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Show N.it.ut Tor,os Intciprcu-J I W'W Washington. K begins to appear it the country ns a wholo may r i ,1!,vo 11 I'limu'o ti fjeiO Veal know how many Publicity ''s nnd executive execu-tive orders l.ssued ,-ivunder have como out of tho ,,. IVal In Its twenty one months life. 1'ivsldont ltooseveit Ima de-;iiiliiod de-;iiiliiod upon publication In an olll-il olll-il manner ns the means of Inforin- Mr. Average Man what lie is t supposed to do under the New a. It has not been determined whether there will be an olllclnl vernment newspsiper for publlea-n publlea-n of nil of these laws, executive jers. codes, regulations ami other .ms of otlielal expression, but evening ev-ening points ilint way. Courts have nlways said that lg-.rance lg-.rance of the law excuses, no man. jl ; remained for the Supreme court ' the United States, however, to y that when the average man was luged with hundreds of orders of hlbltlon and prohibition from y Vislilngton, he was or is quite llke- J ; to b1 unable to comprehend what Is all about. :; it was almost unprecedented for j itloism to come from a member of e Supreme Court of the United :f :.'tos. But Associate Justice liran-: liran-: ;!s, one of the outstanding liberals ; the highest tribunal, made no I ort to conceal his grievance when, I . the course of presentation of an f" HA case to the court, he learned i his amazement that there hnd ifD no publication of the numer-i numer-i orders, regulations or rules in manner that could conceivably icli the country as a whole. Of jrse, the newspapers have at--jpted to keep the country In-;med In-;med but there seems to be no ubt that the number of official onouncements was too great for :y newspaper, however large, to sp track of and publish them all insequently, the Associate Justice ;ve voice to a feeling that has evaded among newspaper corre--indents in Washington for a long ' ae. namely, that the bulk of the J :i?.ens were uninformed concern-') concern-') the vast number of new regula-j' regula-j' ns forthcoming under the New hL it Is a regular practice for con-:ess con-:ess to enact legislation and in-jde in-jde in euch laws a phrase to this :ect: to "Authority to Issue regulations ie- Trying out the terms of this law i st hereby extended." ta That phrase, whenever it is in-er in-er ided, as it is almost invariably, fs. :tes to the rules and regulations, 3W Mclamations and pronouncements, ;e- e full force and effect of the law 'or self so long ns the administrative f -j.unuilgations are within the terms : die law itself and within reason. ?w :, other words, these become law a Dpi they can be sustained by any It, nrt that can find the law itself lis nstilutional. lis- ng The magnitude of the problem ne 'Ji which the President has now I determined to i y V eighty deal w as suggest-e(1 suggest-e(1 Problem ed recently by a -a committee of the jujMrican Bar association which es- I anted that in the first year of the to ilA alone more than ten thousand :!":;.'es of such "law" were written ny. ': executive authority without ade ;ht ate provision for notifying the so .hiic. ds The total legislative output by to in connection with this one ad-at ad-at Eistrative agency," the committee ;he Mured, "actually staggers the agination." lot Tiie committee added that any ed, filiation involved guess-work and concluded after something more re- m superficial investigation that I'll ;ween four thousand five hundred ds A rive thousand methods of busi-s," busi-s," -ss conduct were prohibited by the jut les and supplemental nmend- -nts to codes promulgated by the nit ithmal Recovery administration in rt- 5 brief iieriod of life. The Brooklyn institute in a study :he :' the situation has found that in I a e federal government there are ?xt :ty different administrative tribu-int tribu-int Is which, as the institute's state-er. state-er. nt said, are "making Judicial de-,'ht de-,'ht -inns nlTecting private rights." the '.e Institute's statement adiled that er- iiese do not proceed according to )' single form, do not follow any Idy if'H'tn procedure and do not fit In ur'j ' Integral parts of a coherent or ias lligent system." see During the World war there was lit- '. official publication issued by the hei utiee on public information iHi was designed to acquaint the tits ncral public with the myriads of put lurs from the White House, or :iad rs fr, the War and Navy deal! de-al! rtinents, orders from a score of :iai W places In the hope that public all "li'i-staiidirig would simplify the mej ministration's problem. That is ere' e only time, as far as 1 have been .mJ Ie to ascertain, when the pmduc-ie.'i pmduc-ie.'i 'n or rules and regulations and :ewi nilnistration-made "law" was so lostj "nt that other than normal press u?" "'iinels hail to be used. Mr. Koose-ing Koose-ing !t said in announcing his decision. ;'t frankly there never had been :n.v. :"liiiiery