Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-06-17

lions. It has always been and
now Is strict commission policy
: not 10 publish or divulge the
! name Of an applicant or a COM
: planning party"
: Were you familiar with this
} rule Of the Commission when
: you inquired of Mr.. Howrey
: what had prompted It's pro-
; ceediHes against Mr.. Goldfine
! and HIS company?
A. ! was not.
, "Coniidentiality" Issue Raised
@. Could Mr.. Goldfine per-
sonally have gone down there
and found out the name of the
company complaining against
him at that time under that
rule?
A. In my opinion, Mr.. Coun-
sci, ! would say this;
This was entirely a routine
matter so far as was con-
cerned, and follows a routine
practice which is part and par
eel Of practically our daily
duties. When we get an in
quiry in respect to any particu-
lar case 1t is the normal pro-
cedure to send that to the re-
sponsible person in the agency
involved without comment.
In this case I made no ref
erence to the merits Of the case.
II knew nothing about the
merits Of the case. All that I
ever cid in that particular mat
ter was to send the inquiry to
the man who was responsible
as chairman of the Commission
for a reply.
Now, Mr.. Counsel, simply
asked him for whatever in
formation I could pass along to
the person who inquired of me,
question which is in the rec
ord. and that was all that !
had to do with the matter.
Only Information Sought
@. Your letter states that Mr..
Goldf1ne asked you what had
prompted the investigation at
the FEC, and that you called
Mr.. Howrey to ask him to sup
ply you with what had prompt
ed this investigation. Is that
correct? If it isn't correct i
would like to have it straight
ened out.
A. Well, that obviously was
what prompted the letter. To
me, 1t was an inquiry for in
formation. The only Othing !
ever asked Mr.. Howrey for was
information.
@. The statement has been
made that, as a result of your
phone call to Mr.. Howrey and
the memorandum you received,
Mr.. Goldf1ne got no other treat
ment than any ordinary citizen
would have gotten.
l have read you Mr.. How
rey'S memorandum in which
he discloses to you the name
of the complainant in the case,
which was prohibited under the
rules of the Commission as
being confidential. And he also
told you in his memorandum,
which is also prohibited by law
from being revealed runder
Section Is, United States Code,
Section so. that Mr.. Hannah
advises me that if Mortified
will give adequate assurances
that all their labelling will be
corrected, the case can be
closed on what we call a vol
untary cooperative basis"
/ 1t seems to me that the
record is clear that Mr.. Gold
fine advertently or inadvert-
emily did get a preferred treat
ment in that he was receiving
information from an independ-
ent regulatory commission to
which he was not entitled either
under the law or its own
regulations.
A. Now, so far as am con-
cerned, Mr.. Lishman, the in
formation that he got was sup
piled by responsible official
in an independent agency. And
again. so far as 1 am con-
cerned, I repeat I made no
special request of any kind
whatsoever.
I am unfamiliar, as I have
said, in respect to the rules,
regulations or the statute that
covered these proceedings. I
never attempted to advise my
self concerning those rules and
regulations.
So far as the information
that he got. I had assumed
quite obviously that what he
got he was entitled to under
the routine of the procedures in
the agency itself.
Called Personal Memo"
@. I will state to you, Mr..
Adams, that yesterday Mr..
Howrey was a witness, and he
testified that the memorandum
he sent to you he did not con-
slider official trade commission
business, that it was a per-
sonsl memorandum; no copy of
it was ever left in the files of
the commission.
And it seems to me that I'M
der the law and the regula-
tons Of the Federal Trade
Commission in that memoran-
dun he has personally di-
vulged to you information
which was passed on to Mr..
Bernard Goldfine contrary to
the statute and to the appli-
cable rules of the Commission
relating TO confidential matter,
and in that respect I will state
for the record that on occasions
when his subcommittee has at
tempted to find out the names
Of compliments against others