The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-11-12
Washington
Merry-Go-
Round
BY DREW PEARSON and
ROBERT 5. ALLEN.


$4,000, 900 900 comes one ray of
sunshine. The ch-ballyhooed
S200000,000 road building program
is making progress
This is no particular fault of the
Administration. 1t is the result of
disdain for red tape on the part of
one man-Thomas H. Macdonald.
head of the Bureau Of Public Roads.
After the National Emergency
Council emitted a great fanfare OF
publicity last summer over the
mere fact that S15000,G00 of high
way money had been granted Mich
lgan and Alabama, a deep silence
descended on the road program. Re-
peated inquiries regarding the
status of other state road prof.
ectS were met with evasion or out
right admission that nothing was
moving.
Finally, publicity agents Of the
Emergency Council became uneasy.
They learned that several newsmen
were digging into reasons for the
delay. Hurriedly the NEG agents
started an investigation of their
own. What they uncovered was
startling
Somewhere in the maze of COM
plicated work-relief machinery the
road program had been lost. No
body could find it.
There enSued a hectic hunt that
finally brought them to the door
of committee, consisting of F. A.
Silcox. Chief Forester, Mayor La
Guardia of New York, and Morris l..
Cooke, head of the Rural Electrifi-
cation Administration.
THE President had appointed this
Il group to pass on the road prof.
ects, and it had functioned so quiet
ly that even the NEG publicity
agents were Scooped.
But, while the committee had
been celebrating, Road Bureau
Chief Macdonald had been func-
tioning just as quietly and much
more efficiently.
He had taken advantage of a pro-
vision he had inserted in the adj
miniStrative regulations, which en-
powered his bureau to proceed with
a reasonable amount" of highway
work solely on the advice of its dis
trict engineers. Slashing his way
through red tape barriers. ne had
distributed $110.000 900 to 81 states
out of the $2OO,000,GOO earmarked
for roads.
When the breathleSS NEG search
ers finally struggled through the
labyrinth and got down to Mr.. Mac
Donald, they demanded to know
why he had sought no formal ap-
prevail for his ALLEGATIONS.
SAY" he shot back L couldn't
be bothered with all this paper
work. Our job is to build roads
and that is what we are doing. If
you want a press statement, get it
up yourselves"
DEHIND the closed doors of their
- inner councils, the big utility
barons are giving a new twist to
Hamlet's ancient dilemma-To be or
not to be-
In spite of the Baltimore decision
against the Holding Company Act,
they still face the question of regis
tering with the Securities and Ex-
change Commission by Dec. l. On
this issue the utilities split.
One faction of Old Guard die
hardS stormily demands a united
front defiance of the government.
Leaders are Thomas N. McCarter,
head Of the Edison Electric Institute
and president of Public Service of
New Jersey, and John Zimmerman
of United Gas Improvement of
Philadelphia. They insist that the
utilities thumb their noses at the
law, which remains on the books de-
spite the decision, and challenge the
Administration to do something
about it,
Another group, chiefly the giant
New England Power Association and
the Morgan controlled Niagara
Hudson Co, opposes such an in
corrigible stand.
A T a secret meeting in New York
L n the two groups locked horns in
an all-day Wrangle over the issue.
H. Hobart Porter, president of the
American Water Works and Electric
Co, also dean Of the utility indus
try, grimly warned the Old Guarders
that their attitude would provoke
further official and public an
tagonism.
"The utility industry" the veteran
utility magnate warned cant af-
ford to defy the government and
public opinion. 1t is time we began
counting goodwill"
Copyright. 1885. BY United Featurs
Syndicate. IncJ