of government for the :iin) :,,Hcation of such decrees and Obviously now that the Su preme court has called attention to the lack of n central compilation ''V" olll" of such orders, some-thing some-thing constructive is going to bo done about It. There Is, However, n possibility 0f ;l"i.'or In that com se. Attention lias 'm. directed here to the threat ""t, unless careful supervision over such a publication is maintained borne unscrupulous individuals may take advantage of this new avenue of publicity for seltlsh means. It Is to be assumed that Mr. Roosevelt "'ill protect against this potential Hanger, but I Hnd In many quarters expressions of a fear that the thing may get out of hand unless the President Is fully forewarned so that he can be forearmed. Much significance attaches to the President's projected plan to take r . , , tlle Profits out of President s ar. It Is looked Shrewd Move Won by those who know as a very shrewd move, affecting both domestic and International politics. It will be some time before its full Import can be pieced together In one picture, but when that time comes, wiseacres tell me, among the things to be seen will be: 1. Notice to congress that the President Is not going to allow the legislative body to run away with things that gain publicity. If the scheme is one in which he desires to participate. 2. Notice to the world that the United States is not going to surrender sur-render leadership In world affairs even though the London naval eon ference has failed and even though Japan has renounced her signature to the Wiv.hington arms limitation treaty of 1922. It is too early to make a guess whether the senators who militant-ly militant-ly fought back after Mr. Roosevelt's pronouncement will get anywhere. Those senators were the leaders in the senate committee's munitions Investigation. Senator Nye, ilie committee chairman, with all the breeze of his North Dakota plains, accused the President In effect of trying to stop the munitions Inquiry. In-quiry. Senator Vandenberg of Michigan Mich-igan challenged the President's right to Interfere. Each thought, as did some of the other members of the committee who did not become be-come vocal, that Mr. Roosevelt was trying to steal the show because It is a fact that the committee was on the front pages day after day during the investigation. Some observers here are inclined to the opinion that Mr. Roosevelt will be able to lull the recalcitrant members of congress into a kindly feeling toward his program. Every once In a while some one discovers some ne.w letters written writ-ten by George Washington Washington. Such a Lobbyist? a circumstance has just developed. devel-oped. The Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, preparing to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary anniver-sary of tiie original corporation from which It came, has found a letter signed by George Washington which, authorities tell me, represents repre-sents among the first petitions ever filed with a legislative body in behalf be-half of private interests in this country. In fact, if the Washington Washing-ton letter in question were to have been presented to the present-day congress, undoubtedly those in opposition op-position to the general's plan would have described him as a lobbyist. II. O. Bishop, a noted writer and historian here, found in the Library of Congress that General Washington Washing-ton had sought legislation in the ; general assembly of Virginia in behalf be-half of the Jamestown company, a corporation which In later years was to become the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad company. General Washington interceded with the Virginia Vir-ginia assembly on the ground that if the United Stales evci were to become of consequence as a nation in this world there must he expansion expan-sion westward and If there were to be expansion there had to be means of transportation. The general, according to the Library Li-brary of Congress records, personally' person-ally' surveyed a westward route over which the Jamestown company com-pany was to operate. Disclosure of the Washington letter let-ter has brought again to the forefront fore-front the question of what con stitutes lobbying before a legislative legisla-tive body. There are those in this administration, the same as there Inve been in numerous preceding .,(lll,inist.ations. who accuse any oe attempting to present his side of the slorv to a legislative body of ,,,' a lobbyist. 1 1-elieve, hovv-ever" hovv-ever" that the bulk of the people ,, ,,,,0,1 that sort of thing as an exercise of the right of petition. It will be interesting to note ow when the efforts o, General Washington In behalf of the James ,own company are generally known. exercise of the right of petit on IvH, e accepted. Surely even the most ardent reformers will not dc to call the Father of Our Coun-try Coun-try a lobbyist. , Western NwuM J--!on. |