The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-04-17

grand total Of
140-odd committees being nearly as
impressive as the number of alpha
betical administrative and war
agencies itself.
In spite of this, Comptroller Cen
eral Lindsay c. Warren declares
that the war prof1teer is on the loose
and that he fears a multiplicity of
scandals growing out of war con-
tracts.
officials in the executive depart
ments of the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
les, undersecretaries, administrators,
co-ordinators, chiefs, chairmen, adj
mirals and generals-no doubt sit
back in pop-eyed despair at times,
wondering why so many congress-
men criticize the way government
agencies do things, taking up the
valuable time of important people
who have work to do and a war to
win. It's fair question.
Why all this rash of congressional
Investigations, prompting Chairman
John j. Cochran of the House Ac-
counts Committee to complain that
these Investigations were themselves
costing a million dollars q year,
that the House of Representatives
should be rechristened the House
Of Investigations?
OF course 1t couldn't be that there
was anything wrong. To the ad-
miniStrative mind, all this is just
politics. Congressman have to get
reelected, this is an election year,
they like publicity.
But if you go for the old where
there's smoke, there's fire" stuff, the
answer isn't that simple.
A TREMENDOUS JOB ... -. -.
There is nothing healthier than
a tough congressional investigation,
well conducted. Recalling the mess
of Investigations after the last war,
early in this war 1t was determined
by Congress that an effort should
be made to conduct the inveStiga-
tons while the fighting was still
going on, to prevent mistakes
rather than to wait until after they
had happened and were beyond COR
rection.
The result was the Senate's Tru-
man Committee to Investigate the
National Defense. It is generally
given credit for having done a ire
mendous job.
It has saved the taxpayers mil
lions Of dollars merely by being in
existence, like a checkrein, to keep
the official gentlemen riding the
high government horses from fall
ing on their buckets.
The easy and the frequently
heard alibi of administrators whose
mistakes are exposed Is to the eff
feet: "Sure there have been mis-
takes. This is war; There isn't time
to proceed carefully. We must move
boldly and take risks. War in itself
is wasteful. It costs lives as well
as money. There will always be
costly expenditures of both. There
will always be bad contacts, graft,
collision, prfiteering. No matter
what kind of an organization you
might set up, you couldn't stop these
444oCdhCO CVCA1 IL JOu AAdO OIL AL
spector looking over the shoulder Of
every government employe."
THE ARGUMENT BACKFIRES
But doesn't an alibi Of this sort
defeat its own argument? 1t may
explain in part why there are SO
many congressional Investigations
today, why the number Of congress
sional Investigations is apt to in
crease rather than decrease. And
it brings you back to the original
premise that something would seem
to be ailing with the governments
system Of self-inspection.
In the struggle between the eX-
ecutive and legislative branches Of
the government it has been pro-
posed at various times that the Con-
gress should have permanent staff,
constantly keeping check on the ex-
ecutive agencies, responsible to and
reporting only to Congress. Whether
that would work Is open to debate.
It might create a congressional
bureaucracy, adding SO much 20 the
present entanglements Of admins
trative red tape that nothing would
ever get done and that Congress it
self would be destroyed as a purely
legislative body, becoming instead
the Super-eXecutive.