The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-04-10
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER


making people think.
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER ..
NEW YORK; was Flooding through a
speech by Senator Taft of Ohio, about bu-
reaucracy but couldn't give it very close
attention because it kept reminding me vague
ly of something had read few days before
which made his point much more effectively.
So, after search among the propaganda for
a Free Palestine, backed by American sol
diers, and handouts from the Civil Liberties
crowd, the National Association of Manufac-
turers, the Communists and Wendell Willkie,
found an address which I believe to be
the most cynical damnation of the American
citizen to a hell of persecution by bureau
cratic picking ever uttered by any member
of the new deal government or of the oppo-
sition.
This speech was delivered before the Texas
Bar association by Miss Marguerite Rawalt,
a special attorney in the appeals division of
the chief counsel of the bureau of Internal
Revenue. Miss Rawalt is president of the
Federal Bar association, organization of
new deal lawyers, including judges, employed
by the government, many of whom are men,
president, Judge Ferdinand Pecora, resigned
because it was dominated by the communists
Though cynical, Miss Rawalt was thorough
ly honest and practical The citizen occupied
no place in her remarks Her message was
an exhortation to her fellow lawyers to get
aware of the existence of government by
bureaucracy and to grab off their share of
the loot from a nation bedeviled by confusing
and harassng rules, regulations and interpre-
to{i >f
deal bureaus operating as courts.
When Senator Taft points out such facts
and conditions he is dull and querulous and
easily laughed down. But coming from the
president OF the new deals bar association,
the frank admission of the extent to which
the citizen has been elbowed out of court and
into new deal bureaus for his justice, con-
stantly in need of lawyers to keep him out
of jail, is thoroughly convincing. Miss Rawalt
certainly would not exaggerate
speaking of opportunity" the lady said,
''are the lawyers of this country, men and
women, going to take full advantage of their
opportunities in administrative law? It is the
most rapidly expanding area of law practice
today There are some 217 special courts
bureaus and commissions which today decide
upon and administer various federal laws
directly affecting citizens and business firms
in this country. This does not take into ac-
ministratve law, through the Federal Com
munications commission, regulates the pro-
grams you hear on your radio and determine
the use OF the telephone and telegraph in our
country today. Administrative law, through
the Federal Trade commission, determines
various trade practices within the industries
of this nation. Administrative law, through
the OPA and other departments, regulates
what food you may buy and what you may
with yoI,o al
growth in this field of law, there has been
a sudden decrease in the number of law
yers.'
| At this point. Miss Rawalt implored her
fellow attorneys not to be caught flat-footed
and negligent, as lawyers were when, in 1918,
! they overlooked the significance of future
income tax practice, yielding this profitable
work to "self-styled tax experts She warned
them, instead. to stake their claim in this
promising professional gold mine and
avoid the costly process of ejectment of 9TH
ers who have laid claim thereto She thought
they had solemn obligation to the lawyers
now away at war to establish proprietorship
over such practice so that on their return
they could join in the sport of picking the
! flesh from the bones of their comrades in
arms who are not lawyers. And by way of
further encoura cement to her colleagues,
Miss Rawalt passed on the good word that
certain provision which was expressed in
500 words in the original income tax law
now runs to 1900 words mot to mention
lengthy regulations interpreting and nipple
menting the code" In the same heartening
vein she cited recent dictum from Justice
Felix Frankfurter, the grand philosopher of
the new DEAL that: '"The notion that because
the words Of statute plain, its meaning
also is plain, is merely pernicious over-am-
plifcation.
Miss Rawalt closed with optimistic assur-
ance that future tax laws would be longer
and more confusing but, unlike Senator Taft,
i deplored none of this. Her concern was not
at all for the survival or fate of George
Spelvin, American, but only that lawyers
should seize their share of his possessions
as he is tossed up for grabs by his govern
nent