Evening star., 1939-12-30


during the 1889 regular session was
that amendment would mean de-
struction of the act, but the opposi-
ton insisted that this was merely
q smokescreen to prevent any
amending being done at all. The
net result of the fight for amend
ments was to hold hearings, out of
which came no reports or recon-
mendations, but considerable
amount of discussion to the effect
that neither the regular Senate
nor House committee hearings, con-
Quoted by members friendly to the
administration, had permitted the
real facts about the workings of the
law to be disclosed.
Today, as a consequence of the
revelations by the special House
committee investigating the Labor
Board, which is headed by Repre-
sentative Howard Smith, assisted
by his able special counsel, Edmund
Toland, members of Congress are
aware that a job of amending has
to be done in the 1910 session, or else
the Labor Board will be one of the
principal issues of the campaign.
Logan Bill Wins Support.
Even if there are amendments, it
looks as If the whole problem of
administrative commissions which
exercise arbitrary power under de-
legated authority from Congress will
come up for severe scrutiny. Thus,
there is a considerable momentum
behind the so-called Logan bill,
which is sponsored by the American
Bar Association and which seeks to
assure fair trial for the citizen
when he is hauled before the boards,
commissions and bureaus. So many
of which in recent years have been
filled with economic partisans.
The Logan Bill passed the Senate
last summer by a voice vote, but
reconsideration the next day was
permitted and the bill is still on the
calendar, where it remains a target
for attack by young bureaucrats in
the New Deal who recognize it
would definitely circumscribe their
powers and compel compliance with
rules of conduct in conformity with
that prevailing in the courts.
The idea that the citizen is less
entitled to fair hearing just be-
cause he appears before a quasi
judicial body and not full-f1edged
court is one that has been vigor-
ously opposed by prominent law
yers, even as the New Dealers have
not been satisfied with the present
powers of the commissions, boards
and bureaus and have wished further
to limit the opportunities for judicial
review.
Pendulum Swings.
The question of how far the courts
shall be permitted to inquire into
the findings of fact" made by
boards and commissions and how
much finality shall be intrusted to
these boards is one that used to be
argued quite academically with
even conservatives occasionally in
dicating their belief that the courts
should not be burdened with the
necessity of reviewing findings of
fact. With recent happenings, how
ever, in which boards and commits
sionS have abused their power to
disregard rules of evidence, the pen
dulum is swinging in the other di-
rection, and now the crusade to
assure the citizen of a fair trial by
giving him broader opportunity for
appeal to the courts is likely to be
given heed by Congress at the COM
ing session.
The House inquiry into the opera
tions of the Labor Board is, there
fore, serving dual purpose in that
1t is, on the one hand, an examina-
tion of the workings of the Wagner
law, but it is also a study of the
question of procedure by a govern
mental commission. The offering of
amendments to the Wagner Act in
January will not interfere with the
carrying on till spring of COM
prehensive inquiry on the Labor
Board operations.
Bipartisan Safeguard Voided.
In the old days, these contro-
versies were not as acute because
the commissions were bipartisan.
Thus the minority of a board or
commission had the opportunity, by
publicity concerning inner proce-
dure, to safeguard the citizen s
rights. Nowadays. however, COM
missions and boards are only theo-
retically bipartisan. The political
afiliation requirement is ignored or
accommodated and instead the ef-
fort is to make sure that the person.
mel chosen is always 100 per cent
New Deal or at least subservient to
the wishes of the executive depart
ments.
Congress never intended to dele
gate broad authority to commissions
and boards of its own creation with
out safeguarding them against abuse
and the trend now is to find other
ways of protecting the rights Of
minorities, especially since the top
personnel chosen has allowed eco
nomic predictions to influence
even matters of procedure and the
selection of trial examiners.
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