Evening star., 1938-05-15
BY HENRY d. RALPH.


The Supreme Courts recent warning to
administrative agencies to maintain the es-
sentials of full and fair hearing before
issuing orders affecting business hit the
New Deal in q sensitive spot, and reaction
was immediate and vigorous.
The National Labor Relations Board
withdrew q number Of its orders, with the
intention Of revising its procedure; several
other boards and commissions have read
Chief Justice Hughes opinion carefully to
see If the criticisms could be applied to
them, and Secretary Of Agriculture Wal
lace, smarting under the implication that
the decision was aimed at him personally.
has seen fit to take public issue with some
parts Of the decision.
The decision, rendered April Is, set aside
an order fixing rates at the Kansas City
Stockyards on the grounds that the mar
keting agencies regulated had not been
given the full hearing required by the pack
ers and stockyards' act because they were
not informed of the probable nature Of the
no opportunity to ascertain and answer
specific points at ISSUE The order was
signed by Secretary Wallace June IA, 1888
But-and the court pointed this out-the
case had been worked up in the department
before he took ONCE, and the procedure
which the court described as fatally de-
fective" was an inheritance from previous
administrations.
Irked by Rebuke Interpretation.
What seems to irk the Secretary most
is that headline and editorial writer's re-
ferred to the decision as q rebuke to Wal
lace He feels that his department has
been made the goat for judicial object les
son to other agencies. On the radio, In
statements to the press and in letters to
newspapers, to Senators and even to the
Chief Justice. he has reiterated that earlier
administrations, including that Of his IA
ther, who was Secretary Of Agriculture
when the Stockyards Act was passed, es-
tablished the procedure criticized by the
court and that he, himself, nearly two
years ago, altered the procedure to require
the type of hearing which the court now
says is essention
IL - Vi uc MI "dIldCc ulu OrucI
new procedure. on September IA, 1886,
after yelled warning from the Supreme
Court. But he did not make it retroactive
to apply to the Kansas City case, then in
litigation. Had he done SO, he would have
been spared his present distress.
The Labor Relations Board having ap-
parently come to the same conclusions
about fair hearing that Secretary Wallace
did in 1896, is withdrawing certain Of its
outstanding orders to forestall court in
valuation. The Bituminous Coal Commits
sion likewise Withdrew its minimum price
orders several months ago, when lower
courts began issuing injunctions against
them on the grounds that there had not
been adequate hearings.
| There is no issue between the court ant
the Secretary on questions of fact o.
April 7, 1880, Secretary of Agriculture Hyd,
ordered general investigation of Kansas
City stockyards charges. Hearings wer,
held the following winter, oral argumen
was heard in March. 1884, and more thar
year later. May ID, 1882, an order wa!
issued reducing the rates. Because o
changed economic conditions. this orde
was soon vacated, and new hearings wer,
held in the fall of 1882 The case wa
ready for decision about the time th'