Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1937-12-23

attorney In a public hearing. He
stood pat and the trial examiner.
Charles H. Bayly, and the attorney.
Jerome !. Macht, called his atten-
ton to provisions of the Wagner
act requiring him to answer. The
question of freedom of the press as
guaranteed by the Constitution was
mentioned, but according to the
stenographic record of the hearing.
the trial examiner and the attorney
each held to the provision of the
law as being superior to the other
guarantee. Or at least, that is my
impression Of the proceedings.
AS far as ! am informed. the
board has taken no further action in
the O'Brien case. It has moved.
however, to enforce its subpoena
in the case of Hartley w. Barclay.
the magazine editor. A federal
court has been asked by the board
to enforce the subpoena which Mr..
Barclay ignored. He probably will
be compelled to appear. At least.
he should be compelled to appear in
response to the subpoena. No one
can ignore subpoena. As for sup
plying the information-that is a
different matter. His refusal to sup
ply confidential information and i'm
peril the freedom Of the press is.
indeed, quite different matter.
As one writer, / hope Mr.. Bar
clay and Mr.. O'Brien stick by their
guns. I hope, too, that the board
will not imperil its existence and
the good points in the law by at
tempting to assert power which /
do not believe it possesses. There
is no excuse, legally or morally. for
a crew Of officious individuals to
undertake the sort Of things dis
closed in these two instances. They
abuse confidence and besmirch the
titles which they bear.
Further, they have forced an is
sue that ought never to be raised.
It is a sad day in our country
when government officials, great or
minor, try to break through the
guarantees which the Constitution
gives you and me. It portends more
evil things.
Consider. for example, my own
personal situation. II the boards
attorneys get away with the sort Of
thing represented In these two in
stances, how long, ! ask, viii ] be
permitted to write as I am now
doing, freely, frankly? And il they
get away with it, how long will 1t
be until you, who do me the honor
to read my reports, will find your
selves without any honest express
sions in anything you read? It is
not blackjacking the press yet, but
If it goes further, that will be the
proper term to apply.
Returning, now, to the original
premise, namely, that a good law
may be destroyed or the effects Of a
bad law may be made worse by bad
administration, it appears to me the
conditions related demonstrate the
theory as a fact. I have noted
some comment on the floors Of con-
gress that the board was not aware
of what was happening in these two
cases; that it had issued no such
orders, etc. Such observations re-
quire no answer. Anything that is
done by any employee Of govern
ment agency is done by that agency
because it is to that agency, not to
any particular person who may be
on its payroll, that congress gave
authority to act.
am beginning to doubt that the
American farmer is going to
have his problem
Farm solved, or even
Problem partially bettered,
by the present tao
tics. The word tactics" is used
advisedly. Congress has not acted