Evening star., 1950-06-25
PortyLines
On Economy
By Herbert Brotter

On economy |
By Herbert Brotter
The party line split Of the
Joint Committee on the Eco
nomic Report. reflected in the
document released by the COM
mittee about 10 days ago, poses
a question as to whether this
group is serving the purpose for
which it was created in the En-
ployment Act Of 1946. The politi-
cally partisan report is the third
consecutive one to be divided on
this basis.
The Employment Act had as its
broad objectives the charting Of
a course to maximum produc-
ton. employment and purchasing
power" In President Truman's
words at the time the legislation
was approved. the act gave ex-
preston to a deep-seated public
desire for a conscious and posi-
tive attack upon the ever-recur-
ring problems of mass unemploy-
ment and ruinous depression. For
this purpose it gave the President
a Council of Economic Advisers.
required him to report to Con-
gress on the economic situation
at the beginning of each year and
created the congressional Joint
Economic Committee to analyze
the Presidents report and with
respect to each Of his recon-
mendations make its own recon-
mendations to the Congress by
February 1 0ater amended tt
March -. The committee report
was to be a guide to the Congress
Report Is Late
Since this years report. divided
and confusing in content, was
made by the joint committee only
in mid June, it Is hard to see how
1t can guide a Congress that is
now winding up its work for the
year.
Defenders Of the joint commit
tee as Congressional institution
maintain that the staff Is fire.
quently consulted by many Con-
gressmen and Senators; whereas
critics ask to see single piece
Of legislation for which the COM
mittee is responsible. II, as there
is reason to believe, the commit
tees staff has been in close touch
with the White House and has
provided material for Presidential
messages on such subjects as
taxes and small business, is this
not a far cry from the functions
the law assigned to the commit
tee: to advise the Congress di-
rectly, not via the White House.
To put the matter in another
way. if the justification for the
joint committees existence rests
upon its usefulness to the White
House rather than to the Con-
gress. the whole mechanism set
up in the 1916 employment act is
disarranged and the joint COM
mittee tends to become just an
other Administration instrument.
This only lends support to the
Republicans present insistence
that the majority is playing the
political game of the Democratic
Party. 1t could readily work the
same way If the Republicans were
In control.
Wolcott Has Plan
The real test of the joint eco
nomic committees usefulness
won't come until the first big un-
employment comes.
If the joint economic commit
tee is to be something more than
a sounding board for preconceived
views, be they liberal or conserva-
tive; in short. II the purpose OF
the Employment Act Is to be car
ried out literally. there must be
changes in Congressional ways so
far-reaching that it seems idle to
expect them. Planning by a BIZ
partisan Congress Just doesn't
seem to be in the cards. Even the
Presidents Council of Economic
Advisors has frankly entered the
political fray.
Representative Wolcott, Repub-
lican. Of Michigan. who has been
a member Of the economic COM
mittee since the start, Is not ready
yet to do away with the commit
tee, but. he is toying with another
idea.
"The fact that the committee
has deteriorated into a political
sounding board and propaganda
agency has destroyed its Intended
effectiveness as an influence on
the legislative committees" Mr..
Wolcott said. II wonder whether
the original purpose Of the I946
act cannot be better achieved by
setting up q non-political COM
mission consisting-like the re-
cent Hoover Commissioned rep
resentatives Of House and Senate,
the executive departments and
non-ofiicial interests. Certainly
what we have now In the COM
mittee is q far cry from what the
i946 Congress expected"