Evening star., 1936-07-12
A. 7. & 7. MAY Be
NEW DEAL TARGET.
Big Probe, Disappointing So
Far, to Be Resumed
Vigorously.
BY CARLISLE BARGER0N,

BY CARLISLE BARGERON.
There Is considerable discussion
going on in administration circles as
to whether the American Telephone
& Telegraph system should be made
the economic royalist they have been
talking about. The big s1.150.00 in
Vestigation of this industry is sched-
uled to reopen in September, and there
are those who insist it would make a
crackerjack economic royalist for ex-
ploitation purposes.
THE Republicans have point when
they demand that we name our eco
nomic royalists," they say frankly.
I'VE ought to get up one or two. at
least"
Chairman Prall of the Communica-
tions Commission was in conference
with Mr.. Roosevelt the last week and
the resumption of the telephone hear
ing is believed to have been the SUBJ
tect of the discussion.
Although widely heralded when it
= was launched as having the biggest
appropriation ever made for an inves-
tigation, it has so far been a great dis
appointment. not only to its sponsors,
but to investigation lovers generally.
Originally $750.000 was appropriated
for the hearing. and two young brain
truSters got the job of prosecuting
counsel for their Wisconsin friend,
Samuel Becker.
Probe Loses Page One.
From the beginning, however, he
was not able to keep the investigation
on the front page. He lacks those
dramatization qualities for one thing,
and again the very forces of nature
seemed to conspire against him. On
one occasion, when it looked as though
he was heading for banner headlines,
there came the flood. On top Of that
the Black Committee got in bad for
seizing private kilograms. which gave
1t the play for several days and put
Investigations in bad odor generally.
The result is that although the wire
hearing ran off and on for several
weeks and turned up some dis
closures" it hasn't worked up any pub
lie Indignation against the wire
monopoly"
The contention is made that the
investigation has done worlds of good
in the mass of data it has made avail
able to State regulatory commissions
Stuff has been collected which the
State commissions never could get
Furthermore, it is claimed the in
vestigation has resulted in telephone
rate reductions.
But that it has been a great dis
appointment is evidenced by the re-
ception which the members of the
House Appropriations Committee gave
1t when s450,000 additional funds
were sought. The original $750,000
has been spent. The additional $780,
900 was given in the second deficiency
bill. but not until the members of the
committee made some very caustic
comment about the worth of the in
vestigation. They made 1t plain that
they didn't care how much data the
investigators had gathered in, that
1t was no good unless the public be-
came worked up about it.
Racing News Disclosure.
One of the earlier headlines of the
investigation which caused some perk-
ing up OF ears was the disclosure of
the Nationwide racing news service.
For some reason the New Deal has
shown no disposition to develop this
further.
II the hearing is resumed In Sep
tember in the role of presenting an
economic royalist, care is to be taken
that it doesn't conflict with other in
vestigations or more important news
happenings. Particularly. precaution
will be taken against its interfering
with the Campaign Expenditures
Committee. which the New Deal looks
upon as one of its ace investigations
and with Senator La Follette's civil
liberties inquiry. This latter inquiry
is looked upon to develop an economic
royalist in the steel industry. This,
it is pointed out, would give the New
Deal two economic royalists to throw
out to the Republicans.
But New Deal opinion is not unani-
nous by any means on the question
of using the telephone company for
this purpose. 1t has about 5000, 900
employees and stockholders. 1t may be.
in fact, that by the time the discus
sions on the subject are over the
scheduled September hearing won't
even develop.