Evening star., 1950-04-09

CAB Chairman Joseph J.
and Commerce Departments and
the judiciary. evaluated the esti-
mates of all these agencies for
the coming fiscal year. They to-
tailed more than $1.8 billion. He
and his committee whitfield of
$73 million after searching ex-
animation and cross-examination
of supporters of the budget esti-
mates.
To avoid building up volumin-
GUS record, he rebels at long
winded explanations, demanding
categorical yes or no answers.
When a Government official ap-
pears reluctant to give such an
answer. fearful that he is con-
tributing to the mutilation of his
appropriation needs, Chairman
Rooney calls up his four years
experience as an assistant district
attorney in New York and bears
down on the unhappy bureaucrat
with a devastating fire of ques-
tions. Usually he gets his yes
or no.
In two instances, when he bore
down on Mr.. O'Connell, the CAB
chairman was in a mulish mood
and he bluntly characterized Mr..
Rooney's questions as silly"
That kind of testimony from
Government people is very rare,
particularly at appropriation time.
Mr.. O'Connell, also a Trojan
for work in his arduous post of
chairman of the CAB, has and is
aware of a heavy responsibility
toward the taxpayer, for he deals
in their millions. This year, as
he did last, he will be responsible
primarily for the distribution of
more than $100,000.000 to air.
lines for flying the mail and Of
that total he estimates between
30 and so per cent will be in the
form Of subsidies to those air.
lines whose routes are not profit
able. but which in the interest of
national defense and economic
security should be kept open.
Neither he nor any one else knows
how much of the total mail pay
ments is for services rendered in
hauling the mail and how much
is subsidy. He promises to find
out If he can get enough people
hired to work intensely on the
voluminous records of both CAB
and the airlines. Chairman
Rooney is critical of CAB for not
having found out before this.
Other congressional groups also
are becoming increasingly inter-
ested in bringing about complete
separation of mail payments from
subsidy payments.
Six Years on Committee
Mr.. Rooney is now in his sixth
year as a member of the House
Appropriations Committee han
ding CAB funds and he has just
completed his second year as
chairman of the subcommittee on
CAB and other appropriations.
He and other long time members
OF the committee have come to
feel they have a pretty good
knowledge of what goes on down
there at CAB" They have ex-
pressed themselves in the past
that CABS administrative pro-
cedures are slow and inefficient,
and they have suggested to Board
witnesses before Charm a n
O'Connell was appointed that
something be done about it. But
in the committees view, "a num-
ber of such admonitions went ap-
parently unheeded." So last Au-
gust, Chairman Rooney put
through request for an investi-
cation of CAB (along with SINH
lar inquiries into the Civil Aero
nautics Administration. the Bu-
reau Of Standards and an educa-
-tional exchange program in the
State Department.. In mid
October an FBI man and q spe-
cial investigator from the Civil
Service Commission reported to
the CAB chairman. Mr.. O'Con-
mel gave them the run Of the
place and they delved into all
CAB activities for nearly three
months.
Early this year Mr.. Rooney re-
ceived their report. He never
talked with them during or after
their investigation and doesn't
know their names. A copy Of the
report was not furnished CAB,
nor was it made public.
The report submitted by the
FBI man (Arthur Norstram) and
the Civil Service expert (Alfred
Fraser) was very critical Of CAB
administrative methods and pro-
lcedures. Quoting from the report,
sentence and paragraph at Q
time. Mr.. Rooney demanded yes
or no answers Of Mr.. O'Connell
as to the accuracy Of the investi-
gators findings. There was little
or no hedging by Mr.. O'Connell
land he frankly and readily con-