Evening star., 1940-04-15

circumstances in connection with
President Roosevelt's reorganization
order abolishing the Air Safety
Board and placing the Civil Aero
nautics Authority inside the De-
partment of Commerce as a subordi-
nate bureau.
Of all the governmental boards
created in a decade or more the
Civil Aeronautics Board is admit
tedly the best functioning and the
Air Safety Board the most valuable.
Not only is the personnel of fine
quality and integrity, but the law
creating the two agencies is the
product of many years of unselfish
service by some of the best legal
minds of the country. Senator Pat
McCarran of Nevada, Democrat,
known as father of the legislation,
worked over 81 different bills before
he finally pressed for passage the
one that seemed best suited to ad-
minister the regulatory powers of
Government over the airways of
America and the aviation industry.
Few examples are afforded of any
better cooperation anywhere be-
. tween Government and business than
between the aviation industry and
the Civil Aeronautics Authority. Few
examples are afforded also of keener
admiration on the part of students
OF Government, even inside the New
Deal, of the fairness Of procedure
and efficiency of administration of
the c. A. A.
But all of sudden the prestige
which this new institution has en-
toyed as an independent body is to
be impaired as it is made the tool
of a political department instead of
the independent servant of the Con-
gress.
Nobody in the Department of
Commerce asked that the Civil
Aeronautics Authority be placed in
that department. Nobody in Con-
gress who had any interest in avia-
ton was consulted, certainly not
the leaders like Senator McCarran
Nobody in the c. A. A. itself was
consulted either. This may sound
strange to persons outside of Wash
ington, but it is fact.
Who then started it and carried
1t through to President Roosevelt
and persuaded him to sign the or
der?
The answer is that ever since the
reorganization bill came before Con-
gress there has been a group of
theorists who have no use for prac-
tical suggestions about government
tai operations, but want to fit every
bureau and commission into a pat
tern Of their own designing. They
are sincere theorists. They have
no ulterior motive They simply
believe that independent commits
sions belong in the executive branch
OF the Government and they have
the ear of Mr. Roosevelt, who is so
harassed by detail and so pressed
for time by public problems that
he has assented to a change with
out giving everybody concerned a
chance to be heard.
The President cannot be blamed
In a sense for what has happened.
He has been warned that reorgani-
zatlon orders must be planned in
secret and sent to Congress so that
backfire cannot be built to pre-
vent the order from being decided
upon. Congress itself recognized
that this might happen when it del
egated power to the President to
issue such reorganization orders.
but legislated a provision that the
orders could be disapproved if a
majority of both houses so voted
within go days.
This Is an important safeguard.
but 1t may not work because it is
not easy to rivet public attention on
a technical order affecting reor-
ganization of particular board or
bureau. Also people who have other
responsibilities and work to do,
especially in the aviation industry,
now must come to Washington and,
IN effect, lobby for a change that
never should have been ordered in
the first place.
II the President had given hear
ing to all interests concerned, the
order never would have been issued.
In the last "a hours since the order
was published Senator McCarran
has had kilograms from all parts of
the country expressing grave con-
cern that the Air Safety Board is
to be abolished and that the c. A. A.
is to be made bureau. Representa-
tive Woodrum of Virginia has taken
q stand against the order In the
House.
The present executive reorganiza-
ton law provides that the resolution
of disapproval must come out of con-