Evening star., 1947-01-14
Congress Move Seen
To Bor Investigations
New Dealers Look for Way Out
Under ReorSanization Act.
Rp Dapid Laurence

New dealers LOOK Tor way Out
Under REORGANIZATION Act.
By David Laurence
It begins to look as II the New Deal
ers who spent billions Of dollars of
public money without an audit OF their
expenditures and as If the bureaucrats
who abused public power are about to
escape scrutiny. and perhaps punish-
ment altogether, by the device OF BAN
ming special congressional investigating
committees.
The Republicans will prove them
selves poor politicians and will virtually
hand over the 194s election to the
Democrats If they 60 along with the
observation-disclosures spirit which Is
behind the effort to kin on investi-
eating committees.
The Republican Party won in 1916
because the public at last saw through
decade of New Deal propaganda and
finally got the impact of governmental
controls operating at their worst. But
the true extent of governmental mis-
management has never been disclosed
to the public. It had been believed that
in the next two years there would be an
opportunity to turn the searchlight Of
publicity on the misdeeds OF the last
decade.
Now, however, the Democrats see a
chance to squelch investigating COM
mittees by arguing that the Congress
sional Reorganization Act was designed
to do away with special committees. It
is being contended that the regular
committees of the Senate, for instance,
can do the investigating. This IS q
fallacy. For the regular committees are
much too busy with their regular as
signments to do all the investigating
necessary to penetrate a complicated
field of inquiry, which is usually the
reason for a special Senate resolution
ordering 8 special committee to take
testimony.
Precedent Is Sought.
The issue arises, to be sure, over the
continuance of the Truman Mead COM
n1ittee, but it goes far deeper. For the
Senate is being asked to establish a
precedent and let all committee investi-
eating be done by regular committees.
The Congressional Reorganization Act
will become mockery If it Is constantly
interpreted as device to curtail the
rights of the Congress itself. There Is
nothing sacrosanct about reorganiza-
ton bill which is invoked every day as
reason for not doing what the Con-
gress is supposed to do-namely, to pro-
tect the peoples interests against abuse.
The same persons In Congress-with
an exception here and there on both
, sides of the aisle-who are inveighing
against special committees took q sad
istic delight in using committee inves-
tigation powers to harass their political
opponents. Even the income tax re-
turns of citizens which were supposed
to be secret were tossed before investi-
eating committees by the New Deal ad-
ministration in its theological combat
that precipitated the present wave of
class warfare in America.
Way to Block Abuses
It is true that some investigating
committees 60 too far but on the whole
they do more good than harm. It Is
true also that some of the regular COM
mittees have succeeded in squelching in
quiries and that the only way the House
Of Representatives, for example, got
chance to investigate the labor situa-
ton under the watchful eye of Repre-
sentative Howard Smith, Democrat, of
Virginia, few years ago was to ap-,
point special committee. The regular
labor committee Of the House was
stacked by the prolabor elements in this
country against an inquiry.
It will be easy for the lobbyists to get
to some Of the regular committee and
stack the membership In the future, as
in the past, by concentrating against
the one or two members who hold the
balance of power. When Congress, how
ever, is free to look into any subject at
any time with special committee. the
lobbyists have everything to fear and so
have the individuals who abuse the
power of Government,
While the Congressional Reorganiza-
ton Act is good thing, 1t was in
tended to assist routine procedures and
not to rule In advance on substantive
matters of legislative interest. If the
barrier of the law is to be brought for
ward every time some Of the members
Of Congress want to make an inquiry,
it will gradually weaken the act itself
and bring about repeal. Certainly, as
between curtailment Of the power of
Congress to investigate and the So
called streamlining of routine proce-
dures, 1t would be better to give the
benefit of the doubt to the investigating
process, which Is the sole instrument
that really scares many bureaucrats
from committing abuses.
Reproduction Rights Reserved)
The Four-Port Atom
From the st. Louis Post-Dispstch