The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-07

IIlCLIAbCAo V ! - sent. This is one part of government which doesn't cost the taxpayers anything directly, at any rate.
 The idea back of all this advising is to bring the government closer to the people and vice-versa. But what all these committees do, what advice they give, where they're going and whether the system should be ex- tended to give Congress lot more free advice than it already gets, are subjects of intriguing speculation for anyone interested in his gov- ernment.
 In the case of the OWMR Advis- ory Board of 12 members headed by Governor O. Max Gardner of North Carolina and made up of the usual front men for the big labor organ izations, farm organizations and the U. s. Chamber of Commerce, It's revolt was brought on because 1t didn't have anything to do. Nobody was asking 1t for any advice.
 The President promptly took care of that by handing the Board the hottest potato cookin' on his stove What should we do about paying guaranteed annual wages?
 WIPE SURVEY
 A study on Industry Govern ment Cooperation" made by Carl Henry Monsees of the WIPE shows that there are some 750 Industry Advisory Committees set up in WIPE ADA NDrr opAI OPdn0TAnn Branch of the War Department WING goes a little further by hav- ing Management-Labor Advisory Committees. WIPE also has Labor Advisory representatives but keeps them separate from the Industry Advisory Committees.
 Whatever the set-up, the purposes are broadly the same-to give gov- ernment war agencies the best tech- nical advice possible on production, distribution and pricing policies so as to make government regulations workable. There has been consider able screaming that the govern ment doesn't listen to the advica which the industry representatives give, but that exposes the principal danger of this advisory system, which Is that private interests are taken into the confidence of the government, thereby have an open door to give advice that is contrary to the best interests of the general public.
 Labor representatives also yell thta their SpokeSmen should be per- mitted to sit with industry repre- sentatives on all advisory commit tees so that management doesn't gain an unfair advantage over the working people. As mentioned above this is the system of the Manpower Commission Advisory Committee. INDUSTRIES
 COUNTER CHARGE
 But industry and trade-asosciation people charge there IS just as much danger in letting labor representa- tives have too much of voice. What this proves, if anything, is that government representatives have to make the final decision in the interests of the people, 50 what they should do is listen to the ad- vice of interested parties and then do as they please or at least do what they think is best.
 In setting up all the wartime ad- viSory committees, the government has made efforts to guard against these dangers. Membership of each committee is chosen to get fair cross section of the industry, geo. graphically as well as by size o1 company, so that big business doeS- mt freeze out small business. Trade association lobbyists are shunnec like the plague and that annoys them no end.
 The committees are created anc permitted to function with the con- sent of the Antitrust division oi the Department of Justice. There are careful rules of procedure. work ed out by John Lord O'Brian former WIPE counsel. They have admittedly done an extremely use- full job in wartime. They will con tinue to have job to do in the period of reconversion. After that no telling.