Evening star., 1935-07-25
PRESSURE TACTICS
IN CONFERENCE HIT
Presidents Lobby on Hold
ing Company Bill Called
Threat to Free Rule.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Committee of both houses. and thTe
to influence the men who were duly
appointed to consider the differences
between the House and Senate. on the
death sentence" provision of the util-
ity holding company bill.
This has aroused the ire of Rep
resentative George HuddleSton, Demo-
crat, of Alabama. one of the House
members of the Conference Commit
tee. who insists that. while the lobby
committees are engaged in fishing
expeditions trying to work up senti-
ment for the Presidents version OF
the utility bill. the "propagandists"
representing the administration are
actually seeking to participate in the
committees deliberations. 1t is the
worst lobby of its kind ever perpe-
trated on Capitol Hill. But let Mr..
Huddleston tell the story. He was
the man who brought the House OF
Representatives to its feet cheering
recently as he declared his independ-
ence Of White House dictation.
Cohen and Deevane Named.
'There are 10 members of the Con-
ference Communicative from the
House and five from the Senate" said
Mr. Huddleston today. There are
two ways for us to meet-one is In
executive session. which excludes
everybody, and the other is in public,
at which interested parties may be
permitted to appear.
Now Benjamin Cohen of the P W.
A. and Dozier Deevane, counsel OF the
Federal Power Commission, wanted to
sit in our executive sessions. Some Of
us objected. Mr.. Cohen is the man
who is really the author of the utility
,s bill. He is a propagandist He and
his associates admit having prepared
- speeches for members of Congress
, against holding companies. Even
some of Senator Wheeler's recent
= speeches. it is now conceded, were
= written by the brain trusters.
?. These speeches. Of course, are no
- more genuine than the kilograms
:, which came from that dead man and
which the Lobby Committee has
3, spread so senSationally on the records.
.. These representatives of the ad-
hlinStration have been contracting
members of Congress in an attempt to
influence their votes and now they
want to sit in the Conference Com
mittee itself. I don't think that's fair
Either the members of Congress
should conduct their own sessions or
they should throw Conference Com
70 IL 81
present their views"
= Experience Held Typical.
!. Mr.. Huddleston said the experience
was not altogether novel so far as the
i last two years was concerned. He
;, said that Ferdinand Pecora and Tom
y Corcoran and a half dozen others
/, from the administration attended the
Conference Committee sessions on the
securities exchange bill. If. of course,
the conferees wish. they can consent
to this or exclude everybody, but since
the administration has been dominat-
sng legislation on Capitol Hill it takes
- Congressman Of rare independence
Ito tell the White House to keep its
lobbyists at the other end of Penn
sylvania avenue.
This method of dictation and
coercion Of conference committee
work is a breakdown Of the theory o.
the American system of government.
which is that the three branches OF
Government are separate and in
dependent of each other.
- There is no more justification for
the Presidents emissaries to sit in a
conference committee in Congress
s5than there is for the President to de-
,nand that the Attorney General or
I some other member of his cabinet
shall sit in the conferences held by
s4the justices Of the Supreme Court of
esthe United States before they render
"a decision.
- The real reason for the presence Of
the brain trusters at the conference
= committees is that the supposed au-
4athors of the bill aren't really familiar
= with its technical provisions and they
feel they must turn to the brain
. trusters. In this respect borrowed
= brains is not entirely a reflection on
z the capacity Of the legislators them
II selves, for after all, the utility holding
i bill is a fairly complicated affair and
- only specialists can understand its
ramiflcations.
Discrimination Seen.
But this is all the more reason why
= legitimate representatives of investor
: groups. whose property is about to be
z destroyed by the proposed death
q sentence" ought to have the oppor-
3 tunity to send their lawyers and tech
2 nical specialists to attend the confer
h ence committee meetings to protect
= their interests.
The importance of the Conference
u Committee as a legislative inStitu-
= ton cannot be overestimated. When
p the Conference Committee rewrites a
= paragraph which has been in dispute
= between the two houses, and the bill
y comes back to the Senate or the
House for approval or disapproval in
its entirety, it is often a choice be-
= tween accepting the conference re-
: port or having no legislation at all.
y After the hullabaloo about the wicked
, ness Of holding companies few mem
bers want to record themselves as
2 blocking all regulatory legislation on
utilities.
= So it becomes matter of practi-
= cally being compelled by the exigen-
. cies of the situation to take what the
Conference Committee offers or share
the responsibility for killing the legis-
II 1ation altogether.
For this reason what the Conference
= Committee finally writes into the bill
Is vital. The administration knows
this, of course. Hence it sends rep
! resentatives to sit in with the, COM
mittee in the hope of influencing the
members to adopt the administration
point of view instead of permitting
the conferees to work out their own
compromises, or at least a bill that
will win the approval of both houses.
The latter is the true purpose of a