The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-03-24

&asVm investigated hat anything much to do with the sub- feet the committee is supposed tc investigate makes little or no diff ference.
 This battle for talent is particu- larly obvious now that the spotlight is playing on Robert R. Guthrie the big business man from the south-Paducah, Ky.--who quit his job as a War Production Board of- flcial because, as he says, he felt he was being stynied in forcing conversion of manufacturing plants to war production. Guthrie Is top news, so he Is being fought over.
 Talent. scouts of the House Mili- tary Affairs subcommittee, headed by Congressman Charles I. Faddis, Waynesnurg, Pa, spotted Guthrie first, so they get the first billing, It just happened that Guthrie's resignation broke on a weekend when Senator Harry S. Truman was out of town, so the Senate's special committee to investigate ra. tional defense contracts got seooped but Guthrie will be called before that committee later.
 NELSON PITCHES .. IT TO TRUMAN
 The play Is now that WIPE boss Donald Nelson has asked the Tru- man committee to throw It's spot light on the Guthrie case. This will give Truman's show a little higher sponsorship, but F'addis gets him first and ya va va ya. Anyway, here you have the sorry spectacle of a so.calied public official being stood lip and stared at like some Hollywood doll who has just been acquitted of murdering 6 high priced director. Once should be enough. The only advantage of the return engagement idea is that the gawklng customers who aren't able to make the premiere can catch the second run.
 It has been like this since the war began.
 The week before the Guthrie name went up in lights over the marquees of the congressional peep shows, top billing went to Lowell Mellett of the Office of Government Reports. Mellett's crime was that he didn't get congressional pernls- sion to build his $600,000 informa- ton center in downtown Washing ton. after the President had told him to so ahead and do it. For that he had to make three committee appearances. When he got through with them he must have known how the African dodger feels after e hard Saturday night at the county fair. The congressmef not only bounced baseballs of interro- gation off his dome, they took up verltable cobblestone questions and heaved them too.
 Before Mellett the prize witness was Offlce of civilian Defense Di- rector James M. Landls. The House committee Investigating the migration of defense labor got Landis just few days after he had been appointed. What Civilian De- fense had to do with defense mi- grafton was something of a ques. ton. Anyway, this committee got Lardis first After that he was be- fore appropriations committee and economy committees and he will probably be on the hot seat again. SAME FACTS;
 DIFFERENT RESULTS
 So 1t goes. Donald M. Nelson has made dozens of appearances, as did William s. Knudsen before him. Sometimes even iranimate objects get top billing, like aluminium, which was investigated by two com. mittees. The committees went over practically the same figures and the same witnesses and came up with diametrically opposite reports on what they found.
 All this is probably very salutary. In the Guthrie case, referred to first, 6 showdown may be forced on the whole question Of not only MT. Guthrie, but also the policy on dollar-a-year men, and the question of how conversion to war prodllc- ton is coming along.
 While congressional committees are in the mood to chop appropria- tons and eliminate the overlapping functions of federal administrative agencies, 1t might be an Idea to ap- point Q committee to investigate the duplication of effort in congress sional Investigating committees. Congress might even save enough for q tank or plane themselves if that laNH kaA xadlaaf A 0..aoasklaxa