The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-05-04
No Lobbyist, Just
Merely Gave Data
Says NAHB Aide

VcyT VHlEO HsWG
Washington LPA)-Rep. Noah
Mason OR, Ill.,, testifying before
the House Select Committee on
Lobbying April %, denied categor-
ically ever having allowed any or
ganization to use his Congression-
al "free postage" privilege. How
ever, Leo Goodman, director of the
|CIO Housing Committee, who had
charged the day before that Mas
on's "frank" was one of the two
which the Committee for Constitu-
|tional Government employed to
mail 100000 reprints of anti-rent
control speeches at federal expense,
stood by his guns. He told an LPA
reporter that it was up to the
Select Committee to find out who
had authorized use of the Illinois
Republicans free postage privilege.
Meanwhile, with spokesmen for
the National Association of Home
Builders on the stand, there was a
new promise of fireworks when it
was limited that the NAHB may
have indulged in labor spying. 1t
developed that the wife of ]. M.
lDickerman, NAHB counsel was
employed by public stenographic
Service and had been sent on sew
eral occasions to the Washington
office of the United Auto Workers,
where the Housing Director makes
his headquarters. Dickerman in
sisted the employment was accid-
entail and declared the nature of
his wife's job required that she be
exceedingly discreet. H o W ever,
.LPA later learned that Mrs. Dick
erman was intermittently employed
at the UAW during an eight-month
period last year in which there was
a hard fight on housing legislation.
Frank w. Cortright, executive
vice-president of NAHB, declared
he wasn't really lobbyist and ad-
mitted that he had registered as
one under the lobbying act under
protest. But he admitted he was in
general charge of the NAHB's leg
islative activities" And when Rep.
Clyde Doyle Cd, Calif.) pointed
out that the lobbying act calls for
registration by anybody directly
or Indirectly concerned with try
ing to influence legislation, Cort-
right indicated he might be lob
byist after all.
Cortright made no bones about
the fact that he consulted with
Senators and Congressman, but in
sisted that most of the time he was
merely conveying information. But
he did say he spent part of his time
trying to influence legislation and
with government offic-
ials on regulations by which laws
are put into effect. In general, the
processes of lobbying
described by Cortright and Dicker-
man were substantially the same
as those described earlier in the
lobby probe by spokesmen for the
National Association of K e
Estate Boards. But beyond pro-
cesses admitted by all parties to be
legitimate, it was learned that
NAHB had indulged in some spec
ial gimmicks. For instance:
On May a, 1949, Cortright wrote
Fulton Lewis, Jr., the reactionary
radio commentator, proposing that
Lewis put a series of questions on
public housing to his listerers much
like the loaded questions on the
Taft Hartley act Lewis once aired.
On the previous occasion, radios
prince of reaction was able to
from answers to his ques-
lions that the American people
wanted the Taft Hartley act on the
books. The NAHB scheme never
materialized, however.
Early IN l949, Coftfignt propos-
ID to Glenn Whitaker, publicity man
for the American Medical Associa-
ion, that ANA propaganda take
few licks at public housing. In re-
turn, Cortright indicated NAHB
propaganda would attack President
rruman's national health program.
said the deal never came
off however.
The directorates of NAHB and
the National Association of Real
Estate Boards interlock by agree
ment. At least one director Of
NAHB is a NAREB man and vice
versa.