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Show NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS , Written for The Telegram t By Ray Tucltar WASHINGTON The driving, dominant personality of Chairman Charles F. Hojford Jr.. threatens to touch off a sensational explosion explo-sion within the national bituminous bitumi-nous coal commission. Personal bitterness behind the scenes rumbles rum-bles like the noises of a mine cave-In. Mr. Hosford, a Pittsburgh roal operator and Cuffey appointee, runs affairs like a czar. He has supreme confidence in his own ability, and he believes he knows all the answers. Frequently he presenta the other six members with complex problems and self-made self-made decisions without advance warning. He has barred the commission com-mission secretary from private meetings, and required him to approve ap-prove minutes blindly. Through pressure and patronage he has corralled a majority on the board supposed to favor the operators. The minority consists of representatives repre-sentatives of public and labor headed by John L. Lewis' man Percy Tetlow of Ohio. Mr. Hosford Hos-ford privately justifies his secrecy secre-cy by charging that official secrets se-crets have fallen into the hands of miners for use against the operators in conflicts over wages and rates. Unless the two groups reconcile their differences, the commission will blow up in President Presi-dent Roosevelt's face. Commissioner John C. Lewis of Iowa no relative of John L. recently hinted at intracommis-sion intracommis-sion dissension, and he apparently apparent-ly frightened the Hosfordites, Now John L. has taken a quiet hand in tha game, and he may get results. The CIO leader recently conferred con-ferred with Senator Neeley of West Virginia." political sponsor for Commissioner C. E. Smith of Fairmont W. V. The latter ia a newspaper publisher who nurses the ambition of winning the governorship gover-norship some day a hopeless prospect unless he has the backing back-ing of Mr. Lewis' miners in that state. He has sided with Chairman Chair-man Hosford In many disputes, but he haa succeeded only in antagonizing an-tagonizing both operatora and miners. . What Mr. Lewis told Mr. Neeley isn't known, but it can be surmised. sur-mised. The senator, who likewise requires miners' votes to stay at Washington, was probably asked to persuade Mr. Smith to shift from the present majority faction to the anti-Hosford group. The problem may be aolved by thia undercover method, but if it Isn't John L. will soon be asking for a showdown appointment with the president President Roosevelt will be de- ' fying all his important Wall Street 1 tipsters liberals and conservatives conserva-tives if hs fails to ask congress for revision of the "thin taxes" the capital gains and undistributed aurplus levies. You can atart a most satisfac-factory satisfac-factory argument here and in New York by blaming market uneasiness uneasi-ness on excessive federal reserve margins or straltjacket S. E. C regulations. Political reformers and market operators split among themselves on these issues. The general opinion seems to be that they contribute to the investors' heebee-jeebees. But nobody who recently had F. D. R.'s ear "Joe" Kennedy or "Bill" Douglas said a kind word for his break-up-wealth taxes, though he may yet give a hearing to the other aide. The hard truth is that nobody knows what made Humpty-Dumpty Humpty-Dumpty fall off the financial wall S. E. C.-ers conceal their chagrin, but the batch of new laws and regulations for checking up on trading didn't function in its first major trial. The machinery works In a dull market they can decipher de-cipher stock exchange reports then but it falls behind like the ticker in 4.000,000-share day. It will be weeks before they know what and who hit what The lobbies which Infest the halls of congress will have many new faces at tha next few sessions. The nation's lawyers and physicians physi-cians have employed special pleaders plead-ers to aafeguard their interests against an outbreak of fresh reforms re-forms from the direction of the White House. The new president of the American Amer-ican Bar association Arthur T. Vanderbilt of New Jersey ia negotiating ne-gotiating for a legislative hawk to tip him off to any new attempt to reorganize the supreme court. Several Sev-eral regional medical associations have hired a crew to keep them advised of any move to inaugurate inaugu-rate a system of socialized medicine medi-cine on a broad acale. Such a system has been installed in severs! sev-ers! field projects and In the H O L C office at Washington. The next congress will witness the presence of more lobbygows than in recent ysara. Besides the regulars representatives of the bankers, steel companies, munitions muni-tions men, peace groups, labor, etc. the drys and wets are traipsing back to tha acenes of ancient acraps. The prohibitionists think their dry day is on Its way, and tha liquormakers seek to safeguard safe-guard their repeal gains. There'll be a lot of easy money for slippery slip-pery fingers more than at any time since boom days. Recent ex-p residents have ' taught in universities or written for the newspapers upon quitting the White House. Some sort of educational pursuit seems to be the only dignified role for a retired re-tired chief executive. President Roosevelt will again break tradition, however. If ha oarries out plans he frequently discussed with fireplace friends. F. D. R. yearns to publish a newspaper news-paper a newspaper without editorials. edi-torials. He has told intimates that it has been his ambition ever since he quit Harvard, and at various times he haa moved close to tha fringe of the editorisl and composing com-posing rooms. It would surprise nobody on the inside if he received re-ceived and accepted auch an offer should he decide to step out of politics in 1940. He could, with certain limitations, however, preserve pre-serve his reforms with his pen. Sometimes Mr. Roosevelt acta as If he were editing the nations newspapers. He frequently tells press audiences how to write their stories, and what impression they should create. His recent advice on how to play and place news the story about Son James shows the kind of an editor he would be. On that sample of news judgment her wouldn't last long in a first-class first-class shop. But he was making up a political page not a newspaper's. news-paper's. The federal trade commission haa gained a comfortable lead in the race for presidential recognition recog-nition if F. D. R. decides to launch his antibigness campaign on the grand acale so frequently hinted. It has outdistanced Robert Rob-ert Jackson of the D. of J.. Herman Her-man Oliphant of the treasury and William O. Douglas of the S. E. C. rival apostles of the corpora-tions-are-tooXvast theory. On page IS of F. T. C.'s annual report it recommends a law forbidding for-bidding a firm to acquire another's assets where the total would exceed ex-ceed an amount to be specified by congress. "Tltis," says the com-miasion, com-miasion, "would have the advantage advan-tage of a positive legislative standard, stand-ard, defining the limit at which corporate accretions In size and power shall be halted in order to prevent monopoly." e . Tha federal traders submitted a similar report to tha senate recently, re-cently, but the document has been gathering dust in a committee pigeonhole. Oddly enough, the new recommendation was not considered con-sidered Important enough to be mentioned in the newspaper release re-lease of the report that was distributed dis-tributed to the press. (Copyright, 1937. for The Telegram.) ! |