Evening star., 1939-01-22
Lawyers Guild Hears
MI. R. B. Defended
As Impartial
Boord Is Cynical
Counsel Asserts
At Conference

~
A defense of the National Labor
Boards impartiality in segregating
its dual function as prosecutor and
Judge was given yesterday to an
audience of lawyers at the Carlton
Hotel by Thomas Emerson, assistant
general counsel of the agency. Mr.
Emerson said the board is cynical"
He insisted it achieves the desired
segregation by dividing the various
functions among employees who bring
no pressure to bear on each other.
After describing the long series Of
steps by which a complaint under
the Labor Relations Act travels
from a regional Office to the three
member unit itself, Mr.. Emerson
remarked:
TT Is difficult to see how the board
Is influenced by its own agents. The
board approaches each case with a
cynical attitude because 1t has found
in the past that its attorneys have
not proved what they thought they
could prove, or that what they have
proved does not mean anything"
Panel Discussion Held.
The N. L. R. B. counsel was one
OF many attorneys for Federal ad-
ministrative agencies participating
in a panel discussion on the con-
troversial prosecutor judge topic ar
ranged by the National Lawyers
Guild. The guild, an organization of
liberal-minded lawyers, announced
that "the most pressing problems
In American Jurisprudence today
are in the fields of administrative
law" and observed:
Some lawyers and students of
government maintain that the par
ticular form which the adminiStra-
tive process is taking will result in
administrative abSolutism.' They
fear that there is in process of de-
velopment an irresponsible bureau
cracy and charge that fundamental
liberties of the citizen are being sac
riflced"
William j. Dempsey, jr. counsel
for the Federal Communications
Commission, an administrative
agency of New Deal origin, took
an opposite and unexpected view
from that Of Mr.. Emerson and of
legal representatives of the Securi-
ties and Exchange Commission, the
Agriculture Department and the
Federal Trade Commission. They
were at great pains to indicate that
their organizations effectively segre-
gate their prosecuting and judging
functions.
No Attempt at Segregation.
1.-THE Federal Communications
Commission" Mr.. Dempsey said.
'lacks enough money to stage
nice public show with aloof attor-
neys and with aloof examiners.
There is no attempt to segregate
the various functions of the COM
mission. 1t dispenses with such
frills.
However elaborate an organiza-
ton you may set up, you just can't
separate the functions, no matter
how you try to convince the public
that you do
Mr.. Dempsey expressed his salts
faction that the F. C.. G. neverthe-
less comes to fair decisions. Walter
Gellhorn, law professor at Columbia
University, presiding over the panel
discussion, pointed out that the
F.. c. G. was primarily licensing
agency and in that it differed from
such a thoroughly quasi-judicial Or
Nat m
Relations Board.
Closes This Morning.
The tWo-day meeting of which
this discussion was a part IS Off
cially titled The Conference on Ad-
ministrative Law and the Admins
trative Process" 1t closes this
morning. The general topic of the
powers of Federal administrative
agencies has been gathering in i'm
portance since Chief Justice Hughes
made some observations on it last
spring at special meeting here Of
the American Bar Association.
Judge Robert Healy, a commits
sioner of the Securities and Ex-
change Commission, opened the ad-
ministrative agency discussion with
defense of his own agency's pro-
cedure at luncheon meeting which
preceded the panel debate. AS a
springboard for his remarks, he criti-
cized a bill drafted for the House Of
Delegates of the American Bar As
sociation after last springs meet
ing to govern in general admins
trative agency procedure.
The S. E. c." Judge Healy said,
"Would be displeased if it knew of
any case where the trial examiner
did not maintain fair and impair
tial attitude" (The trial examiner
hears arguments in cases before the
s. E. c. and makes recommended
tions for action to the commission0
Perturbed by Decisions.
Judge Healy said he was per-
turbed by court decisions limiting
the right Of court review on rulings
of administrative agencies. How
ever, he sharply criticized the Am
erican Bar Association proposal
that the District Court of Appeals
be empowered to review admins
trative agency rulings not involv-
ing an actual controversy.
This, he said, would mean that
anybody who felt he was affected
->by a ruling could go to the court,
whether or not he was a direct
party to the controversy on which
the ruling was made.
D{s&,;.k ~a,,~4
already overworked, may be
swamped under this provision" "
The Helpful One