The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1940-02-22

choice before THIS is puDllSneu, Dut
that will not make less pertinent the
story of the struggles over the trustee
ship of the gigantic Associated Gas
and Electric Company. In several ways
this is the most important thing that
has happened in Washington in long
time.
The facts speaks for themselves. The
Associated Gas and Electric Company,
billion-dollar corporation with pay
roll of $50,000,000 a year and 225, 900
stockholders, has applied for bank
ruptcy reorganization. One side con-
tends that it is a solvent company
forced into bankruptcy of the SEC
and the refusal of Mr.. Jones to make
a loan except upon impossible condi-
tions. The other side asserts that the
company financial setup is incredibly
complicated and that the Bankruptcy
petition is the voluntary move of its
managers who saw it's inevitability.
Whatever the merits of this contro-
versy, what has happened since the
petition was filed is the really signifi
cant thing.
Immediately following that first
step, a movement, said by those in
position to know to have originated
with Messrs. Tommy Corcoran and
Bonnie Cohen, was started, the pur-
pose of which is to gain control of this
corporation, the greatest public utility
proposition in the country, for the
New York group. On good authority
it is said that the first suggestion was
that the brilliant Mr.. Corcoran him
self be made the trustee and that this
suggestion had the approval Of the
President. That happy thought lasted
only three days. The obvious deduc-
ton knocked it out. For one thing, it
would have seemed brazen use of
the Presidential power to provide Mr..
Corcoran with a fat, juicy job at the
expense of the stockholders of a cor
poration under the heel of Govern
men commission for whose creation
Mr.. Corcoran was largely responsible.
For another, it would have been con-
strued as proof that Mr.. Roosevelt has
no intention of running again. Mr..
m Of
the third-term machine. For another,
it would exhibit the whole New Deal
in very sordid light.
The Corcoran idea was dropped al
most as quickly as it was conceived
There then followed the SEC drive
Just who thought of the first is I'M
certain, but again credit is given to the
Corcoran-Cohen firm. At any rate, the
Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.. Nor
genthau and the Attorney General,
Mr.. Jackson, who is exceedingly close
to Mr.. Corcoran, appealed to Judge
Leibell to make the commission the
trustee. This was a rather shocking
proposition. 1t meant making the SEC
the operator of a gigantic property
in the case of which it was already
acting as judge, jury, prosecutor and
Unscrambler under the death-sentence
section of hte Public Utility Act. Yet,
to the surprise of it's sponsors, Senator
Wheeler and Representative Rayburn,
authority for this was found in the
law. That is not surprising when it is
related that Mr.. Corcoran and Mr..
Cohen drew the original bill.
Senator Wheeler and Representative
Rayburn at once emitted blasts against
the proposal which, as Mr.. David
Lawrence points out, made it too hot
for the Administration to hold. By a
vote of to /, the commission informed
the judge of it's unwillingness to serve,
It is stated on it's behalf that the COM
mission opposed the plan from it's in
ception and that Secretary Morgen-
THAI and Attorney General Jackson
were so notified. Despite that fact, they
persisted in urging the court to name
the commission. However, like the Cor
coran idea, which never got out in the
open, the SEC idea is now out, but
the people of the country ought to ap-
preciate the extraordinary spectacle Of
the Secretary of the Treasury and the
Attorney General of the United States
bringing pressure on a Federal judge
to appoint a political agency as trus-
tee of a billion-dollar corporation,
the only interest of the Government in
which is a five illion-dollar tax claim
already secure as a prior lien on the
property.
The normal procedure in such mat
tiers is for the court to name as trus-
tee the best qualified man put for
ward or desired by the stockholders
and management In this case the man
happens to be Mr.. John w. Hanes,
recently resigned as Under Secretary
of the Treasury and concededly quail
fed by character and experience for
the lob, No objection has been made