Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-07-14
LOBBYING ANTEDATES
FOUNDING OF CAPITAL
Investigations Come and Go, but Prac.
tice Persists-Modern Campaign Has
Ousted Old Methods, However.
OBBYING in Washington has

long and merry past. In
fact, the seed from which the
- city grew was planted at a
dinner given by Thomas Jefferson
and staged in a manner which set
the vogue for the earliest American
type-the social lobby. Side by side
with the lobby has f1ourished that
perennial, the lobby investigation.
What Washington and the country
watches today as the result of the
pressure on Congress for and against
the Wheeler Rayburn utility holding
company bill is natural Towering,
the two-way lobby investigation.
Actually the lobby antedates the
founding of Washington, and fos-
tered it. Jefferson and his Virginians
wanted the seat of government on the
banks of the Potomac River. Alex
ander Hamilton preferred more
northerly site, but the first Secretary
of the Treasury was most concerned
with his plan for assumption of the
State debts. The aStute Jefferson
arranged a dinner for the assump-
tioniSts and loaded the board with his
friends. A little log-rolling and Ham
ilton prevailed with his debt program,
while Jefferson dictated the location
of the New Capital.
Thus lobbying began with the his
tory of Washington. 1t has remained
ever since in one form or another,
but persuasion by mere social tactics
has been replaced by the modern pub
lie relations counsel.
Mass Attack Favored.
1t is not clear whether the telling
phrase death sentence as applied
to the Senate version in the utilities
bill calling for dissolution of ''un-
necessary holding companies, was
originated by those who directed the
campaign against the proposed legis-
lation. Nevertheless the Seventy
Fourth Congress became the target
of mass attack directed in the most
modern manner. The mail bag, tele-
gram. telephone campaign has def
nitely superseded the older methods,
although the so-called lame duck
still operates in Washington under
a shingle as general practitioner of
law.
But lobbying is never really curbed,
perhaps because the technique of Con-
greSS does not change. Every few
years something happens to bring
about lobby investigation. Most fire.
quently it is sudden, as in the pres
snt incident, when Representative
Ralph o. Brewster, Republican, OF
Maine, charged that officials of the
administration threatened to stop
public works in his district unless he
voted right" on the utilities bill
Resolutions of inquiry are passed
money is appropriated, committee
agents SWoop down and snatch files
from Offices of those about to be in
vestigated. and this material is spread
before the world. unsupported legisla-
tive history is bound to be ferreted out
regulations ruined, and it again will
be emphasized that business men who
hire lobbyists are gullible.
Game Goes On, However.
When the reports are docketed
wire-pulling, everybody agrees that
this procedure will have a statutory
effect in the future, and the game
will go on. In the long list of lobby
investigations, no legislation has been
an effective curb. The memorable and
Understanding corrupt practices act
now serves only as quarterly per-
mission for persistent reporters to bur-
row into the Offices of the clerk of the
House to learn what progress the Re-
publican and Democratic National
Committees are making in wiping out
their respective campaign deficits.
The fact is that members of Con-
gress despair of successful legislative
lobby deterrent. They let things drift
takes place. Then it is open season
for an investigation, with all its pub
icity.
Occasionally, as in the Mulhall in
ouiry in 1913, when President Wilson
fought with Congress over tariff act,
Senators and Representatives are pa
raded before an investigating commit
L
again by Senator George w. Norris,
Republican, of Nebraska. as a trial by
fire for members on their records on
the utilities measure.
Statute Is Recalled.
Section 201 of the Revised Statutes,
which subjects administration officials
to a $500 penalty or years imprison-
ment by making their efforts to inf1u-
ence votes a misdemeanor, is being
mentioned as possible weapon
against persons guilty of charges of
the type brought by Representative
Brewster
Nevertheless, it is safe to assume
that the present investigation will fol-
low the rules of the ancient game. Dis
closures will serve only to show the
variations the Rules Committee has
prescribed since that last field day for
lobby investigation fans in 1929, when
the late Senator Thaddeus Caraway of
Arkansas shared the news spotlight
with the writing of the Hawley -Smoot
tariff act of 1880.
Senator Caraway's committee, which
centered its fire on Bishop James Can
non of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South, agreed that the social
lobby carried little weight despite its
slamorous traditions. The late Sena-
tor, whose widow now occupies his
.seat, was fond of saying:
Most Senators are like myself. At
night they are too tired to go out
much. When they are dragged to din
ner they get mad and are in no mood