Evening star., 1944-02-10

Chairman Fly of the Federal
Communications Commission wrote
under date of February 8 to Repre-
sentative Lea Of California, chair
man Of the Select Committee to in
vestigate the Federal Communica-
tions Commission, as follows:
"The inclosed copy OF yesterdays
column by David Lawrence is fur
ther proof OF the undercover pub
licity campaign which the Select
Committees counsel, Eugene l..
Carey, has been conducting for
some months against the commits
sion and at times against the
President OF the United States.
"It appears from the second
paragraph Of this article that your
counsel has taken it. upon himself
to write to Mr.. Lawrence and VOL
unteer certain facts which he has
allegedly drawn from the evidence
developed before the Select Com
mittee. These charges of your
counsel are then used in the article
as the basis for vicious attack on
the commissions radio intelligence
division and on the President. You,
yourself, know that 1t Is not pos
sible to predicate any conclusions
whatsoever on the Select Commit
tees record in it's present one sided
state"
Now what did the counsel for the
House Committee do? He sent a
copy OF the official proceedings to
this correspondent and made only
the comment orally that in these
hearings would be found data bear
ing on the request of the joint
United States chiefs of staff that
the FEC be divested OF certain
functions related to wartime COM
munications.
There is nothing under cover"
about distributing copies of con-
gressional proceeding and the time
has not come in America to sup
press congressional inquiries in time
of war on the f1imsy excuse that 1t
might not be liked by the President
or some other official in a Govern
ment agency.
The official record which has gone
unrefuted reveals letter from Sec
retaries Stinson and Knox dated
February 8, 1943, which says in part:
THE joint chiefs of staff have
made a thorough and comprehen-
sive study and their response based
on that study is attached hereto.
They, as well as the responsible
military commanders in the field,
are Of the belief that radio intelli-
gence, the location of clandestine
stations, the supervision of mill
tary communications security and
related activities must, in their very
nature, be under the sole control of
the military forces. Inclosed here
with Is a copy OF a letter from
Admiral Leahy recommending this
action
Admiral Leahy in his letter says
in part:
Because Of the essential differ
ence between military and FEC
standards and methods, it has not
pCCll pOSSlUlC W liloCSl ave GilCil III
formation, with the result that the
attempted duplication by the FEC
Of work that is being more effec-
lively done by the military has in
fact endangered the effectiveness
and security Of military radio in
telligence.
I'm view Of the foregoing it is
concluded that the better prosecu-
ton OF the war will be served by
terminating all military and quasi
military radio intelligence activities
OF the Federal Communications
Commission and confining such ac-
tivities to the Army and Navy"
But the President has listened to
Mr.. Fly and not to the chiefs of
staff on this point and Congress now
Is endeavoring to support the re-
quest Of the chiefs OF staff. That's
the fundamental issue.
1t should not be forgotten that
Ferdinand Pecora was counsel for q
congressional committee in 1888
and gave the press many COM