Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-02-20
|SeorchIight
Turned On
Bureuucruts
Smith Committee
Inquiry Called
No Witch Hunt
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

against abuses OF power by the eX-
ecutive agencies of government.
Representative Howard w. Smith
of Virginia, Democrat, and one OF
the ablest opponents of constitu-
tional government in Congress, mas
issued a statement as chairman of
the committee which outlines the
scope of the investigation of what
are termed unauthorized activities
of the Federal bureaus"
While nothing in the resolution
permits the Office of the Chief Ex-
ecutive to be inquired into, it is, of
course, within the scope of the in
quiry to determine the legality of
various executive orders, many of
which are signed by the President
In routine fashion, but which at
bottom are the work of bureaucrats
who administer these same execu-
tive orders imposing penalties not
contemplated either by the statutes
Or the Constitution.
hunting expedition but a funda-
mental survey of the operations of
the Federal bureaus under both
peacetime and wartime statutes or
under no statutes at all. which hap
pens to be the case in regard to
some executive orders.
Broad Preamble.
Il seems, for example, to have be-
come the custom to write a preamble
to executive orders for the Presi-
dent to sign which merely contains
the broad language under the stat
utes and under authority vested in
me by the Congress, etc." when &C
tually the citizen does not know
what statutes are involved and un-
der what laws the penalties are i'm
posed.
Worse than this, however, the
the constitutional right of citizen to
have hearing-to know what he is
being punished for or why he is be-
ing deprived of his property--fre-
quently has been ignored by the ar
bitrary orders and DEGREES issued
through the Federal bureaus and de-
partments.
THE duties of Congress-" says
Representative Smith in his formal
statement, consists not only of
passing laws, but, also, of seeing
that those laws are administered by
the executive agencies in accord
ance with the intent of Congress.
I'm time of war it inevitably be-
comes necessary for the Congress
to grant extraordinary and unusual
power to executive agencies. There
fore, the Congress must assume the
corresponding duty of preventing
any abuse of arbitrary use of those
powers, and of affording the people
protection from such unwarranted
action. The committee will seek to
discharge this duty as it receives
complaints of such unauthorized
activities.
ut is not the purpose of the COM
mittee to interfere in any way with
the most vigorous prosecution of the
war, but rather to forward the war
effort by preventing deliberate mis-
Interpretation of the acts of Con-
gress against undue harassment.
With this object in view, the COM
mittee will not hesitate to investi-
gate or expose the activities of any
Federal agencies that persist in ex-
Ceeding the powers granted them by
Congress. Executive agencies can,
and should, perform all of their
necessary functions within the
framework of the authority granted
them by the Constitution or the
Congress. Those who cannot or will
not confine their functions to the
authority granted should seek other
fields of endeavor."
High Court Decisions.
There are many Supreme Court
decisions which say that no execu-
tive agency can by executive order
amend a law. This means that
words cannot be read into statute
and an executive order issued and
then a penalty imposed on the
theory that the original law stipu-
lated such punishment.
Again and again during the last
10 years the New Dealers have op-
Grated on the assumption that lad
ministrative law" is some new
species of authority which can
penalize the citizen unless he does
the Bidding of the bureaucrats. IN
til now, there has been no effective
mode to stop that sort of lawless OPP
GRAFTON of government. The Smith
Committee, by its inquiry, which
may last several months, expects to
throw the searchhght on such &C
tivities and to inquire into the many
instances in which the rights of the
citizens have been impaired.
1t is quite likely that the record
mace by the investigation will lead
TO legislation tending to curb unlaw-
full use of power. 1t could conceiv-
ably lead to the passage of a law
making it criminal ofense for
Government officials TO violate the
statutes by the mere process of
claiming to have lawful authority.
If the citizen ignores a law, believ-
ing it to be unconstitutional, he pays
the penalty imposed in the original
statute, but a Government official
who Is guilty of unconstitutional be-
havior suffers no penalty. He may
be removed from Office, but guilt is
not made personal as it is, for in
stance. in the antitrust laws.
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