Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 8, Number 32, DeMotte, Jasper County, 7 July 1938 — Washington Digest [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Washington Digest

By WILLIAM BRUCKART

WASHINGTON.—It is entirely possible that many people have

failed to piece together several developments of national import late-

ly, and may have missed the significance of an action of congress in its closing days. The two incidents to which I refer are the federal grand jury indictment at South Bend, Ind., of a number of automobile manufacturing executives and the action of congress in adoption of a resolution providing for a broad-gauge inquiry into big business. The two, when pieced together, spell a sensational drive against the “malefactors of great wealth." The result? Well, let’s examine the scheme, . the pattern and the prospects. There was a period in 1936, it will be recalled, when business interests felt that President Roosevelt was preparing to follow a middle-of-the-road policy as far as government relations with business was concerned. During that period, there was a considerable improvement in general business. In that interim of time, as far as any observers could reach a conclusion, the President was relying on advice from many men in whom business had confidence. But there came a sudden end. Out of the clear sky, Mr. Roosevelt proposed reorganization of the Supreme court of the United States and the addition of six justices whom he could appoint at once. Through weeks 'of battle when it became apparent that one guess was as good as another whether the President would win, business men and women again became -afraid. That was when the present depression began. It was also the time when Mr. Roosevelt turned away from his previous close advisers and began listening to the new brain trust which has come'to be known as the “board of strategy." As the depression became sharper and the numbers of unemployed increased with startling rapidity, the board of strategy sought means to offset the condition. The group also had to find a goat—which is always done when plans go awry. There followed then the vicious and intemperate attacks on “big business” by the trust-busting Robert H. Jackson, then favored at the White House as the next Democratic candidate for the New York governorship. Secretary Ickes also let loose his vocabulary and none can deny the interior secretary’s capacity for speaking biting words. For weeks and weeks, we were treated to a barrage of words in which “big business" was pictured as beyond the pale of good citizenry and ought to be destroyed. The trust-busting drive was not as successful in gaining public acclaim as Rad been hoped for. The truth is that it failed to get the country excited at all and the .profit to the trust busters did not materialize as had been the case when “Teddy" Roosevelt was swinging a big stick of demagoguery in the same ■ field of political endeavor. Indeed, this drive flopped at the start whereas the drive by the earlier Roosevelt was good politics for several years. It was here, according to the best information available, that the tactics,changed. The change in methods is the real reason for the story. Thus, it can be said that the trustbusting drive is still going on as strong as ever but it is going on irt several fields without any apparent connection because the board of strategy has lost none of its determination to convince the nation that it is being ruined by those same malefactors of great wealth toward which Teddy Roosevelt waved his fist and bared his teeth. • • * Now, to put the pieces of the picture together. The first section corn-

prises the indictment of the automobile moguls, Edsel Ford; Walter P.

Chrysler, Alfred P. Sloan and William Knudsen, among some sixtyodd officials of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors and the companies affiliated with them in the financing of motor cars bought on the installment plan. They are charged with violation of the antitrust laws, although how anybody can believe the Ford interests ever could or would play ball with the other two, I have been unable to see. Anyway, big news stories were carried by the press services from South Bend, and the department of justice here had much “background” information which officials were delighted to hand to any inquiring reporter. They did this in order to co-operate with the press inasmuch as the story w'as so sensational and so vast in scope that none of us writers here could possibly be permitted to miss any phase of it. The other phase of the continuing drive against “big business” takes the form of a great inquiry, thinly disguised as a general study of business practices. It is m somewhat

unusual type of investigation and is to be managed in a very unusual manner. The committee that will do the job is made up of three senators and three representatives, and a representative from each of a number of executive departments and commissions. And the important fact in addition is that the $500,000 which the investigation will cost will be expended under the direction of President Roosevelt. To bring it own to simple terms, when congress adopted the resolution for the inquiry, the board of strategy was able to turn on enough political steam to force adoption of an amendment placing the funds under the direction of the President, rather than under control of congress, as usually is done when congress participates in an investigation. That action means that investigators for the committee will be able to rely upon laws covering inquiries and searches made by the department of justice, the federal trade commission, the securities and exchange commission and the national labor relations board, among others. The combined powers wall be all-comprehensive. To explain further the full meaning of these broad powers, it is necessary to cite constitutional provisions prohibiting illegal search and seizure. The investigators for the committee must be able to-dig deep into t private records of any bank or corporation or individual if they are to accomplish fully the desire of the board of strategy for complete exposure of all the secrets of business. When they get all of those records, of course they can analyze them and place their own construction on the business practices. That is today, by inference and innuendo, hint or open charge, the investigators' can smear anything or anybody—and the newspapers will spread the information. It being an official investigation, it will be followed closely by the ' press and, as usual, there will be little chance for the individuals to reply. When they are marked to be smeared, they will be smeared, whether justly or unjustly. It is a deplorable thing that our government stoops to' that sort of thing but it has done so in a number of instances. • • # Now, as to the. main objectives. Every indication is that the guiding

hands in the projected investigation, are determined' to destroy

two great masses of capital. I mean, .they intend to break up the combination of men and money in two instances. The banking house of J.* P. Morgan and company, and the huge industrial setup of the DuPonts are marked. Whether they like it or not, those two groups are to be made the goats of the depression of 1937-38, and those on the inside recognize that it is a fight to the finish. There will be other corporations, . other individuals, whose business lives will be lqid bare, but the Morgans and the DuPonts are the real targets. The board of strategy believes the Morgan bank and the DuPont interests are chiefly responsible for the refusal of business to yield on many of the crackpot ideas of the professors, and so it is inevitable those two groups will be cast as the villains. There arises, next, the question whether such an investigation and such a prosecution as has been started at South Bend will do the country any good. One ought not prejudge. It may be that the motor magnates and their corporations are guilty as pups. It may be that the Morgans and the DuPonts and scores of others among families with great fortunes have set about to wreck the New Deal. But the question in my mind is: why has it not been discovered before? It seems ter me ;that if there was so much corruption, so much improper influence being exercised and such illegal use of moneyed power as is represented by those who were pushing the investigation, it should have been several years ago. Mr. Roosevelt has been in office five years and it appears strange that there was no effort to uncover these demons until the business of the country as a whole lost confidence in the policies of the national administration. These developments have come along as the depression grew worse. They reach their climax of preparation at a time when another federal agency, the board of governors of the federal reserve system, says that the industrial depression in the United States now is the worst in the world. Neither England nor any other industrial country abroad has experienced a depression that has been as precipitous as the United States is experiencing, > the board said in an official statement The power is not given to me to determine the numerous and varied facts, but the processes of deduction eliminate possible causes for our nation’s condition— most ot them, indeed, excepting govern mental meddling and the harassing of business, big and little. g © W*«t«rn N«wspap«r Union.

Great Wealth On Grill

How the Picture Looka

Hit Morgan And DuPont