The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-02-07
Let Industry Grow Big In It's
 Own Home Town, Says Jackson
BY WILLIS THORNTON NEA Service Staff Correspondent

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 Washington, Feb. Tim SO old fashioned they think I'm radical" ;"
 The ability to make that half humorous, half-plaintive appraisal of his own position marks Robert Houghwout Jackson off from many another reformer. And when it comes over the huge desk of the New Deals chief legal light, from a man currently credited with be- ing the Roosevelt favorite as the Roosevelt successor, 1t is startling. Despite the vast paneled office, one size smaller than Grand Central Station, you can scarcely imgaine this man being pontifical or stuffy.
 But he is very much in earnest, not with the eager earnestness of a Tugwell, but with the dogged pa- tience of 8 practical man who knows that though there's many slip 'twixt the cup and the lip,' people will somehow manage to drink.
 Keep Channel Clear
 What he means by fashioned is simply this: Jackson is 8 be- liever in the Woodrow Wilson, Justice Brandeis school of economic thought which reached its height 30 years ago.
 He believes that the federal gov- ernment should not attempt de- tailed supervision and regulation of the details of business as in MIRA, but should simply keep clear the channels of competition, which, if obstructed, will provide a self regulation that is much better.
 "This is the lowest degree of gov- ernment control that business can expect" is the way that Jackson puts it.
 Out of fashion in 1883, this school of thought is gaining again, and Jackson has led the van in the as- Saults on monopoly and concen- tration of wealth which now dom- mate in Washington as they did in the days of the first Roosevelt and of Wilson.
 His DirectOrateS Local
 The arrival, during those 30 years, of modern technology with its trend toward inevitable bigness," has not changed Jacksons essential view.
 There is no harm in bigness so long as it coincides with actual pro ductiye efficiency" Jackson says. "It is in the superstructure of finance erected on top of that bigness that has caused the trouble"
 All this from man who is di- rector of the telephone company in his home town of Jamestown, N. Y. But this note: it is a local tele- phone company, standing on its own legs free of control by the A. T. and T. He is director of The Bank of Jamestown. but it is local bank, uninf1uenced by chain or holding company.
 There is the key to Jackson. He Is not against business, but merely against local business being domin- ated by outside financial interests. In his law practice in Jamestown he has represented banks, utilities, labor unions, and power companies. A good lawyer gets that assorted practice in small town, and Jack soon had the name of the best in Jamestown, population 45,000.
 Jackson Always Democratic
 Born in Spring Creek, Pa., not quite 46 years ago, Jackson inner ited from his mother the Dutch ancestry that he has in common with the president. He has also Scotch-Irish and German blood. The Jacksons have been Democrats ever since the opposition party was called Federalist.
 Jackson's legal success and polit- ica1 principles made him a nat ural" for appointment to the Inter nal Revenue Bureau legal staff early in the New Deal. There he sued Andrew Mellon in an income tax case, on which the government is expected to collect $750,o00.
 Transferred to the SEC, he pre- pared the Electric Bond and Share case.
 Transferred two years ago to be- come head of the antitrust divi- sion of the Department of Justice, he proceeded against the Aluminium Co.,, the oil companies in the case just won at Madison, Wis, and the finance companies affiliated with the largest auto companies. AS re- suit, few men know more about the financial complications of "big bus ineSS."
 What Is the Policy?
 Jackson believes that the anti rust laws must be modified because