Evening star., 1936-02-29
T'co Commerce Aides Dropped
For Being Opereager for Bill
Ship Inspection Measure
activities Proue
U,,doi,sg of Pair.
''Old Line" Department
Is Inhospitable to Fast
"Young Dealers"
BY CARLISLE BARGERON.

The Department Of Commerce used
to hit front pages with statistics on
how prosperous we were. Now 1t bobs
up ever SO often because somebody
else has been fred.
They will tell you privately that
the real reason for this curious turn
of events Is that the stolid old depart
ment is no place for such tempera-
ments as would make over the world
overnight. There are agencies here
where such temperaments easily fit,
1t is pointed out, but when they land
in Secretary Dan Roper's bailiwick
they are in the wrong pew.
Every now and then some one in
the Department Of Commerce be-
comes infected with the virus of free
speech and individual expression prev
alent in the newer agencies where.
generally speaking, any one from the
Office boy up Is permitted to write a
book or 60 on lecture tour.
But the department of Papa Dan" "
as some of them call him, has frowned
upon such business, at least to the
extent Of saying: 1T won't happen
here" II the world is made over
Secretary Roper may be in on it. He
is adaptable to change. But there is
no stampeding him in the making
over process.
All through the Roosevelt revolu-
ton" he and his Commerce Depart
ment have been something apart,
comforted in their steadfast course,
as the storm ragged all about, by the
security of very substantial building
in which to live, while the rambunc-
tious agencies are living in everything
but tents. Which means that Secre-
tary Roper thinks the Commerce De-
partment will be here when the others,
at least lot of them, are gone.
Two More Get Ak.
Just now two more in the depart
ment have got the ax because they
were too impatient and not willing to
wait. They are Comdr. H. Mccoy
Jones and Frederick L. Adams of the
Bureau Of Navigation and Steamship
Inspection. They went out after an
investigation into the matter of who
had been feeding stuff to newspaper
men and a radio commentator with
a view to agitating for the passage
Of measures pending before Congress
designed to improve the navigation
inspection service. There is one bill
passed by the House at the last ses-
sion and now before the Senate, pro-
viding for an increase in inspection
personnel, increased pay and tight
ening up of the bureaus authority
to enforce its regulations. It is an
outgrowth of the Moro Castle disas-
ter in 1884. Naturally there were any
number Of investigations Of that dis
aster and the pending bill. along with
convention for safety at sea, is the
result. The convention at sea, provid-
ing for standard safety regulations
and requirements for seamen has been
ratified by all countries except this
country and Australia. It is before
the Senate Foreign Relations Commit
tee and Senator La Toilette is sitting
on 1t at the instance of Andrew Furu-
seth, venerable head of the American
Seamen's Union, who sees something
OF a League of Nations phase to it
that would reduce the wages of Amer
ican seamen.
Friends of Adams and Jones point
out that, with these two measures still
pending, the only tangible thing done
since the Moro Castle disaster was
the quick reorganization of the bu-
reau which Immediately followed. In
this reorganization Dickerson Hoover,
head Of the inspection service and
brother of j. Edgar Hoover, head of
the G-men, was displaced, and Joseph
B. Weaver. a ship construction engi-
neer, was brought over from N. r. A.
and placed over the combined units of
navigation and inspection with the
title of director of Bureau of Naviga-
ton and Steamship Inspection. Adams
and Jones are his two proteges and he
is right with them. although he is
sticking on the job following their dis
missal in an effort to win out"
Drive on La Toilette.
There is no question that Weaver's
SAo"a oCe Out W buAu uP q luc utlueT
Senator La Toilette to get him of the
safety at sea convention and also to
secure passage of the bill broadening
the inspection service. The latter
measure is on the Senate calendar and
should pass at this session. There is
no telling what will happen to the
safety convention.
Building fires under people when
they wanted anything done was the
way they did things over at the N. R
A., it is pointed out. But in the "old
order" Department of Commerce such
things are just not done. Secretary
Roper has approved and recommended
both measures, it is pointed out, but
the Weaver crowd doesn't think he has
been active enough. They see all sorts
of politics" and interests" holding
the measures up.
They take the attitude that they