The Lincoln times., 1955-03-14
SENATOR
SAM Erwin
* SAYS *

WASHINGTON The past
week was an extremenly busy one.
On Tuesday, Wednesday. Thurs
day, and Friday, I attended meet
ingS of the Armed Services Com
mittee, the Government Opera
/ tiOns Committee, and the Inter-
state and Foreign Commerce Com
mittee. On Thursday and Friday
l attended sessions of the Senate
and heard the debates on the tax
bill. which will come to a vote
sometime this week.
! PARKWAY DOCUMENT
In addition, I contacted various
Federal agencies and departments
in respect to matters affecting
North Carolina. On Thursday,
Senator Scott. Congressman Shu-
ford, and l visited the Secretary
of the Interior for the purpose of
laying before him documentary
evidence indicating that at the
time the construction of the Blue
Ridge Parkway was planned in
1888 North Carolina and the Ma
tional Park Service agreed that
no toll should ever be charged by
the Federal Government for the
use of the Parkway. We had sat-
iSfactory conference with the Sec
letary. and are hopeful that the
order of the National Park Ser
vice providing for the imposition
of toll for the use of the Park
way will be reScinded.
OPEN INQUIRY
The Permanent Subcommitte on
Investigations of the Senate Com
mittee on Government Operations
has been conducting certain in
vestigations in Executive Session,
and expects to BEGIN an open in
uuirv this week into actions taken
in the Department of the Army
which resulted in the granting OF
honorable discharges and promo
tionS to Army personnel who IN
yoked the Fifth Amendment when
interrogated concerning their con-
rections with the Communist Par
ty. Senator Mcclellan, Senator
jackson, Senator Symington and
I are the Democratic Members OF
this Committee, and Senator Nc
earthly. Senator Mundt. and Sem
ator Bender are the Republican
Members. Our inquiry ought TO
provide an answer to the oft-re-
peated question: Who promoted
PereSs?"
COMPTROLLER GENERAL
The Government Operations
Committee took action on the
nomination of Mr.. Joseph Camp
bell to be Comptroller General OF
the United States for the next 10
wears. If Mr.. Campbell is approx
ed for this position by the Senate
he will be the successor to dis
tincuished North Carolinlan. Lind
say c. Warren. of Washington, N,
&c whose MAGNIFICENT services as
Comptroller General saved many
hundreds of millions of dollars to
the American taxpayers.
As Member of the Senate
Committee on Government Opera
tions. I voted with minority
AGAINST the confirmation OF MI,
Campbell. I did this because ms
nomination. in my opinion. vlo-
lates the spirit of the statute ere
ating the office of Comptroller
General.
Under the statute creating TINS
office. the Comptroller General IS
in reality, Congressional agent,
He is charged with the duty OF
seeing to it that the expenditures
made by the Executive agencies
and departments Of the Feoerai
Government conform to the sta
tutes enacted by Congress. AS
consequence, Congress has always
insisted in times past that the oc-
cunant of the office of Comptrol-
Ter General should be one whose
public services had identified hlm
with the Legislative Branch OF the
Government. The nomination OF
Mr.. Campbell violates this rule be-
cause Mr.. Campbell's brief public
services have been with the EX-
ecutive Branch of the Federal Gov
ernment. To name an Executive
Official to supervise the Executive
Branch of the government is tan
tamount to letting the Executive
Branch of the government pass
upon it's own conduct. 1t seems to
me that Executive agencies and
departments can be better kept
within due bounds if their conduct
is supervised by one who has the
Legislative rather than the EXecu-
tive viewpoint.