Evening star., 1940-05-07


editions of Monday afternoon when
announcement came from President
Roosevelts train en- route to Wash
ington that he wants the House
of Representatives to act on the
new Hatch bill, which has already
passed the Senate.
The two measures are not related,
but in both instances it had been
frequently predicted that commit
tees would pigeonhole them for the
remainder of the session. 1t now
appears that the House will vote
on the Hatch bill and the Senate
will record itself on the Walter
Logan bill Each is slated to pass,
but there is apt to be delay in con-
ference committee as differences be-
tween the houses are ironed out.
Mr.. Roosevelt's decision to speed
the Hatch bill to passage may have
been a bit of surprise, because
the New Dealers have been split
on the issue. The purpose of the
second Hatch bill-another was
passed last years. to forbid the
>use of State or county political
machines in connection with Fed
eral funds for relief. Last year the
objective was to prevent Federal
agencies from being used to elect
candidates of the Democratic party
or to influence nominations. The
new bill puts State and county and
Federal agencies on the same basis.
Furore Caused by Secret Vote.
What is President Roosevelt's
interest in the new bill? He need
not have entered the fray. The
action of the House Judiciary Com
mittee in trying to kill the measure
by secret ballot, however, caused
public furore. To this day no accu-
rate count has been published of the
way members voted. A petition by
Representative Dempsey, Democrat,
of New Mexico, who is co-author of
the Hatch bill, is circulated so as to
get the necessary signatures in order
to take the bill out of the hands of
the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Roose-
velt may have surveyed the effect of
the effort to kill the bill and possibly
decided that the political advantage
OF being recorded as in favor of pas
sage far outweighs any disadvantage
to the Democratic party in the terms
of the bill itself. When the Senate
passed the bill, some New Dealers
voted for it and some against it. In
several instances this reflected the
lineup in the local situations, the
vote for the Hatch Act being cast in
cases where the State House ma
chine was lined up against the Sena-
tors or vice versa.
The Republicans in the Senate
voted solidly for the new Hatch bill.
They have consistently placed them
selves on record as favoring restric-
tons on governmental agencies in
connection with vote solicitation
They have a number of State and
county governmental machines, but
the Democrats have so many more,
the Republican leaders figured it out
that there was more advantage than
disadvantage to the Republicans in
hamstringing their opponents.
Real Debate on Logan Bill.
The real debate of the session is
likely to come in the Senate on the
Walter-Logan bill, which will arouse
national interest. All the brain
trusters are lined up against the
measure as it passed the House.
They can find a thousand flaws in
it-but all on theoretical basis. The
trouble is that the citizen is not con-
fronted with a theory, but a condi-
ton when he faces a governmental
tribunal. The brain trusters can
argue all they wish about the i'm
portance of giving administrative
commissions full power and about
the delays that occur when court re-
views are granted. But where their
theory falls down is that it preSup-
poses competent and disinterested
md honest minded personnel in pub
lie off1ce-not class conscious officials,
some of whom develop their cases in
collusion with litigants and other
wise conduct themselves as partisans.
There never would have been the
slightest need for the Walter Logan
bill if common sense and objectivity
had been the rule rather than the
exception in Government boards,
commissions and bureaus. Extremes
beget extremes. The Walter-Logan
bill is the Nations protest against
absolutism in governmental commits
sions, and it is significant that the
very men who have welded absolute
power are in the forefront of the
fight, lobbying against passage of a
measure that would afford some
measure of relief to the aggrieved
citizen whose economic life or death
so often depends on the whim of
governmental boards, commissions
and bureaus.
Reproduction Rishts Reseryed)