Evening star., 1935-05-12
ELY ASKS RETURN
TO "OLD SYSTEM
Suggests Law Institute Aid
In Drafting Substitute
for N. R. A.

Joseph B. Ely, former Governor OF
Massachusetts,, severely arraigned the
N.R. A. in an address before the an
nual banquet of the American Law
Institute at the Mayflower Hotel last
night. and called for series of
State enactments which he described
as the Laws of Business Practices"
aS a substitute.
He opened fire particularly on the
growth of bureaucracy and the dele
CATION Of legislative power to admin
tstrative hands.
John Dickinson, Assistant Secre-
tary of Commerce, replied and as
serted that to expect Congress to
make all necessary regulations with
out the delegation of legislative pow
er would be physical impossibility."
Justice Fletcher Riley Of the Su-
preme Court of Oklahoma also ad-
dressed the banquet. speaking on THE
Administration of Justice
Both Gov. Ely and Assistant Secre-
tary Dickinson agreed that the growth
of bureaucratic regulation had not
originated with the New Deal. but
where the former saw danger the
other saw the practical means Of
governing.
Sees No Check.
There is no check on this great
mass of regulatory law" Ely said.
1.-The fire marshal, the Secretary Of
Agriculture. the Milk Commission of
Massachusetts, the head of the N. r.
A.. the chairman of the securities
division, may promulgate with the
binding effect of law new and modi-
fled rules and regulations without any
public notice whatsoever, without any
controversial discussion of their ad-
visibility and without hearing.
1T is a situation fraught with more
danger to the liberty of the American
people than is apparent from the
mere statement. No piece of legiSla-
tion intended to be permanent in the
great body of our law should receive
the favorable consideration of any
legislative body unless its administra-
ton can be entrusted to any executive
whom the people may choose. .
Already there has been set up in
this country in cities. States and Ma
ton, an authority in the executive
and administrative branches which, If
falling into the hands of an un-
scrupulous person. furnishes the
means IN a hundred ways of COM
pletely destroying every liberty of the
individual"
Turning to the N. R. A., Ely said
that in acting for every business in
every location in the country 1t was
obliged to make one suit of clothes,
size 36, to At every individual business.
whether that individual business wore
size 80 or size AZ"
He asked for return to the "old
system" as a possible remedy for our
economic ills" and suggested that the
institute undertake to use the prin-
ciples of American law in the draft
Of an act of fair business practices. "
Dickinson Replies.
Dickinson replied by tracing the
history of the delegation of regu-
latory power, which he said began
with the first administration of the
first President.
"A single legislative body" he said,
could not physically, even if it were
wise for it to make the attempt, write
all the details of regulation in these
numerous and highly specialized fields
of administration into the form of
statutes"
To set up 'the constitutional prin-
ciple of the separation of powers into
such rigid logical dogma as to ex-
clude all delegation" he continued,
I'VE may preserve the symmetry of
q theory at the cost of converting
it into a 'one-horse shay which
some fine morning, when we need it
most. is certain to collapse at the
touch of events"
Using opposition to bureaucracy as
q vulnerable point to attack New
Deal agencies, Dickinson said, "is an
emotional rather than rational ap-
proach to the problem"
Let us IN short not seek to limit
the applicability of an essential gov
ernmental device because that seems
to afford possible means of defeat
ing some of the ends for which the
device happens to be currently used"
The banquet concluded a three
day meeting of the law institute dur
ing which another years. work in
restating the law was planned. The
institute will return to Washington
again next Spring for its fourteenth
annual session