Evening star., 1937-06-11

explanation given by Secretary Early
is absolutely accurate. 1t is in accord
18th that has happened before at the
WhitA House.
MI. Roosevelt is so pre-OCCupled with
matters that have been delegated to
him BY a rubber stamp Congress that
he does not have a chance to read,
much less study, many of the docu-
ments to which he affiXes his Official,
let alone his unofficial, signature.
This extraordinary example of what
happens in oneman government IN
America may come as a surprise to
the American people, but it is no sur
prise to those who have watched the
way vast governmental powers have
been sought by Mr.. Roosevelt to be
exercised in the name OF the eXecu-
tive. Again and again the most i'm
portant rights of the citizens have
been affected by rulings and DEGREES
Issued from the White House under
broad grants of power passed by
subservient Congress, but actually put
into the form Of regulations by ire
sponsible and arbitrary subordinates
appointed through political pull.
Fxpla Not Enough.
On one occasion at least during the
N. R A. Mr.. Roosevelt is reported to
have signed one of the most impor-
tant OF the codes for industry with
out having read a line of it. This
custom of putting things through
without reading them is practice not
confined to the executive branch Of
the Government. Orders have been
sent by the administration to Capitol
Hill to pass certain legislation so hur-
riedly that copies have not been avail
able to the members.
The incident of the sale of auto
eraphed books by the Democratic
National Committee in evasion of or
in avoidance of the Federal corrupt
practices law will not, of course, end
with the explanation that the Presi-
dent signed blank sheets of paper
which were later incorporated in CAM
paign books and that he supposed
these autographs were to be sold to
individuals and not corporations.
1t may be assumed that the Presi-
dent did not know what he was
doing when he signed the autographs
or at least that he had no hint
that the autographs were to be mis-
used. This does not. however, explain
how it happens that the President
of the United States was kept ignorant
Of what was being done with the
autographed books after they we're
issued.
1t seems incredible, but it is probably
true that Mr. Roosevelt does not
know of several things being done
in his name. For many months,
nearly every important company in
Wall Street and nearly every cor
poration of the economic royalist"
type has been visited by solicitors
begging for money to retire the Demo-
cratic campaign deficit and telling
the prospective purchasers of the
autographed books that the Prcsi-
dent and Mr.. Farley were anxious for
the corporations to buy the books
Grand Jury Action Suggested.
The discovery of typewriter letter
from the Democratic National Com
books had been devised as a means Of
getting corporation checks, even
though the Federal corrupt practices
act forbids contributions by corpora
tions, has led Representative Smell,
minority leader, to demand a con-
gressional inquiry.
Such a grave charge, however is
not something for a congressional
committee to ponder or use as a
foot ball Of politics, but for grand
jury. Granting that Mr.. Roosevelt
had no knowledge aforehand and that
he never heard about the way the
campaign books we're being sold, the
information now is public property
and official cognizance Of it has been
taken by the White House.
Under the circumstances, the next
step logically would seem to be the
appointment of special prosecutors to
prosecute all who have participated in
any way in the transactions.
While w, Forbes Morgan, treasurer
Of the Democratic National Committee,
is dead, there are other persons in the
committee who had knowledge of the
scheme and who have been receiving
corporation checks in violation of the
Federal corrupt practices law.
The unfortunate fact, too, is that