Milford chronicle., 1935-08-02
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN BUILDERS
By JULIAN MASON, Voe.Pssdent NaOna RePaRcan BueT5

PSnS CuuAe NSSAeAOAos ncAI bulntue
: and fall.
The greater the peoples chance +
understand the New Deal, the les
are the chances for the New Deal &
/ survive.
!. =s=
1t is announced in the Washingtol
correspondence of q string of news
papers friendly to President Roose
welt that all Hobbies against tn,
New Deal" are to be investigated b!
the investigating committees OF thu
Senate and House.
This is a strange narrowing Of
field that seemed to offer the cOun
try a fair opportunity to learn and
make up its mind about all the lob.
bying activities that have brought
pressure upon the course of legisla.
tiOn at Washington.
=s=
Forced by the charges made from
the floor by Representative Ralph o.
/ Brewster, of Maine, the House Com
mittee started its sessions by look
ing into the reported threats made
/ by the Administrations lobbyists in
behalf of the death sentence" clause
of the public utilities bill.
The hurried hearings resulted in a
reassertlon by Representative Brew
ster of his charges that Thomas G.
COreOran, X. f. c. counsel, had
threatened to hold up the Passama-
quody Bay project If Brewster did
not vote for the death sentence" I"
Mr.. CorcoIan, one of the brain
trust" drafters Of the bill gave an
answer that was as involved as one
of the famous Hypothetical Ques-
tions" put by counsel in the Thaw
case.
I have repeatedly read it over, and
it seems to me that it was quite
possible for Representative Brew
ster to take from it the meaning
that he said he did take.
However. it satisfied the commit
tee and the matter was allowed to
drift away into quietness.
The House resolution creating its
committee declared for an inquiry
into all charges of undue influence
on members of the House by both
the proponents and opponents" Of
the utilities bill
Why then did not the committee
call proponents" other than Mr.. |
CorcOran and go broadly into the
widely held belief that the Admins
tratiOn's congressional cOntact-nen |
bad brought pressure upon many
members of the House?
The reason is, / suppose, that that |
would not be the popular side and
that the President has the power Of
patronage and vast public funds
wherewith to punish congressional
opponents.
Another reason was that the Sen
ate's committee, under the sensa-
tional inQuisitor Senator Hugo l..
Black, of Alabama, jumped right in
and took all the headlines, with
raid on the headquarters of the utll-
tiles lobby.
The Black Committee was given
by the Senate to invcsti-
gate lobbying on any and all legis-
IatiOn in the Seventy Fourth Con
gress.
Will Senate and House go on TO
AXE advantage Of these broad pow
srs?
Will they go on to investigate one
If the most crucial questions now
Oefore the United States, namely, the
Ise of the vast relief and bureau
ratio funds for influencing con-
,ressional legislation?
They should do this. They should
10 more than this.
They should take up not only the
lOwer lobby and the administration
obby but all lObbies.
They should investigate the labor
nd the veterans lobbies, which are
o powerful and efficient as to make
he stupidity conducted utility lobby.
Dok like a gathering of little chill
ren.
But they probably won't. They
will LAY off" the investiga-
lon of the congressional activities
/ any special group that has voting
over back Of It.; just as they put
be Repeal organizations on the rack
nd let of the dOmineering Dry Or
with a slap on the wrist.
=s=
Congressional investigations are
OF for the purpose of letting the
eople know about their govern
lent.
They are political in conception
nd political in execution. The inqui-
tion into the power lobby is polit-
ally useful in its attack on a "a
iliar political goat" and in taking
le peoples attention of the bog
ug down Of the New Deal.