from the United
States Lines and the Baltimore Mail
Line. Both companies, Mitchell said,
were large debtors to the construc-
ton loan fund Of the United States
Shipping Board, the administration Of
which Mr.. Barnett, as director Of the
Bureau of Construction and Finance,
had supervision"
Roper Smiles at Testimony.
Secretary Roper, who came to the
hearing prepared to answer Mitchell's
charges involving the Commerce De-
partment, at times smiled as his
former subordinate pounded the table.
Disagrees With President.
At the outset of today's hearing,
Mitchell took issue with President
Roosevelt'S explanation Of the laying
I'D of the Leviathan, saying:
THE President in his press confer