The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1949-07-08
BY CLARKE BEACH
APP Newsfeatures

lie.
One of the most familiar
headlines of recent years reads:
Congress Committee Demands
Confidential Data. Usually it
involves material obtained by
the Federal Bureau of Investi-
CATION. Last year the big case
was that of the FBI letter to the
Secretary of Commerce regard
ing a loyalty check on DR.. Ed
ward u. Condor, director of the
Bureau of Standards.
A few weeks ago the Senate
subcommittee on immigration
demanded that the Justice De-
partment produce its files on
1853 persons, most of whom were
connected with the United Ma
tions and foreign governments.
The attorney general declined
to deliver the files. He agreed,
however, to reply to certain
questions about the 1853 per-
sons. and the committee accept
ed the compromise.
The argument started when
George Washington was presi-
dent. Seventeen presidents have
had to thrash out the matter
with their Congresses. Every
one of them won. Congress has
never forced the issue once a
president has taken a determ-
ined stand.
At the heart of the question
is the doctrine of the suprem-
acy of the three branches of
the federal government in their
own fields. None can give or
ders to the others in matters
which the Constitution, the
laws or legal precedent leave to
the others discretion. The long
established principle is that the
president can withhold from
Congress any information if
publication, in his opinion,
would be contrary to the pub
lie interest.
Congressman debating the is
sue have often asked. why
should the President be the sole
judge of what should or should
not be made public?" Senator
Mcclellan (D.-Tenn.) violently
objected when in 1880 Presi-
dent Hoover refused to furnish
the Senate with various data
concerning the drafting of the
London Naval Treaty in 1880.
His point was that the Senate
and president were partners in
the treaty-making process, and
pertinent documents were the
joint property of the two part
ners. The argument on the 9TH
er side has been that the pres
ident is the only feasible per
son to make the decision. If
Congress were to insist on read
ing the material and then
learned that its release had
damaged the public interest, the
harm would have been done.
What can compel a president
to produce documents he thinks
ought to be kept secret? Polit-
ical scientists see no practical
BILE way of doing it. The courts
can't force the president to ex-
ercise his judgment one way
or another. The only thing Con-
gress could do would be to i'm
peach him, and to the experts
that idea is politically incon-
ceivable. Strong public opinion
would be aroused on behalf of
a chief executive pilloried in
his fight to prevent the release
of information he believed
would injure the nation.
Suppose Congress should
manage to impeach and have
imprisoned for contempt a de-
partment head who had refused
its demands? The president
could Immediately pardon him,
for the %pardoning power is un-
restricted. Nevertheless. the is
sue has been raised ever more
frequently in recent years. The
nation has never before had
so many secrets it wished to
guard, such as the atomic en-
ergy program and the far
reaching FBI investigations of
communist spy activities.
President Franklin D. Roose-
welt repeatedly came to grips
with Congress on the issue be-
tween 1941 and 1914. The bat
ties were mostly over FB1 re-
ports and the records of the
Federal Communications Com
mission. Mr.. Roosevelt finally
had the controversial FEC rec
ords transferred to the White
House files so that Congress
would have to call on him per-
Sonally to produce them. This
was a device that President
Theodore Roosevelt used. The
Senate in 1909 tried to force
the head of the Bureau of Cor
porations to hand over certain
documents relating to an anti
trust case. The long struggle