Show lk 41 api JP i abbia BB iA 1 ry W by fa washington overshadowing all else in the national capital at this writing Is the con weed need curb troverse tro versy that Is on inquiries boiling and surging around tile the head of alabama democratic sen ator black who Is the chairman of the senates lobby investigating committee As an offshoot of this controversy con troverse tro versy the federal commini commission Is in ID wat water er much too hot for bachin and it begins to appear that when the steam blows off the communications commission Is likely to be a thoroughly discredited federal agency b he e cause of the part it played in senator blacks unprecedented seizure of private telegrams from the western union and postal telegraph gra companies speaking generally it has been seldom hat flat a united states senn ator has ever attempted to assert the authority that senator black has used and it Is equally dented that a federal ng genry agency his has gone to the extremes that characterized uie the action of the com muril commission in connect loc with the seizure ot of the mes siges but some good may come from the police court prosecute prose prosecution cut ion tactics employed by senator I 1 black and an some good may come from the accusations cusat cus allons ions leveled at the lie communications commission because that tha t body helped senator black carry out cut his plans the countrywide country wide indignation that bus bas arisen from senator blacks I 1 usurpation of power has brought to 0 the front a question that nee needs ds public attention and needs it badly I 1 refer in tills this connection to the steadily expanding efforts of congressional investigators especially especial ay iy senatorial investigators to take over as their own powers that always have bave been regarded ns as reserved exclusively clu to the courts tile the consensus among washington observers certainly Is that the legislative inquiries have developed to a point where the most humble re quire ments of justice have been and are being completely ignored whether they are so intended these inquiries and tills this includes lures conducted by committees not only of con congress gress but of state stat e legislators and even city councils are approaching tile the point where they are almost tyrannical it goes without saying then it in t the time has arrived for citizens to assert themselves 1 I hese inquiries will not proceed when the lie elected legislators state or national learn that the people do not such highhanded high handed tactics in order to have an understanding of tile the latest of these escapades it Is nee blacks essary to activities briefly what lins has happened in the case of the senate lobby ln investigating estl at committee almost a year aro ao the committee sought the aid 0 of the federal communications corn com mission which aich had tile lie color of authority in law for investigating the business of the telegraph compa tiles nies senator lilack black issued a broad subpoena direel ln the companies to make available any and all messages his committee de sired communications commission agents then went into the telegraph company tiles files read everything they could find fand and made coples copies of all or of the messages which those agents under lander guidance of black Invest ign tors thought would be helpful tp to the rinck black committee in exposing operations of private individuals the purpose of tills this as outlined by senator lilack black was to locate clues to the machinations of buhi ami mess cess interests who were seeking passage or defeat for leg legislation Isi atio I 1 pending in congress the s senator e n ator wanted to show up lob job lie and nis has talked consistently that lint these mil mal ef actors of great wealth could not accomplish uny any influence in con gres greis unless it were ere done secretly and in the dark in other words senator black blacci persuaded members of the lie comma commission to help hell him in his fishing expedition lie persuaded eliat or that it should become a party to an unprecedented effort designed as a dragnet a movement to smear anybody ind and everybody who had used tele graphic service the muck plan was carried out OIK sn in secret senders and receivers i of messages which aich those agent k copied knew nothing about it the operation operia tion was just as much ir the dark as any of the about which senator black coni com planned even more so it t was onla by cel dent that tile the facts became kne aa but when they did hecim known the lid nas promptly blown oy co abe end Is not yet nor Is it even lo in sight one fei lenil judge lias has a restraining order against aluch tactics and a hall half dozen doen othar for similar orders ordera nrc are pending undoubtedly the questions whatever the rulings may bp be will rind find their way eventually to the supreme court of the united states stales the senate itself Is looking into the situation it has by resolution asked tile the federal communications commission to make inake a report stating the facts and by what an all thornty it acted so there Is much hubbub about the whole thins thing and if one may judge from the line of conversa tion generally heard around wash ington senator black Is on tile the hot spot and the spot thus far has shown no indications of entering a coolid cooling stage 0 0 0 senate invests In investigations vesti gallons long have been considered by many people as modus ope operands randl charge that creak with unfairness unfairness unbiased U n observers frequently have them because of the lie methods employed it seems absolutely necessary that thai the senate should have p power ower to call witnesses Nit nesses to ask legitimate and proper questions and to force answers it if it Is going to enact I 1 leg e g isolation islat lon to correct evils it must mus t be equipped with suh po potters Ners but the lie point Is that in seeking such in formation the senate has consistently permitted its committees to act in a fashion that can be described by no other ord nord than out rage I 1 have watched them over a period of nearly twenty years and seldom it if ever lias has there been tin an important Inesti gatlon that dill did not degenerate sooner or later inoc a condition that savored of police court practices for several years there has beer a bill pending in congress designed to pre prevent or at least reduce lynch lynar ings the theory back of it Is that many times innocent persons have been lynched and bilat every one has a right to a trial by jury in a properly constituted court over across the atlantic ocean dictators tuve have operated and liae hae em aloyed lie blood purge the sum mary death sentence or the execl tion lon without granting the fic ellse the lie right of defense undoubted ly some persons guilty of murder or rape have been lynched undoubtedly the lie summary executions execution by the soviet or the fascists of italy have provided death for in ID divi duals attlio ho were ing sores to humanity but there can be no doubt that in the case of the lynch ings or in the case of the blodi purge or the lie summary executions many innocent persons have hai had their lives snuffed out so it Is with senate In eions undoubtedly they have ull uncovered some dirty crooked dealings ings s undoubtedly they have brought to public attention acrivi lies and condit conditions lons that ought to have been exposed yet tile fact remains that nearly all of our peo pie file are decent people law abiding ind and self respecting and when irn ite ate investing Invest investigations ig actions go beyo beyond ri 1 I prop er limits they approach if they do not wholly become tyranny in defense of senator blacks action in the lobby investigation I 1 think lt it can fairnot wholly ly be said aid that lie he to 0 o blame Is not wholly to blame if he tins ints gone further than any other in the program of inquiry and prosecution upon which he tills has launched laun clied lit lie by little bit by hit bit the senate lias fins arrogated to itself authority hitherto not used by it little by little it has encroached upon what many believe to he the lie jurisdiction of tile courts and in a like it tins has talen taken unto itself powers hitherto supposed to have love been ex elusively clu reserved to the executive department of government it would seem then that if oth er cr senate committees had established dished the precedent sen senator a t 0 r III bisiack a ck could properly pro prop pirly orly use the same meth oils the trouble in his case Is tint that he did not stop slop at limits pre previous lons ly set discreditable as those alm ilm limits I 1 is were ere but went beyond them to repent there Is every indication that some rood good will come out of this ell circumstance important mer anti and brilliant 1 lawyers and great organizations lilie like the chamber of commerce of the united states Nat national lonal 1 l association of manufacturers and the american liberty league have taken note of the steadily expanding power clat claimed mell by the senate this means that tile lie questions involved will net get into the courts it Is to he hoped that they will be presented to tn the court in such buch a manner that tile the cups eions may be finally and lar lastingly tingly nn answered that the hie powers of the legislators may he be delimited all and that a definite nite expression may come from tile the Ju judiciary that will determine whether members of the he house nod and the senate can serve at one ns as legislators judges and prose cu tors 0 weater Newe vilver ablo |