Evening star., 1936-01-13
.|CKES' MISTAKE
ISLA|D TO CLERK
Senator Lewis Is Revealed
as Having Made Same
Statement About Hoover.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

When a member of the cabinet,
namely Secretary Ickes. makes an
untrue statement in a public speech
on an easily verified piece OF factual
information, and former President
asks for public apology, 1t becomes
interesting to know how the mistake
was made.
Ickes Is usually rather caustic in
discussing the acts and words Of his
opponents, and in his address at
Rochester. N. Y, about 10 days ago.
he was trying to prove that Herbert
Hoover as President mad signed at
least three acts that were subsequently
declared unconstitutional by the Su.
preme Court and that nobody had &C.
cused Mr.. Hoover of violating his oath
and ignoring the Constitution, etc,
whereas, according to Mr.. Ickes, five
Of the laws signed by President Roose-
velt since 1888 had been declared in.
valid. He was wrong even as to Mr..
Roosevelt, for the record was eight
invalid laws signed by Mr.. Roosevelt,
and 1t Is now nine with the A. A. A.
decision included.
Failed to Verify Information.
What happened, of course. was that
Ickes picked up some wrong informa-
ton from somebody else and used it
in his speech without verification. For
the truth Is that none OF the laws
signed by Mr.. Hoover has been de-
clared unconstitutional by the courts.
Now as to the origin of the error:
Back last Summer, Senator Lewis OF
Illinois, who feels it to be his duty
to shield the President from attack,
asked a clerk to look up the number
of laws that has been declared un-
constitutional under the last three
Republican administrations. The
clerk got the dates of all the Supreme
Court cases in which laws had been
declared invalid in the last IS years,
and Senator Lewis put them into
the Congressional Record.
The clerk, of course. didn't notice
that lust because a decision is handed
down during an administration doesn't
mean that the same administration
was responsible for the passage of the
act. Often times a law isn't chal-
lenged in the courts until years after
ward. Indeed, one of the laws listed
by Lewis clerk as having been de-
clared invalid during recent admin.
istrations was actually signed by
President Grant, but the circum-
stances producing the kind OF law
suit that permitted the Supreme Court
to pass on its constitutionality didn't
arise till few years ago.
Mitchell Asked Correction.
Well, when Senator Lewis made his
speech. William D. Mitchell, who was
ATTORNEY General in the cabinet OF
President Hoover and who Is now
engaged in the private practice Of
law in New York City, saw it and
wrote at once to Senator Lewis, ask
ing for a correction. This was not
given attention in the closing days
of the session in August, 1885, for
reasons still unexplained.
The following week, Charles Michel
son. the able director of publicity Of
the Democratic National Committee.
issued a weekly letter in which he
attacked the writings Of Washington
newspaper men and, in the course OF
that article, he repeated Senator
Lewis statement about the decisions
of the Supreme Court.
This correspondent in September,
last, called attention to the error OF
Senator Lewis and its repetition by
the Democratic National Committee.
Last Summer Gov. McNutt of Indi-
ana used the same set Of figures
before the convention of Young
Democrats in Milwaukee and again
this correspondent called attention to
the error.
Within a few days of the speech
by Ickes wrongly accusing Mr.. Hoover
of having signed acts of Congress
that subsequently were declared un-
constitutional, the general counsel
of the Bureau of Internal Revenue,
Robert Jackson, also made speech
in Buffalo. N. Y in which he, too.
misrepresented Mr.. Hoover's record.
Since Mr.. Hoover's telegram to Mr..
Ickes demanding an apology, Jackson
has publicly admitted that Mr.. Hoover
was right.
Exception Rather Than Rule.
Nov the average observer might
well inquire why public men make
mistakes of this kind when the in
formation is available to them or
their assistants. The truth Is that
politics has become so surcharged with
Misrepresentation that the idea Of
being fair. to an opponent is the ex-
ception rather than the rule. Presi-
dent Roosevelt himself, for instance.
made a conspicuous error Of state.
ment OIL a piece of factual infornla-
ton in a recent speech, and 1t is
surprising that Mr.. Hoover didn't
demand a public apology from Mr..
Roosevelt.
The incident related to the charge
by Mr.. Roosevelt that his predecessor
lad piled up certain deficit during
hi administration. This was compared
with the deficits under the present
administration, but in enumerating
the amounts Of money that are re-
coyerable from loans made by the
Government, Mr.. Roosevelt subtracted
these recoverables entirely from his
own administrations deficits, emitting
to tell the public that at least half
of them had been issued under the
administration of his predecessor. so
that. by the same system Of account
ing, they should have been substracted
from the deficits incurred under the
Hoover administration.
1t is not to be wondered at that
mistakes like this are occurring because
mos the New Dealers, and espe.
cially President Roosevelt and Secre-
tary Ickes, have more work to do
than it is humanity possible for them
to supervise personally. This is the
result o; concentrating in Washington
too much power and Of delegation
by Congress of too much authority
for discretionary use by executive
agencies of the Government.
The incident of the Ickes inaccuracy
to which Mr.. Hoover called attention
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