Show bruchard Bru chars charis washington digest digesi advocates of public Owners ownership bip make real bid for their plan group grouly of Govern government nicia officials and other oilier interested individuals mix movement into national affairs and politics by WILLIAM service national press washington D 0 washington WAS N behind D chin d the thick veil of off lelal secrecy a thoroughly thorough ly active group of individuals Is dove developing ve a brond broad plan of public ownership it Js Is using the established machinery of government ond and it la Is mixing into national politics to an amazing extent we hero here in washington have heard recurring and increasing rumors of late that a new public ownership drive was contemplated by the extreme radicals nesting in the now new deal han henhouse house it was a situation however where few details were obtainable the lenders leaders were making use of the veil of official secrecy that always Is available for use by those supposed to be servants servant 1 s of tho the public suddenly however the magnitude of the movement become became discernible its scope Is astounding it strikes me that it Is a situation that contains elements of greater danger than did the ln in famous plan to pac pad the supreme court of the united states spates exposure of the groups intense effort came largely through stupidity of some of its members proof of the underlying motives came in the form of a sudden and slimy attack on john W hanes former 5 1 at T w V 4 1 1 W 4 vo W 01 x iu JOHN W HANES undersecretary of the treasury mr hanes was slated to become trustee of the gigantic but bankrupt octopus the associated gas and electric company mr hanes has not been named as trustee although his record has not a blemish on it so far as has been found instead dr willard thorp economic adviser to secretary hopkins of the department of commerce dents denis J driscoll chairman of the pennsylvania public utilities commission and walter IL new york lawyer were a named billion dollar utility property was to be proving craving ground the public ownership group wanted to swing the trusteeship for this billion dollar utility into the hands of the securities and exchange commission as might bo be done under the SEC law they proposed to use this great property so badly mussed up as proving ground for or their public ownership ideals it was contemplated that the associated prop properties erUes eventually would be welded into TVA and a great north and south system under government ownership would have become a fact to this program however it was ne necessary essary to dispose of mr hanes who favors private ownership in industry and who wants to see america retain its fundamental da traditions in due course wo iva w we c a treated to publication of the views of senator norris of ne braska who was the father of TVA I 1 doubt very much that the aged nebraskan knew that he was being used in the fashion that was the case but the scheme worked and the norris criticism that Mr hanes had been a stock broker smeared the former treasury official who had done more to prevent now new deal fl financial n a elal mistakes than most of the others the attack on mr hanes however tailed failed to get the trusteeship into the hands of the securities and exchange commission the schemers failed to cover up their tracks but while they failed on one track they did succeed in getting the gravy of trustee fees for men of their own choosing thorp driscoll and dr thorps beliefs were so contrary to sound views that only a few years ago the senate refused to confirm conform his nomination wit as assistant secretary of commerce mr Dris driscolle colls affiliations in n penti penn sylvanita syl vanla vanta show how ho he has been linked consistently with nearly every wild eyed proposal that had new deal ownership lie ho was licked for reelection election re to congress a term or two ago and became a lame duck appointee to the pennsylvania commission by the then governor georgo george 11 earle so while it Is accepted that the gravy is imbor tant it was much more important that the trustees should think right according to radical lights third term for president was in political strategy such Is the picture of how the public ownership crowd operates that picture falls however to disclose what Is going on beneath the surface here Is that story the strategy to be used politically contemplates that support of the pay rollers who seek to nominate president loosevelt Boo sevelt for a third term shall be had for the public ownership theories in return for support of the third term program A good political horse trade it is good because the public ownership segment figures that an apparent national political party endorsement will be available or folks will be induced to believe there is such an endorsement my information Is that the public ownership crowd is counting on a repetition of conditions in 1032 1932 when it will be recalled mr Roosevel ts political wings covered 57 varieties of political thought and theory important members of the was washington h group that heads up the public ownership group are placed in nearly every department of the government e ern ment they are ape in key positions whether they are influencing national policies Is a question I 1 1 cannot answer but I 1 can say they are in a position to use such influence very effectively A decision hero here and a ruling there could be of vast help to such a program without there being any visible connections then as to rumors again wo we hear a great deal of gossip about some members of the supreme court serving as advisers to less experienced perien perlen ced agitators in the executive branch of the government I 1 repeat that I 1 do not know whether these stories are true there have been many signs indicating that frequent conferences take place and no one denies that close ties of friendship exist between several of newer supreme court justices and their in downtown section the rumors therefore are very disturbing to those of us with the old fashioned idea that the supreme court should be an agency to serve the people in a judicial capacity and that its members should confine their activities to that field public ownership advocates are on an government payroll the general situation becomes all the more threatening in my opinion when it la Is known that there have been numerous advocates of wholesale government management of private industry operating on the government payroll some of them have taken the position that the way to obtain government ownership of private industry Is to get industry so far into debt that the federal government would have to assume control that Is to say only the federal government would have sut suf focient credit and borrowing power to pay oft off tho the debt As I 1 said earlier many details of the snakelike ellke operations of this gang remain in deepest secrecy some facts have leaked out however that cause shivers to run up and down my spine tho the thing that none of us its here know about at out definitely Is whether mr roosevelt has been persuaded to adopt the program some of my informants assure me that it does not matter whether mr roosevelt even knows about the pl plan an because its tentacles extend like those of a jellyfish into many hidden places rn in other words a few of the coc cocky ky leaders believe tho the movement has grown so large that it Is beyond the presidents control I 1 recall that in 1034 1934 the public ownership group was determined to take over the nations railroads they had a bill drawn dravin by which tho the rail lines would be bought for that being the amount of the outstanding bonds of the companies at that time there was talk also of nationalizing the con coal mines and the oil wells but mr roosevelt put his toot foot down on the idea lie he did yield numerous concessions in th the direction of cutting deeper gashes into private management but stayed away from the fatal fata step |